I started building Almost Impossible! for iOS on the 22nd of September. I didn’t know what I was building, I was just tinkering about as I often do. After a few evenings, it became apparent that I’d actually built a pretty fun prototype of a game. I started thinking perhaps this was something I could finish up and ship if I put my mind to it.

I ended up submitting Almost Impossible! to the App Store just 31 days later on the 23rd of October 2015. A week after that on the 28th of October it went live in the App Store.

Building and shipping a game in your spare time while running a company is not something I’d advise doing. It was fun to start with but then got increasingly more stressful towards the end. I had to finish the game, build the website, put together mailing lists, sort out screenshots, trailers, and the list goes on…

I recently read an article about the struggle app developers are facing on the App Store, and the following part really hit home:

“In the past four weeks, there were 45,000 new apps submitted to the iOS App Store alone. The chances that any of them will ever break into the top 1000 are effectively 0%, and even if they did, they’re still not seeing any amount of traffic to build a successful business.” — Alex Austin

So, let’s take a look at the launch and see if Almost Impossible! managed to beat the odds…

Monetisation Plan

However, while I was testing and playing the game I just hated seeing the ads, it just made the whole thing feel cheap. So in typical indie fashion, I removed them.

The funny thing is, a week later I added them back in again thinking I should see this through. It’s what everyone was telling me to do. Right at the last minute I chickened out and removed the ads again. So yeah, I ended up shipping the game in the paid category. I went with a price of $1.99, but I did still include an IAP for 99¢ to skip a level if the player gets stuck. At this point, I guess the game is in the “Paymium” category.

Still, it does pave the way for me to change the game to freemium in the future, should I have a change of heart.

Marketing

• Teaser website (inc. subscriber form)
• Game trailer
• Find and invite beta testers
• Send early beta builds to Press
• Give Apple/App Store Team a heads-up on my launch plans
• Make a list of YouTube Gamers and email them pre-launch with a promo code
• Find all iOS game sites and email them pre-launch with a promo code
• Ask someone to post it on ProductHunt at launch

All of this was done around 1-2 weeks before launch. In a typical app/game launch you should start this much earlier, but seeing as the whole thing happened in around a month I had no choice.

Teaser Site & Mailing List

Game Trailer

[video width=“1280” height=“720” mp4=”dancounsell.com/wp-conten…”][/video]

The launch trailer on YouTube has had almost 10,000 views, so I’m pretty pleased with that. I used QuickTime to record the footage, and it was all edited together in FinalCut Pro X.

Contacting the Press & Apple

Because I’ve been developing software for a long-time I have a few contacts on the App Store Team (as well as the main email address that’s floating around, check the final slides at the end of the WWDC App Store Marketing sessions). I emailed them to let them know my plans a few weeks before, this was purely so they knew about the game and could judge if they thought it was good enough to be featured.

While it didn’t get a feature spot, it did appear in the “Best New Games” category on the front of the Store. If I hadn’t have emailed Apple, this wouldn’t have happened.

Launch & Coverage

Here’s the graph for website visitors, you shouldn’t be surprised to find that it mimics the revenue graph later on in the post.

I managed to find over 25 websites that reviewed or gave some kind of coverage to Almost Impossible! — Thankfully, it was all extremely positive.

“Almost Impossible is addictive, attractive, and awfully fun.” — MacNN

“Catchy chiptune music, and addictive gameplay” — Beautiful Pixels

“Extremely well-polished, addictive and frustrating in the best possible way.” — Noted

App Store Chart Position

• Paid Overall: 58
• Paid Games: 30
• Paid Games > Arcade: 4
• Grossing Games > Arcade: 84

Almost Impossible! went higher than this in a lot of other countries, but as the US made up most of the sales it’s probably a moot point.

Cost & Revenue Breakdown

Development Costs: - $2,191.98

• BuildBox: $1,200 (12 month contract)
• Apple Developer Account: $99
• Domain name: $29.60
• Logo (via 99Designs.com): $285 (Didn’t use, re-drew it.)
• iOS Icon: $350 (Didn’t use, re-drew it)
• Game Music & SoundFX (via Fiverr): $207.38
• Voiceover for trailer (via Fiverr): $21.00
• App Store Revenue: $9,370

• Revenue: $9,370
• Apple’s 30%: - $3,250
• Development Costs - $2,191.98

This is just the revenue to-date. I plan to leave Almost Impossible! on the App Store and it will hopefully continue to generate more revenue. Not much, but a little.

So What Now?

