Monetisation is far more than the money you make selling your app on the app store.
To start with, I am going to share one of the simplest things you can do to make money from your app even if you don’t think it is possible.
Every app should have a “more” screen. Basically, a large, prominent and difficult to miss button. This can even be included in paid apps if you want to increase your monetisation options as well but if you have a free app and don’t think there is any way to monetise it then this is the simplest and easiest thing you can do.
From this “more” screen you are able to promote any other apps that you have or simply include promotional affiliate links to other, related apps that you think might be of interest to the user.
This can be done with a static page or if you want more control you can create a dynamic screen that makes pushing updated screens out to your users nearly instantaneous.
The “more” screen should provide a “list” of apps ideally with the graphic to the far right, next to an initial description that is a teaser, and to the right a little “>” character that indicates there’s more info. When someone clicks that, it should go instantly to the listing for that app in the iTunes app store.
You need to be strategic about which apps you include and they should relate in some way, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to show a fitness app within a game app. Just use your best judgment and good old fashion common sense when working this out.
If you use affiliate links to the app store you’ll get paid a commission from anyone that purchases an app after tapping through your link however you’ll need to sign up for the affiliate program.
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8 Comments
Ruth
I am new to the whole app store experience because I just recently got a smart phone that had those options and you are absolutely right the More button is always easy to find and larger than the rest of the buttons. You have a great post here but as a consumer I can't say I like the fact they are manipulating me.
Tony
I have been hearing the term, "monetiziation, for many years while working as a freelance web developer. But I think we are now at a period during the mobile revolution when us developers really need to consider making money utilizing this business model for mobile apps that is described here. Anyone who has ever downloaded one of those popular game apps (think Candy Crush Saga) is too familiar with how between each game round, you get ads and teasers for other apps. I guess that is the paid / sponsored advertising monetization model in effect.
Charles
As all of us know, there is no age bound in playing games and with the development of mobile apps, number of people playing games have increased. Also, non gamers have started downloading popular game apps as they find it interesting. As the number of gamers are soaring, it is predicted that Android game application developers might have a bright future. That is why would - be entrepreneurs will do good to get into app development now, while we are still in the gold - rush' days of app development. Now is the time. Apps are HOT!
Ronnie
I know that when I am playing my favorite app games, I tend to give more attention to those more screens - I'm talking about the ads for other apps that pop up between rounds of games like Words With Friends. I think it makes sense to market ads for related apps. So for an app like the one I mentioned, you might want to promote other crossword puzzle games. The same goes for other genres of games.
Jennifer
I hate those kinds of apps that offer you something for free but then when you get in there you have to buy it in order to open up the entire thing. Otherwise you are very limited to what you can do with it, I understand why people do this but it would be nice to know it before you download it to your phone in the first place. Call it a trial or something.
Matthew
I can't believe I did not think more about the more' screens. I say this because I have been playing many different types of app games on my smart phone. I get these more screens as well as promotions for other types of games, all of which come up in between rounds or when you matriculate each level in a game. This has become commonplace and is now the way all game apps market other offers, including ads from big brands like Netflix and Hollywood movies.
Thomas
I understand the need to have a larger screen for apps - games especially. When it comes to mobile apps, and you are already dealing with small smart phone screen size, I get that you want as much space as possible. But how do you control that, as a developer? The answer is, you don't. You can't. So this is where you ingenuity as a developer along with your designer, comes into play. Unless, of course, you are both.
Robert
The ability to create apps with multiple screens. Creating such apps is not very different from creating apps with only a single screen. You should think of this process as creating several stand-alone apps which communicate by sending messages to each other. Android runs on a variety of devices that offer different screen sizes and densities. For applications, the Android system provides a consistent development environment across devices and handles most of the work to adjust each application's user interface to the screen on which it is displayed.