Disclaimer:

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Please note that much of this publication is based on personal experience and anecdotal evidence. Although the author and publisher have made every reasonable attempt to achieve complete accuracy of the content in this Guide, they assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Also, you should use this information as you see fit, and at your own risk. Your particular situation may not be exactly suited to the examples illustrated here; in fact, it's likely that they won't be the same, and you should adjust your use of the information and recommendations accordingly.

Any trademarks, service marks, product names or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if we use one of these terms.

Nothing in this Guide is intended to replace common sense, legal, medical or other professional advice, and is meant to inform and educate the reader. Have fun and good luck!

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Contents  

 Introduction................................................................................................................................... 4  

Chapter  1:  Free  the  Apps................................................................................................................ 5  

The  Co-­‐founders ................................................................................................................................ 5  

How  the  Company  Started................................................................................................................. 5  

Our  Applications ................................................................................................................................ 6  

Chapter  2:    The  Secret  to  How  We  Get  Things  Done ......................................................................15  

Chapter  3:  The  New  Gold  Rush......................................................................................................18  

Success  Stories  of  Other  Applications.............................................................................................. 20  

Chapter  4:  Business  First ...............................................................................................................22  

A  Business  Entity:............................................................................................................................. 22  

Types  of  Businesses  and  Why  They  Matter ..................................................................................... 25  

How  to  Setup  Your  Own  Business  Entity ......................................................................................... 27  

Your  Business  Bank  Account ............................................................................................................ 29  

DBA  ("Doing  Business  As") ............................................................................................................... 30  

Entering  the  App  Store  Without  a  Business..................................................................................... 31  

Chapter  5:  Getting  Started:    (Hardware  and  Developer’s  Account) ................................................32  

Hardware: ........................................................................................................................................ 32  

Software:.......................................................................................................................................... 32  

How  to  Enter  The  iPhone  Developer  Program................................................................................. 33  

Registration  Completed ................................................................................................................... 36  

Chapter  6:  Your  First  Application...................................................................................................38  

Identify  Your  Audience .................................................................................................................... 39  

Categories ........................................................................................................................................ 39  

Putting  Your  Ideas  On  Paper............................................................................................................ 41  

Chapter  7:      How  To  Outsource  Your  Application...........................................................................45  

Where  to  Find  Them ........................................................................................................................ 45  

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Elance............................................................................................................................................... 45  

Odesk ............................................................................................................................................... 46  

Web  Searches .................................................................................................................................. 47  

How  to  POST  Your  First  Job  Description .......................................................................................... 47  

The  DETAILED  Job  Description ......................................................................................................... 54  

What  to  Look  For  Once  You  Get  Bids  for  Your  Project .................................................................... 56  

The  Graphic  Artist ............................................................................................................................ 61  

Communicating  with  Your  Virtual  Assistants................................................................................... 63  

Chapter  8:  Testing  Your  New  Application ......................................................................................68  

Ad  Hoc  File  Installation: ................................................................................................................... 68  

Source  Code  File  Installation: .......................................................................................................... 70    

Installing  your  application  to  your  device........................................................................................ 72  

Chapter  9:  Everything  About  Pricing  your  Application-­‐Free  or  Paid ...............................................80  

Pros  &  Cons  of  Paid  Applications ..................................................................................................... 80  

The  Best  of  Both  Worlds  -­‐  Creating  a  Lite  Version........................................................................... 83  

Chapter  10:  The  Submission  Overview  Process..............................................................................84  

Getting  your  application  ready  for  submission................................................................................ 84  

Submitting  Your  Application ............................................................................................................ 92  

Application  Submitted ..................................................................................................................... 93  

Chapter  11:  After  Submission........................................................................................................94  

Create  a  Website  for  Your  Application ............................................................................................ 94  

Your  Social  Media  Presence............................................................................................................. 95  

Chapter  12:  After  Your  App  Is  Approved......................................................................................102  

Update  the  Availability  Date.......................................................................................................... 102  

Utilize  Your  Promo  Codes .............................................................................................................. 103  

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................105  

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Introduction  

Have you ever noticed, that some of the greatest things in your life seem to begin with an ordinary moment? Purchasing this manual might have seemed like one of those ordinary moments. But, we promise you there is the potential, within these pages, to change your life.

The beauty of technology today, the Internet in particular, is that it allows you access to anything you could imagine. And with that access comes the capability to network with others who have skills you lack, individuals who can turn your dreams into reality. That's what you've done by purchasing this manual. You've connected with our knowledge and skills. We're about to show you how to connect with the rest of who and what you need to have success in the iPhone Application realm.

Our 'ordinary moment' occurred in San Diego, CA - Over a round of golf, we discussed a new application that we had read about on a few blogs. It was "iFart". "iFart" had made $40,000 over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. In many households, that's a fulltime salary for an entire year! If an app making fart noises could succeed then why couldn’t we?

We had no idea Apple's App Store had this kind of reach. We had plenty ideas of our own. "There's an app for that" is a common phrase that we have heard over and over again in the countless commercials aired on TV. Everyone says, "what if they had an app for this or what if they had an app for that?" There are millions of ideas and along with those countless ideas, are countless questions. And, while the marketing as of late has been, "There's and app for everything" there is still room for your app.

Throughout our experience, we have learned invaluable lessons and have made plenty of mistakes. We realized people of all skill levels are capable of translating their ideas into working applications. Anyone from your everyday eBay shopper to a blogger, can learn how to create iPhone applications without any experience of programming.

In two months, we have grossed over $100,000. With all of our hard work, we can now reap the benefits of passive income. Once your app is up and running, there is little to no maintenance. You will be reaching hundreds of millions of users 24/7. That's the beauty of the app store.

