How do Free Apps Make Money?

As we are all staying home right now, we are spending more time with technology. Many of the apps we use are free, yet look like it took a lot of resources to make them. This may lead one to wonder, how do free apps make money? Well, many different methods are applied, all of which contribute to the revenue of free and even paid apps. If you want to know how free apps make money, as well as how to create an app and make money, you will learn how to do so in this article. 

how do i create an app

How do Free Apps Make Money?

So, how do free apps make money? Free apps utilize a variety of different sources of income to contribute to the resources they use for the creation of their apps. Mobile apps can potentially make lots of money, even billions of dollars. The top 200 apps on Apple’s app store make $82,000 a day! Of course, gaming apps make more than entertainment apps.

The biggest primary sources of income are advertisements, as well as in-app purchases. A good example of this is Clash of Clans, which was one of the most popular free games on mobiles, and they made most of their money through the purchase of Gems which ranged from 99 cents to 50 dollars.

Another example is Spotify. Spotify has a free version, which shuffles the music you want to hear, yet they run ads occasionally. This helps them gain revenue from your listening. If you want an ad-free experience, then you would have to upgrade to a paid membership. Creating an app which can be downloaded for free has a lot of money making potential. Next we will discuss how to create an app and make money.

how to create an app for free and make money

How to Create an App and Make Money

Since you now know how free apps make money, it’s time to put everything into action. Everyone wants to make money, but effort has to go into that as well. We will guide you on how to create an app and make money. Apps are becoming easier to create. They are also perfect platforms for a growing business. SEO Design Chicago offers application development services to help out those who seek professional guidance.

BuildFire is also another great tool to create an app. It is free for 14 days, and is a simple app builder that can help you take your business online. Once you set up your app in BuildFire, you should first make sure that it is a well thought out design and that it is user friendly, as this will generate more positive reviews and therefore more opportunities for a download. Once that is all set up, you can start offering in-app purchases, or start running ads on your app.

These two ways are the biggest revenue generators for apps on the market, and if your app is a free app, it is essential that it has ads, to generate more resources for your app to use. If you decide to make it a paid app, running advertisements is not recommended, but having in-app purchases would be more accepted by the community. As you get better at creating apps, you will make money creating apps. 

Other Ways to Make Money Creating Apps 

In order to make money creating apps, you have to monetize the app you create. There are many ways to monetize an app, with the most popular ways being advertisements, in-app purchases, and charging money for each download. We already discussed these three forms above, so we will go over other ways to make money creating apps.  Other ways include subscriptions, affiliated marketing, and blogging. You can also use Google’s programs to analyze how your app or parent website is doing.

Subscriptions

Subscriptions can lead to users paying on a monthly basis, which creates a guaranteed income for the app. Some examples are Netflix and Spotify, both which provide better content to paying users, compared to free users.

Affiliate Marketing

Another example is affiliate marketing. Affiliated marketing is a rather simple process. Essentially, it requires one to promote another’s product, have that product be bought, and earn a commission off of the sale of that product. It is a win for both the seller of the product and for the one doing the affiliated marketing of the product. You can implement affiliate marketing and make money creating apps by having a link to a specific product on your app. Every product that is bought will give you a small percentage, but it only requires you to link the product once.

Blogging

Blogging can also have you make money by creating apps. If you are making an app for a site that you already own, then, great news! You can implement affiliate marketing in the blog, and also promote your app with the blog at the same time. Not only will your app potentially be downloaded more, but you also have more potential with affiliate marketing. Since you now know even more ways to make money by creating apps, you can implement it all on your journey to being a successful app developer. 

make money creating apps

How To Create An App For Free And Make Money

How do free apps make money for you? Well, we discussed above six different ways to earn an income from creating an app, all of which can be implemented in a variety of ways so that they differentiate. Now we will put it all together and tell you how to create an app for free and make money. If you still do not know how to create an app for free and make money, fear not. The steps above can always be reviewed, and we will go over some other ways to make money from apps. The most important step is probably being able to create the app for free, which we will discuss next.

Free App Development

Because you want to know how to create an app for free and make money, you probably first want to create the app for free, rather than pay to create it. If you pay, yet your revenue is lower than expected, you are out of luck. We discussed BuildFire above, which comes with a free trial, and it is the best app builder that has a free trial. Others, such as swing2app, are very highly rated, but the cheapest swing2app plan starts at $33 per month. As you can see, app development is not a simple process, which is why most platforms would like you to pay for them. If you want to create an app for free, use BuildFire’s free trial, and once you launch the app, you can monetize it to cut costs. 

Other Helpful Tools

By this point you may be wondering, how do free apps make money, if a lot of money has to be spent on resources to make the app itself? Well, free apps, as well as paid apps, use helpful tools that provide an invaluable advantage over those that do not use tools. Google Analytics is a free tool that apps and websites can use to learn how users find their app or website. Its purpose is to help improve the performance of the marketing strategies you have taken up, in order for more users to find your app. And the best parts about Google Analytics are that it is free, and that Google gives you clear instructions on how to use Analytics. Now you are more aware of how do free apps make money, since they save a lot of money just from free tools that are used by them. 

how to create an app and make money

How do Free Apps Make Money?

How do free apps make money? Well, as you have seen, there are a variety of ways that free apps can make money. The primary sources of income include monetization with advertising, and in app purchases. There are other ways that the apps can make money as well. You can utilize both blogging and affiliate marketing to create avenue for your app. 

App development is becoming simpler and simpler. There are websites that offer free trials of their app development tools, but afterwards, a subscription is necessary. Also, there are multiple sites that offer app development, but it is not free. Because of the costs of developing apps, it is important to have a revenue stream coming in from the methods of monetization discussed above.

Monetization methods can also be improved. Google’s free Analytics tool is crucial to grow an app’s outreach through ads. It is simple to use, with countless tutorials online, and gives a better insight on how you are running your app.

Overall, free apps are easy to come by on the internet, but due to the cost of creating these apps, a form of monetization is required to generate revenue for the development of the app. Either way, you will have good success in app development.

If you would like help developing an app, contact SEO Design Chicago today! Our team of experts is ready to help.

how do free apps make money

FAQs about How Free Apps Make Money: 

  • How do free apps make money without ads?
  • What are some tools to create apps?
  • How much money do the top apps make?
  • Can I build my own app?
  • How does Spotify make money?

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