Database Users

Make $ from in-app Ads?

How does making money from putting an ad in your app work? (AdMob etc)
I.E. do you get paid for each time someone clicks an ad? And how much?

I think the developer gets paid for each ad that is displayed, and then probably another payment if someone clicks on an ad.

There is only 1 smart way i've seen this used. Ad-filled FREE version of the app, tell people to buy the REAL app for ad-free service.
the only time i've ever clicked on one of those was on accident (Fat thumb)
otherwise, i boycott all ad-filled apps hah

MintyFloss said:
There is only 1 smart way i've seen this used. Ad-filled FREE version of the app, tell people to buy the REAL app for ad-free service.
the only time i've ever clicked on one of those was on accident (Fat thumb)
otherwise, i boycott all ad-filled apps hah
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Imo apps with ads aren't a bad idea. Much better than a trial version of something.

uansari1 said:
I think the developer gets paid for each ad that is displayed, and then probably another payment if someone clicks on an ad.
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Any idea how much?
I tried Googling for this info but got nowhere. I get tons and tons and tons of crap about paying AdMob to get YOUR ads into apps, but not developers getting paid for OTHER people's ads in their apps.

The top 10 apps on the iPhone make about 400-1000 dollars daily. I read an article about it but I can't find it. I don't think any android apps can come close to that much in advertising dollars right now but if you write several apps like that do this, I'm sure it can add up.

deekjx said:
The top 10 apps on the iPhone make about 400-1000 dollars daily.
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Free apps right?

How much do you spend on apps

Just curious....how much are you spending on apps a month, and what is it that motivates you to buy?
I dont buy many apps, but having a demo version of a app usually causes me to want the full app after using the demo... if it meets my needs. I recently bought better keyboard for $4 and KEPT it, but removed swiftkey and got a refund..
And I already know you can get a refund the first 24hrs ... I am asking people who BUY AND KEEP apps, not those who RENT THEM for 24 hours..
Aloha from beautiful Hawaii

I have bought more than a few. My only that I would call expensive purchases was sling player and logmein ($30) I had more than a few palm and window mobile devices, and I can't remember all the $15-30 apps I bought, alot though. the apps are so cheap, it's baffling when I see ppl complaining about buying android apps. A dollar or two mostly. Ringo pro cost me $24 on my treo running palm os, and on my touch pro, hit me for 4 bucks for the same app on android.

So far I've spent about $ 35 in apps since I had my G1. Roughly about 15 apps, most of then having to do with root stuff, like set cpu, cache cleaner, titanium backup. The others are a couple of games, a couple of task killers that I no longer use and a couple of utilities type apps.

nmw407 said:
So far I've spent about $ 35 in apps since I had my G1. Roughly about 15 apps, most of then having to do with root stuff, like set cpu, cache cleaner, titanium backup. The others are a couple of games, a couple of task killers that I no longer use and a couple of utilities type apps.
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Haha i get my paid apps for free. almost any

topgun303 said:
Haha i get my paid apps for free. almost any
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I do as well but if there is an application I really like, I will go back and pay for it. If developers don't get paid for their efforts, they will stop developing.

Akulamenuri said:
I do as well but if there is an application I really like, I will go back and pay for it. If developers don't get paid for their efforts, they will stop developing.
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True, I am a college student and i am broke all the time. Buying engineering books is not cheap. Mostly i try to get free version.

topgun303 said:
True, I am a college student and i am broke all the time. Buying engineering books is not cheap. Mostly i try to get free version.
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90% of apps cost less that 5 bucks, support the devs. If there was no way to get them free, u would pay the few dollars

I've spent about $20 on 10 or so paid apps so far. Tons more free ones.

topgun303 said:
Haha i get my paid apps for free. almost any
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Are you confessing that you STEAL FROM DEVELOPERS by downloading hacked versions of apps?

surfnhawaii808 said:
Are you confessing that you STEAL FROM DEVELOPERS by downloading hacked versions of apps?
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All i am saying is that i like to try the app out and if i like it then i will buy it. And you cant get updates for hacked apps. So its useless to the user. Thats my opinion. We all should support are developers. They are the reason we all are using these smart phones.