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Chapter  1:  Free  the  Apps  

The  Co-­founders  

We, Quoc Bui and Michael Moon, are the co-founders of Free the Apps!, Moon Apps, Pici Apps, Hipposoft, and Thinking Drone LLC. As San Diego natives and childhood friends, we started our entrepreneurial ventures together with a couple of simple ideas. Apps range from simple, short, and sweet to complex and complicated. You only have to be creative enough to come up with an idea. This manual will show you how to do the rest.

Our success has provided us with the luxury of passive income and freed up more time to enjoy the things we love. Our most successful application up to date (1/20/10) has reached a high of rank #3 in the entire app store out of 145,603 total applications. We started by outsourcing one application and have used the profits from that application to start many more. We currently have over 20 live applications that are earning us passive income in the Apple iTunes App Store.

How  the  Company  Started  

One of the objectives in our first application was to keep it simple, but useful. (We will go into detail about "why?" later).

Being avid iPhone users and fans of many photography applications, we began creating apps in this category and branched out to other categories later on. From this, "Free the Apps!" was born. We noticed that the iPhone lacked the ability to crop photos, so we decided to create an application to do this and only this for free. It was very simple. The application allowed the user to select a photo and then crop it. That's it. Nothing else. No bells and whistles.

We wanted to offer the application for free, but we still needed a way to monetize it to cover our costs. We decided to use Admob and put an unobtrusive banner on the top of our app. "Crop for Free" was a hit and became the #1 photography application in the Apple App Store for a few months. It was even mentioned in the article "Bringing Big Smiles to iPhone Shutterbugs" from the New York Times.

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Our  Applications  

Thinking Drone LLC currently has 35 applications on the Apple iTunes App store with over 30 million downloads (statistics as of 3/16/11). We have reached the #1 spot in Photography and the #1 spot in Utilities a number of times. The highest ranking we have hit was #3 overall in the entire Apple iTunes App Store. The following are some numbers for three of our applications (two free applications and one paid).

Crop for Free #1 Top Free Photography

HDR for Free #2 Top Free Photography (Aug 21, 2009)

Crop for Free is the icon for Photography (Aug 21, 2009)

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Flash  for  Free  (statistics  as  of  3/16/11):  

Highest downloads in a single day: 78,752

Total Downloads All time: 3,522,634

Highest rank reached: #7 Overall, #1 Top Free Utilities

 

 

 

 

Flash for Free #13 Top Free Overall (Aug 21, 2009)

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Green  Screen  Studio  (statistics  as  of  3/16/11):  

Highest downloads in a single day: 242 (at $2.99)

Total Downloads All time: 25,514

Highest rank reached: #13 Top Paid Photography

 

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Convert  for  Free  (statistics  as  of  3/16/11):  

Highest downloads in a single day: 101,443

Total Downloads All time: 8,697,785

Highest rank reached: #3 Overall, #1 Top Free Utilities

 

 

Convert for Free #3 Top Free Overall (Nov 23, 2009)

Convert for Free is the icon for Utilities (Nov 23, 2009)

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Panorama  Free  (statistics  as  of  3/16/2011)  

Highest downloads in a single day: 57,774

Total Downloads All time: 584,613

Highest rank reached: #21 Top Free Overall, #1 Top Free Photography

Panorama Free #21 Top Free Overall (Jan 15, 2011)

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Earnings  

We know you are interested in the revenue involved in the iPhone application market. Otherwise you wouldn't be reading this book. Let's face it! You want to know if you can make enough money for this venture to be 'worth it'. So let's look at some numbers. Note that in November, we began transitioning our ads over to Google Adsense.

November 2009:

Free the Apps! Google Adsense: $15,873.57 Admob: $5,600.72 Moon Apps Apple: $4,720.45 Admob: $1,151.21 Hipposoft Apple: $3,435.41 Total Earnings: $30,781.36 December 2009: Free the Apps! Google Adsense: $54,657.95 Admob: $1,020.74 Moon Apps Apple: $3,627.36 Admob: $688 Hipposoft Apple: $9,851.81 Total Earnings: $69,845.86 January 2009: Free the Apps! Google Adsense: $51,884.56 Admob: $121.68 Moon Apps Apple: $4,769.93 Admob: $301 Hipposoft Apple: $6,850.35

Total Earnings: $63,927.52

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January 2011: Free the Apps! Apple iAd: $ 30,668.54 Google Adsense: $38,188.11 Admob: $ 2,715.59 Moon Apps Apple: $2,250.94 Admob: $1,175.15 Hipposoft Apple: $2,454.63

Total Earnings: $77,452.96

Christmas this year was great for ALL developers in the Apple App Store! Shown above are the earnings for November 2009 to January 2010 and newly added January 2011. From November to December, we were personally invited by a representative from the Adsense team over at Google to join their beta program for mobile applications. Google Adsense for mobile applications was not yet open to the

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public and was by invite only, so we were very fortunate to have been presented with this opportunity.

By January 2009, the only money we were still getting from Admob-FreeTheApps was from users who hadn't updated their applications to use Google Adsense. We started 2010 with Dash of Color FREE as the #1 Photography app and many more applications in development.

As you can see in January 2011, we started using Apple iAd. Nowadays we run and maintain an $800,000 a year business, making apps with no programming experience whatsoever. If you had asked me whether we could do this in early 2009 I would have said it was impossible. The idea to outsource our business was the single smartest decision we made.

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Splash of Color FREE (Now known as Dash of Color FREE) #1 Top

Free Photography (Dec 29, 2009)

Splash of Color FREE (Now known as Dash of Color FREE) is the icon

for Photography (Dec 29, 2009)

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Chapter  2:    The  Secret  to  How  We  Get  Things  Done  

You've reached the most important section of this book--the secret to how we get so much done without any programming experience and minimal time spent on our part. Here we will talk to you about outsourcing, why we chose to take this route, and why it was the best decision we ever made.

