Our guest post is written by Ahmed Siddiqui, who coordinates the Startup Weekend events in the San Francisco Bay Area, and who is also founder of Go Go Mongo!, a game company that inspires kids to eat healthier. He can be reached through twitter: @siddiquiahmed.
It has been a year since I started working on Go Go Mongo and have learned a lot through this experience. We held our first Moms With Apps Workshop last year with over 50 kids app developers just in the San Francisco Bay Area alone, but very few have figured how to turn app development into a big business. Why hasn’t the killer educational app emerged? Why can’t more of us unseat Dora?
I think it boils down to the following:
We Need Higher Quality Content
The age of the flashcard app is dead. Sure, they sell a decent amount because parents think their kids can learn this way, but we all know that as soon as you turn your back, the kids press the home button and play Angry Birds. We need more compelling content that blends gaming with education.
We Need More Educators
Some of us are educators, but the vast majority of us are just normal parents who want to build something cool for their kids. We need credible and proven teaching methodologies integrated into the apps. The interest and resources are out there: Teach for America, our local schools, and educators already involved in technology. But we need to find ways to coordinate earlier in the app development process.
We Need Money
Nickelodeon, PBS, and Disney have huge advertising budgets and through mobile ads and traditional media (books, TV, websites), they are able to get their apps to the top of the charts. One developer can’t do this without significant funding.
We Need Strong Characters
Nickelodeon, PBS, and Disney are built off of strong characters. These characters enable the creation of games, TV shows, books, toys, etc. Kids can relate with these characters because they are surrounded by them everywhere they go. This was my key takeaway from Mongo. Kids love Mongo the character, which has enabled me to test things like Youtube shorts, plush toys, stickers, and of course our core product, the iOS game. However, to scale Mongo, I would need more money to build out the brand.
So how do we outrank Dora? I’ve got a few ideas:
Stop Working on Independent Projects
The App Store is already pretty mature and there are over 500,000 apps already available – most are junk, the rest can’t get unseated from the Top 25. Let’s put our heads together and work on building really high quality apps TOGETHER. I would like to offer the character Mongo to anyone here that is willing to join forces. The Startup Weekend events provide an amazing platform for people to brainstorm and build something really awesome over a weekend.
Because we are not tied to big corporations, we are able to do more innovative things with our apps. Frankly speaking, I think Dora’s Skywriter (letter tracing app) is a HORRIBLE app! In my opinion, BrightStart’s Pre-K Letters and Numbers is a significantly better letter writing app. By getting together we can innovate faster than the big guys.
For those of us who have fairly successful apps, we need to cross promote each other and make the total Educational Apps pie bigger.
Solve Problems in the Classrooms
Connect with your child’s teacher and try to solve problems in the classroom through innovative apps. Engage the teachers immediately and have them in the design process. This way they will be much more inclined to rolling it out in their classroom as a test. Once you get one classroom, build a plan to roll it out to other classrooms.
Crowdfund
We need to pool our financial resources together to fund a few really great apps. We need to fund not only the development of the app, but the marketing of the app. We can do this now in a very structured way through programs like Appbackr. Lorraine already is working on Moms with Apps campaigns, let’s support her and build awesome businesses, not just apps.
2012 is the year where we turn educational apps into a big business. Who is going to join me to unseat Dora?
I really like the idea as developers, we should work together to do cross promotion. But how will we do that? AppBackr is not the thing I am looking for. I don’t need funding to build the apps. I need the help to promote and market the apps. We should get together and discuss about this.
Emmy
This is all great stuff. I couldn’t agree more. I think an additional layer needs to be transparency amongst the Indie app developers. Data is one point the big boys have since they can gather it on a much larger scale.
I was lucky enough to speak with Ahmed last week. It was an awesome conversation and we spoke openly about each others budgets and key metrics. It was super insightful for me because it gave me an idea of what the current market was like and where GetBonkers should be focusing our efforts. We all obviously don’t need to give away our “Secret Sauce” but for us to all power forward together we need to understand where each other stand or what each other have tried. Just by opening the conversation of where we best see conversions from marketing promotions or how much our CPC is on a Facebook ad allows the future indie developers to put together campaigns or apps that don’t repeat the same mistakes we already have.
If any one wants to chat about metrics we are seeing at GetBonkers feel free to reach out to me: chris at getbonkers dot com.
