There is a proverb like the real strength comes from the
mental power or the will power not from the physical strength. Absolutely I am
not talking about building something enormous which requires exceptional amount
of physical strength, I am talking only about coding – a general term to
encapsulate all the work and innovation in software and information technology.
But my situation was like that, I had near to zero
experience, skill or knowledge in Java programming from the day I know about
it. May be it is my fault but it is true. In the year 2012 I thought of building
application for android, I started with reading a book on it, then downloaded eclipse
and built a HELLO WORLD. But the main problem comes after that, I did not have
any test device, cannot use emulator,
my pc could not support it with a Pentium 4 processor and 500 MB ram. I stopped
and things got delayed but I never buried my dream.
After 5 years, I got a good PC, met several people who are
exceptionally well in this field and Google solved my rest of the knowhow. I
stared coding with a simple hello world in android studio and ran it from my Moto
g3 android phone as a test device. It was successful and I started the journey.
Then I try to build something simple but require a good amount
of coding and not to use api to do things for me. I started with a basic
calculator. I got struck several times with layout, class and got the help from
stack overflow most of the time. I think geniuses are sitting out there and
they could solve any problem. I succeeded to generate my first signed apk which
is required for release.
The release requires several things to showcase your app in
front of the world. Feature graphic, good launcher icon, attractive screenshots
and a title and a long and short description. I created those without knowing a
bit about ASO optimization or marketing strategy.
Then I was waiting for downloads but it was slow and I do not
know why. I started to Google with a keyword “HOW TO GET MORE DOWNLOADS FOR
RELEASED APP” and I came to know about the marketing strategy and several
aspects of it.
I thought to create one more app where I can put these acquired
knowledge and gain more idea and experience, I searched the play store for an
idea or the scope of improvement, I got AGE CALCULATOR,
There are several out there, some of them have downloads in
millions but there is a scope to improve them. This time I was aware that the
ASO starts with a related package name as well, so I have given a good package
name which go with a good ranked keyword for this app. App Annie helped me for
this.
I created several additional tasks with a simple age
calculator. I used newly learned bottom navigation as I thought of 3-5 screens
to accommodate in my app. I have added menus like calculation history and date
format change to support it in different conventions. Then I created a screen
to save upcoming birthdays. It is a required change to help the user in getting
notified for an upcoming birthday. I have added a favorite button and share
button as well. It also can help to retain the users as they can use it also
after the one age calculation. Then I thought to give a set of good greetings
with an option to save your own which is required on any birthday and user can
avoid sending only “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU” at the time it requires. I have
added buttons for make favorite, copy and share.
Horoscope and zodiac are two good things to have in the
plate so I have added it.
I was now ready with the code and started working on the
release items, first I put BANNER and INTERSTITIAL ads and while putting the
ads I avoided to harass the users with the ads. I put interstitial ad at the
exit and banner ad at the top and did not put any random ad within a user
session. I targeted a good keyword AGE
CALCULATOR PRO and built a description and title for it.
I created a good launcher icon which can tell what is in the
app with the help from Android
Asset Studio and a feature graphic from Feature Graphic
generator and launched the app.
I have created a page in facebook and in Google plus for
this app to connect with people and started sharing it several times in a week.
I tried this for 4 weeks day and night and the download started
but ranking was not good initially but I keep on waiting and trying and got first
rank for INDIA and US for the keyword AGE CALCULATOR PRO.
You can check my app by searching AGE
CALCULATOR PRO in Google play store.
I know this is not even a very good start of the journey but
I can relate myself to the developer who can, from nowhere, serve the magic and
this is a very basic example for them not an eye catchy “1 MILLION DOWNLOADS”,
because everyone have to start from a very small number.
Thank you.
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