The truth is that we actually have some experience with computer programming, but not with Objective-C which is the language that is used to write iPhone applications. Now I could've just picked up a book, read a tutorial, and tried to get the hang of it. But I knew that it would take me 2 to 3 times as long to finish an application as opposed to hiring an expert. I would have wasted hours of my time trying to figure out little quirks of the programming language that would have taken an expert minutes.

By outsourcing all tasks such as data entry, app programming, graphic design, voice acting, etc. we’ve been able to release more than 20 apps in the app store. If we had decided to do it all ourselves we would have been lucky to release more than 3 apps in that amount of time.

One of the coolest things about outsourcing your work half way around the world is that your work is getting done as you sleep. You write a couple feedback emails to your service providers, to keep them on track, before you go to bed. They work their hours while you sleep and you get results when you wake up in the morning. It is a good feeling to know that you have people from different parts of the world, working

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on your projects around the clock while you’re eating, sleeping, or doing whatever else to make the most of your day.

Freeing up your time by outsourcing also allows you to do the things that are more important to you. Things like spending time with family, friends, working out, playing a sport, learning a new language, take an acting class, anything but working 8 hours a day for someone else. The times that you are working for yourself you feel so much more productive and accomplished than the 40 hours a week you used to spend at your day job.

How much is your time really worth? Some people prefer to do everything themselves and consider themselves hands on, but sometimes it just isn’t worth it. Doing things yourself as opposed to hiring an expert may save money, but there are many times when you’ll run into a problem, whether you’re installing your own kitchen cabinets or programming an iPhone app. Chances are you’re going to run into a situation that will take you hours to solve.

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If you had hired an expert, they probably would have run into the same problem many times and would have fixed it in 10 minutes. In the end, the time that you save you could have been working on other projects to build income, spending time with family, or taking a new class to learn something fun and new.

With outsourcing, the limits to what you can accomplish are now only limited to your ideas. We have used outsourcing to complete every aspect of our iPhone projects. From $1.22/hour for someone in India to gather data off a website and input it into excel spreadsheets, to voice actor recordings for medical pronunciations, to graphic design and iPhone application development.

This book will walk you through, give you tips and show you exactly how easy it is to make your iPhone application idea come to life. What you learn in this book won’t be limited tojust iPhone apps though, remember using the online resources we give you, you’ll be able to outsource just about any project or idea you may have.

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Chapter  3:  The  New  Gold  Rush  

The Apple App Store is currently the largest mobile applications store on the market. It creates an environment that allows developers to reach millions of users. And, the best news of all is that, you and I, average people so to speak can become developers with a few simple steps.

Until recently, there has been no realistic way for individual programmers to "strike it rich". The software market is dominated by big time companies and the traditional distribution method for independent developers reaches a very limited amount of potential consumers.

By contrast, Apple’s iTunes App Store provides a platform for marketing, selling and distributing software. The only thing a developer needs is a good idea and some working code. Let's take a look at some interesting facts:

There have been over 90 million iPhones sold.

(as of Feb 18, 2011)

There have been over 45 million iPod Touches sold.

(as of Sep 7, 2010)

There have been over 15 million iPads sold.

(as of Feb 18, 2011)

The app store has exceeded 10 billion downloads.

(as of Jan 22, 2011)

There are over 400,000 live apps currently on the app store.

(as of Jan 22, 2011)

During the iPad unveiling on January 27, 2010, Steve Jobs quoted, "Another thing we're excited about is that there's already 75 million people who know how to use this because of how many iPhones and iPod touches we've shipped."

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While you might have thought that the number of apps currently available leaves no room for you, that simply just doesn't make any sense. With all the iPhones, iPods, and iPads that have been sold and are being sold daily your potential for success continues to grow. These numbers speak for themselves. The number of iOS devices available is now over 150 million, with iPad sales alone estimated to reach 45 million units in 2011. With the upcoming release of the iPhone 5 and iPad 2, these numbers show no signs of slowing down, in fact the general consensus is that the numbers are only going up. Even better Apple has now allowed the iPhone to be sold through the Verizon network, effectively doubling the potential subscriber base. On the very first day they were available on pre-order, Verizon sold 250,000 iPhones. You are not too late to get in on the action. There is almost unlimited potential.

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Success  Stories  of  Other  Applications  

There have been many success stories with applications in the app store, but we will look at three cases specifically. Two of these are paid applications and two free.

Tap  Tap  Revenge  (free):  

You have to give props where they are due. Tapulous, the minds behind Tap Tap Revenge generate $1 million in monthly revenue all from a free app

Within 20 days of release they had almost 1 million downloads. Three sequels later the number is over 15 million downloads and one of the best selling franchises of all time.

Really puts things into perspective doesn't it? A study by comScore in April 2009 claimed that 1 in 3 iPhone users had downloaded the game, and now they work with music labels and major artists, releasing purchasable add-ons and sequels for the game.

iShoot:  

iShoot is a tank artillery game for $2.99 that also hit the #1 spot on Apple's App Store. The developer, Ethan Nicholas, told Wired.com that he quit his job the day iShoot hit #1, earning him $37,000 in a single day. In one month, iShoot raked in $600,000 for Ethan.

 

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Sound  Grenade  (free):  

Sound Grenade is an application created by a dynamic duo from New Zealand. The developers claimed that it took about 30 minutes to finish from start to end and had about 10 lines of code.

The application is very simple. When activated, Sound Grenade produces an ear piercing high pitched noise that would drive anyone crazy.

In less than two weeks, their app spread like wildfire, passing 1.25 million downloads. They generated over $10,000 from Admob in less than one week, hitting $200/hour from ad revenue at their peak.

