Apps with Benefits: Turning Your App Idea Into A Lucrative Side Hustle
By: The Thunkable Team
Tags: Passive Income, Money Mindset, Hustle, App Development, Side Hustle

You’ve got a great idea for your side hustle and you want to build an app to make it happen. After you get started, design it, build it and launch — you’ll want to make sure you get maximum exposure to generate significant traffic to maximize ad revenue. The process of app monetization will allow you to earn passive income from your creation, and the more people you have using the app, the more money you’ll earn. So how do you get enough eyes on your app to turn it into a revenue-generating side hustle? Here are 11 tips on how to stand out from the crowd and get your app (and ads) in front of more people.

Get Your Title Right: The app’s title plays a major role in how it gets listed on the play store and app store. Put some thought into creating something that will stand out. Be sure to include category keywords, as this is important for gaining traction. Create a list of important features, benefits, call to action in the description that will entice a user to download. Make A Beautiful Icon: First impressions last so use a really good icon for your app. There are many websites that will help you design these icons, such as flaticon, streamline icon to name a couple. Be sure you use a design that serves as a clear representation of your app and stands out. There are millions of apps in the app store, so when users scroll through the lists your app icon needs to be attractive. It should provide as much of a clue as possible to what users will find after they install it. The Screenshot Are Key: Using captivating screenshots can be a really good way to showcase the functionality of your app. People check the screenshots before installing your app, so show them what they can expect the experience to look and feel like. Ask For User Ratings And Reviews — Ranking in the search results is also greatly influenced by the ratings, reviews, and downloads. You should proactively prompt the user to rate your application to help your app climb the charts. However, don’t be nagging about this. Give a gentle pop-up after the user has had a few positive interactions with your app.

5. Resolve Negative Reviews — Reply to users who have posted negative reviews about your app. It is worth your time and will benefit the health of your app’s rankings if you resolve their problems as promptly as you can. If they post about a bug, acknowledge it and let them know once you have resolved the issue in the following update. Addressing the negative users shows you care and will help turn them into advocates of your app. Plus, user feedback is a great way to learn about how the users perceive and use your app

6. Market Your App Effectively — You don’t need a large marketing budget to promote your app. Marketing efforts can be lengthy processes and you should try and be smart about how you allocate your time. A lot of your downloads will come from organic searches But you can earn a significant portion of downloads from your web-version landing page. That’s why you should also create a webpage dedicated to your app with a clear call-to-action directing users to download your app.

Spread your advertising across the channels that are most popular with your target audience. Look at creating profiles and sharing content on sites like:

Social media — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok, YouTube

Community sites like Reddit, NoCode Groups, etc

Email Marketing

SMS marketing

Content Marketing

App Directory sites

Relevant blogs/magazines

7. Analytics — App usage metrics are a great way to gather insights about how your app is being used. You need to get an understanding of the usage patterns of users. Some examples are:

How long are users engaged with your app?

Are they coming back to your app daily? Weekly? Monthly?

If it is multiple times a day or week, how many interactions are they having per week etc.

You should also understand how many uninstalls are happening and try to attain the reason for it. You can also set up certain trigger points within your app to help you with A/B testing. These results will help you improve the user experience.

8. User Referrals — Referrals are another way to demonstrate quality, relevance, and trust to help increase your app’s downloads. You can turn your existing users into brand ambassadors by giving them an incentive to refer your app to their friends. For example, if you have a cloud storage app, you can offer a free gig of storage if users refer your app to others. Or for a ride-sharing app, you can provide free ride credits in exchange for referrals. Look for ways to create an organic promotion plan.

9. Influencer And Community Outreach — Look for influencers in your area of business — food, travel, health and fitness etc. and reach out to them. Influencer marketing can be a great tool to increase app exposure and downloads. Influencers have the power to affect the purchasing designs of your target audience. Reviews from recognized experts not only bring more exposure to your app, but they also instill more trust in your product. By researching the right influencers for your community, you can establish a beneficial partnership.You can work with influencers on Twitter, Instagram, Youtube and TikTok. And you don’t have to look for influencers with the largest following. Some of the most potent influencers have small following but can generate more action with their fervent fanbase.

10. Localize — App marketplaces are available to a global audience. A lot of users and unexpected traffic might not have your language as their primary language. Consider localising the apps to suit your audience. Review the data from app usage and see if you have significant traffic from regions that use different languages. You can still attract traffic with a regional app but look to add in localisation features to make it more appealing. In short, go where the traffic takes you and make it appealing for those users

11. Publish As A Web App — Make it as easy as possible to garner the most traffic possible. And the best way to do that is by making it available on every major operating system. Apps don’t just exist on iOS or Android platforms, they can also exist on the Web. Publish your app to all three to reduce friction for your users. Deploying a Web App will make it so users can more easily search, share, and play with your app from anywhere.

After you deploy your app, these 11 tips will help you maximize traffic which will, in turn, help you maximize your income. When you’re ready to turn your business idea into an app, Thunkable is here to help. We allow you to build powerful, native mobile apps for Android, iOS, and Web. It’s free to sign up and get started. Good luck and we can’t wait to see what you’ll build next!