I am with you Ahmed! There are literally dozens and dozens of educational apps that I downloaded and knew that are much more fun and creative than the big corporations are offering. But these indie apps are nowhere to be seen in the App Store chart.
Incidentally, I started my personal quest last Friday (http://redd.it/p9sto) to try to unseat Nickelodeon from the No.1 position in Education. We succeeded in out-ranking Dora for two days over the weekend. But I don’t have the time and resource to continuously do this ‘marketing’. I still need to continue creating and innovating.
With the community of MWA and Startup Weekend banding together in the quest, I am excited and very hopeful.
Dear Moms With Apps and Ahmed
Amazing post! yes yes yes to everything here. I am so willing to collaborate and I agree we need to put smart people together to make it happen.
The only thing I would add to this is that we need more content for kids above the 0-6 age group.
If you would like to work together please get in touch. I am a teacher, children’s author and app developer. My first two ebooks are Muslim centric but that is not my goal. I would like to see all children see themselves positively reflected in the media they consume and use for both education and entertainment. I believe in equity, diversity and helping children to build their self-esteem, social skills and sense of connectedness to the world.
@Emmy at Abitalk, I’d like to see you and Madhavi of Learnwithfunapps get together to build out a cross-marketing widget we can use in-app or in our respective social media channels. Sort of like an ad widget for family-friendly apps in the community. It has to be sensitive to user interface, so it can do pop ups or take people out of the app. –Lorraine
Great post Ahmed! Lorraine, I have been thinking a lot about a similar widget/service. I was inspired years ago by an ad network called ‘the deck’. It’s an ad network for designers by designers. As a designer, I appreciate seeing stuff I’m actually interested in. Was thinking something similar that we can do across kid app sites, review sites, etc. Had some similar thinking around a cross-promo network where I can have a space for other devs apps that I feel gel with mine. The more we can pool together our resources, the better
Thanks for the great post and comments.
We are new to the kids apps market, but would very much like to help with the effort. I think Lorraine’s cross-marketing ad widget idea is a great one, and would be a great first step. We would be happy to swap ads with any
participants of this thread.
One of the problems we have with our first app is lack of quality feedback. There must be lots of indie developers who has the same issue. As far as I see it could take a long time before quality sites like Moms with Apps can review an app, but then it’s too late. I think it would be great if there was a platform where we could get our apps reviewed before they hit the AppStore.
Yuce
@michelangelo, that sounds like a good startup weekend topic or workshop topic to me. In fact, we could design a workshop around that single concept, and turn it into an ad network hackathon.
@Yuce, “pre-reviews” – valuable concept! Another hot topic idea.
Love these comments.
Hi
One of the main concerns that I mentioned half a year ago to Lorraine & Lynette was that as indies, we didn’t have access to unit sales numbers of other apps, that would allow us to calculate how much our app could make realistically and build a business plan. I follow all the daily news related to the book app business (and collect it in a scoop.it page in case any of you are interested), and there are very few companies that publicly reveal their sales figures. I think that as a community of people who are staking their personal savings and time in our ideas, we should be able to offer each other concrete examples. For example, if I could compare unit sales for a very succesful app like Toontastic, with a middle-range or new one, with a good-but-lesser known one, I could gain a better idea of what’s the top cost the app dev. could incur in, if I want to see ROI.
On the issue of cross-promotion, I think it would be great. My suggestion would be that it allow each company to choose their favorite apps they want to feature in their webpage or social media. Because lately I have realized that some people are taking advantage of the Moms With Apps forum, either because they are not small companies at all (I can give example), or they are churning out low-qual. cheap experiments and using this forum to promote. The rest of us who are after quality, would not like to be forced to promote those kind of apps in our own sites/apps through the widget.
Great ideas in this post and comments!
we are with you Ahmed, on our app Friday we were in the top 5 educational paid apps for iPad with the likes of Handy Manny, Elmo and SuperWhy!
Thanks Ahmed Siddiqui and Lorraine for posting this challenge. As a fellow indie developer, I have witnesses the surge of fierce competition and name brand apps in the past few months. I agree something has to be done to take on these giants. I’d opt for like-minded app developers to band together in smaller groups as opposed to forming one large group. We can leverage our strengths and conquer.
I agree with the sentiments in the post and in the comments.