Doodle  Jump:  

Doodle Jump is about guiding your “Doodler” up an unending series of platforms by tilting your phone to gain a high score.

Since being released by Lima Sky in April 2009, Doodle Jump has totaled over $5 million in sales and topping out at a whopping 28,000 downloads per day. Each of those costing only 99 cents.

Not bad for a small indie development firm.

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Chapter  4:  Business  First  

When signing up for your Developer's Account (which we'll talk more about later), you have the option of signing up either as a business entity, or under your personal name. There are pros and cons to each, which we'll cover in this section. Disclaimer: All of these options have pros and cons. You will need to decide what is the right choice for you. Please consider your options carefully, and seek advice from others more knowledgeable than us if you are interested in pursuing either of these routes. We are NOT lawyers, and this section is NOT intended as legal advice. We strongly suggest you get advice from a lawyer to help make your own business decisions.

A  Business  Entity:  

The  Good   People start businesses for many reasons. Whether it's for personal fulfillment, or to take advantage of certain tax write-offs that can save you some cash. Creating a business entity is definitely something you should at least consider before entering the app store with your first app.

Below is an outline that tells you exactly why we decided to invest some time into creating our own business entity.

1.  Liability   A properly formed and managed business entity creates a legally enforceable layer of protection between you as an individual and your business.

In other words, if you setup your business correctly, your personal assets won't be in harm's way if things go wrong (i.e. getting sued or not being able to pay off debts, etc.).

2.  Tax  Advantages   If you start your own business, you have the ability to take advantage of certain tax benefits. For example, you may be able to write-off certain pieces of equipment that you use for your business, or if you work from home, you may even be able to write off some of your mortgage or rent. Doing this can save you and your business a lot of money.

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There are a lot of rules and regulations regarding what can and cannot be written off, so we definitely advise seeking the advice of a certified-personal accountant to help you figure those things out.

3.  Professionalism   If you have a company name attached to your application, chances are that your app may be perceived as having more value.

It's the difference between buying a car from a dealership, versus Joe Shmoe down the street. A dealership will usually (and hopefully) sell you a car that is in good working condition and they'll be there to go to, for support, later on if needed. Joe Shmoe is just a dude selling you a car - who knows exactly how it will turn out. Having a company tied to your application can be especially useful when it comes to how you are perceived by other companies and websites who may be accepting reviews for new applications.

4.  Easier  to  Sell  /  Get  Bought  Out  

To further our last point, if you're ever thinking about selling your applications, not individually on iTunes, but rather your entire app as a property to someone else, it's much easier legally for this to happen if you're a company.

For some, this isn't an issue, but there are plenty of people looking for an "exit plan" and hoping to get bought out. If that sounds like you, you'll have a better chance of selling if you're a company.

The  Bad  

Although creating a business identity has its advantages, there are a few things you should think about first.

1.  Money   In order to setup your business legally, you will have to pay some money up front, and depending on which state you file in, you may have additional costs as well. For instance, in the state of California, there is a minimum annual $800 tax fee (in addition to the normal taxes owed based on earnings) that all LLCs (limited liability corporation) must pay.

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The exact cost for setting up your own business depends on what kind of business entity you create, as well as how you get it done. We'll give you a summary of exactly how we got our business established and how very little we actually ended up paying later in this section.

2.  Time  to  Get  Approved   When submitting your application to Apple as a business, it will take longer than if you were to do it just as yourself. The reason is because Apple wants to make sure your business name and everything related to your business is legal, rightly so. If you have time, this isn't that big of a deal, but for those of you who want to get an app in the app store by yesterday, it can be very frustrating waiting for your approval notice. Additionally, all of the banking information and where to deposit your earnings all have to be approved as well. We'll talk more about business banking at the end of this section.

3.  Managing  Finances   Managing finances as a business is a lot more complicated than if you were simply earning money on your own behalf. Everything from what you spend to what you earn has to be tracked and kept in the books correctly for tax filing every single year. Luckily, Apple does provide us with some kind of documentation and overall earnings reports, but you may wish to invest in a bookkeeping program such as Quickbooks, or in an actual bookkeeper or CPA (certified professional accountant) to help you with your finances.

Lastly, you must keep your business expenses and your personal expenses separate, especially if you're setting up a single-member LLC. If you don't, the protection that you have as an LLC can be compromised, and if you get audited you can get into a bit of trouble. For many people, it can be difficult to keep track of all of the financial aspects of running an actual business and keeping things separate as they should.

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Types  of  Businesses  and  Why  They  Matter  

Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Limited Liability Corporation, S Corporation - these are just a few of the types of businesses that you can choose from. You'll have to decide which is the best for you and your situation, but we'll give you a quick rundown of most of your choices. Of course, as we said before, we are not lawyers and we advise that you seek professional advice before making any important business decisions such as this.

1.  Sole  Proprietorship   A sole proprietorship is a business that is owned by a single individual, and is probably the easiest, quickest and cheapest way to create a business entity. There is no paperwork that needs to be filed with the state, and the only real expenses you have are from filing a DBA (Doing Business As) with a local or state office, and any other state fees that may apply.

Additionally, there is no separate income tax filing needed for the company. All income and losses are reported on the business owner's personal tax return.

The downside to having a sole proprietorship is that the owner is personally responsible for all of the debts of the company. Basically, the asset protection benefit that we talked about in the last section is totally non-existent.

2.  Partnership   A partnership is another business that is fairly easy to establish with 2 or more owners of the business. Again, no paperwork has to be filed with the state, but there is a bit of work that needs to be done in regards to the agreements between the multiple owners of the business.

For example, partner agreements have to be written which clearly define the rights and responsibilities of each partner, including the amount that each partner will contribute, what will happen if more money is needed, the distribution of profits and losses, who is in charge of what, and what happens if a business partner leaves the company or dies. There's obviously a lot to think about, so if you're planning on doing a partnership, be sure both you and your partner(s) take the proper time to talk things all the way through.