I like testing out an app first to see if I like it enough to want to buy it. Case in point widgetlocker. I played with the full version that I got of the internet, really liked it, uninstalled the pirated version and went back and bought the legit copy from the market. That way I know I'll get the upgrades as time goes by too. Other ones I paid and didn't use anymore... Well, if I need them again, they'll be there.
The majority if the apps are under $ 5 anyway. That's cheaper than getting lunch nowadays.

the only one I have actually bought from the market was Beautiful Widgets, but I have "bought" quite a few apps not sure on the amount because it depends on how much I use/need and app. I have gotten a bunch for free from the developers here on xda like SetCPU, ROM Manager ect however I have ended up donating to the dev of all the free ones I have got here.

I bought about $50 worth of apps and barely use any. Mostly use free ones. I stay away from anything that cost more then ten bucks though, I'm not that rich
I did buy at least 5 apps only to support the des (Stericson,Anderwebs, others) but I don't even use those.
Sent from MT4G.

I find buying the apps to be most rewarding. Not only do you get the updates and you're supporting the devs but with this "goggle account" thing (I'm new to android phones)
I find that even after a wipe and clean install of a new rom if I give the phone a few minutes all the apps I bought and d/led off the market reinstall themselves.
Well..at least that's what I've noticed.

Ads everywhere!

Hello!
since a week I am getting ads in every apps and games:
-Angry birds season
-Christmas wallpapers
-Apn Droid
Is it normal or my N1 got a trojan?

It's normal more and more apps are becoming heavily in tangled with adds. Developers have the choice but once they give the all clear Google takes over and pumps them out. Small price to pay compared to paying for the apps. If you're still worried hook your phone up to your PC and do a full scan the main anti virus will let you scan.

There has been some confirmation that Angry Birds makes $1,000,000/month from those ads, hence why they didn't sell the game. So, going forward you can expect every college kid "dev" with Eclipse and some c/p open source code to slap ads in their app

crachel said:
There has been some confirmation that Angry Birds makes $1,000,000/month from those ads, hence why they didn't sell the game. So, going forward you can expect every college kid "dev" with Eclipse and some c/p open source code to slap ads in their app
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I assume thats ads in all of their platforms, not just Android?

khaytsus said:
I assume thats ads in all of their platforms, not just Android?
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Nope, AndroidCommunity is reporting that its just the Android ads (here). Their iPhone app is paid, and I don't think they support WP7 yet, and the other couple platforms aren't really significant

If you're rooted a custom hosts file will rid you of most of them. I get no ads at all in angry birds. For some reason weatherbug is the app that seems to sneak the most in on me. Get them there about half the time I open it up. Gonna have to find time to search for a more up to date hosts file to fix that.

What's really annoying is that if I don't have internet connection when I want to play Angry Birds season it will not open new levels

vegetaleb said:
What's really annoying is that if I don't have internet connection when I want to play Angry Birds season it will not open new levels
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I think the level is downloaded when you unlock it....

Some people can not work for free.
For example with angry birds.
Its the best game i played in a long long long time.
Not just headshootin and headshootin again.
Its simple, has nice looks, attracts the ladies ("hey that looks funny, what is it...can i touch it?"...does this sound wrong?) and so on.
It gave me hours of pleasure...maybe more than the ladies
Yeah whatever, what i want to say:
I don't care about the ads. I don't even recognize them anymore.
And for the angry birds case, they just "earn" it!

In Angry Birds, the ads get in the way of gameplay sometimes. I wish Rovio would offer us a paid version like the iPhone users have.

AdFree.....

root and adfree. lulz, no ads for me any where

davados said:
It's normal more and more apps are becoming heavily in tangled with adds. Developers have the choice but once they give the all clear Google takes over and pumps them out. Small price to pay compared to paying for the apps. If you're still worried hook your phone up to your PC and do a full scan the main anti virus will let you scan.
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This is Google's strategy (hint: how they make almost all their rev.), don't expect Apple like strategy unless apps devs prefer it... fortunately you can disable ads, if you prefer, thanks to configurability of Linux...
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App

GldRush98 said:
root and adfree. lulz, no ads for me any where
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+1 Been rooted and using adfree pretty much since I got my phone in july . I couldn't image playing angry birds with ads .

we really need a modded/adfree version of angry birds seasons. levels wont load if it fails to retrieve an ad....

britoso said:
we really need a modded/adfree version of angry birds seasons. levels wont load if it fails to retrieve an ad....
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Not for me. I've been keeping up with the christmas birds all december, rooted using adfree, no ads to spoil my christmas .

