About Me 0047: Making Money Online Easy

Trevor Ginn runs the online baby and nursery shop Hello Baby. Hello Baby’s first iPhone app, Peek-a-boo Baby Rattle, cost the company $750 and receives 3,000 downloads a week.

Many leading major brands, including Audi, Zippo, Orange and Cadbury, are using branded iPhone apps as a way to reach their target audience. It’s not hard to see why when more than 3 billion apps have been downloaded, and iPhone users are generally young and affluent. A branded iPhone app is a combination of product and entertainment, but most importantly, it cannot be perceived as advertising. When done right, it’s a great way to not only increase brand awareness but drive direct traffic.

These days, branded apps are not just for big corporations with money to burn. They are well within the reach of every small business. A simple, but effective iPhone app can be launched for as little as $750. Here’s how.

Step 1: Pin Down a Useful Idea

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that your app has to be groundbreaking or fiendishly clever. Develop a simple app that has a real use for your target audience. For example:

A world clock that converts multiple time zones (for a watch manufacturer or retailer)
A customized MMS message generator to celebrate special occasions (for a gift store)
A baby rattle (baby product manufacturer or retailer)

The app need not be revolutionary or unique, but should be visually attractive, easy to use and serve a useful purpose. The iPhone is designed to be simple and intuitive to use, so your app should be too.

Step 2: Write Up a Spec

Writing a specification document will focus your ideas. It is also the blueprint for the app, which is to be given to the development team. The better the initial specification, the more likely it is that the app will be a success. Never assume that a developer is a psychic and will automatically know what you want. A good spec should have the following elements:

A functional description. Draft a detailed explanation of the functionality of the product. You should detail, for example, the navigation, functions of each screen and what happens when buttons are pressed.
Diagrams (or “wireframes”) of the screens. This can be done using Google Docs, Visio or even PowerPoint.
Style guidelines. To help the designer determine the look and feel, describe the target audience for the app and give examples of designs you admire. Remember, to cut costs, stock images can be cheaply bought from sites like iStockPhoto.

Step 3: Find a Developer/Designer

You can usually hire freelancers at a lower cost than an agency. Building an app will require both design and coding skills. You may not be able to find someone who is good at both, so hiring two freelancers is not uncommon.

Sites such as Elance and oDesk allow freelancers to be sourced from all over the world. By posting the spec on one of these sites and asking for quotes, you will receive multiple offers. Create a shortlist and ask these people for examples of work and references before making a choice. Finally, before staring the project, you should agree on a deadline and specific milestones. The freelancers may require an upfront payment before starting, which is normal, but don’t pay more than 50% up front.

Step 4: Design, Build and Test

Once you have selected your team, the project is ready to start. Each project will have three basic stages.

1. Design. The designer will turn the wireframes into a visual design./> 2. Build. The coder will build the app based on the spec using the visuals./> 3. Test. Testing should ensure that the functionality detailed in the spec is present and also that the app is robust enough to deal with real users.

Once the work has started, monitor the progress carefully and ask for frequent updates. Always encourage your team to talk directly to each other during the build as this will speed up the development process.

Step 5: Launch It

Apps are published in the iTunes store through a service called iTunes Connect. Once submitted, an app can take several weeks to be approved and be available for download.

There are numerous press and blog outlets that may be interested in covering the release and features of your app, so use the launch as an opportunity to get some PR for your business. Write a press release and distribute it to:

Press release distribution sites
iPhone app directories, review sites and blogs
Publications in your industry

Also, don’t forget to talk up your app on your company’s own blog, Facebook and Twitter pages.

More App Dev Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Musts for Mobile App Marketing/> - HOW TO: Build an App for Your Small Business/> - Top iPhone Developer Discusses the Future of Media Apps /> - HOW TO: Develop iPhone Apps With Staying Power

Image courtesy of Flickr, mzdoherty.