It's relatively easy to start a partnership, compared other business entities which we'll talk about later, and taxes are dealt with in the same manner as a sole proprietorship - the profits and losses get passed through to the individual business owners.

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The downside of a partnership is that all partners are personally liable for the debts of the business, and all partners are responsible for the business-related actions of all other partners.

3.  Corporation   This is the most common business structure, however we're not sure if this holds true for those who enter the app store as a business.

The good thing about a corporation is that the business is treated like a separate legal entity (almost like a whole new person), that is owned by shareholders. The shareholders are protected from debts and liabilities of the company, so that means if the company gets sued, only the company as a separate entity has to pay for the debts.

There are various types of corporations, such as a "C" corp., an "S" corp., a professional corporation, and a non-profit. Although we won't cover the details of each and every type here, we will tell you some of what turned us off from becoming a corporation.

First of all, there is a lot more paper work involved. A lot.

Secondly, depending on which type of corporation you choose, you could be taxed by what's called "double taxation", meaning the profits of the company get taxed at the corporate level, and then again at the individual tax return level.

Many people, however, are ok with these things and find that starting a corporation is the best way to go, not only because of the protection that it grants its owner, but also because it's much easier to get funding and strike deals with other companies.

4.  Limited  Liability  Company  (LLC)   An LLC is like the best of all of the above business structures. Although it's not a corporation, it still provides that corporate-like protection that most professional business owners are looking for.

Additionally, an LLC can choose how they want to be taxed: as a sole proprietor, a partnership (if applicable), a "C" corp, or an "S" corp, and profits and losses are simply reported on the owners' individual tax returns.

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There is also far less paperwork involved, and setting up an LLC is relatively easy. In the next section, we'll go over exactly how easy it was to created our Limited Liability Company, and how you can do it too.

Before that, we should mention that depending on which state you file in, you may be required to pay a franchise tax, which is basically an annual fee just for having the LLC. Also, it can be fairly difficult to manage to keep your business and personal finances separate, which MUST be done in order to properly run your LLC.

Again, we chose to go with an LLC, but your particular business structure is up to you. As always, you should first consult with your professional Lawyer or CPA for advice on how you should proceed in your particular situation.

How  to  Setup  Your  Own  Business  Entity

You could hire a lawyer to help setup your business entity, however thanks to LegalZoom.com, starting your business is really simple. Here is the basic outline of what you have to do:

1. Before anything, you need to determine what the address of your company will be. You COULD use your home address, however it is not recommended, because again you should do all you can to separate your business from your personal activities.

What you need to do is purchase a mailbox, however it cannot be at the post office. The state will not accept applications that have a P.O. box as the address.

So what can you do?

What we did was simply use a mailbox address from a local UPS store. The cost widely varies by location, but expect to pay roughly $150 for 6 months for the smallest size (you don't need anything larger), although you can get an even better deal by signing on for a longer period of time. The trick is, you can use your mailbox number as a suite number, so it looks like a real business address.

For example, if you picked up mailbox #123 at the UPS store located at 456 Main Street, your business address might look like this:

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456 Main Street, Suite #123

We used our UPS store mailbox address for signing up for our LLC and in the app store as well.

2. Visit http://www.legalzoom.com, and choose the business structure that you want to create. (For the purposes of this section, we'll specifically discuss starting an LLC, since that is the most common type of business structure formed and the one we're most familiar with. Legalzoom does a great job of walking you step by step through exactly what you need to do, no matter what type of business you choose).

3. Click on "Get Started", and begin to answer the questionnaire.

4. You'll first be prompted to register for an account, which you can do by following the instructions on the screen. You'll be asked to confirm the email before proceeding, so be sure to use a real email address, and double check your entry.

5. Finish the questionnaire. If you're having trouble with some of the questions, Legalzoom provides you with some nice examples of what other people are answering for those particular questions.

Furthermore, you'll be asked about whether or not you'd like LegalZoom to take care of an EIN (employer identification number) for you. Definitely say yes, because you will be required to have an EIN in order to setup a business banking account and get paid by Apple. There will be a small fee, but you'll have to do this anyways, so you might as well let Legalzoom handle it for you.

Also, you'll be asked if you want Legalzoom to act as a "registered agent". A registered agent is a business or individual that is designated to receive certain paperwork, especially those regarding any legal actions taken against your company, such as a summons. You are required to have a registered agent, so it's really easy just to have Legalzoom become the agent for your business. Again, there's a small fee involved.

6. Lastly, you'll be asked what kind of package you want: Economy, Standard, or Express Gold.

They each have different price ranges (Economy being the cheapest, of course), and come with different features.All you need is the Economy

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package, which gives you the basics needed in order to properly form your business.

Do note that if you choose the economy package, processing your business with the state can take up to 35 days, which is definitely a long time, so be sure to plan ahead if you're interested in setting up a launch date of any kind for your app.

After you submit your application, it's basically just a waiting game. Until you have your Employer Identification Number (EIN, which is kind of like a social security number for your business), Operations Agreement and Articles of Organization, you can't get a business banking account or a DBA, which we'll talk about in the next section.

In the meantime, however, it might be a good idea to begin developing your application if you have not yet done so already.

Your  Business  Bank  Account  

It's important for your business to have it's own bank account. At a minimum, you need a checking account that is separate from your personal accounts and is under your business's name.

You need a checking account in order to get paid. You can also use it to pay for certain business related items, so you can write them off as tax deductions when the time comes.

Quick Tip: The Standard package has a shorter waiting period, but is much more expensive, as it does come with some other things to go along with it. If you simply want the Economy package, but want it to be processed sooner, you can call Legalzoom, give them your confirmation number that is given after you setup your business, and tell them you want to get your business application expedited. There is an extra fee, but it's cheaper than going with the Standard package.