In the end I think Almost Impossible! was a net positive experience. I’m glad I did it, but I’m not in a rush to repeat the experience. I’m annoyed with myself that I didn’t go all in on the freemium route, it would have been good to experience that side of things.

By releasing Almost Impossible! it also gave me more of an understanding as to why so many developers spam the App Store with games and apps. Each new app provides a hit of cash, not a huge amount, but enough, maybe a months salary each time (or more if they get lucky). I think anyone could do this full time and make a living from it. Would I want to do that? Probably not.

Late last year I was inspired to try and get back some focus and clarity in my life. I wrote an article explaining the reasons behind it. It was called Removing Distractions. This is part 2. It’s now six months on and my life has changed because of it, but I do have a confession to make first.

I fell back into bad habits. After around 4 months Twitter found it’s way back on my iPhone. I should have removed it, but I didn’t. Twitter stayed on my phone all through May, June, and July. It’s crazy how easily I just fell back into it.

Once Twitter was back on my phone, the usage started to creep back up. I started checking in more frequently. I got that feeling that I might be missing out if I didn’t just check in. In part, this was what prompted me to write this follow-up article. Use it as something to get me back on track. As of this week, Twitter is no longer on my phone (again). Hopefully, I can keep it that way. Here’s what’s currently on my iPhone:

Now let’s move onto the more positive aspects. Even though I had a slight relapse with Twitter, the last six months have seen a lot of positive changes. I definitely use my phone much less, I’m more present and more productive because of it.

I used to think about taking photos just to post on Instagram. It was one more thing to think about, and let’s be honest, who really cares about what I’m posting anyway? Who was I doing it for? A few weeks after deleting my Instagram account I stopped thinking about it. The same goes for status updates. I used to find myself walking around and if something popped into my head I’d think “oh I should post that to Twitter”. I don’t think like this anymore.

It might sound funny, but not having to worry about posting updates or seeing if people have “liked” my photos, has given me more head space to actually focus on what matters.

I’ve also started reading more books, like a serious amount more. When I go to bed I read a book instead of checking social networks. I know this sounds stupidly obvious, but I’ve learnt so much by just reading more. The books I’ve read have already improved and shaped my life immeasurably. I’ve been keeping an up-to-date list of the books I’ve read since the end of last year. Only the good ones make it onto the list.

When we twiddle on our phones, refreshing feeds for countless social networks we don’t learn anything. All we get is bite-sized snippets of useless information.

I didn’t stop at social networks. As I read more and thought more about why I felt stressed, I started to look at other areas in my life. I started to make other changes, in what now seems to have turned into an ongoing quest to lead a simpler, less stressful, and more focused life. Here are some of the other changes:

Ignoring the News

Episode 69 of the Ask Altucher Podcast sums this up pretty well: “Why reading the news is a waste of time”.

Unsubscribing from all newsletters

Switching off voicemail

Disabling app notifications

Use Do Not Disturb

Declutter

We keep things because we think they might be useful one day, or that we’re going to need them at some point. But the truth is we won’t. Stuff just seems to accumulate and clutter up the house.

I haven’t done everything Marie suggests in her book, but I’m making progress.

iPhone Usage Rules

• No social network apps
• No games or entertainment apps
• No news app (including RSS readers)
• No devices in bed, the Kindle is okay (for now)
• No phone in the bedroom (not even for charging)
• No phone during social situations (especially at dinner)

Final Thoughts

I’m going to try and continue to focus on what matters. Because I know — and deep down I think we all do — that whenever we’re endlessly scrolling through social networks, we’re just wasting our time.

If this article has inspired you, I’d recommend reading The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere by Pico Iyer.

“Going nowhere … isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.” — Pico Iyer

Choosing the right pricing model for an app is simple… pick anything other than freemium. Make your app paid and work out where the sweet spot is, keep increasing the price until you’ve pushed it too far then bring it back a little. If you’ve got an online component or are delivering new content regularly then make it subscription based. Pretty simple, right?

Now let’s dive a little bit deeper…

Okay, but Should I Go Freemium?

As of writing this I still believe paid is the best chance you have of making your app sustainable. I’m talking about indie apps here, not games. Games are a different beast altogether and something I have much less experience with.

If I Go Paid, What Should I Charge on iOS?

After launch you can set your app at a higher price point, this will give you much more room to manoeuvre in the coming months. You can put your app on sale at various times of the year and people looking for a bargain are much more likely to buy something with a bigger discount. Going from $1.99 to 99¢ is not a big deal, but an app that was $4.99 going down to $1.99 or ¢99 is a much bigger deal. Putting your app on sale three or four times a year can give your bottom line a much needed boost.

What Should I Charge on the Mac?

