Editor’s Note: Seth Porges is a magazine editor and the creator of Cloth, an iOS fashion app for iPhone and iPod Touch. His Twitter handle is @sethporges.
Story highlights
Making an app will cost you, at the very minimum, around $10,000
$1.99 is premium price, but it's also immensely satisfying to get more than a buck per download
Consider also producing an embeddable YouTube or Vimeo ad of some sort
App appeal is obvious. The barrier to entry? So low!
The upshot of producing the next Angry Birds or beer-chug simulator? So high!
Heck, with just a small investment of time and cash, it’s not hard for would-be mobile moguls to turn a concept into a steady stream of cash. And thanks to today’s app stores, it’s never been easier to try your hand at becoming the next tech tycoon.
Here’s (almost) everything you need to know before you get started on your own app – and what I wish I knew before I got into the game.
1. What does it cost to make an app?
If you’re new to the app game, prepare for some sticker shock. Making an app will cost you, at the very minimum, around $10,000. This is for a super-simple program — none of that fancy enterprise or social networking jibber-jabber. Even still, any app worth its weight in code will likely cost you closer to $20,000.
Unless you have some basic design skills, you’ll need to enlist the help of both a programmer and a designer. And these guys ain’t cheap — particularly programmers who, thanks to a pronounced shortage of qualified coders, can pretty much name their prices. (A suggestion for those low on funds: Find some creative way to come up with the cash. I funded my app through Airbnb income.)
You can try to offload some of your costs by offering your guys equity; on the other hand, everybody tries to get free (or