For more Mobile coverage:

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As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Most Influential Social Good Champion” supported by Yahoo!. Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas!

Social Good is a brand new form of online giving that draws both from small non-profits and large brand cause-marketing campaigns. But like any burgeoning movement, social good requires champions to bring it to the public and promote its growth.

While “social good” and “influence” may not have absolutely concrete definitions (is influence based on Twitter followers? Raising the most money?), it is easy to see when an individual has taken on the cause of social good to create some real change.

Even though the exact parameters are a subjective call, we scoured the web for three social good activists who are using their skills to create change. We’ve highlighted three individuals who are utilizing social media and online campaigns to shape the way that we think about activism.

1. The Free Agent

Beth Kanter and Allison Fine defined the concept of the “free agent” this year in their book, The Networked Nonprofit. A “free agent,” as they defined it, is a “person who is passionate about a social cause, but is working outside of a nonprofit organization to organize, mobilize, raise money, and engage with others.” Using social media tools, free agents are able to make an impact that was once only capable within the infrastructure of an organization.

We’ve covered a number of free agents who had influence this year. Individuals like Shawn Ahmed, who posts YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube videos about poverty in Bangladesh; Mark Horvath, who gives homelessness a voice through his We Are Visible and Invisible People projects; and even Dan Savage, who launched the It Gets Better Project in September to support gay teens who face adversity.

Kanter, a free agent herself, has played an influential role in helping non-profit organizations accept and cooperate with these social media-powered activists. Among her efforts, she facilitated a conversation at the State Department’s Tech@State Civil Society 2.0 event about how non-profits and free agents can work together.

2. Ben Rattray, Founder and CEO of Change.org

There are two hurdles that almost every cause campaign struggles with. The first is making the complexities and realities of its cause understood. The second is mobilizing people effectively. Change.org, which was founded by Ben Rattray in 2006, helps solve both.

The site has more than 100 writers who contribute in-depth reporting on 15 different causes. When people come to the site to read about a cause they’re passionate about, they also have the opportunity to take action toward that cause by signing petitions. While these cumulative actions lack the drama of a protest, mobilizing a large network toward one specific action has proved a lot more effective than a hodgepodge of independent actions.

Change.org has partnered with thousands of non-profits, and together the community has accomplished more than 100 “victories,” in which they’ve changed an unjust practice, law or policy. The organization connects activists with similar passions, and by doing so it gives them power as a cohort that they would never have as individuals.

3. Scott Harrison, Founder of Charity: Water

Charity: water uses 100% of public donations to fund water projects and is transparent about how donations are used. Both of these qualities make it somewhat of an oddball in the non-profit world — which might be exactly what the non-profit world needs.

When people donate money to most organizations, they’re not sure what happens to their donation or how efficiently it was used. When they give to charity: water, they can look up a picture and GPS coordinates of the project they contributed to. Since the organization relies on private donors for the money that makes it run, there’s no doubt about whether your donation ended up paying for somebody’s flight instead of funding a water project. The organization even covers its PayPal fees on donations.

This model of transparency and accountability has created trust and helped raise more than $20 million for 3,196 projects in the past four years. We hope that its success will influence other non-profits to do the same.

What’s Your Pick?/>

Who were your social good champions this year? Let us know in the comments or nominate them for a Mashable Awards.

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)/>

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)/> Time: 7:00 – 10:00 p.m. PT/> Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas/> Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations/> Socialize: Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, Foursquareclass="blippr-nobr">Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)

Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:

Yahoo! is an innovative technology company that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. Yahoo! keeps more than half a billion consumers worldwide connected to what matters to them most, and delivers powerful audience solutions to advertisers through its unique combination of Science + Art + Scale. Yahoo! is proud to sponsor this Mashable Award because Yahoo! is focused on connecting individuals to a community of millions so they can change the world together. That’s How Good Grows at Yahoo!. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, RichVintage

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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Making Money Online Easy