The Grades Story - how I made a successful iPhone app on the first try
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My app, Grades, was featured by Apple and did pretty well. Through telling the story I weave in many of the lessons I wish I had known at the start. Skip to slide 75 to get to the iPhone specific stuff. This is NOT about me - I hope it inspires you to start getting curious and build awesome stuff.
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The Grades Story - how I made a successful iPhone app on the first try
- 1. The Grades Story Jeremy Olson @jerols - gradesapp.com - skookum.com
- 5. WARNING
- 6. NOT
- 8. IS
- 9. Long Term
- 10. IS
- 11. AboutYOU
- 12. THE STORY If there were a subtitle, it would be here!
- 13. 4 Chapters
- 14. 4 Chapters Get a Monkey
- 15. 4 Chapters Get a Monkey Get an Idea
- 16. 4 Chapters Get a Monkey Get an Idea Get a Voice
- 17. 4 Chapters Get a Monkey Get an Idea Get a Voice Worth it!
- 18. Chapter 1 Get a Monkey
- 20. The Bad Guy
- 21. The Bad Guy Why waste your time? No way it’s gonna make money.
- 23. Success ≠ Money
- 24. Be curious, learn stuff, build stuff...
- 25. Do your best to make it profitable.
- 26. It will probably fail.
- 28. Let me prove it.
- 29. 2000
- 30. FENCING MASTER
- 32. Money Made...
- 33. Wait for it...
- 34. $0
- 35. Web Design
- 36. I was a natural... (not)
- 38. Off to a great start!
- 44. $0
- 46. BLOGGG!
- 51. Oh yeah!
- 52. -$100
- 53. APPPS!
- 54. What is a database?
- 59. Me thinking $15/hr is pretty neat
- 62. A few bucks
- 64. College.
- 68. It pays to be curious.
- 69. WRONG
- 70. Will this make money right away? NOT
- 71. Is this a worthwhile investment?
- 72. Money ≠ Success
- 73. It pays to be curious. It pays to be curious.
- 74. Get a monkey
- 75. Chapter 2 Get a product
- 81. FAIL
- 83. A good idea motivates you to learn what is required to build it
- 85. Scratch your own itch
- 86. Is there a gap in the market?
- 87. Is it a ?
- 88. Sketch it
- 89. Talk to folks
- 90. Prototype it
- 92. Talk to folks
- 93. Do people immediately “get it”?
- 94. Are people excited about it?
- 95. Will enough people be willing to pay for it?
- 96. Refine it
- 107. Know your limits
- 108. My design skills were not good enough to make that concept work.
- 109. If the skill isn’t there, stick simple. Don’t go crazy.
- 116. Use an iPhone or iPod every day
- 117. Invest LOTS of time in the design
- 118. Apple says:
- 119. Learn design.
- 123. WWDC Videos http://developer.apple.com/videos/wwdc/2010/ Watch the ones on design and on making successful iPhone apps
- 124. HIG Search “iPhone human interface guidelines”
- 125. No time? Hire or partner with an amazing designer.
- 126. Beyond usable. Fun.
- 128. Native VS Web-based Objective-C Cocoa HTML/CSS/Javascript Phone Gap Appcelerator Titanium
- 129. Native VS Web-based + More familiar to web developers + Multi-platform - Slower - Easy to make an app that doesn’t follow conventions - Sometimes limiting + More valuable skill + More control + Fewer limits - Hard - Not multi- platform
- 132. Download the SDK for free $100/year to submit apps to the store and test them on actual devices (otherwise use the simulator to test) Only works on a Mac
- 133. Google “Learn Objective C” (1st result)
- 134. Search “stanford iPhone” in iTunes Store Do the assignments! (At least the first few)
- 136. New programmer? Introductory programming courses or books = good idea. This is not lightweight stuff. Not impossible either.
- 137. Grades 0.1 = Hodgepodge of tutorials twisted to do my will
- 139. After a few months, stuff started clicking
- 140. Scratch. Rewrite.
- 143. Grades 1.0 1 year - start to finish
- 144. DEMO
- 145. We got a product.
- 146. Halt.
- 147. Step back a bit.
- 148. A product is no good if nobody knows about it
- 149. Chapter 3 Get a voice
- 150. If you don’t have a voice, you are nobody.
- 151. If you’re a nobody, who is going to know about your stuff?
- 152. Don’t wait til launch to work on marketing!
- 153. Getting a voice takes TIME! Lots of it.
- 154. Day 1, I was nobody.
- 155. I read
- 156. “If you think leadership is only for other people, you’re wrong. We need YOU to lead us.”
- 159. Twitter
- 161. Market by adding value to people’s lives
- 162. It worked!
- 164. Some of the most successful iPhone developers out there were reading my blog!
- 165. It’s not about eyeballs
- 166. I never “pitched” anybody
- 169. Don’t Spam
- 170. “@taptaptap Hey, you should check out the iPhone app I’m building - it is really awesome” WRONG
- 171. “Check out @taptaptap’s latest app, Voices - it is a perfect example of going beyond usable and into the realm of fun.” RIGHT
- 172. Engage people outside the context of your app.
- 173. If they like you, they will check your stuff out.
- 174. What about PR? Make it a last resort. Cold calling is usually not very effective.
- 175. The Power of Social Media
- 176. Viticci
- 177. [redacted]
- 178. Ken Yarmosh
- 179. My Job
- 180. If you have a voice, people care.
- 181. Chapter 4 Worth it!
- 182. LAUNCH!
- 184. Hundreds of Twitter followers, blog readers, and beta testers got the ball rolling.
- 185. Launch!
- 186. Launch!
- 187. Launch!
- 188. Launch!
- 189. Launch!
- 190. Launch!
- 191. Launch!
- 192. Launch!
- 193. Launch!
- 194. Launch!FTW!
- 199. How to get featured • Good idea • Great design • If you can use features unique to the iPhone or that show off technology from the most recent IOS update • Make your own splash by starting marketing early
- 200. How much?
- 202. Much more than a $1k. Much less than $100k. But it really doesn’t matter!
- 203. I’m worth 500% more than a year ago.
- 204. Contribute to respected blogs Got to interview the creators of RedLaser
- 205. Contribute to respected blogs Got to interview the creators of RedLaser
- 208. Next? Who knows.
- 209. I’m not special.
- 210. Get a monkey.
- 211. Get a product.
- 212. Get a voice.
- 213. It’s worth it.
- 214. THE END Twitter: @jerols Grades: gradesapp.com Company: skookum.com Email: jeremy@skookum.com