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In order to get a business banking account, as we mentioned above, you're going to need to wait to get your business application approved by the state, and all of the forms to come in from LegalZoom. Most importantly, this includes your Employer Identification Number, The Operations Agreement, and The Articles of Organization. To be safe, just bring everything that Legalzoom sends you to the bank of your choice.

When you get to the bank, don't stand in line at the teller. Go to the side and speak to someone who is usually sitting at one of those desks. You may need to sign up on a list first in order to speak to someone. When asked what you need help with, say that you'd like to open a business checking account, and then you should be good to go.

Make sure you also have a form of identification on you, preferably a driver's license, as well as $100 to deposit into your account, which is required by some banks in order to open an account. We definitely recommend checking with your bank of choice before you go in, so you'll know exactly what else you need.

The process usually takes about an hour, sometimes less, and the most important thing to take away from the bank are a checking account number, as well as a routing number for that specific bank.

DBA  ("Doing  Business  As")  

After you create your legal business entity, you can also get a DBA so you can also legally do business under a different name.

So for example, you may have created your company as John Smith Enterprises, but you can setup a DBA specifically for the app store called John Smith Mobile Applications. This is fairly common, and can easily be done via Legalzoom for an extremely reasonable price.

The entire process should take an additional 2 weeks maximum.

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Entering  the  App  Store  Without  a  Business

Besides entering the app store as a business, you have the option of entering under your own name, without a business structure. Doing so requires much less paperwork, takes much less time to get approved, and is obviously a bit cheaper.

That being said, there are a few drawbacks to entering the app store under your own name that we'd like to mention:

As we mentioned before, your name will show up under the name of your applications in the app store. Some people may not want their real names to be associated with their applications, and others want the professionalism of having a company name behind their app.

Because you don't have a corporation or LLC to protect you, you are personally liable for any damages that your app may cause you. Personally, we haven't heard of any apps causing any real issues for people, but people are suing people for anything these days, so you put yourself at risk when you go in the app store as yourself.

Lastly, you don't have the ability to write tax deductions and write-offs that normally a business entity could take advantage of, which could potentially save one a lot of money.

The decision is ultimately yours, and if you can, seek advice from professionals to find out what's best for you.

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Chapter  5:  Getting  Started:    (Hardware  and  Developer’s  Account)  

There are a couple things that you definitely must have before you get started developing iPhone applications. These are listed below

Hardware:    

1. Some kind of Apple Computer – You will need this to install the iPhone Software Development Kit (SDK) in order for you to run your applications that your developers will be sending to you. We both started with 13 inch Macbooks which worked great for everything we need to do. It is possible to run the Mac operating system on a PC using virtual machine software, but that is too complicated and doesn’t go along with the purpose of this book, which is to do things as simply as possible. If you don’t already have a Mac, just think of it as an investment into your new venture and remember that you will also be able to write it off as a business expense at the end of the year.

2. iPhone or iPod Touch – You will need either an iPhone or iPod touch in order to test your applications on a device. The iPhone SDK does come with an iPhone simulator that you can run on your Mac, but that is not good enough. You will also need to test your application on a device because the simulator does not always work the same as an iPhone/iPod. *tip* Don’t forget this device and a portion of your phone bill may also be a tax write off to any income you’ll make off of your iPhone applications.

3. iPad – Almost everyone will want to start developing apps for the iPhone, but if you have any inclination to release your app for the iPad as well, then you absolutely need to buy one yourself for all the reasons mentioned above. While the iPad is very similar to the iPhone (both use the same Developer Kit), they are not the same device and have some different needs and requirements especially regarding the user-interface. Read our bonus chapter on the iPad for more details on how to make iPad apps.

Software:    

iOS Developer Kit – You will need to be signed up under the Apple iOS Developer Program and have downloaded the latest iOS SDK (Software Development Kit). This will allow you to develop, run and install applications to your Apple devices. Start the enrollment process here: http://developer.apple.com/programs/start/standard/

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How  to  Enter  the  iOS  Developer  Program  

Apple does a great job at walking you through the enrollment process and making it as painless as possible, and easily trackable using the status bar. Just read everything thoroughly and follow the instructions. The process will involve entering your information and then verifying your email address. After you verify your email address you will be prompted to choose which Developer Program you are registering for.

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The first thing they will ask is whether you want to register as a company, or an individual. There are a couple differences between the Standard Individual and Standard Company programs. We suggest that you initially sign up as a Standard Individual and then just upgrade for free to the Standard Company later if you want. Below we list the differences between the two.

For most of the people reading this book, one of the two Standard programs for $99/year will be their best option. The Enterprise Program is for big corporations that want to make in house applications that will not be publicly available on the iTunes app store (and costs $299/year). *tip* Don’t forget this is another expense that you can write-off.

There is also a free option available however you will not be able to submit apps to the App Store, which kind of defeats the purpose of earning money with apps. If you want to experiment for whatever reason then sign up by all means. Just remember to upgrade to a paid membership when you want to submit apps.

Individual  Program  

Much faster to get approved. 1 day instead of possibly weeks for the Company program

Your name (John Doe) will appear as the seller

You will still get to choose your company name (Hipposoft)

You can upgrade to a company and change your seller name later

Company  Program  

You can have more members in your development team (this won’t be needed if you are outsourcing your applications).

Your company name will appear as the seller name. This is a small issue, but can make your application seem more professional.

As a business it is better to be doing business as your official business name

Takes longer to setup because Apple will have you fax/send in papers to verify your business.

