How To Make Money from iPhone Applications

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How To Make Money from iPhone Applications

You've undoubtedly heard that there is money to be made making iPhone applications.

Why?

Because the age of carrying your computer with you has arrived. As a result, people are looking for ways to make their lives easier and more convenient. What better way to do this but to have everything you need with you at all times?

There are already thousands of applications out there for iPhones and iPod Touches.

You should check out the iTunes store to see what's already out there.

However, there are a million applications ideas that HAVEN'T been made yet.

This is where you come in and save the day!

First Way to Make Money from iPhone Applications 

Volume!

The first approach to making money from iPhone applications is both "easy" and "hard."

The first rule of thumb that you can abide to is this:

1) Create small applications and sell them for cheap.
I'm talking anywhere from $0.99 to $3.99.

2) Repeat over and over.

The key here is VOLUME. Since you are selling your applications for less money than other people, you have to sell more to make more money from iPhone Applications.

iphoneline

The good news: It will take you less time to make one iPhone application.
Bonus: Once it's up, it's up for good so no other work is required.

The bad news: You will have to make lots of them in order to make money.

A Timely Book 

Technology happens fast. Luckily for you, there are brilliant people out there who are trying to make it easy for YOU to make money from iphone applications.

This book is great if you want help getting started with making iPhone applications since that is exactly what the book is about. You'll be getting the information you're looking for.

catoncomputer

Zdziarski has a lot to say when it comes to creating quality applications.

Zdziarski is known for his work in cracking the iPhone and to port the first open source applications. He created the first application to utilize the portable Nintendo Entertainment System emulator.
Pretty sweet, huh?

iPhone SDK Application Development: Building Applications for the AppStore

Amazon Price: $23.09 (as of 01/01/2010) Buy Now

Second Way to Make Money from iPhone Applications 

Marketing!

There other approach for how to make money from iPhone applications is to create them and give them out for free.

But wait, you say. Isn't this about making money?

The wonderful thing about people having access to the internet more often is that they spend more time surfing the net.

This is where MARKETING comes in. Like night follows day, marketing is always there.

So the plan is:

1) Make an application that will allow a client to market their products from. Allow your application to get your clients name out to people looking for that product.

The good news: It's mostly good news for the businesses who will want to market on your applications. It's good news for you because you never have to worry about pricing. Your only job is to make a good iPhone application.

The bad news: You are working from commissions so the monetary aspects of your applications will need to be well thought out.

Apple has a Tribe You Can Sell To

iPhone Development: Books You'll Want 

Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK

Amazon Price: $26.39 (as of 01/01/2010) Buy Now

iPhone Application Development For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

Amazon Price: $19.79 (as of 01/01/2010) Buy Now

iPhone SDK Development (The Pragmatic Programmers)

Amazon Price: $25.71 (as of 01/01/2010) Buy Now

Sams Teach Yourself iPhone Application Development in 24 Hours

Amazon Price: $22.04 (as of 01/01/2010) Buy Now

Best Free iPhone Applications

Want to find more cool (and free!) applications for your iPhone?

Check out this lens for a top 20 pick and more!

Getting Traffic To Your Site 

Think of what the iPhone really lets people do. It lets people have access to the internet in place that they didn't use to.

What does that mean for you?

That means that there are just more people surfing the net.

For you, as an entrepreneur, that means good news.

You can create iPhone applications (free or not) that directly link the player/viewer to your website. Whether your are an affiliate or selling your own product, iPhone applications can be a great way to get traffic to your site.

Basically what I'm saying is that you can do both of the steps I mentioned above and make quite a bit of money doing it!

The Most Important Thing to Keep in Mind 

When thinking for how to make money from iPhone applications

Making iPhone applications is still a business.

Your number one goals should always be:

MAKE THE CONSUMER HAPPY

happier consumer = happier you

Don't skimp on quality and expect to charge $9.99 per download. It doesn't work that way!

Highly Recommended iPhone Development Books 

Learning Objective C and C++ 

All of these books come very highly recommended by people programming for the iPhone.

They can be incredibly useful for people at all stages of programming because they can be used to learn from but they can also be great reference sources.

Programming in Objective-C

Amazon Price: (as of 01/01/2010) Buy Now

Objective-C Pocket Reference

Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 01/01/2010) Buy Now

C Programming Language (2nd Edition)

Amazon Price: $44.71 (as of 01/01/2010) Buy Now

Effective C++: 55 Specific Ways to Improve Your Programs and Designs (3rd Edition)

Amazon Price: $32.69 (as of 01/01/2010) Buy Now

C++ Primer Plus (5th Edition)

Amazon Price: $37.79 (as of 01/01/2010) Buy Now

iPhone Programming Tutorials 

This is a good tutorials about the SDK from Apple and how to start using it.

There are quite a few instructional videos on YouTube about programming for the iPhone that I highly recommend watching. The problem with lots of the videos is that you can't see the words very clearly but that's ok, because you most just want to listen to what they are doing.

It's most helpful to watch these videos with one of the books I recommend above because you can instantly look up things that you don't understand in the videos.
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by Alex_D

Hello, I'm Alex! I think that there are endless possibilities for the iphone--both for the users and the developers! (more)

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