Make money telling people how to make money with Android
Make money telling people how to make money with Android
“KreCi, Independent Developer” giddily reported:I have discovered some new methods to make your applications more visible on the Android Market and have updated my “Make Money on Android” eBook with this tips – my income has been much higher than on my last month averages! So both my Android ads revenue and eBook sales have been pretty well in last month.So what’s his breakdown of revenue?$155.37 from the Amazon Affiliate program. AFAIK, nothing to do with Android.$158.00 (117.77 €) from Google AdSense. Again, AFAIK, nothing to do with Android.$265.27 from iStockPhoto. Um.$1,985.89 from ads in Android applications. There we go!$1,179.41 from selling “Make Money on Android” eBook.I’m not knocking the money he’s getting from ads in Android applications here, nor the “passive income streams,” in the solid value sense. But it’s interesting that a big chunk–nearly a third–of his income comes from the book. Let’s see what his applications actually are:X-Ray Scanner for Android“Cracked Screen” for Android (“Most realistic screen crack effect available on Android Market.”)Detector Pro (A “funny fake detector trick to prank your friends,” detecting things like ‘loser,’ 'idiot’ and 'ugly.’ High-larious stuff.)WP Stats for Android (Wordpress stats)Virtual Drums (A drum kit, but a toy, not a real music app, with a resounding 2.3 rating on the Marketplace)Don’t Push It, which is–yes–a big red button marked “Don’t Push It.” That’s it. (And there’s an ad bar under it.) Incredibly, this has a slightly higher rating than Virtual Drums.This is shovelware of the worst sort – a mix of “program this on a weekend” stuff and a couple RSS readers. And, yes, while he doesn’t link it from his web site anymore, the Android Market shows that he actually made a goddamn fart app.My annoyance with this is based on the fact that this bubbled up on TechMeme, which means there are people listening to this guy. And I have to wonder whether it’s significant that his book is all about making money through ad-based shovelware  specifically on Android; my instinct says yes. Android lies at a unique point in the mobile marketplace. It’s as powerful as any other smartphone platform, it’s got massive adoption, and unlike other major platforms its main source of applications is essentially uncurated. Google’s application ecosystem is uniquely designed to encourage this kind of abuse.On the flip side, there is a positive spin: the fact that it’s possible for hacks like KreCi to make a fairly good living this way is certainly a measure of Android’s success.