What is the name of your company?
619Apps.com
What are the names of your app(s)?
The Weed Cookbook 2 â€" (Submitted, waiting for approval from Apple)
Introduce yourself â€" Tell us about yourself, your company, and how you got into developing mobile apps?
Hello, My name is Craig Johnson, owner of 619Apps. I am a self-taught mobile app developer. I first got started into making apps only 2 years ago. I have some real estate exam prep. Software that I created in 2003 and began selling my software on eBay, then created my own eCommerce sites and then an online exam company found me and asked me to license them my content to make apps from my real estate software. I then began looking into how I can create my own apps and cut out the “middle manâ€. I began researching and reading up on how to write the mobile apps and saw that it was much easier to pay people to write it for you, or to use WYSIWYG app developing software and have it compiled or/outsourced by someone else. So, that is what I do. I come up with the app, design it, then either use a visual designing program myself, or outsource it to someone from oDesk or a similar website to code the app for you.
How many people are on your team? And what are their roles?
It is just me…and the occasional person I outsource work to, but mostly it’s just me.
At what point did you decide you wanted to make apps for the iPhone?
It was in 2007 when I saw how much money could be made from a simple and usually stupid little app.
What were you doing before you started developing for the iPhone?
Writing real estate exam prep software and study guides online.
One of your recent apps has broken into the top 50 of its category on the charts. Tell us about that app.
I believe that would be my Dr. Weed app. It is the ONLY ONE of its kind on iTunes and it caught a lot of attention in the UK since it is illegal there to even posses information on how to grow marijuana. It is strange, as a US citizen, to think that you could be arrested just because you have a stupid little app on your phone that tells you how to grow marijuana. It is just INFORMATION, it is not marijuana itself…them Brits are weird. I also have the Mr. DUI app which Senator Harry Reid tried to get banned. It was talked a lot about last year in the news, CNN, USA Today, ABC, NY TIMES and PC Magazine.
What was the best rank position that app hit?
I believe Dr. Weed ranked #5 in the category MEDICAL.
Were you surprised to see it reach that ranking?
Yes, since it only took me 2 weeks to make the app.
For your most successful app, how did you come up with the idea for it?
Well, with the recent news and controversy in trying to legalize medical marijuana, I thought it would likely get a lot of attention in all areas of news and online media. So, I created the app to help offer information on medical marijuana news as well as other interesting information, like how to grow it, how to identify different strains, its medicinal value, and offer alternative ways of administering the medical substance, such as in edibles. I have now created 3 different medical marijuana cookbook apps for iTunes, the Weed Cookbook, the Weed Cookbook 2 (currently in review by Apple) and Baked! Together they make up over 150 recipes and cooking tips and are also top sellers for marijuana recipe apps. I will soon release the Mega Marijuana Cookbook app with all 3 of them combined.
How long does it take for you to write a typical app from start to finish?
If, I work on it all day, every day about 2-3 weeks.
What framework do you mainly use to program your apps?
I use a visual designer based on HTML and then send it to a programmer to program it for me. I have no idea what framework he uses.
How many lines of code does your app have and what programming language did you use?
I do not know.
What do you think was the number one thing you did that made your app successful?
I found a niche that no one else was creating an app about.
With so many apps in the app store, what would you say have been your top 3 ways and/or places to help market your app to gain ranking in the app charts, and why?
I do not know, I did not market any of my apps. I would say to choose an app that does not have any competition and create it.
Have you used any app promotional services, and if so, who, and how did they each work out for you?
I have not used any yet.
Are there any marketing services you have heard about that sound interesting that you have not yet tried? If so, whom or what, and why have you not yet tried them?
I do not know if any. If there are any good ones out there that are inexpensive, I would like to know about them myself.
Our readers are very interested on what kind of download numbers it takes to break into the top 50 of a category. Based on your peak app ranking, how many downloads were you getting daily on average?
My highest was over 1,000 downloads per day. However, Dr. Weed made it to #5 in Medical at a little over 100 downloads per day. My lows are in the area of about 50 downloads per day and rank in around #32 in Medical on those days.
If you had to pick the top 3 things app developers should always include in their apps to help with the marketing of their app to other users or something that helps your app jump up the rankings, what would they be, and why?
I would say that you need to have some type of Facebook and Twitter integration so that the user can post something about your app to their friends and followers, and a More Tab, which lists your other apps, and push notifications are good to promote your other apps.
What has been your largest sales day?
It was about $1,000 in one day.
Why did you decide to go free/paid?
The apps I have that are in a niche area, the medical marijuana apps, are ones that I felt would be good for paid apps. The Justin Bieber Farts app, which there is a lot of farts apps and apps about Justin Bieber, I felt, would be best as a free app with AdMob integration to make a little money on.
Are you creating apps full time now, or do you have another job?
Yes, I create apps full time now.
What is it that excites you most about developing apps for the iPhone?
When the app is approved by Apple and the money comes in while I sleep.
Outside of your own apps, what are your 3 favorite apps and why?
Facebook app of course, no needs to give a reason there, iHeartRadio, it’s free and it’s like having satellite radio and the Netflix app, streaming movies from anywhere in the world is AWESOME!!!
What is your favorite game app?
The Scrabble, it is fun to play a board game with a friend in another city, state or country.
Which app has wowed you more than any other, and why?
The Shazam app, it has been able to get a song for me from a very static and hardly audible radio station or from the background music at a noisy coffeehouse.
What’s your favorite iOS based websites you check out on a regular basis for your business?
I guess that would be Facebook, when the Facebook iPhone app crashes on my iPhone, then I will use the web app version, or if there is a feature that has not yet be implemented into the Facebook app, then I will use the web version.
What are you working on next?
I am trying to combine my 3 cookbook apps into one app. Then I would like to start making some game apps.
Any advice for up and coming indie developers?
Read up on how to outsource your programming and protecting your app idea with non-disclosure agreements. Don’t waste time programming your apps yourself.
Monster Free Apps gets you the best paid iPhone apps for free!
Links
- ^ The Weed Cookbook 1 (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Baked! (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Dr. Weed (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ The Hemp Network (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Justin Bieber Farts (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Mr. DUI (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Kevin Gerdes (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Get Up Radio (itunes.apple.com)
- ^ Fuchen Anytime (itunes.apple.com)
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