So I've read alot on these forums, and one of the lessons I've heard time and time again is to "Fail Fast". That is, if the app you've released doesn't do well it's time to drop it quickly and move on to your next project.
The only thing is, what everyone considers a failure is subjective. I'm curious to know for everyone here, what kind of numbers would you consider a failure?
1 sale a day? 10? 20? 100?
I'm at a crossroads right now, where I have an app that has users, and these users are requesting new features, but excluding any sales and ending up on any new release lists, I'm selling 2-3 a day at $1.99. I ask myself, should I continue to try to add these features or start on my next project?
What does everyone think and what is your experience?
How much is your time worth? If you're wanting to make $100/hr and spend 2 hours on the changes... you're going to need to make at least $200 (not revenue, but your payment from Apple) to "break even" for the cost of your time. Beyond this break even point, you actually start to make profit. Make sense?
So, my recommendation is to do the following:
1) Decide how much you value your time (in terms of dollars per hour)
2) Estimate how long it's going to take you to make the changes (in terms of hours)... so now, you've got a "total cost" ($/hr * total hours = total cost)
3) Calculate the number of sales you need to break even (total cost / payment per sale from Apple = number of sales to break even)
4) If you think you will exceed this number of sales, then you should consider proceeding forward with the app. Otherwise, you should find something better to do.
I think regardless of how successful you are you should always be working on something new. Every app has a natural lifespan and the clock is ticking as soon as you release it. I spend very little time adding new features to existing apps. I have more fun, and find it more worthwhile financially, to start something new every time. My goal is to release 1-2 completely new apps every year. Based on mine and others' experiences that is the only way to make a consistent living. Even the best apps have lifespans of a few years, and most just a few months.
So I've read alot on these forums, and one of the lessons I've heard time and time again is to "Fail Fast". That is, if the app you've released doesn't do well it's time to drop it quickly and move on to your next project.
The only thing is, what everyone considers a failure is subjective. I'm curious to know for everyone here, what kind of numbers would you consider a failure?
1 sale a day? 10? 20? 100?
I'm at a crossroads right now, where I have an app that has users, and these users are requesting new features, but excluding any sales and ending up on any new release lists, I'm selling 2-3 a day at $1.99. I ask myself, should I continue to try to add these features or start on my next project?
What does everyone think and what is your experience?
I think it's time to move on. If you're only making $6 a day gross, then adding new features won't bump you to double or triple digits.
I think it depends on how much time you have already spent on it and what you define as success.
Based on doing it full time, I see $6/day gross as $1500/year and still worth spending 5 or so % of the time on (a few hours a week). I have one set of applications making significantly less than that but I am still aiming to to grow to $5-10. I know the market is there but I have approached it the wrong way.
I'd say exactly the opposite. When it comes to apps, don't fail fast!
As an example - one of my apps used to bring in a dollar or two a day. That sucks, right? But when I learned some marketing basics, I managed to get it to 20-50 dollars a day, which means "ramen profitability" to me.
Plenty of people launch their first app, get disappointed by the fact that the app doesn't sell by itself, and give up. The launch is just the beginning - then there are keywords, marketing, PR, bugfixes and so on.
Foursquare took 1,5 year before they gained traction, Trainyard took like 6 months if I remember correctly...
I think the real question is - did you do the market research before building your app? If there is no competition for you, then it's a bad idea (you have to educate a market - a *lot* of work), if there is plenty of solid competition, then it's a bad idea (hard to differentiate). The easiest way to go is to target markets where there are one or two competitors.
When to "Fail Fast"?
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