Going up against the big-budget, multi-platform giants is tough – I worked for a large media company for many years and know how aggressively and strategically they spread their properties/ brands around so that you can’t escape them. The parents don’t love the Dorah app, but their kids are asking for it.
However, there is a large demographic of thoughtful parents who would love to offer their kids an alternative to the Nickelodeon/ Disney feeding trough – so shouldn’t we start thinking about offering some of what they offer, but on an indie scale?
When I’m playing a game with my kids that they enjoy – my first thought is often: I wish they had a storybook or two with this character that we could read at bedtime (Mongo!) And not a bland, formulaic brand-extension (looking at you again, Dorah) but something by an experienced children’s author that can delight and charm my kids.
And then my son would want a T-shirt.
Yes – on one level it’s brand extension, which isn’t news, but things like books are important for providing an extended narrative universe where kids can engage with these characters for longer periods of time. And that’s time they’re not spending thinking about Dorah.
Right on!
Thanks for this awesome post! I’ve been wondering how we can help each other to cross-promote and collaboratively develop for some time. But as a newbie developer, I’m still dealing with a steep learning curve.
Please count me in on any coming efforts!
Great post and encouraging posts.
I feel the same struggle as everyone and as a relative newbie to apps I feel this could be the step to form a network community to support each other in that struggle. One more advantage such community also has, is that (I think) we represent a lot of countries so we could also help each other with the localization of Apps. Of course the English spoken (if you don’t make a distinction between the various “dialects”) market is the largest, but the world is bigger than that. So I am all for this initiative!
Thanks for the comments guys, I have been getting inspired by the awesome app developers here in the Bay Area which prompted me to write this post. I think we need to build a cross promo “widget”. This would be a simple few lines of code that puts a random icon at the bottom left hand side of our main launch page of our app. My inspiration for this was how Duck Duck Moose does this with their own apps, except that it is something that rotates, so each time the app is launched, some other app is shown. It needs to be really clean and simple, with no popups. I’m working on a few designs and will share on the forum as soon as I have the mockups done. I think we can open source this as a community.
@Anita – Loving the idea of the story book. I’ve been thinking of this for some time too, but just haven’t had the time! If there is someone on this forum that wants to write a story about Mongo, I’d be glad to work on it with them! I don’t have any story writing skills…
@Yadong – Thank you so much for your Reddit post this weekend, it gave me even more inspiration to write this post. I’m so happy that you were able to climb the charts this way, lets figure out a way to sustain it there, your apps are great!
When and where is your next meeting
We are getting the kids app developers together at the Startup Weekend EDU event on Feb 24-26. To register, go to http://sfedu.startupweekend.org
@Ahmed @Michelangelo I really like the idea of a cross-promotional widget. Since most indies don’t have a large portfolio of products, being able to cross promote across each other’s non-competitive properties make a lot of sense. We, for one, would definitely be up with Puzzingo to do that!
Here! Here!
I’m an indie developer launching my first picture book app in March 2012, excluding any more development hold ups. I’ve written and illustrated the book myself specifically for the ipad. As a Cameraman in Stop-frame Animation I’ve worked for Aardman, Disney, PBS, Hit Entertainment and the BBC some of the big players.
Having had inside experience of the animation production business and having worked on so many award winning children’s programmes I can honestly say the outline in your article is spot on.
Sound original stories, of high quality with strong characters are where it’s at. I can’t believe how many re-hashes of the same OLD fairy tales there are littering the app store. This is why I am developing my own series of apps, featuring ORIGINAL stories and NEW characters with a
wholesome moral and ethical code.
Just how I/we compete with ‘the big boys’ in the same arena I’m not really sure, there’s no silver bullet, I’m quietly terrified you could launch something really special and get completely lost and overlooked by the shear scale of the app store . However, without getting stuck in and producing a high quality alternative the fight is over and big money wins again, regardless.
Maybe the clue is in the name of your article? Indie. Developers having their own sub section/chart/wing of the app store if this doesn’t already exist. Or at least a children’s picture book specific website they can fall back on, where their apps/promotional demos are at least visible enough for long enough to be discovered at all, to make their investment back and keep developing, I think that’s the key.
I know feature films spend at least half of their entire budget on promotion, so having a visible foothold is essential, you can be sure they have done their sums.
This might provide the empowerment to keep developing, providing you are creating quality content that’s making sales. Allowing slow burners an opportunity to continue to glow, supporting their creators efforts long after the novelty of being a new release in the app store.
