[Journey] Building an iOS & Android App Empire

Ragnorock · Apr 19, 2022

Hey @nakamura !
Found your thread. Great job I must say.
May I ask you to PM me (as a new user cant send you a message). We are creating apps as well, counting 30+ now. but we have some weak points with traffic. Not so many people we can discuss this with.
Would appreciate if we could chat.

Drzeww · Apr 21, 2022

nakamura said:
Hi, right now around 12 apps. 10 iOS apps and 2 Android apps. Working on more apps tho. Got covid before, was really sick...knocked me out for 6 days and afterward still had symptoms for a month...couldn't focus at all, feeling sleepy all the time and so on. However, getting back to normal now.

Since most of these apps are on iOS and Apple are no c*nts like Google and won't suddenly terminate accounts, the revenue is around $70-120 per day. Always depends on the day. On weekend its more for example. So far I didn't place any ads, but will probably do it later.

So the money I earn every day, I basically will use it for app promotions of some bigger projects and also for other business models (I am interested in Amazon FBA for example).

Is iOS is also very strict for any copyright like GP, it is possible to lets say make some simple wallpapers/ringtones with famous character or they'll ban it immieditially?

nakamura · Apr 21, 2022

Drzeww said:
Is iOS is also very strict for any copyright like GP, it is possible to lets say make some simple wallpapers/ringtones with famous character or they'll ban it immieditially?

yes, they are strict. but unlike Google they won't terminate your account, they will just forward the copyright infringement email to you and tell you to deal with it.

N1ckG2 · Apr 21, 2022

nakamura said:
yes, they are strict. but unlike Google they won't terminate your account, they will just forward the copyright infringement email to you and tell you to deal with it.

Confirmed.

They are harder to get in but don't ban. They can reject a build for a stupid thing like a wrong screenshot but their support is okay. I have just got payment today after strick verification and I an happy.

nakamura · May 17, 2022

Update:

Uploaded a really nice app for both iOS and Android, with ads and IAP, in a high-competitive niche. Testing and analyzing the app now.

Three things I noticed today:

1. My iOS apps have more than 80k active users in total (and hundreds of users installing it daily). This is awesome, because: I can advertise my new iOS apps with them without paying anything.

2. Onesignal (Push Notifications) added one more way to send notifications: In-App notifications. This is quite cool, you can basically show your own ads (banner, native and interstitial), really nice. I didn't see this before, long time I didn't login to Onesignal.

And this one surprised me the most:

3. A Google employee sent me an email, said they noticed my app, that it looks cool, etc. and they want me to join the accelerator program and give me a call.

Learn about our Accelerator Program | Accelerators | Google Developers

Google Developers' regional accelerators are tailored specifically to their local markets and provide access to the best of Google—its people, network, and advanced technologies—helping startups build great products. Using the knowledge gained from running startup accelerators, this model has...

developers.google.com

Should I answer it? If you can't beat them, join them?

Imagine being banned over and over again, got Google Play developer accounts terminated, Admob terminated, Adsense terminated, countless websites penalized, YouTube channels deleted, etc. and now they want to help me grow my business, FFS. Some people might say "well, you got a chance mate, take it" others would say: "look at this.....look at how they make fun of you ha..HAHAHA

"

N1ckG2 · May 17, 2022

nakamura said:
Update:

Uploaded a really nice app for both iOS and Android, with ads and IAP, in a high-competitive niche. Testing and analyzing the app now.

Three things I noticed today:

1. My iOS apps have more than 80k active users in total (and hundreds of users installing it daily). This is awesome, because: I can advertise my new iOS apps with them without paying anything.

2. Onesignal (Push Notifications) added one more way to send notifications: In-App notifications. This is quite cool, you can basically show your own ads (banner, native and interstitial), really nice. I didn't see this before, long time I didn't login to Onesignal.

And this one surprised me the most:

3. A Google employee sent me an email, said they noticed my app, that it looks cool, etc. and they want me to join the accelerator program and give me a call.

Learn about our Accelerator Program | Accelerators | Google Developers

Google Developers' regional accelerators are tailored specifically to their local markets and provide access to the best of Google—its people, network, and advanced technologies—helping startups build great products. Using the knowledge gained from running startup accelerators, this model has...

developers.google.com

Should I answer it? If you can't beat them, join them?

Imagine being banned over and over again, got Google Play developer accounts terminated, Admob terminated, Adsense terminated, countless websites penalized, YouTube channels deleted, etc. and now they want to help me grow my business, FFS. Some people might say "well, you got a chance mate, take it" others would say: "look at this.....look at how they make fun of you ha..HAHAHA "

Join the program, you won't regret it.

For ios, do you ask for ratings in your apps? You must do it, it is easy to implement and benefits are huge for you.

Good results, congrats!

CyberShrek · May 17, 2022

nakamura said:
Update:

Uploaded a really nice app for both iOS and Android, with ads and IAP, in a high-competitive niche. Testing and analyzing the app now.

Three things I noticed today:

1. My iOS apps have more than 80k active users in total (and hundreds of users installing it daily). This is awesome, because: I can advertise my new iOS apps with them without paying anything.

2. Onesignal (Push Notifications) added one more way to send notifications: In-App notifications. This is quite cool, you can basically show your own ads (banner, native and interstitial), really nice. I didn't see this before, long time I didn't login to Onesignal.

And this one surprised me the most:

3. A Google employee sent me an email, said they noticed my app, that it looks cool, etc. and they want me to join the accelerator program and give me a call.

https://developers.google.com/community/accelerators
Should I answer it? If you can't beat them, join them?