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We first registered our company “Free the Apps!” as an Individual program and then later upgraded it to a Company just like we suggested. The Seller used to be “Michael Moon” but it is now “Thinking Drone, LLC”. As you can see that is the only big difference between “Free the Apps!” and “Hipposoft” which has yet to be switched over to a Company.

If you do decide to sign up as a Company, Apple will put your registration on hold and require that you fax in one of your business documents that shows your business name and address for them to verify your business belongs to you. Apple will send you an email with a list of approved documents. This list may change overtime as they don’t accept Fictitious Business Name statements or Doing Business As (DBAs) anymore. This is the step that can take weeks to finally get your registration approved. We suggest that you fax in your document and then call the next day to check up on your registration. The list of phone numbers: http://developer.apple.com/contact/phone.html

You should also call one of the numbers on that list when you are ready to upgrade from an individual account to a company account.

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Registration  Completed  

Once your registration is completed and you have paid for your Developer Program, you will be able to login to the iPhone Development Portal and download the latest iOS SDK (Software Development Kit).

http://developer.apple.com/devcenter/ios/index.action#downloads

The iPhone Development Portal has many resources to help you get started that you should go through when you have the time. The most important thing right now is to find the Downloads section and download the correct iPhone SDK that corresponds to your MAC OS.

Installing this on your MAC will also install xCode which will allow you to run iPhone applications on your MAC and allow you to test and play with your applications that are sent to you by your developers.

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Itunes  Connect  -­  itunesconnect.apple.com/  

Itunes connect is your developer portal that you will use to submit and maintain your applications. You will also need to update some business and financial contracts in here before you start selling your applications.

Login to iTunes connect itunesconnect.apple.com/ and click on the “Contracts, Tax, & Banking Information” link. There is a Paid Applications type contract on this screen that will require you to fill out the financial contact info, bank info, and tax info. Make sure to fill this information out correctly because this is how Apple will be paying you for all of your applications sold. If you end up making a mistake on the bank or tax info you might have to fax in the changes. (At the time of writing this, Apple doesn’t allow for corrections to be made online). Once all of your information is filled in and Apple reviews it, your contracts should be in effect and should look like the below image. This might take up to a week or more depending on Apple.

You should now have everything setup and ready to go with all the logistics. There are still a couple of programming certificates to setup before you can actually start

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building and submitting applications but we will go over all of that in the upcoming chapters as we walk you through your first iPhone application.

Chapter  6:  Your  First  Application  

Now it's almost time to get started on your first app! Before we get started, we will need to focus on planning. In this chapter, we will be going over the entire design process with you to help get you on the right track. We will be getting your ideas and thoughts onto paper and then translating them into solutions. The planning process doesn't just end with the design. There is an entire marketing aspect too. You don't want your great idea to flop because you priced it too high or you didn't know how to get visibility. We will take you through, step by step, using our live application that is in the Apple App Store as an example.

K.I.S.S.   Ever heard of K.I.S.S.? "Keep It Simple, Stupid". This principle applies perfectly to creating applications. Why? There are a lot of reasons, but the most important ones are cost, time, and risk. You don't want to be working on a project that is too complicated. This will not only be expensive and take a long time to develop, but you run the risk of losing everything you've invested into it. Your first application should ideally be simple because it will be cheap, fast, and you will have gained that invaluable experience.

Keeping it simple means cheaper apps. This translates to creating more applications and generating more income. By having invested less money into developing this application, you now have less financial risk. Just because the app is simple, doesn't mean it won't be a hit. There are tons of simple apps out there that are huge hits (e.g. Flashlight, Dog Whistle, etc).

The length of time for development is another key factor. You don't want your application taking so long to develop that by the time you're finished, there will be five more on the market just like it. There is still lots to be done after completing your application. Marketing is a big part of making your application successful. You don't want to waste most of your time waiting for development.

Low risk and high reward is one of the biggest perks of the iPhone apps business. By keeping things simple, you keep your risk low, but still have the chance to churn out that one "jackpot" app. You only need one hit to make it big. Even if your app isn't a hit, you would have still gained experience that you can apply to future projects.

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Identify  Your  Audience  

Here's a question:

Who do you want to buy your app?

If you said everyone, then we've got a problem.

Have you ever heard of the saying: "There's Rich in the Niche"? Well, it's true. The more you try and hone down who your target audience is, and forget trying to sell to everyone, the more successful you and your application will be.

Try to sell to everyone, and your approach will be too general, and your results will be mediocre at best.

So the real question is, who is your target audience?

The answer, obviously, depends on what kind of application you want to create, but spending time to answer these questions will help you to determine exactly what you want included in your application, as well as how to sell and market it.

This is why our app, drug Pronunciations, has done fairly well for us. It caters to a very specific type of people (people in the medical field), who are looking for a very specific type of information (help with pronunciations, which happens to be a very important thing for people in the medical field to know). That is exactly who this app is for. It's not for little 14 year old Jimmy who likes to play games, or Claire, the mom from Indiana who loves to shop. It's for people in the medical field, namely those who are studying medicine.

Categories  

When you submit your application to the App Store for approval, you have to choose a primary category, and a secondary category for which the app will be places within the store.

The truth is, the secondary category doesn't really matter. We've never really seen any major changes in sales or downloads based on which secondary category we select. That being said, the primary category is everything.

The category that you place your app will have an effect on how many sales and how many downloads it gets. It will also determine how easy it will be for you to rank

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in the top lists, as well as how long your app will stay on the first "new releases" page when it first comes out.

Here's a short briefing about some of the more notable categories that you can choose from, just for your information.

Entertainment: Entertainment is a tough, tough category to place yourself into. The reason is because "entertainment" is so general, and so many new applications that aren't necessarily related to each other are getting approved each day, which minimizes your time exposed on the first page of the "new releases" section. That being said, if you have the ability to create an app that cracks the top 100, you're definitely going to see your downloads and sales skyrocket.