Cheers for now,
Jason Harris, Bath, England.
Hi, all. This is a great article and a great conversation. I would love to find ways to get more involved with MWA and other indie developers. I love that so many are able to have meet ups, but since we are on the other side of the country, what can we do to allow for more real time conversation and collaboration? Maybe a weekly chat time?
Mindy
Hi, all. Thanks a lot for sharing so huge amounts of precious informations, suggestions and ideas for developing the Indie App Developing World. I am an economist at base, and recently I’ve accepted the offer to join hands with a App Developing Studio.
Starting one week I am reading and searching a lot about this new world for me, including using a lot of Apps that I found, besides a very interesting App made by, well, by us.
As an economist at first, not as a developer, I found in this article some ideas witch I find them interesting to talk about them, mainly speaking, the financial factors, and I will try to be as simple as possible: money are needed for everyone, who calls this a business, from top to bottom. Money are not at all relevant just for the guys that are making apps for their kids in their living room, with no real involvement on this market. But for the rest, profit, either bigger or smaller, its a main goal, and should be, as long as one calls it business and not just a free hobby. And to make money, one needs to invest money (hardware, software, education, learning, and, of course, the good old marketing).
As Ahmed said, the Indie Developer cannot compete with the big corporations because of lack of investment in advertising. 100% true. But also 100% its that this is how this world goes around, in every sector, every business. So, please, pay attention, this is everywhere, not just in Apps World. And by this, to collect huge amonts of money to compete with a Corporation its to actually become a Corporation. Simple logic. So, you want to compete with Dora, you have to have Dora’s resources and, mainly, to become a kind of alternative Dora, but still a Dora. Otherwise, mind your own business, sort of saying, if you are not ok with a lot of compromises.
Second money issue: crowd founding. Sounds good for a natural disaster, or stoping world hunger and so on, but you want here to have a business and one of the main goal of every single business its, again I see me saying, profit. So crowd founding its possible either for a altruistic scope either for sharing also the potential profit or losses. Same thing, like a Corp, but with another name and nicer wallpapers.
What can still be there, one can ask? Of course I have not the answers, and my respect for people who are actually working in this field is to big to just start inventing ideas now. But what its clear, its that right now, these App Magazines do not have so many categories, in order to make a bigger and nicer sortation according of what is the app for, and, mainly, who made it. Is it Dora or me and my friend. Because, honestly, when one can easily see that the quality from Dora its lower then the quality of the first app made by 2-3 people in a living room (well, ya, with some good skills), then one can also think when buying the product, from where this product comes, like in so many other businesses. So, more detailed Apps regarding from where are they from, better sorting engine, better quality engine, better separation between the junk and the Apps that actually are making a sense.
All the best for now!
Vlad
I’m a little late to the post but I love the idea of a cross promotional tool specifically for kids apps. I know the guys at free the apps have a great model with an awesome download rate (I think near 30%) but theirs are all free. The issue I can see with this is who will purchase and operate the server behind it? Also a good model to serve ads is for each ad you show, you get one in return. If you want to pay for extras you can do so. I know the purpose of this is to help indie developers with low budgets but there will be costs associated with this no matter how you look at it. I think there is a market for it if someone is willing to put in the time and effort. If you want to contact me I’m at appstractart@gmail.com
I am all for app developers getting together to work out how to make a living out of the app business. If there is a way I can help, I will try.
As the editor/founder of BestAppsForKids.com, I feel a little squeemish about a cross promotion widget within the app. Firstly, not all apps are created equal, and the same is true of ads. Secondly, hasn’t Apple recently started removing some more of the blatant free app of the day type apps from the store. Here’s a link about the AppGratis removal.
I recently started receiving some negative comments about the fact the Callaway Digital included an IAP to remove ads from Endless Alphabet. Surely there is a way for app developers to monetize their apps without ads. It was dissappointing for a large developer like Callaway to resort to advertising.
I thought it was interesting that Yadong Liu said he had managed to unseat Dora for 2 days. Amazing. Yes, you can’t spend all your time doing crazy promotion for your app to maintain this, BUT if a couple of developers got together, maybe you could hire someone to do this for you for a few hours a day.
For a while last year, several of us sat down and discussed these kinds of issues. I would love to do this again if anyone is interested.