How I've Made $200k in the iOS Education Market

As a kids iOS dev, I'd also like to thank Lorraine of "Moms With Apps" for her support. "My PlayHome" &#38; "Pocket PlayHome" are just starting to be profitable but at the start Lorraine really helped get things going and is still actively helping me get the app out there.<p>Lorraine also gave me some advice which I think is really the "secret" of your success: Make a really good app.<p>Tangentially, I've found Twitter to be remarkably useless for marketing. For the most part on Twitter, nobody is listening. Everyone has thousands of followers but nobody is actually reading. Thanks to bit.ly's public analytics, I can see it's not just me either.<p>The biggest event for me on Twitter was when @glinner (Father Ted, IT Crowd, <i>hugely</i> influential tweeter) tweeted a recommendation: <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/Glinner/status/103123278650028032" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/#!/Glinner/status/103123278650028032</a> ...and that resulted in about 40 extra sales. 40.

Does anyone know if Education or Music is a bigger App Store category?<p>I have an app that could fit into both, but went with Music. I'm curious if Education would be a better fit.

Thanks Guys ! As I've said in the post, it's a pleasure for me to share after all I read on hackers news and others places. if you have questions don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks for sharing Pierre!<p>These are the posts that encourage one to continue on, I strongly believe that, as an Indie Developer, you need to laser focus on a niche and do the best you can on it, sometimes it's best to have a small and concise goal instead of a really broad one. It's all about baby-steps.<p>I hope to finish my app soon, also in education, a category that has a lot a potential. As a parent you go to great lengths to enhance your child's education.

Thanks Pierre!<p>Although it looks like you experienced very early success, I'm sure there was a period of time where you questioned your decision to become an indie developer (or you were at least unsure what to expect). When was the moment when you realized that you really could make a sustainable living from developing these apps?<p>Also, what do you find most challenging in being an indie developer? Is it difficult to stay focused or motivated at times?

Thanks Pierre, great stuff!<p>The common thread I keep seeing in app developer success stories is the app being featured in NYT or on the App Store. What do you think most contributed to you being discovered and featured like you were? What can "normal" devs like me do to increase our apps' chances of getting noticed?

Thanks Pierre for sharing your story. It proves that solo entrepreneurs can indeed succeed, as can bootstrapping! The insights on how you broke down your time were very valuable! You definitely serve as an inspiration to anyone look to that same.

Thanks for sharing your figures, it's always great to see indie developers succeed. I'm constantly surprised by how many hidden opportunities there still are in the iOS market - you just have to be creative and produce really polished stuff.

Great info. Thanks for taking the time to post all this information in detail and to provide some background. It's very helpful to those of us trying to make a living in this market to see what works and what doesn't work.

Thank you for sharing your success... It is an insparation for a lot of us.

It's interesting to see some concrete data about the size of the educational market for iOS - and I only see this growing in the future.

I love the fact that you worked with your wife and kids when developing and perfecting the apps. Congratulations on your success! :)

Damn I really should have stuck with the education iOS market. Was in the top ten for quite a while when the app store first launched and was making good money, just could only ever manage to keep an app up in the rankings for a few months. Focused on the physical product side instead of the mobile app side... Wow that was a mistake...

Very interesting article. We launched (are in the process of updating the website) a kids educational app as well -- Alphabet Fruits which can be found at <a href="http://www.apps4tots.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.apps4tots.com</a><p>We will definitely be tweaking our pitch and app after reading your insight.

I bought Word Wizard a few months ago for my 2 year old and he absolutely loves it.

Awesome Pierre! Thanks for sharing with us and giving back to the community!

way to go, pierre! if anyone is interested in the analytics he used, here's a shameless plug: <a href="http://www.appfigures.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.appfigures.com</a>

Great post, thanks for sharing and congrats on the success!

Very impressive, fantastic breakdown and a great post. Congratulations on your success and best wishes in the future!

Wow, very cool to see a post from you top-ranking here :-) Hope to see you at the next Open Coffee Sophia :-).

Cool!<p>It would be even more interesting if we would know how much money you've spent to achieve this.

Never tried creating any applications for iOS, It is a very good idea working some similar idea, hope it works for me this time.