Imagine being banned over and over again, got Google Play developer accounts terminated, Admob terminated, Adsense terminated, countless websites penalized, YouTube channels deleted, etc. and now they want to help me grow my business, FFS. Some people might say "well, you got a chance mate, take it" others would say: "look at this.....look at how they make fun of you ha..HAHAHA "

Great job @nakamura. I think you should try to join to this program.

nakamura · May 17, 2022

N1ckG2 said:
Join the program, you won't regret it.

For ios, do you ask for ratings in your apps? You must do it, it is easy to implement and benefits are huge for you.

Good results, congrats!

yes, asking for it...also giving the people proper "motivation" to give 5 stars and a review. One of my apps got like 10k ratings and even reached the top 5 in some categories in several countries before.

A Google employee asked me to have a call with them, etc. but I guess I will have to prepare myself first, no clue what they are going to ask me or what they actually want to talk about

Cendla · May 19, 2022

are you a one man team

nakamura · May 19, 2022

Cendla said:
are you a one man team

Yes, I am doing this stuff alone. But thinking if I should teach and bring in some of my friends. That's one of my motivations.

Just sometimes when I am stuck at something or don't have much time, I will hire someone from Upwork, but that has happened only 3-4 times so far.

loopoo · May 20, 2022

nakamura said:
Yes, I am doing this stuff alone. But thinking if I should teach and bring in some of my friends. That's one of my motivations.

From my experience its a bad idea, you will have problems with employer-subordinate relationship, separate your work and personal life. But its great idea to teach your friends.

What do you think, should I try do apps for iOS and Android on JavaScript React Native?

nakamura · May 20, 2022

loopoo said:
From my experience its a bad idea, you will have problems with employer-subordinate relationship, separate your work and personal life. But its great idea to teach your friends.

What do you think, should I try do apps for iOS and Android on JavaScript React Native?

Yeah, I know it can be a bad idea.

I have no experience with React Native. I would recommend Flutter if you want to make it cross-platform. You can check out some YouTube videos, there are many devs comparing React Native to Flutter and so on.

nakamura · May 29, 2022

Uploaded 4 more apps (2x iOS, 2x Android). Working on another app (cross-platform) right now.

The iOS apps are already live, took them 12 hours to review and publish. The Android apps are still pending review (it has been 5 days so far...).

Just some information:

- I translated all those apps into 12 languages:

English (as standard)
German
Dutch
French
Italian
Spanish
Portuguese
Portuguese (Brazil)
Japanese
Korean
Chinese Simplified
Chinese Traditional

Why translate it? I think I wrote it before in this thread already:
people who can't speak English, are likely to immediately delete the app. Especially older folks. One of my apps got a lot of installs from Italy, France, and Germany and these people were mainly 40+ years old. After I translated the app to those languages, the uninstall ratio decreased and the app rankings increased a lot, and therefore the revenue also increased. It took me three hours of annoying copy/paste work, but the overall outcome was great. And I have to say, translating iOS, Android or also Unity games into other languages is fairly easy, even without coding skills.

- I added the following SDKs for analytics purposes and to, later on, measure app installs, etc.

AppsFlyer (free)
Facebook SDK
Firebase

Basically the more data you collect, the better.

What's important for me and what I learned after almost two years:

It's better to release an app as soon as possible instead of wasting too much time optimizing/overthinking it.
Give yourself room for improvement. Don't overthink.
Analyze user behavior and earnings
Know your numbers (Retention, ARPU, etc.)

Whats the main goal after all?

Creating and ranking apps to generate passive income. The more, the better. Later on, invest the money into other projects.

N1ckG2 · May 29, 2022

nakamura said:
- I translated all those apps

A life changer!

- I added the following SDKs for analytics purposes and to, later on, measure app installs, etc.

AppsFlyer (free)

Facebook SDK

Firebase

Basically the more data you collect, the better.

Did you try Appmetrica? The most comprehensive app analitycs tool in have ever used.

Whats the main goal after all?

Creating and ranking apps to generate passive income. The more, the better. Later on, invest the money into other projects.

Yep!

nakamura · May 29, 2022

N1ckG2 said:
A life changer!

Did you try Appmetrica? The most comprehensive app analitycs tool in have ever used.

Yep!

Mate, I appreciate your input, but I have the feeling you are trying to advertise your BST with your signature in my journey thread. Pls don't take it personal

propuh · May 29, 2022

interesting journey

loopoo · May 29, 2022

nakamura said:
you are trying to advertise your BST with your signature

This why ppl buy jr.VIP on bhw.

Watashi10 · May 29, 2022

Very interesting journey. One question if you allow me, how do you find app ideas? What tool do you use? Or just using your intuition? Thanks and good luck!

nakamura · May 30, 2022

Watashi10 said:
Very interesting journey. One question if you allow me, how do you find app ideas? What tool do you use? Or just using your intuition? Thanks and good luck!

Mostly intuition, but also doing keyword research and so on. I have already done CPA, SEO, etc. for almost 10 years, so I got a lot of experience on what might work and whatnot. Usually, I don't overthink, I just do it. If it fails, I just move on. If I publish 10 games, maybe 8/10 might be a flop, but if 2 of them do well, it's worth it.

The best is to just start. I know some people spend weeks or sometimes months to find a good niche and then they just end up spending even more weeks/months to develop it, just to figure out if the niche became saturated or it is not doing well. It shouldn't be like this.

I know sometimes it can be really overwhelming. When I started doing SEO I was like "wtf...all those words, Tier 1, Tier 2, link-pyramid, etc." but I learned all of it step by step.

CyberShrek · May 31, 2022

Hello @nakamura, thx for sharing your experience. What methods do you use to get payouts from Admob/Google Play if one of your accounts has been banned? Just one of my accounts was banned and it had my payment info, and I don't know what payment info to give to get payouts in the new account. Maybe you can give me some advice? And did you have any experience using Payoneer to receive payouts?

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