How to make $250 a day (and get banned from the Android Market)

http://makingmoneywithandroid.com/2011/09/how-to-make-250-a-day-and-get-banned-from-the-android-market/

by obviator • 15 years ago

122 55 15 years ago

rhygar2• 15 years ago

By attracting developers like this guy, Google is going to have a very hard time competing with Apple. The Android Market is filled with apps like this. More so than the iOS App Store by far.

0x123• 15 years ago

What do you think is wrong with it? 'Apps like this' apparently didn't exist, according to the article he searched for one.

As far as I can see he simply filled a need. If google would be so kind as to state what their problem is with it, who knows, it might see a revival.

rhygar2• 15 years ago

Android is "open" - so just about anything goes. It uses Java, that starter language for just about anyone who learns how to program these days. So you end up with an environment that is very conducive to spamware/adware type apps and people trying to get rich quick. It only takes a few bad apps before it becomes like Windows, where users are afraid to install anything new or off-brand.

Mizza4• 15 years ago

This is a really scammy website - I really don't like it.

The goal shouldn't be to make money with Android - it should be to make interesting and high quality software products for your customers.

I should also mention that I make more than $1000 a month, the site's goal, by selling Android apps.

jpulgarin6• 15 years ago

Why shouldn't the goal be to make money with Android?

Mizza4• 15 years ago

Because if that's your only goal, you end up producing low-quality, mass-produced garbage - "shovelware" - and that's no way to go through life, in my opinion.

InclinedPlane3• 15 years ago

Translate it to another domain: the goal is to make money with email, the goal is to make money with the web, the goal is to make money period. Without any other guidance or any higher goal this can easily lead to spamming, phishing, web content farms, domain squatting, etc.

Is that what you want to do? Or do you want to make money by making something that people value?

ryanwaggoner• 15 years ago

You're wrong. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to make money as your primary goal. Most of the best products and services in the world are driven by profit motive. You can tell because they charge for them instead of giving them away. They usually charge a lot for them.

Posts like yours remind me of why developers are the worst market in the world to sell to. Not only will they spend hundreds of dollars of time trying to avoid paying $10 for something, but they'll look down their nose at you for charging in the first place.

Edit: and they'll downvote you for pointing it out :)

Mizza4• 15 years ago

No, I'm not arguing against profit. Profit is good. I like profit!

I should clarify - in software, the quick buck isn't usually a good thing. I think that profit should be the reward for value, and that value comes as the result of hard work.

The bottom-tier application developers are little more than con men in my opinion. And again, these are just my opinions.

0x123• 15 years ago

Imagine, people 'just' trying to make money. One mans interesting is another mans garbage and the other way around.

clarky07• 15 years ago

Why on earth should making money not be the goal of a business? You'll find that to make a successful long term business quality is key. Just because there are crappy apps out there doesn't mean those are the ones making money.

nohat• 15 years ago

Another possible motivation for google suspending the app was that it abused the google plus invitation system. That probably isn't explicitly against the rules of the android market place, but it probably is against the rules or at least intention of google plus, and there has to be some protective bleed over from other google properties.

ig1• 15 years ago

Here's a simple rule: Don't use someone-else's trademark as the fist word of your product name.

The first word is typically used to imply endorsement or officialness. So for example Microsoft X or Google Y.

If you build a product based on a third party service, you can generally use the trademark in your name for example "Bob's invites to Google+", as long as it's clear it's not an officially produced or endorsed product.

robryan• 15 years ago

With Google though you would ideally want to avoid it altogether, although in this case that wouldn't really be possible. A lot of Google logos have specific terms of use, most of which include that they can't be modified in any way which I thinking might have resulted in the ban in this case.

benregenspan• 15 years ago

"Big corporations don’t understand, even if you’re 'trying to do the right thing'."

Really? This guy was making money by offering a dubious service leveraging someone else's brand. As he admits, it was an experiment and the way he conducted it was very ill-advised. Own up to it, don't whine about not being "understood".

DanielBMarkham• 15 years ago

Damn. Talk about targeted content.

The guy writes an article on a failed Android experiment, makes the front page of HN. I click on the link and I'm on a blog with 32 articles in the last couple of months, all highly-targeted at Android developers. Android book ads on the side. All very nicely put-together (I know some folks would consider my analysis an attack. It is not.)

This guy is either going to make money on Android apps or make money advertising about them!

I like the app idea, but the story shows something really sad about these app marketplaces -- there's so much social engineering it's not funny. The right name, the right logo, the right first customers, the right momentum -- if the die come up the right way, you're on a roll. But if something happens to mess up one or two aspects of it? It can all fall apart. Or to put another way people buying the app are the number one signal for other people to buy the app. So it's kind of a weird little high-stakes popularity contest, at least as far as I can tell.

I just think it's cool that the author took the failed app idea, turned it around into a blog entry, and then might make a few bucks on that. Having the targeted blog to go along with your app efforts was very smart. If nothing else, as long as you keep trying, even if you go through a hundred ideas which never pan out, you could end up with a nice ebook out of all of it one day. Call it something like "How to win by failing"

ansy• 15 years ago

Regarding your social engineering comment, I think this is a side effect of digital content distribution in general. With all the scaling handled for you more or less for free, success is just a matter of gaining mindshare.

It has been happening for a while with blogs, YouTube, HN/Reddit comments. For an example just look at reposts. Pick the right title, be the right submitter, get the right first commenter, and some blog spam article has hundreds of votes on the front page while the original source goes without any votes or comments.

Just on the app store, money is involved instead of karma.

MichaelApproved• 15 years ago

Sounds like this would make a better web page then an app.

With the web, it's easier to share, there are far fewer rules, larger user base and if google has a problem with your logo, they can send you a detailed C&D letter which you can take care of without losing your existing work.

haliax2• 15 years ago

Nice hack, and a cool way to get your feet wet with developing Android apps as a business.

Kwpolska• 15 years ago

You are crazy. Why didn't you do this through a bloody website? I'd be happier to get a G+ invite through my PC, easy and fast, rather than grabbing the phone, praying for the battery to be still alive, turn on WiFi/data connection, fire up Market, search for an app, download it, and THEN get my bloody invitation... yeah, I'd stay with the PC way.

(originally as a comment under this blog post)

How to make $250 a day (and get banned from the Android Market)

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