We all use smart phones and apps, what we don't know is how much we can make from mobile apps and games, we found on our phones and how to go about it. You can create mobile apps and games, without being a programmer and make a lots of money from the business.

In this article i discussed 10 special to generate tons of revenue from Free Mobile Apps and Game, which you can develop and published at Google Play Store and other apps store all over the internet .

One of the ways to make money on Mobile Apps Business is through creating free app for users. Free app can make you more money that you can’t make on your blog or Adsense websites or other third-party advertising media.

This Article is culled from My eBook-Mobile App Millionaire Cash Machine. Enjoy it.



Advertising

Mobile advertising remains the most projavascript:void(0);fitable app revenue model. 7 out of 10 app providers used it in 2016, 18% plan to use it in the near future. Using ads to monetize app is quite simple, all required is to display commercial inside your mobile apps and get paid from the various ad networks.

According to Sweetpricing report, 32.5% of the largest mobile providers use in-app ads as the only source of in-app revenue. You can get paid every time the ad is displayed (per impression), per click on an ad, or when a user installs the advertised app (per install).

Native, banner and interstitial ads are the top 3 formats used by developers for their inventory monetizing.



Interstitial ads – are the full-screen pop-ups, displayed at specific time frames.The add can be closed by opening the promoted page or by a close button in the ad corner. This method to boost app revenue is efficient at natural transition breaks mostly for messaging and content apps, news, and for games, before or after an expected content or functionality (eg. game levels) and can be used to maximize impressions.



Banners or display ads usually appeared in different sizes and stretch at the top or bottom part of the screen. They are small and less obtrusive so users can freely interact with the app. Besides, app developers can target tailored users based on demographics and past behaviors. Still, they have low engagement rates of about 0.1% CTR.





In-app video ads are displayed automatically, or used as a ‘rewarded video’ – opened on-demand in exchange for any in-app reward. For instance, the user can get app currency, extra lives in games or additional features for watching video add. This is a win-win strategy both for app providers and customers.



Native ads are created to fit seamlessly the main concept design and appear within the app as its natural element. Mostly, it manifests as sponsored content or video, aimed to promote a product. As native advertising are considered by users to be as less irritating and intrusive, they get more popular revenue stream for app providers.





Incentivized Ads (reward users for app engagement) 84% of app users prefer rewards apps over applications containing ads. There is a number of tools that allow rewarding consumers on completion of a certain in-app action, ad interaction, through filling out a survey. The strategy allows creating better engagement and building positive brand attitude. App developers get revenue from promoting their in-app currency by sponsors and gain happy and loyal users. 84% of users prefer rewards apps over apps containing ads 91% of users interacting with incentivized ads actively pay attention to the brand behind it. RunKeeper is a pioneer in using this revenue model. The app for tracking running activity and workouts uses incentivized ads, giving an ability for users to unlock exclusive rewards and features without disrupting engagement with display and interstitial ads.




Email Marketing

Despite the fact that Email Marketing is comparatively old technique, it can be quite powerful when it comes to monetizing apps. This strategy works best when you kindly ask user email during sign-in. And, as a result, get a possibility to consequently reach them with email notifications.



At the meantime, mobile applications offer a new opportunity to collect email addresses. This makes email marketing one of the most effective strategies on the web, which also has its pros and cons.

So here are few ways to collect email address from within a mobile app:



The first and the foremost way is to simply ask users for their email address with a pop-up box. In return for free features, in-app currency, or whatever you want to offer, it becomes profitable for both sides.





Another way of getting users emails goes through Facebook SDK. Having FB login enabled inside the app lets you use it for collecting email addresses. Don’t forget to notify your users that they may get emails, in case of logging in with FB account.





Or… use some third-party tools to make email collection easier. There are some 3rd party SDK’s that can be integrated into your mobile app (by adding just a few lines of code to your app). Simple and effective, isn’t it?





Sponsorship

Sponsorship placement within the application can be a powerful app monetization model if provider builds the right niche app for tailored users and launch it on behalf of another company. The main challenge is to find a funder with similar or the same target audience and white label an app or adapt its design to match sponsor’s brand.



The main types of sponsorship deals:

Agreed revenue split generated by the app.
Monthly sponsorship fee paid by funder for app maintenance or use.



The strategy is also lucrative for developers to generate and expand user audience and promote an app, as most sponsors already have good website traffic and loyal customers.



A great example is Home Depot sponsorship on the Weather Channel app. The animated app background behind the temperature measurement is the advertisement placed by the sponsor, well-aligned with Home Depot’s target users – homeowners interested in weatherproofing their houses.





Subscriptions

For free apps with restricted content or features available for a limited time, the user can pay a subscription fee to get a full access and unlock it. This revenue type is often used for cloud services, video and audio streaming, online newspapers or magazines. The developer can provide users with free trial period and charge the subscription fee for an access without restrictions.



According to Sweet Pricing report, only 5% of most successful apps are using subscriptions, making it one of the least used monetization models among developers.

Only 5% of successful developers are using subscriptions to monetize their mobile apps.



Google and Apple provide an ability to handle the subscription transactions through their platforms, making easier for developers to implement it. Apple takes 30% for the first year of any subscription, and then 15% after one year of paid service. Google introduces better terms, taking 15% of subscription revenue even during the first year.





In-app purchases

In-app purchases provide an ability to sell a variety of virtual items directly from your app — including extra bonuses, premium content, game currency, and goods or unlock game levels.



