STEP 1: APP RESEARCH - App Trillionaires: How To Become An App Developer: Enjoy Life, Make Money, and Live Your Dreams! (2013)

App Trillionaires: How To Become An App Developer: Enjoy Life, Make Money, and Live Your Dreams! (2013)

6. STEP 1: APP RESEARCH

PART 1: WRITE DOWN APP IDEAS

As you are looking for various app ideas using the following methodologies, make SURE you have a paper and pencil handy to write them down! We will be going over the list AFTER you have created the list! Simply go through all theses steps and write down various app ideas as they come to you. The longer the list, the more options you’ll have when finalizing on an app to create! I even built a simple app to help you generate some ideas called Easy App Idea Generator! You can find the link by visiting my website at http://www.gamescorpion.com.

a. Look for ideas via app stores!

Going over the Top 100 apps (PAID AND FREE) in the various app stores, Look for what’s been selling for quite some time, non-FAD apps, non-HOLIDAY apps, etc.

I. iTunes

a. iTunes Paid Top 100

b. iTunes Free Top 100

II. Android

a. Android Paid Top 100

b. Android Free Top 100

III. Amazon

a. Amazon Paid Top 100

b. Amazon Free Top 100

IV. Barnes and Noble

a. Barnes and Noble Paid Top 100

b. Barnes and Noble Free Top 100

V. Blackberry

a. Blackberry Paid Top 100

b. Blackberry Free Top 100

b. Look for ideas using LIFESTYLE (NICHE APPS)

I. Target various lifestyles using Keyword Combinations

a. KEYWORDS (Mom, Dad, Single Female, Single Male, Teen, Tween, Toddler, Senior) Come up with as many KEYWORDS as you can to help think of even more ideas. Ex. Divorcee, Newlywed, Newborn, etc.

b. COMBINE WITH (Daily Routine, Work, Fun, Hobbies, Relaxation Time, etc.) Come up with as many COMBINING keywords as you can to think of even more great app ideas. Ex. Doing Groceries, Walking the Dog, Going on Vacation, etc.

c. HOW TO USE: Example à

An app for “Mom” who is “Doing Groceries” OR

An app for “Single Male” to help them with “Hobby” X OR

An app for a “Tween” for use during their “Vacation”

c. Look for ideas using MARKETS

I. Target various markets

a. Each market segment is different. You have MANY markets available to target. For Example:

i. Men

ii. Women

iii. Seniors

iv. Children

v. Religious (Christian/Jewish/Muslim/Hindu, etc.)

vi. Groups (Boards of Trade/Chamber of Commerce/Non-Profit Organizations, etc.)

vii. Political Beliefs (Republican / Democratic / Liberal / NDP / Conservative, etc.)

viii. Transportation (Those with a car/Those who ride a bicycle/Those who walk)

ix. Disabled/Physically Challenged

x. MANY OTHER MARKET SEGMENTS, Think of some others you may know of as well.

d. Look for ideas using NEEDS ANALYSIS

I. Look for various needs that various people in a group may have. For example think about the needs of a young student who is in High School. What would their day to day needs look like? How about the day to day needs of Parents? An Employee at a job? A Job Hunter looking for a job? A Business owner?

II. Go over the DAY TO DAY challenges that these various people may encounter.

a. When they wake up, is there a need we can help take care of there?

b. When they go for breakfast?

c. When they commute to their location of work/play

d. When they are serving their function in society (Working/Studying/Playing, etc.)

e. When they commute back from work/play, etc.

f. When then sit down for dinner

g. When they Relax after their day or during their day

h. When they go to the gym or exercise

i. Before going to bed

j. During sleep/rest

k. OTHER outside of their daily routine events: Groceries, going to the mall, vacations, holidays, etc.

e. Look for ideas using EMOTIONS

I. Many purchases for apps happen because of an emotional need that is trying to be solved. Usually it’s trying to change a NEGATIVE EMOTIONAL response into a POSITIVE EMOTIONAL response. Before we list the various negative and positive emotional responses, keep in mind of what apps you can create or come up with to try and help change a response. EX. Emotion of Sadness to Happiness OR Emotion/Feeling of Confusion/Overwhelm into Focus and Grasping of a Situation.

II. Emotions and their opposites1

a. SADNESS/GRIEF à JOY

b. DISGUST/HATE à LOVE

c. FEAR à HOPE

d. GREED/ENVY à GENEROSITY

e. CRUEL/MEAN à SYMPATHETIC

f. SHAME à PRIDE/CONFIDENCE

g. ANGER/RAGE à GRATITUDE/THANKFULLNESS

h. FAMILIARITY/HABITUAL à SURPRISE/AMUSMENT

i. DISGUST à DESIRE

j. PANIC/ALARM à CURIOSITY/INTERST

III. You can continue building upon the list above, but the point is that if you can create an app that can take people from a Negative/Painful emotion to a Positive/Happy emotion you will have a definite hit on your hands. Think of the TOP apps that have made it, how do they take a person from a Negative/Painful state to a Positive/Happy state? Can you describe which specific emotional groups an app is working with from the list above? Using this can you think of an app idea that may work as well?

f. Look for ideas using KISS METHOD

I. KISS stands for Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS). If you keep your app idea simple and to the point and easy to use with a straight forward function, it will tend to generate more buzz and sales volume than apps that are too complex or hard to use or do not state what they are in general.

II. What are some SIMPLE apps that you can think of?

g. Look for ideas through CATEGORIES of the top Markets

I. Go to the marketplaces of each of the top markets and look through the categories.

II. Note down categories that have a SMALL amount of apps, yet a high amount of download volume (Simply click on the number 1 app in that category to see the total amount of downloads).

III. An app category that has HIGH DOWNLOAD VOLUME (by checking app download stats) and a LOW AMOUNT OF APPS means—MONEY! (Less competition and greater app sales volume)

h. GO OUTSIDE AND HAVE SOME FUN!

I. This is by far a very gratifying experience. Simply go outside and enjoy your day, and throughout the day, think of apps that you could create that would help you in your day. If you go out for a coffee, maybe you could make a “Burnt My Tongue” app that would be a fun novelty thing. Or for example you may go to the grocery store and say, “Hey wouldn’t it be neat to create an app for counting calories in food?”

II. Have fun with this idea and keep going out to relax and at the same time come up with app ideas during your day to day adventures!

PART 2: EDIT APP IDEAS LIST FROM PART 1

Okay so now that we have a list of ideas, lets now organize them based on the amount of time, complexity and possible revenue. Rate the app ideas from 1 to 10 where 10 is the most hard, most complex app or LEAST revenue generating, and 1 is the easiest, least complex or MOST PROFITABLE app.

EXAMPLE TABLE:

10 à Worst rating

1 à Best rating

img_3.tiff

Step 1. Complete the Example Table using a Google Docs Spreadsheet or on regular paper.

Step 2. Zone in on a handful of apps (3-5 apps in total) that you would like to consider creating based on the best scores from the list above. (To calculate, just add the scores across and then rank them out of 30. 30 is the WORST rating and 3 is the best rating.)

Step 3. Create App Designs (Next Section) of the 3-5 app ideas. These designs will be used when creating the apps or when sending app ideas to developers to create.

“The best things are placed between extremes.”

— Aristotle