I feel bad about blocking ads. I rarely, if ever click on them. But i feel its part of the deal, i get a free OS and free or low cost software, in exchange for having to see an ad or two around the place. I feel as if i am not holding up my end of the deal.

If I use the software, I buy the paid version. If there's no paid version, then I click the adds. Gotta show the devs some love...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

liam.lah said:
I feel bad about blocking ads. I rarely, if ever click on them.
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AFAIK devs get paid for clicks, not ad-views. Preventing an app from working without a data connection is pushing it IMO.

I don't mind the ads and I feel its for the betterment of the platform and whole system to attract developers to android.

Do Developers get paid for selling apps on ANDROID market?

Ive noticed apps on the Market that says, FREE (with ADS) and also PAID / Pro Version of the same app (for a fixed price lets say £3.00)
Now ive noticed the count on download apps for a app that is £3 to be 250.000 > downloads ... which means £750.000 has been paid into the market just from this single app ?????
How much would the developer of this app see from the £750.000 that has been made? And am I also right that ADS on their software also let the developer gain money??
Seems to me you can earn a lot of money for a well populated app... ???

You answered your own question. Developers SELL (obtain money for their product) their apps. Free apps that include ads, the developer also gets money. It's just like youtube videos.

Surely Google must take commision as well??

Yeah, that's the goal
But face it, people are cheap...even for a $0.99 app! And that "super duper, can't live without it app" is all so elusive.
So developers will put out a limited or crippled version of their app for free in hopes that people will buy the full version.
Oh yeah Google takes their cut; it's pro-rated on the number of app sales you have.

Lookiing closely at other apps and focasing on one partiuclar app called Fotmob which I have purchased. It is a really good app that is for any football supportors out their giving details of a list of attributes such as, Live Scores - Fixtures - News - and Table..... Its probably the best football application Ive bought.
Now focasing on a a certain point on the development part of the app
1) Live Score's ... Gives a list of live playing games and their score line next to it. - Am curious on where the data comes from? Surely it isnt edited As games are played because that would be practically impossible to keep up to date therefore it must use a similar command such as a Fetch_arrey syntax. Now where would the user of FOTMOB Fetch the data from?? it must be a reliable known source such as BBC SPORTS / SKY SPORTS to keep its app up-to-date during the live games??
Is that right?

duffy1807 said:
Ive noticed apps on the Market that says, FREE (with ADS) and also PAID / Pro Version of the same app (for a fixed price lets say £3.00)
Now ive noticed the count on download apps for a app that is £3 to be 250.000 > downloads ... which means £750.000 has been paid into the market just from this single app ?????
How much would the developer of this app see from the £750.000 that has been made? And am I also right that ADS on their software also let the developer gain money??
Seems to me you can earn a lot of money for a well populated app... ???
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It's not as black and white as that.
Firstly, you'd have to be an brilliant developer to get 250k+ downloads from a paid app. If you see an app like that, 9 times out of 10 it will be a company, not a single developer.
Secondly, 250k downloads is the amount of times an app has been downloaded, not the amount of times people have paid for it. e.g., around 40% of those downloads will be from people who refunded.
and lastly, Google take a ridiculous amount of money from you for each sale.
For example, my app sells for £2.00, but google takes £0.60 of that. It might not seem like a lot but it mounts up quickly.
So, 250k downloads isn't as much as you think if you start to look into it (but, it's still a hell of a lot for a single developer to get!!)

Well said Mellus.
And some of these so-called "great" apps are just fancy front ends pulling data off the net or a RSS feed.
As you might gather, I do not have a lot of respect for "this" (or "self"...programmer humor) type of developer.
P.S. if you don't get the programmer humor, "self" is Mac Objective C's "this" pointer.

