At some point in their careers, most young developers will decide to create an application that generates a monetary return. Some developers aim to earn seriously large amounts of cash from their iOS apps, while others just want to hone their iOS app development skills and bring in a little pocket change. Overly ambitious developers are quite common and sometimes they make some drastic mistakes. Most of these mistakes do not only pertain to iOS app development but to various other projects as well.
Dreaming Too Big
The first common mistake is one that new developers make frequently. Once a developer has learned new iOS app development skills he/she might want to immediately start producing code for their startup app idea. This is a bad idea
because the lack of experience from the developer combined with limited access to experienced developers to help will hinder the creation of a dream app. Although some iOS applications might seem simple to use, they are quite complex on the backend. This will lead most iOS developers to overestimate their iOS app development abilities and wind up biting off more than they can chew.
For newcomers to iOS app development, it’s better to start gaining the necessary experience by building smaller apps then work up to creating a startup application idea. If the idea still seems to be too big to handle alone, it’s a good idea to find other developers with iOS app development skills to help with planning and execution. A good way to judge the time span of a project is to ask yourself if it can be done within a few months. If the answer is no, then most likely the project will be overly time-consuming for you to engage in at the moment. Try to work on smaller projects designed for the iOS App Store to build your reputation before working on a more advanced application idea.
Not Making Deadlines
Failing to make proper deadlines or not establishing deadlines at all is a recipe for disaster. Many developers might get ahead of themselves and overestimate their iOS app development skills and believe that they can push out any feature in a relatively short timespan. It is true that a new feature might be able to be crafted within a few days or weeks, but what if bugs occur after the implementation? It is crucial to include plenty of time for Q&A as well as bug squashing. If proper deadlines are not created, more complicated issues will arise further down the iOS app development process. Failure to plan is a plan to fail.
Poor ASO
ASO stands for App Store Optimization. If you are familiar with SEO then this is basically a similar idea just with mobile applications. The overall idea of ASO is to rank an app higher in the app marketplace. The higher the app ranks, the more visible it is to various audiences. With iOS app development, ASO plays a crucial role in the ever-growing competitive world of the Apple App Store. The main factors that contribute to good ASO apply to your app store’s marketing page, which includes the title and keywords used in the app description. Another contributing factor is the number of downloads and ratings/reviews. To improve your ASO and increase your exposure to gain profits, choose the best words that relate to your target market, and constantly promote your application through social media channels.
Not Doing Prior Research
Any app project destined for the Apple App Store takes just as much marketing research as it would iOS app development. Sometimes app developers want to create an app out of sheer passion, but never consider their exact target market. If your
the intent is to make money off your iOS app, it is important to conduct market research. One such tool to use when looking for your target market(s) would be Google Trends, which allows you to measure certain search topics ranked by popularity. You can even compare search topics to see which ones are clearly the most relevant. Google offers services and tools that can be used to aid your marketing research. Google Keyword Planner, Adwords, and Analytics are just some resources Google offers that should definitely be used during your research phase.
Not Using Agile Methodologies
This final mistake to avoid is closely tied to the lack of firm deadlines, however, it involves using Agile software development strategies. When working with iOS app development, or any sort of development for that matter, it is important to have a basic strategy when creating an app. Creating stages along with proper deadlines to transverse into each stage is a major part of Agile development. Some of the advantages of Agile development include allowing the focus to be on the user, emphasis on business value, predictable costs and budgeting, and early and predictable delivery.
There definitely are other mistakes to avoid when you produce your iOS application, however, these are some major mistakes to avoid and things to think about in the planning stage. Having a good business research team and an organized project manager is just as important as having an iOS app developer. By carefully planning and thinking through each detail of your iOS application and its development, you will be on the fast track to making money on the app store.
