I’ve always been a Jedi

Earlier this year I wrote a post about the Dark Side of app monetization. A lot of the things I wrote in that post were true, but I’ve been unhappy about it since.

The way the app economy has settled now that we’re almost 2 decades in is firmly in an app being free to download and monetized through some combination of ads and in-app purchases/subscriptions. This gives app developers a method of either establishing via onboarding before a hard paywall, or allowing the user to use some features for free and locking others behind purchases or subscriptions.

In so many ways this makes sense. Users are legitimately trying to understand what app is going to meet their needs, and the developer has a longer funnel they can track and control to optimize and ensure users understand the value they can get. It makes so much sense that I decided to commit to that method despite my reservations. This was a huge mistake, but not in the way you might think.

In App Purchases/Subcriptions = More Stress

Playing the game of trying to optimize the onboarding for user adoption is a very bizarre source of hell. You feel like you should actually be able to exert some influence but it’s a mirage, it’s incredibly difficult to do any sort of manipulation to help users understand what your app does and why it costs the actual in-app costs.

When you say “Ads,” how many are we talking about?

The other aspect of monetization, if one is NOT going to use in-app purchases or subscriptions, is Ads; and I cannot go down that road either (at least not how they’re currently running).

The other aspect of Ads is they can change at any time, increase in frequency, etc. This is also the case with in-app purchases to be honest.

(Upfront) Paid Apps

So I’m going back to doing either truly free apps or truly paid apps, with no in-between:

• My Paid Apps

  • show you exactly the price they cost

  • show that the app DOES NOT include in-app purchases by omitting the notice underneath the button

  • my Promo Text starts with “NO Ads” and my (eventual) reviews will back that up

• My Free Apps

  • Show the “Get” button WITHOUT the in-app purchases notice underneath

  • Re-iterate “NO Ads”

    • However, in the app I do include a button, in a logical place, which links to my App Store Developer page where all my other apps for all Apple Platforms are listed

Sometimes the best Jedi are the ones are try the Dark Side and realize it’s not for them. I’m hoping I’m one of those.