[Journey] Building an iOS & Android App Empire

[WarlordYT]

So you uploaded someone else's app and just changed the logo?

Google didn't even reply my 2nd appeal. Just an automated copy paste message, after this no reply. I just hope there will be serious competition to the Google Play Store.

No , everything was created by me and after like 3 months when it started to rank boom impersonation on logo and app title (dafaq) also another acc where i put copyrighted game with game logo and game images as screenshots got APPROVED
Google is pathetic piece of shit

 

[nakamura]

No , everything was created by me and after like 3 months when it started to rank boom impersonation on logo and app title (dafaq) also another acc where i put copyrighted game with game logo and game images as screenshots got APPROVED
Google is pathetic piece of shit

The ranking aspect is crazy. When my apps start to rank, Google comes around and start to suspend the apps for a ridiculous reason.

Recently I saw the same shit happened to my competition. They removed his apps. He had more than 500k downloads, thousands of reviews. They suspended his apps. He must be pissed.

And then there is this enormous problem with low quality developer and people who are stealing your app or content. The Google Play store has a REAL quality problem. Like they are approving everything. Which is also ridiculous: How can they even approve my app and then remove the SAME app for a ridiculous reason a few weeks/months later? Didn't they test it in the first place?

Apple is handling this 1000x better

 

[Deleted member 1207404]

Apple is handling this 1000x better

How are you doing with Apple store? Any suspensions?

 

[nakamura]

How are you doing with Apple store? Any suspensions?

Not all. No suspension. No problems.

The only thing is: They are strict when it comes to approving the app. Like they are literally telling you its low quality. They are telling you there are too many ads. And so on. I found it quite annoying.

And there is definitely a double standard. For example: I uploaded two apps, which have the same functions. One app gets approved immediately, but the other app keeps getting rejected. Reason: Almost no native IOS functions. Even tho its almost the same app with the approved one.

I think it really depends on the person who is reviewing it, but they are definitely stricter than Google.

 

[WarlordYT]

i have send an appeal with a twist let see if that works , might share ideas with you in PM @nakamura

 

[nakamura]

i have send an appeal with a twist let see if that works , might share ideas with you in PM @nakamura

well, chance it works is 1%.

You know what? I sent them 100% proof that my app is legit and it didn't violate the policies. I wrote it step by step, understandable for children. Guess what? They didn't reply. They don't care...and because they are anonymous (you don't know who actually removed your app or suspended your whole account - because they don't write ANY name) they are abusing their power for whatever reason.

Like honestly, I am wondering what made them check my app and find a ridiculous reason (you can find the reason above somewhere) to suspend my app. I mean what? Someone MUST have come to my app with the intention to remove it on purpose. Otherwise it doesn't make any sense.

And I don't want to whine about it or something, but wtf happened?

 

[MetDark]

Time for an update:

Earnings have been around $20-30 in advertising per day. On the App Store I got some more in-app purchases. In total it was around $60 for app-purchases for November.

Since Google Admob removed the ad limit (took 2-3 weeks) from one of my accounts, I updated one app from Appodeal to Admob (it was running with Unity and Facebook) and what can I say? The eCpm jumped from around $3-4 to $7-8.

Usually Facebook Audience Network is fine, but the fill rate has been 70% for me for most of the time. This already means: 30% less income plus: eCpm is a bit lower than for Admob. Especially for iOS. The eCPM for the iOS apps have been around $1.50 which is really low.

I never implemented Unity ads in one app alone, always used it with mediaten/appodeal, therefore I can't really judge it. But from what I see the eCPM is fine and the fill rate has been 100% (I didn't send to many requests tho).

Appodeal: Thats something weird. I have the feeling I am earning much less with Appodeal, than what I would earn from Google Admob alone. Mostly it shows me a 50-60% fill rate even tho I added 3-4 ad networks. However, in the ad networks themselves they show me a 100% fill rate.

So, you guys know I don't really like Google Admob, because they are limit accounts and do whatever they wanna do, but honestly: The eCPM is the best. The fill rate is the best. Absolutely no doubt.

About the Apps:

No app or account has been removed since my last update. I will upload another Android app later today. Also, I will make another iOS app. I will monetize both with Google Admob only (for now). I should scale it up and upload more and more apps.

Also:

I am thinking about upload my Android apps to different stores: Huawei App Gallery, Amazon App Store, Samsung Store for example. Just giving it a try.