I make $1,500 a month ( single dev )
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

You make $1,500 off how many apps? How many installs. Free apps or paid?
Also, could someone comment on what's required to get started? I know there's a $25 dev fee, and I've read all the help text on the publish site.
What do most devs do for a website to link to in the market? Does Google offer anything? Use Go Daddy? What?
What do you use to create the graphics required for the market?
Other tips?
________________________________
Unrevoked forever
SkyRaider Sense 3.5
Radio 2.15.00.09.01

rigman said:
You make $1,500 off how many apps? How many installs. Free apps or paid?
Also, could someone comment on what's required to get started? I know there's a $25 dev fee, and I've read all the help text on the publish site.
What do most devs do for a website to link to in the market? Does Google offer anything? Use Go Daddy? What?
What do you use to create the graphics required for the market?
Other tips?
________________________________
Unrevoked forever
SkyRaider Sense 3.5
Radio 2.15.00.09.01
Click to expand...
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About 15 apps. All paid.
You need to know how to make apps lol.
You need to make your own website ( not needed though)
Use photoshop.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Yeah I'm just getting into app development as well. I've currently got an ADWTheme out on the market for $0.99, and I make ~$0.69 per sale. There is really a ton of potential for profit if you get into individual app development as long as you can make stuff that people want. When I first released my theme I was making ~$10 a day off of it. after a month or so it's died down to ~$2.5 - $5 daily, but another factor is that I haven't updated it in a while haha. If you can manage to keep all of your apps up-to-date and appealing, you will do well.
If you are really interested in developing applications for android I would recommended watching these videos: http://marakana.com/techtv/android_bootcamp_screencast_series.html They've seriously helped me out a LOT getting off the ground

Newklearx3 said:
About 15 apps. All paid.
You need to know how to make apps lol.
You need to make your own website ( not needed though)
Use photoshop.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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I would recommend Adobe Illustrator more than Photoshop for making graphics, at least it's what I prefer.

1. Make it look pretty
2. Make it fart
Yeah, nice LOL. Hey, if it sells, it sells. Wish I could write an app that sells thousands
I'm only a few months into development though, so it's "learn something new everyday" process. As the coding skills build, so will the quality of the apps....and hopefully sales.

Applications based on RFID concept?
Please allow me to ask if how much will it take for a developer on a full time basis to create an application that would run on both android and windows mobile.
This will be for a RFID concept

needless said:
Please allow me to ask if how much will it take for a developer on a full time basis to create an application that would run on both android and windows mobile.
This will be for a RFID concept
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I don't know about window mobile but check out corona SDK for developing.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

Don't know why it's so difficult to answer a simple question.
70% goes to the developer, the remaining 30% is distributed to the cell carrier (if the carrier is authorized to receive fees for apps purchased on the market.)
Wikipedia explains it in such a way that even the most simple minded of folk can understand. It sounds like a few of you should read up on that, as opposed to providing vague, meaningless "answers".

What the benefit for rooting a tablet?

Just need Pros and cons about rooting a tablet.
My htc hero is rooted so i can do wifi tether,so why i should i root my tablet?

Eventually, new kernels and ROMs will be released that you can install if rooted. Some of the features of these are over/underclocking, ability to remove preinstalled apps, performance and battery life tweaks, ability to run certain apps such as backup apps, screenshot apps, etc, etc, etc.
All in all, it's def worth it.

So far one con would be not being able to use Google's movie rental service.

I agree its worth it but you have to also note that when we get services like Google's movie rental service or Netflix, they don't currently work on rooted devices.

adfree

Framedtrash said:
adfree
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Definitely a plus.

That's not entirely true, Netflix has been running on my rooted CM7 Evo 4G for quite awhile. Google Movies definitely doesn't work on rooted tablets/phones though.

for me, the answer is obvious - peace of mind.
everyone's different though
Edit: also, only a-holes use adfree. developers put a lot of work into their applications and all they ask is that you use a bit of screen space for an ad. is that really too much to ask? if you really can't stand it, most apps have a paid version that remove the ads. just pay the 2 dollars(or whatever) and move on with your life. you were able to spend 5-6 hundred bucks on a device that has no real purpose(maybe there's a few who really need an android tablet, but most people could do almost everything on their phone and they could do everything+more on the computer) so I'm sure you can spend a few bucks on apps. I, for one, like to actually support the developers for my platform. If we don't, people will either not make apps or they'll make them all cost money. I'd much rather just have an ad seeing as how it makes basically no difference to my life.
I'd actually like to see a lot more open-source apps with donation options but that's probably not going to happen..

