While building a new app can be fun, it can also be an excellent business opportunity. Regardless of whether you build apps full time or just part time on the side, you can potentially earn a lot of money from each one you create.
In fact, there are multiple means from which you will be able to earn money from your app, and each are fairly simple to do.Here are the top five ways that you can easily generate money from your mobile app:
1 – Advertising
One of the simplest ways to make money from your app is to create in-app advertising.
How this system works is you will basically allow advertisers to display ads on your app, and then you can earn money each time an ad gets a click or an impression. This goes for both banner ads and video advertisements.
Now granted, you’re not going to earn very much money per click (only a few cents, most likely), but the idea is that if you have lots of people using your app and clicking the advertisements, it will add up quickly.
One thing to take note of, however, is that for users ads can undoubtedly be annoying and ruin the experience of using the app. This is why some app designers will offer a paid upgrade to an advertisement free version of the app (more on this later).
2 – Pay To Use The App
Here’s an even simpler option: charge your customers to download the app. A price point of $0.99 to $2.99 to $4.99 should be very reasonable.
That being said, if you are going to charge users up front to download the app, then any additions and updates need to be free. Otherwise, people are going to feel very ripped off.
As a result, this means that you can’t really create a repeat revenue system from your existing customer base. In other words, charging users to buy and download your app up front is not always the best system.
3 – Charge For Upgrades
If you decide to make your app free, you can still make money from it by charging people for upgrades. The idea is that they will be more likely to download your app if it’s free, and if they enjoy using the app, they’ll be more likely to buy things from it later.
As Buildfire states very clearly, “charging just to download your app will turn people away.” Yes, it may mean that people will be more likely to use your app if they buy it (who would buy an app and then not use it, but you’ll still have a much smaller customer base and as was discussed previously, you will also have little to no opportunity for repeat revenue.
4 – Subscription Service
The subscription service option can also work, but only depending on your app’s model. Your app really needs to deliver on value if people are going to pay money to use it each month.
If you do go with the subscription option, it is absolutely imperative that you give people a free trial period of around one to two weeks. Once this period is up, the user will be blocked unless if they buy the subscription.
5 – Get A Sponsor
This is easily the least simple option for generating revenue with your app, but getting a sponsor is another way to make money.
What you will need to do is to seek out a sponsor in the same target market as you (a local business, such as a local restaurant, is an example of a sponsor you could seek out). You can even then adapt the design of your app to the brand of the sponsor, or you can take things further and build a niche app for the customized users of the sponsor, and then launch the app on their behalf.
To earn money, you can either split revenue with the sponsor, or you can charge them a monthly fee. Either way, the best thing about the sponsorship method is it will be a win-win situation for both parties.
Generating Money From Your Mobile App
All in all, these are the top five easiest ways to generate money from your app. By using several of these money earning strategies, if not all of them, you will be able to maximize revenue and profit.