The strategy falls into categories:

Consumable – a product that can be purchased and used once within the app. Example: virtual currencies.

Non-consumable – a featuring product bought for permanent usage, that does not expire. Example: new game levels or maps.

Subscriptions are used to unlock features and content for a limited period. Example: annual news subscription.



50% of the leading apps use in-app purchases a stream of earnings, and the model is expected to dominate in the next years. It is commonly preferred among game developers, mostly due to digital money, used by users to purchase in-app content or to unlock new levels. That is more, half of the games provide more than one virtual currency- ‘coins’, ‘gems’ or ‘gold’.



Used wisely, in-app purchases can generate a good revenue – the mobile game developer



Supercell boasted to earn $1 million a day on purchases in their Clash of Clans game.



Pokemon Go users spend about $1.5 million on in-app purchases daily.



Pokemon Go users spend $1.5 million a day on in-app purchases.




Freemium Upsell

Freemium apps are provided free of charge but contain paid or premium features, accessed through in-app purchases. The users download free app version and if the content is worth paying, get a full access to functionality by committing a purchase. It is a great way to gain new users at a faster rate, as premium features are optional.



Technically, it is the easiest revenue model for app publishers, as it requires the creation of two apps versions – light and full one.

15% of apps are using paid sister versions to unlock additional features, rather than implementing in-app purchases



15% of apps are still using paid sister apps, that contain exclusive functionality which can be bought in addition to all functionality and content of its free version. This strategy is popular among training and educational apps. LinguaLeo utilizes this model – the application has free and paid English lessons, providing premium subscription mode.



Amazon Underground

One of the comparatively new ways of making money through Amazon App Store is Amazon Underground. Although it does not require ads or in-app purchases, let’s see how it works.



Being a relative newcomer in the word of the mobile apps, Underground offers its users to access an unlimited number of solutions that contains premium features for free. Instead, Amazon Underground pays application developers 2 cents per minute of use, per every single user.



Amazon Underground is an independent app store, with its own mobile app that has to be used for getting access into the store. To use this innovative strategy, app publishers are not allowed to implement ad or in-app purchases inside their apps.



In case you are using in-app purchases in your app, you agree to forgo those fees through listing on Amazon Underground. That means users are offered to ‘buy for free’ an unlimited number of your IAP’s, meanwhile developers are being paid directly by Amazon. Amazon also provides developers with free Revenue Forecasting Calculator to forecast their potential income.



The platform turned to be very effective. A great example is Goat Simulator – one of the top-30 paid apps, that costs $4,99 and has been downloaded over million times in Google Play store. Still, app publisher reported, that Goat Simulator earnings on Underground have outperformed its Google Play app version by 30%.


Physical purchases and Merchandise

E-commerce businesses use free apps for selling physical goods or branded merchandise: toys, t-shirts, cell phone cases, etc. via email marketing or specially developed applications.



One of the first and most successful apps to boost revenue from branded merchandise was Angry Birds game. Rovio Company sells 1 million branded t-shirts, backpacks, and stickers every month. That is more, they managed to get 1 million per month revenue only on plush toys.



Rovio Company sells 1 million plush toys from Angry Birds game every month.



Amazon provides an ability to get revenue from merchandise by creating

Merch self-service program that allows app publishers to sell custom branded t-shirts from within their apps.



All you need is to create and upload own artwork and promote it using the Amazon tools. Branded t-shirts will be produced, sold by Amazon and you get your revenue share. App developers don’t handle any payments and fulfillment, making the whole process really easy and beneficial.




Collecting and Selling Data

Well, this is probably not the most widespread and ethical way of app monetization (and that’s great), but collecting and selling personal data still remains one of the effective approaches to turn a profit.



Some companies that offer free mobile apps sell their databases to third parties. The information may contain user’s email address, social media accounts, and personal preferences.



Apps generate a lot of data in terms of user behavior, which is highly desired by those who are in different research fields.



So app developers can sell this kind of information to the researchers and make quite a good return of money. Actually, there are two ways to earn on selling data: track what users do and sell data to outside companies or use the raw data itself for your own purposes.





From a marketing point of view, companies want to pay to display ads to the most relevant audience possible; while on the flip side, far not each service can gather the same data as Facebook or Google does. Nevertheless, if your app is able to gather relevant data, then you may have a way to profit from it.





Affiliate Income and Referral Marketing (from CPA to CPI)

Developers can promote and sell affiliates’ services or products for the revenue split based on a number of installs and clicks. You can use pop-ups or banners to promote someone else’s apps or use ‘in-app store’ to advertise product or services.





Amazon store is the best example to illustrate how large the affiliate marketing can be. Just pick up a product to advertise to your app users, get revenue from all qualifying purchases and through advertising fees.



I hope you enjoy this article, you can leave your opinions and comments.

I am giving out a free copy of My eBook-Mobile App Millionaire Cash Machine. Mobile App Millionaire Cash Machine is special report on How to make cool cash developing mobile apps and games without any programming knowledge.

Get your own free copy of Mobile App Millionaire Cash Machine here:https://www.muritala.com/app

Thank you

Muritala Osuoale Bello

CEO Murbel Communication and Afrikgold International Technologies Limited

Cool

Hi, thank you for sharing such useful information! I have a question. I wanna start advertising some goods/services via my Instagram account. However, I need more followers for that. I'm wondering whether it is a good idea to involve services allowing to automatically like, follow and comment on other accounts. These guys - https://socialbloom.co/, for instance, promise to give you real followers shortly in such way. What do you think?