RCCola85 said:
That's not entirely true, Netflix has been running on my rooted CM7 Evo 4G for quite awhile. Google Movies definitely doesn't work on rooted tablets/phones though.
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Oh OK, for some reason I thought Netflix checked for root access.

adfree, major reason to root it

Instead of using adfree, try buying your apps more often. How is it fair to hard working app devs when you download their free, ad included versions of apps and then run adfree to remove them and have the paid app at no cost? How does that make you any different than a warez using pirate?

iamsupreme said:
Instead of using adfree, try buying your apps more often. How is it fair to hard working app devs when you download their free, ad included versions of apps and then run adfree to remove them and have the paid app at no cost? How does that make you any different than a warez using pirate?
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my thoughts exactly.

iamsupreme said:
Instead of using adfree, try buying your apps more often. How is it fair to hard working app devs when you download their free, ad included versions of apps and then run adfree to remove them and have the paid app at no cost? How does that make you any different than a warez using pirate?
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why don't you blame the dev who made adfree rather then those that use it. besides i pay for my apps, however i don't like ads when browsing...so who are you to tell us how to use our devices. we paid for them and we can use it anyway we like.

tq745 said:
why don't you blame the dev who made adfree rather then those that use it. besides i pay for my apps, however i don't like ads when browsing...so who are you to tell us how to use our devices. we paid for them and we can use it anyway we like.
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I agree. Adfree isn't just for apps.

smaskell said:
for me, the answer is obvious - peace of mind.
everyone's different though
Edit: also, only a-holes use adfree. developers put a lot of work into their applications and all they ask is that you use a bit of screen space for an ad. is that really too much to ask? if you really can't stand it, most apps have a paid version that remove the ads. just pay the 2 dollars(or whatever) and move on with your life. you were able to spend 5-6 hundred bucks on a device that has no real purpose(maybe there's a few who really need an android tablet, but most people could do almost everything on their phone and they could do everything+more on the computer) so I'm sure you can spend a few bucks on apps. I, for one, like to actually support the developers for my platform. If we don't, people will either not make apps or they'll make them all cost money. I'd much rather just have an ad seeing as how it makes basically no difference to my life.
I'd actually like to see a lot more open-source apps with donation options but that's probably not going to happen..
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Thank you. I'm a developer and yell at my friends that use adFree on their devices. They even use my apps and still have adFree on. I know some apps neither need nor deserve to have Ads but a lot of them out there do. Its the only way we make any money developing FREE apps. We spend 100's of hours making these apps. The least the users can do is deal with a small ad on the screen or purchasing a $.99 app. Pay the freaking dollar. You obviously use the apps.

LordFuzzy024 said:
Thank you. I'm a developer and yell at my friends that use adFree on their devices. They even use my apps and still have adFree on. I know some apps neither need nor deserve to have Ads but a lot of them out there do. Its the only way we make any money developing FREE apps. We spend 100's of hours making these apps. The least the users can do is deal with a small ad on the screen or purchasing a $.99 app. Pay the freaking dollar. You obviously use the apps.
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I don't ever use this app, but I have in the past. I seem to recall it just making the add a blank white box. Does this affect your profits directly, somehow? Or do you mean, that stops people from clicking the ad and buying whatever was showing?

Ahh, the whole ad-blocking debate again.
Personally, as long as unsavory types are still using ads as a way to deliver malware (it started on PCs and now it's moving to Android), I will block them, period. I pay for apps though, so I don't really see what's with the whole 'ad blocker = anti-capitalist free loading scum' attitude, but okay.

Adfree is a gimmick. Not only does it break certain apps, but it still has the placeholder of where the add would come up. However, instead of the image/banner/etc, you get a "?". No thanks! I don't mind helping the devs out!