1. How to make an
iPhone app for $250
in 1 month
- Even if you aren’t a programmer
- Even if you don’t have an idea

2. Ever since the App
Store was created I
dreamt about creating
an app.. maybe you
have too

3. But I always thought
that it took loads of
money and specialized,
technical knowledge
$$$

4. :(
So for years I would
brainstorm a random
app idea, fantasize
about how huge it was
going to be...
realize I didn’t know
how to create it and so
quickly drop one idea
and move on to the
next...over and over..

5. But then I realized that it
wasn’t true.
That you could actually
produce your own app
with only a few hundred
dollars and NOT have to
learn to write a single
line of code
So how’d I do it? Keep reading..
else if (recognizer.direction
==
UISwipeGestureRecognizer
DirectionRight) {
if( self.index != 0)
{
self.index--;
if(index>= 0 && index
< assets.count)
{

6. My short story
In February 2013, I had:
No idea for an app
No clue how to program
Little money or time to create one

7. My short story
One month later, I launched
my first app to the App Store
Total Developer cost: $150
+ Total Apple Developer
license cost: $99
= Final cost: $249
boom, there it is!

8. My short story
As of October 2013
50,000+ downloads
Revenue: $350+

9. Why?
Unlike most people, I did
not make an app to:
● Get rich
● Quit my job
● Get written about
on TechCrunch

10. Why?
Unlike most people, I did
not make an app to:
● Get rich
● Quit my job
● Get written about
on TechCrunch
Instead, I did it to:
● Gain experience
● Resume/Portfolio
piece
● Make a little
passive $$

11. 6 Steps to Your First App
1. Set a deadline - Give yourself time
constraints to prevent procrastination
2. Ideas - Finding and validating them
3. Mockups - communicating your idea visually
4. Hiring and managing a developer - so that
you don’t flush money down the toilet
5. Monetization
6. Marketing

12. Set a deadline
I looked back and realized, holy
crap, I've been talking about
this for years and here I am,
with nothing to show.
If I don't do it now, will I ever?
Will I be in the same situation a
year from now?

13. Set a deadline
I spent all of that time making absolutely NO
progress, then I made the decision to set a hard
deadline which re-framed the situation and allowed
me to finally accomplish it in only a matter of weeks.
calendar image

14. The sad truth is that most people would
rather dream about making a super popular,
amazing, money-pumping application
then actually take the initial steps to make
something useful but simple and then
continue on from there

15. How to ‘find’ an idea
Pay very careful attention to the things your
friends complain about. The words “I wish
you could do…”, or “I hate…” should make
your ears perk up.
Lurk on https://discussions.apple.com and
look for recurring things that people don’t
know how to do, or apps/features that they
ask for

16. Checkout other App reviews
The easiest way to find ideas for an
app is to carefully study apps you
currently use or apps you know
that have a fair amount of
popularity and simply improve
them, or make them more simple,
or tweak them to be specific for a
particular audience.
Look at this good samaritan telling
you exactly what they want!

17. Validating an Idea
One day while scrolling through
my photos I wanted to see the
date one was taken. But then I
realized I couldn’t with the
native Photos app (This was preiOS7).
So I did a quick Google to see if
other people had this need as
well.
To the left you’ll see various
forums where people are
posting about this problem. So I
knew people were looking for a
solution.

18. Competition is GOOD
The fact that there are competitors pretty
much validates your idea right there. All you
have to do is be a little bit better. Dig into
the reviews and see what people like or don't
like about it - this research will let you know
what to add or remove from your version.
In my case, there were already several apps
that would show you all of the metadata in
your pictures but they showed too much
information and didn't present it in the way I
wanted.

19. are
d Squ
an
itter
Tw
r of
e
Found

20. What if you have TOO MANY ideas?
If you are stuck with choosing amongst a few
different ideas for your first app, here's a framework
to help you narrow it down.
1. Which one will take the LEAST amount of
development hours to complete?
That's it. Choose that one.
If they're about equal, then close your eyes and pick
one. It doesn't matter. You can always come back to
the others.
It is VERY easy to get stuck when you have many
choices, recognize it and move past it.

21. What if someone steals my idea?
If you have an idea for an app, chances are
you're scared to tell your friends about it
because you're afraid they might "steal it."
The chances are very slim that someone is
going to drop their lives, spend countless hours
and decent money on a project just because
they heard you briefly mention it.
Ideas are infinitely abundant. Going through
your life scared that someone is going to steal
your precious idea is not going to get you far.
Cat Burglar

22. Mockups
Once you have an idea, it’s time to
communicate it in a way that a developer
will understand

23. A mockup is like a blueprint for a house. It
tells the builder what goes where and how it
all fits together.
Do not try to hire a developer with a simple
text explanation of how the app should look
and function. The problem with that is that
paragraphs and paragraphs explaining an
app can get confusing and be misinterpreted.
It's better to do the upfront work to visually lay
out exactly how it should look and function.

24. Skitch
Download Skitch (free) at Skitch.com
and use the rectangle tool, line tool,
text tool and arrows to create a
ghetto mockup.
Here is an example of mine. Pretty
crappy, right?

25. Keynotopia
If you already have Keynote, this option is
free also
So get keynote if you don’t have it, then
download these free iPhone mockup
templates here: http://keynotopia.
com/keynote-mockups-templates/
You’ll create your ‘app’ in one keynote
window and open up the templates in
another. Then you just select the pieces you
need, copy them, and past them in your
‘app’ keynote window.
Each ‘slide’ is a screen of your app. If you
can copy and paste you can design an app!

