Developers; let me ask you a serious question. Why is it that you’re willing to spend countless development hours and sometimes thousands of design dollars on your app, but fail to plan a real monetization strategy?

We receive a lot of questions and comments via our contact form and one of the most frequently asked is, “We have an app up on the app store but it isn’t generating any money, can you help?”  First of all, developing an iPhone app is usually the easy part, but if you want to successfully make money from your apps, you’ll have to start thinking beyond the hard sales, ads, and in some cases even beyond the all too common in-app purchases.

To best understand why your app may not be driving the sales you had hoped for, here are a few use cases and opportunities you might be missing. If you’re app doesn’t hit one of these sweet spots exceptionally well, you may have to rethink your app altogether.

Deliver Value

Does your app help its users get through every day life a little bit easier, help then save money, introduce them to relevant real world products, or the nearest retailer while on the go? Geo location based apps are now starting to find their business model. For example, MyTown allows users to buy and own their favorite locations and charge virtual rent when others check-in. Another location based monetization model is offering users group buying options for relevant products.

Deliver Entertainment

Long term usage and engagement are essential elements towards converting your app into dollars. A quick look at the top grossing entertainment apps on the app store via Appannie shows that Freemium based apps and, in-app purchase options are the name of the game. The biggest mistake developers make here is not offering multiple in-app options. You don’t go to the movie theater and only have one movie to choose from, do you? Why restrict your user’s purchase options?

Deliver  Real World Goods

In many cases, your mobile app may be an extension of a physical business. In which case, one of the services you need to be looking at is Zooz, a payment checkout platform that enables you to start monetizing your application and accepting payments. This payment solution requires adding a few lines of code and minimal development time, but provides everything that’s necessary for app developers to start accepting in-app payments from their end users.

source: TechCrunch

Deliver Knowledge

There’s no denying it, apps have evolved into legitimate learning tools for adults and children alike. The secret to monetizing educational apps is understanding user behavior. Far too many educational apps set the learning curve too high for most end users to immerse themselves into. Gradually leading users through a learning process takes time, but it also presents a strong an opportunity to offer  additional information packs as they progress through various stages of the learning process.

Deliver a Quick Gimmick

We all know by now that the app store isn’t suffering from a lack of silly, one-trick apps such as flashlights, lock screens, soundboards and thousands of other quick gags. What’s more intriguing is that many of these apps are hitting top rankings and maintaining their position. In most cases, the developers of these apps have spent significant funds in buying their way up the charts in order to monetize via a mix of ads, upgrades and cross promotional offers.

Ditch it and move on

Going back to what I mentioned earlier, failing to deliver an app that truly connects with your users on a deep level in any of the examples mentioned above means you’re going to have a very difficult time converting it into dollars. That being said, there’s hope for your app yet. One of the best solutions for an app that’s received a significant user base is leveraging it to drive exposure for future apps. In other words, use it as a cross promotion tool for anything you publish later on the app store via push notifications.

Turning it back over to you - What methods have you found to be most effective in converting your apps, beyond the traditional ads and in-app purchases? Share your story below or reach out to us over on Twitter and let us know!