msencenb

Thanks for the feedback let me right out a paragraph here and see if it explains better:

adsReloaded is all about getting downloads. Let's say you have a 0.99 cent app and decide you want to spend about $25 dollars on advertising. For paid apps the price you pay users is at least the price of the app (so for a 0.99 cent app the minimum payout to a user is 0.99).

Since your budget is about $25 dollars you take the CPD (cost per download = 0.99 in this case) and multiply it by the number of new users you want (let's say 20). This puts your total advertising purchase at $19.80. I take 25% (added to this number) + the price of one download (to moderate the campaign/test to make sure the question is correct). So the total campaign price for 20 users follows this equation: 19.80 + 4.95 (the 25% I take) + 0.99 (price of app) = $25.75

This $25.75 will get you 20 new users. Granted you will make back .70 cents per user so really it will cost you $25.75 - 14 (your profit) = $11.75 for 20 new users.

This may be murky brand awareness to you but I think there is also a "word of mouth" marketing piece here as well... and if you push it hard possibly even extra downloads from moving up the app ranking lists.

Does this help explain more?

Point taken. I am currently iterating on the landing page so I'll try out a few different variances that don't mention the .10 cents deal.

Maybe I'll even try and find some relatively cheap A/B testing software, that would be a fantastic resource. Anyone know of any?

I'm assuming you mean "free app downloads" as in paid apps just downloaded for free? This would be very nice... sadly I can't seem to think of a way without a deep partnership with apple and the app store.

While perhaps not inspiring of "entrepreneurial productivity" my favorite/most inspiring movie has to be...

Rocky!

Excellent! Thanks for the links I will definitely submit my site... hopefully other people will find them useful too :)

An ironic twist of fate haha

1) Agreed... I probably should try and sound like I'm 8 feet tall while still an infant.

2) The design slants it as a testimonial... but seeing as the service just launched I don't particularly have those yet. This will probably be changed soon

Edit: fantastic idea... sending e-mail to inquiry about ads now :)

hahaha certainly seems a little ridiculous put this way :)

In all seriousness though .20 cents an hour is quite low. While free apps certainly don't pay out much getting a paid app for essentially nothing is a sweet deal (at least in my mind perhaps I'm wrong).

Developers putting their apps onto users devices and users (who might not normally download apps) trying out new and exciting technologies while making a little spare change doesn't seem to hurt anyone, in fact I'm banking on the fact that people will find value in the service.

I haven't although I plan to do some direct e-mail later tonight. Has this been effective for you?

This seems to be part of my problem. In order to get the ball rolling I need some iPhone app developers to buy into the service. My family network doesn't have any developers, although I know 1 or 2 friends who might be interested. I definitely plan to leverage my friends/family network to get users; however, this seems to be after the stage of getting the first 10 dev customers.

You're understanding of the site is correct, at least from the user perspective (non app developer).

How far would the rates need to be raised for you to be interested? The reasoning behind my current price structure is that I often find myself aimlessly wandering the app store and eventually download a few free apps and usually get suckered into a paid app. My site (assuming it grows) would provide a way to aimlessly get exposure to apps and either get paid a small sum for trying out a free app, or get a paid app for free.

All in all though I think your idea of MTurk has merits and will certainly be checking into this option.

This is an interesting point that has been brought up several times. Often times I hear from developers that they think their app is good but there are just too few people that know about it. By paying for install you are essentially trying to capture that "word of mouth" marketing and hopefully send your app on an upward spin of sales.

That being said I can see the concern. My question for other app developers is whether they make money on current mobile advertising platforms such as adMob, Quattro, Google etc? It seems to me that if you get 5 downloads for a $50 dollar campaign that it would be more worth your while to spend that $50 dollars on a campaign that guarantees downloads and puts your app into users hands. One of my original motivations behind the idea for adsReloaded was all the stories behind the terrible conversion rate for iPhone advertising so I am very interested in developer feedback on this particular point.

Thanks for the feedback! I have an FAQ in the forum but its not great at the moment. From a users perspective a walkthrough makes a lot of sense.

Forgot about that... put up a temporary page with my e-mail address in it. I'll throw up the "have a blog" page soon too.

Here's the idea behind my company: iPhone developers want people to download their app. Generally they pay for ads through a service such as admob which has a terrible conversion rate. My company gives users paid apps for free and provides the developer with downloads.

Here's how it works from a developer standpoint: 1) You create a campaign. This campaign contains a multiple choice question that would be hard for someone to know that didn't actually buy the app. (aka whats the second persons name under the credits or something like that.... its partly honor system based although incorrect guesses are punished). 2) A user downloads your app, and answers the question you created. If they answer correctly they get paid the amount you specified (minimum of the price of the app).

In this way users get great apps and developers get their app out in the wild!

Does that clear things up?

I'm currently working on a non-traditional "pay for downloads" site specifically targeted at iPhone apps to begin with. I have taken the plunge, registered as an LLC, and the site is almost completely built (expected launch in < 2 weeks). I will post on HN when I do launch but if you want to know more about it or are interested in being part of the launch shoot me an email at matt dot sencenbaugh at gmail

Sorry for the plug.

As far as a lite version of apps I think its a dangerous path.... I think it can be a valuable tool but only if you find the right balance between what features to include and what to lockdown in the lite version. In the end I think it really depends on how the initial launch goes. If you find that you aren't getting much traction perhaps you should release a lite version for a few days. If after a few days you notice that the lite version hurts your sales... simply remove it.

Perhaps you should move on to someone else or get up the courage to ask her out. Either she will reject you and you can move on or she will take you up on the offer.

There are a lot of fish in the sea... people are often just too afraid to take the plunge.

"Don't make someone a priority if they only make you an option"

Thanks for the advice... I am certainly not against paying a good amount for tax advice. The reason I opted not to join the firm I had a the free consultant with was because it was going to cost me 1500 dollars up front + a monthly fee which I simply don't have right now since I'm a student who hasn't started his summer job yet.

Can you (or anyone) recommend a good accountant in the bay area?

Previous comments are correct in that interaction design/ design is a very deep field. There are some general ideas (Fitts's Law is a very basic one), however I would like to point out that really the user dictates good design.

Do A/B testing, as well as physical user tests. Two types of user tests I find most helpful are the following:

1) Let the user use your website/product but don't necessarily give advice unless he/she is really struggling. Afterwards you can interview them and ask questions such as trouble spots and/or anything confusing.

2) Have a user "think aloud". This is one of my favorite because it allows you to more easily see what is going on in a users head (although its a far from perfect technique). The general idea is to have the user say aloud everything that pops into their head. Anything from "How do I find that link?" to "I liked that feature".

While I don't suggest you do backflips for your users I am also of the opinion that good design can't be done totally behind a desk. You have to get out there and talk to your users!

My family makes about 100k a year and the parent contribution is only 17k (about the same I would have been paying for a state school).

What I'm saying is that it's a graduated scale so even though you are over the 60k limit you won't be expected to pay much

I am a current sophomore at Stanford University so my comment is going to be biased :p

So far I love the Stanford atmosphere (I am a CS student). Is it competitive? Yes, but I have found that CS isn't as competitive as pre-med. I only have ok grades (3.0 GPA at the moment) but the classes themselves I am learning a lot in, so grades aren't too much of a concern to me.

As far as jobs, Stanford engineering does a very good job putting together career fairs. We have 2-3 a year, plus a start-up fair, and a nonprofit fair. I have accepted an internship for the summer so I think internship placement is fairly good.

Also Stanford has a very good financial aid program, how much are your parents making?

If you have any more questions about Stanford I will do my best to answer!