AppGallery & Unity have some incentives, not sure whether it helps
https://create.unity3d.com/AppGallery-UDP-happy-holidays

 

[Magna_Carta]

They have a very high standard, means they are very picky which app they are going to allow. Also, need MacOS (Xcode) to upload the apps to the store. The developer account is $99 per year as far as I remember.

Yes it is $99 and they charge annually.

 

[nakamura]

AppGallery & Unity have some incentives, not sure whether it helps
https://create.unity3d.com/AppGallery-UDP-happy-holidays

Looks like they try to motivate game developers to upload their games on the Huawei store. I am going to check it out.

 

[nakamura]

Update:

Google removed one app, which didn't really get many downloads. I have another app with the same functions on the developer account, which got 10x more downloads, but it seems this app is totally untouched (so far).

Also: They removed the app for an absolutely ridiculous reason again. I don't even want to talking about reason, etc. because it is totally useless to complain about this. It is also useless to make an appeal.

But what makes me wonder is: How the heck did the "Google employee" (or whoever is testing or judging it - it is totally instransparent, nobody knows) suddenly come across this app and decided to directly suspend and remove it? It seems so random to me.

Like I would really like to know who is actually checking and deciding this. Is there someone randomly checking apps with low installs?

But once again....Google is abusing and misusing their own policies...

 

[sisusisu]

Removal of apps is done by algorithm and not by any manual person. Can you specify how many app downloads you have per app. Also are you doing any ASO

 

[Ekalavya Hansaj]

Good luck with your thing man! How can I find someone that can develop an easy to develop app for me?
I tried to find someone here but they're all time wasters and my thing is a really easy job to do.

Thanks

Try upwork. It has a great pool of world-class app developers.

 

[nakamura]

And another Android app got removed. I am not wondering anymore. Lol. Just seems so super random to me. Also, I highly doubt its an algorithm that removes the app. It is definitely a human.

My guess is some people (very likely competition) keep reporting it and they take advantage of the Google employees, which are quite lazy and randomly swing the banhammer.

So I am going to do an experiment. I will make the app unavailable in those countries. This is probably mainly India, Indonesia, Thailand and Pakistan. No hate or anything against them, but they are very likely to do such stuff. Since some of my competitors also use "black hat techniques" to get reviews etc., I think they will also mass-report other apps/developers. In fact I know there was at least one Thai and one Indian who reported two of my apps, which then got removed.

Just an experiment...and then lets see how long the app is going to survive!

 

[free]

Which platform makes more money in your case, iOS or Android?

 

[Fresh Ideas Marketing]

After looking at this thread I guess. I should also get into coding soon.

 

[nakamura]

Which platform makes more money in your case, iOS or Android?

Depends. I feel like I earn more with Android apps through ads. ECPM is higher it seems.

 

[nakamura]

Btw. It is difficult to get app installs for iOS through Google Adwords. I made two campaigns and they got no clicks, no installs since 10 days. It is still "learning".

The big problem with App Campaigns on Adwords is: I don't see any option to manually target the audience. It would be way easier if I could manually target the audience through keywords for example. All I can do is decide the CPI and basically, Adwords is doing the rest. Result? I have no idea what their algorithm is doing or who it is targeting and there is basically no outcome so far. Its not transparent or anything.

For those of you using Adwords more: Is there any way to manually target the audience for app installs?! Maybe another campaign mode, but still for app installs?

Also, my iOS app already got some in-app purchases. From what I can see since I installed Google Analytics (around two weeks ago) 150 users made me $30 through purchases. This app is only available in the US, UK, Australia and Canada at the moment. I would like to get more installs, more users to see if its worth it to actually translate the app into other languages.

 

[free]

From what I did long ago, Adwords app install can only choose geolocation and let them optimize other.
About 'learning' state in iOS campaign, did you have firebase in your app?

 

[wizeman]

bro give up on this journey. I used to have 500+ iOS apps. Organic search doesnt work anymore unless you spam the store. Then Apple will delete your account for spam. The ecpm is too low and getting downloads are too expensive.


the only way to make $ on apps is make a really good app where your customer acusition cost is lower than your earnings per user.

 

[nakamura]

bro give up on this journey. I used to have 500+ iOS apps. Organic search doesnt work anymore unless you spam the store. Then Apple will delete your account for spam. The ecpm is too low and getting downloads are too expensive.


the only way to make $ on apps is make a really good app where your customer acusition cost is lower than your earnings per user.

For me it is working fine.