Games: The games category is another one of the most popular categories, and plays just like the entertainment section. It's hard to get exposure, especially because you're up against some of the major game companies in the industry. But again, if you can crack the top 100, you're gold.

Healthcare  &  Fitness: Healthcare & Fitness is a very specific niche, which is why it's one of the lesser popular categories in the app store. Accounting for only about 2% of the apps available, getting into the top 100 list for a free or paid app if much easier than the categories mentioned above. However, even the top apps may not get as many downloads as some of the lower ranked applications in entertainment and games.

Lifestyle: Lifestyle is an interesting category. Unfortunately, it's filled with apps about girls, mates, and chicks, so you may find that you'll get bumped out of the first page of the newly released section rather quickly.

There are a variety of random types of applications here, so you're putting yourself in the spotlight of many different kinds of people. Finding a target niche here might prove to be difficult.

But, you might be surprised to know that Lifestyle is actually one of the top downloaded categories, with the 6th most applications in the app store.

Medical: The reason we like to talk about the Medical category, is of course because we're using our example of Drug Pronunciations. Medical is one of the categories in the app store with the least amount of applications, which is exactly why we chose it.

Music: Music is a semi-popular category, with about 1/4th the amount of applications as entertainment or games. Of course, the iPhone and iPod Touch are also iPods, so music is a big part of the user experience.

Besides music played from the music stored on the iPhone, there are numerous amounts of instrumental apps which have become popular as well. Not as

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competitive as some of the top apps, but it definitely still needs a good app to crack the top 100.

Photography: Photography is an excellent category that we have a lot of experience in. We don't want to say it's easy to get into the top lists, because it does take a good application and a bit or work to do so, but all of our photography apps were able to be placed into the top 100, for both paid and free applications. In fact, several of our free apps took the number one spot, including Crop for Free, and Dash of Color Free, as you can see below:

We would rank this category a medium in size (similar to Music) and medium in difficulty to landing one of the top spots.

Social  Networking: Although this is a less competitive category, there's only so much that can be done with social networks, and to think that you're up against the major players, such as Facebook, Twitter and all of the messenger clients - it will be very difficult to see a lot of downloads/sales unless you were to come up with some unique, brilliant idea or application.

Sports: Sports is a fairly popular category, with many apps that are specific to certain teams for all types of sports. So, your chances of getting bumped off the newly released list is fairly high for Sports, but if you can crack the top 100, you may stay on there for quite a while.

Utilities: Utilities is one of the hardest categories to find a spot in the top 100 in, mainly because there are a lot of good apps already available in it, covering a wide variety of helpful things. Out of all of our apps, our unit conversion application, Convert Units for FREE, has seen the most downloads, with over 2.7 million downloads and counting.

Putting  Your  Ideas  On  Paper  

Perhaps you've already written down a lengthy list of app ideas, for things you are sure will be a big hit. But, you must learn how to be detailed and how to convey those details to others. By implementing the tools within this section you will soon be a pro at communicating exactly what you are envisioning in your head.

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Tools  for  Brainstorming  and  Idea  Mapping  

Even if you already have an idea for an iPhone application, brainstorming and idea mapping are very important. As much as you might know about your app in your head, you're going to need to write it down and flesh it out on paper so you can see exactly how it's going to work, so you can then translate your ideas properly to the developers who will be making the app for you.

Additionally, you'll be able to see exactly what parts are missing, or what needs to be changed around before handing it off to the developer.

Seriously, this is one of the most important parts of the process, so don't get too far ahead of yourself and make sure to at least do a wireframe, which we'll talk about later in this section.

Here is a list and some links to certain tools that can help you take the app that's in your head, and put it onto paper.

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Mind  Maps:  

A mind map is like a bubble diagram of your thoughts, and a roadmap for how everything is connected together. With software such as mindmeister or FreeMind, you'll be able to categories and put thoughts into a perfect hierarchy, which will help you figure out what your app is all about, and what parts and sections are involved. For example, check out a watered-down mind map below of our drug Pronunciations application:

Collaboration:  

Because we have more than one team member, we like to use Google Docs to sync and share documents with each other. We use the word processor for sharing and fine-tuning things like the app descriptions and keeping track of ideas, while we utilize the spreadsheets to take care of data such as downloads, financing, etc. Spec  Writing:

Writing specifications, or in other words, a description of EXACTLY how your app will work and what it will do, is a very important step. It's not only beneficial for you as the creator of the application to fine tune exactly how you want the app to work, where you want each button to go and graphic to be placed, but it's for the developer who will be working on the project for you.

The more detail you can put into your specs, the less chance of any confusion between you and the developer. Your job is to try and make it as easy as possible for your developer to figure out what you want, and there's no better way to do this than to write a set of specs.

So how do you write specs?

Well, there are several ways. One way is to do a bubble diagram, which is sort of like the mind maps that we described above, however it can be difficult to visually see

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exactly what you want going on, and what pages or screens you want to pop up from where.

An easier way is to create a wireframe, or a "storyboard" drawing of exactly what you want to see on the iPhone's screen.

Simply take a sheet of paper, draw a rectangle that represent's the iPhone's screen, and draw out what you want to see. Beside the rectangle, describe what the screen is, and where it's going to lead. If there are buttons, draw arrows to another rectangle that represents the screen that will show up when a user clicks on that particular button, and so on and so forth.

If you take the time to do this, you're going to know the ins and outs of your app so well, that you should have no trouble explaining any part of it to your developer if they have any questions or concerns, and they will - so be ready for it.

If you're not much of an artist and you have trouble drawing, we recommend using a tool found at Gliffy.com. Gliffy is a cool tool that allows you to draw flow charts, which will again help you and the developer see exactly what goes where. Here's a quick example:

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