26. Hiring and managing
a developer

27. I think this part scares people the
most because they have no idea
what the hell they’re doing.
They are scared of hiring the wrong
person, that they’re going to take
their money, that their thing isn’t
going to work properly, that the
developer is going to take 4 days to
respond, that they will try to cheat
them out of money etc. etc.
Using one of these sites to find
people mitigates your risk because
you can see their ratings and
reviews from past clients - just like
Yelp or Amazon

28. Hiring the Right Developer
I went on freelancer.com
and posted a project. I
titled it ‘very basic iPhone
application’
When posting a project
you have to think what a
developer is going to think
as they’re scrolling through
the site and you have to
title your project so that
they will care and want to
bid.
I named my project the
way I did so that they
would know it would be
quick and easy money.

29. If you post a project on a site like freelancer,
elance or odesk you are probably going to
receive at least 20+ bids. I got 23. Who has
time to review that many and how do you go
about narrowing it down?
Here’s a quick little trick you can use to
eliminate 80% of all bids to narrow down
the pool.
Want to get in contact with my
developer?
Click here
What I did is in the description of my project I
said, “in your bid include the answer to 2+2
so that I know you actually read this.”
And it worked, dozens of people didn’t do
this so I ruthlessly deleted their bids.

30. Monetization

31. There are 4 options
Paid
Downloads
Advertising
In-app
purchases
FREE
Most popular apps are $.99-$2.99. But pricing is completely dependent on what your
app does and how big of a market there is for it. For example, Nathan Barry created
OneVoice which helps autistic kids and it sells for $199 - not 1.99 but $199 as in
almost $200. And people gladly pay for it because it solves a big pain point for them
and actually saves them money compared to the other options they have.
You can expect to get 1% to 3% of the number of free downloads if you charge money.
So I could maybe have received 500-1,500 downloads if I charged per download
instead of ads.

32. There are 4 options
Paid
Downloads
Advertising
In-app
purchases
FREE
With ads, you get paid based on how many impressions or views your ads get. So the
more people who use your app daily, the more impressions you'll get and the more
money you will make.
This is how much
The most important number of all :) This is
calculated by dividing my total number of
impressions 84,451 by 1,000 (because the metric
you are paid by is 1 thousand impressions. So
8,451 x my eCPM above $1.14 = $96.
#’s for September 2013
money I made per
thousand impressions.
CPM stands for Cost
Per Milli - milli meaning
thousand.
This is how many times
an ad was shown on the This is the number of
impressions divided by the
app
number of requests

33. There are 4 options
Paid
Downloads
Advertising
In-app
purchases
FREE
This option is quickly becoming the most popular was to monetize an app.
The reason is because your app is listed as Free in the App Store - so you still get a
larger volume of people downloading your app. But then you have an Up-sell option,
where they can pay to get rid of ads, or pay to unlock levels or features.
In-app purchases are also great for users because they get to try out your app before
spending money unlike with normal paid app downloads.
Offering in app purchases takes extra time for your developer to implement so will
increase the cost of your app so keep that in mind as well.

34. There are 4 options
Paid
Downloads
Advertising
In-app
purchases
FREE
The last option is to just offer your app completely for free. This is the option favored
by apps looking to acquire as many users as possible and to sell to a larger company think Instagram..
but can also be fine for your first app if you just want to get something out there that
your friends and family can use for free and don't spend the time or money
implementing ads or in app purchases.

35. Marketing
How to get people to download your app

36. Forums
I had the app built because I noticed a lot of
people on forums were looking for a way to
see the date and time their iPhone photos
were taken.
So once I launched the app I went back to
most of those forums and left a note in the
thread about the solution. I usually let them
know that I had created it. If you are nice
and helpful with your post most people
won’t complain that you are promoting
something of your own.

37. YouTube
In less than 20 minutes I created a video walk
through of the app and uploaded it to YouTube.
I just propped my DSLR on a table, held my
phone in front of it and gave a quick walkthrough of the product. I strategically titled the
video “How to see the date and time of your
iPhone photos” because I knew people were
searching for similar phrases and that Google
would rank a YouTube video that fit that phrase.
Just that alone has generated 9,000 views.
I included a link to the app in the description and
just recently added annotations within the video
to link to the app.

38. Reddit
I posted a direct link to the app in
r/iPhone which got 300+ upvotes and
drove around 700 downloads.
I also wrote up a post on my blog on how
I created the app and submitted it to
r/entrepreneur - this has driven 10,000+
views to the article.

39. Optimizing your app
page for more
‘discoverability’ will
get you the biggest
gains
This is called App
Store Optimization...

40. App Store Optimization
For keywords I saw that one competing app was called Exif
Wizard. So a few months after I launched my app I put “exif” in my
keywords and app description.
For the app description, I noticed in reviews that people would
write what they were using the app for, some examples were:
■
■
■
■
■
- for scrapbooking
- for baby pictures
- for tracking weight loss progress
- for contesting parking tickets
- for using in disputes with their landlord
Never would have expected the last two. Anyways so what I did is
I put in the app description how it was being used by others to
help with search results in the app store.

41. YOUR
FIRST
APP
THE STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO
LAUNCHING AN IPHONE
APP ON A LIMITED BUDGET
What next...
I’m finishing up a book where we’ll
go wayy in depth to the topics
discussed in this presentation
Sign up to get notified when it is
released, get a free chapter and to
get free weekly tips on creating an
app
benphilabaum.com/app-book
Coming December 2013
- Even if you aren’t a programmer
- Even if you don’t have an idea
- Even if you only have $250 to spare
this is the cover