I've been following your reports for some time and am always pleasantly surprised when I see the next one pop up!
One thing though is that whilst your writing conveys passion and excitement your English is still below par. If you're interested, I'd be happy to proof-read your articles before they go up. My email is in my profile.
I look forward to your next report -- I hope you hit at least $4k =]
Thanks - trying hard to get those $4k. I had very limited time for today post so English is not as good as it might be but will try to improve it in the future... :)
Don't fret about it, you're doing great. The thing that matters is the content, not the package. I'm sure that if you'd write a sales brochure you'd have someone check it but for your blog posts your level of English is more than adequate.
I would remove the adsense ads entirely. They just dilute your book ad which I'm sure is much more profitable for you. It's worth testing, but my guess is that you would increase your overall revenues by eliminating them.
That would be a bad idea. You make your living by selling those things, you share your numbers with us and then, you would remove some ads because of a jealous programmer. Please don't do it and feel free to sell your stuff as much as you want.
I was almost angry when I saw the <AUTOPROMOTION> tag in your post. Why writing it? You have to autopromote your products if you want to sell them. This <AUTOPROMOTION> tag makes me feel like you're not serious about your book.
Thanks for this comment. <Autopromotion> tag is just to give my readers little smile. But I am very serious about the eBook. It is really helping to increase others revenue and give my income some boost too. You may check it by reading comments by happy buyers. So no without tag I am really recommending it to anyone who want some boost in downloads of their Android apps based on my experience ;)
I don't mind the ads so much, it's more the placement... Both in-line adsense blocks are in confusing places.
"Here are a few quotes from one of my favourite eMails:" followed by an adsense block. It took me a second to parse that quotes you were referring to weren't "Make 85% profit in 15 Min" and "Real Work at Home Income"
Same thing for the second block. It falls in a very awkward place.
At the same time this ad didn't pass you by and go unnoticed it fulfilled its purpose. Which is the entire purpose of the ad to you know get you to look at it and garner your attention.
If the ad were off to the side would it be as effective? @ OP I am sure you could play with this and find which is more effective thus increasing or maintaining your bottom line.
I'm not so sure ... I know I skimmed over two sections that I recognized as ads but now, only 90 seconds later, can't tell you what even one of the ads was for. All I know is that they weren't content.
Not quite the same. I'm not complaining that the ads are there ... that's something that he needs to determine using metrics. I'm just providing one reference point on a viewer's perspective, hopefully without negative or positive biases.
I guess I should also add that the ads I'm most likely to remember are those that appear on the page before the content I'm there to read actually loads. I'm assuming this is intentional.
Most importantly, by responding again I'm making your first comment on this thread seem prescient.
Good post, when advertising is your bottom line in reference to an income using metrics and things like "I'm most likely to remember ads that appear prior to content" are things that are good things to know.
I am curious about his analytics on this. I'm not a tech person, I've been selling internet advertising for 5 years though.
I also should have mentioned that (for me) his content was worth reading even with the in-line ads. Placing in-line ads in content that was marginally valuable/interesting to me might very well result in me skipping the content. That's why I brought up metrics. It's entirely possible he's making more off the ads even with a reduction in readership ... but only he has the data to know.
Don't feel pressured to, but I think you would make your page much more pleasing to the eye if you placed your ads on the side rather than embedded into your posts.
They will still give you some advertising exposure for AdSense, but they won't get in the way of people trying to read your blog post, and your product promotions in your post won't get lost in the noise.
Just a suggestion, you're kicking ass and taking names either way!
Could you give a short overview what you did recently? I mean, the book is written, of course, but did you create or update your Android apps a lot, did you take new photographs etc.? Or is that pretty much fixed, (semi-)passive income and you're working on the next thing(s)?
Yes, if you pick an idea that people definitely need, and you execute well, you'll make money. It's riskier if you try to make something completely new (like Color) - if you just need money, then pick something that's a clear win.
One example is Offline City Maps. I think almost anyone can go download the Route-Me mapping library, download OSM data, and make an offline city maps app that makes a few thousand a month.
Just want to say I love reading your Income Reports. I'm especially impressed with iStockPhoto which seems to be an awesome source of revenue that doesn't require a lot of maintenance. Any insights on how you decided what to include in your portfolio there?
I'm also working on a book (which will be free) with Android tips & tricks for making your apps popular. Following only this book's tips I plan to get to a stable $3-4000/month with 160 work hours - the equivalent of one 8h/day work month.
I am currently on the right track, making $300/month with about 16h of work.
I'm very impressed by your results and a friend and I have been taking your advice to heart for the last 2 months and working on learning and creating our first app. Our programming experience is very limited but we're making progress. Great advice and interesting to see your results.
I have been learning Android Development by creating my first app that has been published on the market. It is not too popular but learnt me a lot about development and good marketing appeal. Most important is to do something and try hard to do it well and the success usually comes sooner or later ;)
Would be interesting to see this compared to the number of hours you've put in over the course of the development, so you have an increasing per hour rate.
At HN, passive income usually comes from software, but tons of people make it from online retail. I formulated a skin cream and a lab makes and ships it. The majority of the work is website creation/maintenance and branding/promotion. After you get rolling, it is only about an hour or two of work a week at most. I get the impression that many people want to stick solely to their domain and lose sight of the possibility of using their skills to have a competitive advantage in a different market.
I am not sure if you were looking for numbers or a different story, but I hope this helps.