The top grossing apps on the Mac tend to be in the productivity and creative categories (I’m ignoring games). If your app can help someone do their job better, faster or easier then you can easily ask upwards of $19.99 for it. Ideally you want to be in the $49.99 tier or higher.

Don’t forget, that as well as selling on the Mac App Store you can also sell direct. So far I’ve found building Mac apps to be more sustainable than building iOS apps. However iOS has the potential for a much bigger payout at launch, this is simply due to the sheer volume and reach of the App Store. There’s nothing stopping you from building for both platforms, in-fact it’s something you should seriously consider. For example: Realmac, Flexibits, Panic, Tapbots, and Omni. All successful and all build for both Mac and iOS.

Pricing Will Not Save Your App

We also tell ourselves that if we add a certain set of features the app will be a hit and gain all the users and press attention it deserves. This is a lie, and it’s dangerous to think like that. Adding features or improving the design to try and make an app more popular is an uphill battle, and one that you’re probably not going to win. If you’re app is in this situation, proceed with extreme caution.

Over the years I’ve noticed that some apps just seem to take off at launch and consistently do well. Other apps have a great launch then trail off over time, it’s then a continual fight to keep them doing well and making a respectable amount of income. Often the effort outweighs the return, and in those cases you just have to call it a day and move onto the next big thing.

A Pricing Experiment

Final Thoughts

Please remember that changing the pricing of an app that’s already live is not going to suddenly make it a success. As I’ve mentioned, if you’re apps not doing as well as you’d like, there’s probably much bigger issues at play.

I thought about building Realmac’s next product the way we always do. Spend 6 to 18 months building an app in secret while using the revenue from our other products to keep the company going. Ship it once it’s perfect, then pray to the gods that people buy it so we can stay in business. Rinse and repeat.

I’ve been playing this game for a long time. Building, shipping, and praying. The pressure of having to ship one hit app after another gets to you. Too many misses in a row and the business fails. This wouldn’t be so bad if it was just me, but it’s not, there’s a whole team of people relying on the business to be profitable. This is why I started to look more seriously at Crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding flips the traditional method of building and shipping software on its head. It removes a huge amount of the risk that’s usually involved when developing new products. Crowdfunding makes the whole thing a more open, transparent process, and importantly you get the revenue upfront to help build your vision. It’s a very refreshing approach. I used to be very cynical of Crowdfunding, but having gone through the process I’m now convinced it’s a viable route every indie should at least consider.

It’s not just about getting revenue upfront though, it’s about building a community, letting people get involved with what you’re building. It’s also a form of validation. If enough people back your project it means there’s a reason and a need for your idea to exist. This validation is great, and incredibly motivational.

Even though Kickstarter seems to be the go-to site for crowdfunding, I decided to go with Indiegogo. There was one main reason for this. Indiegogo offers flexible funding, this was something I wanted to take advantage of as I had no idea if Typed.com would even hit its goal. The flexible funding option allows you to keep any money you’ve raised even if you don’t hit your goal. This is not an option with Kickstarter. I knew I wanted to build Typed.com regardless so some revenue to help would be better than nothing.

Even though the campaign is over, the product page is still visible on Indiegogo. Here’s the main pitch:

Typed.com is a blogging service for writers, journalists, artists, storytellers, and for anyone with something to say. It’s the online writing platform that we’ve been wanting to create and use for years.

Online services come and go, but we want to make something that stands the test of time. We want Typed.com to be around for decades to come, and with your help we can make this happen. We can build a blogging platform that’s sustainable and enjoyable to use.

Getting Started

The final video ended up being just under 2:30 minutes long. As of today, the video has had 25,000 plays. You can watch it below:

[embed]youtu.be/bBpXbmUAU…[/embed]

Thankfully I already owned a DSLR, tripod, and a few different lenses. I decided to buy the rest of the equipment needed to shoot the video in-house. Here’s the full list of kit I used:

• Canon 5D MKIII
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM
• Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
• Walimex 100-170cm Boom Stand with Weight
• Rode NTG3 Shotgun Microphone
• NTSM3 Microphone Suspension Shockmount
• Zoom H4n & 5m Pro-Audio XLR Male to XLR Female
• Manfrotto Mini Compact Stand x 2
• Westcott Ice Light LED x 2
• Final Cut Pro X

As it was the first time I’ve shot anything like this it took me an entire week to shoot and edit the video. I found the tutorials over at Wistia to be really, really helpful. It would have been quicker and probably cheaper to get someone in to do the video, but now that I’ve made the investment in the equipment all future videos will cost next to nothing to produce.

Pitch

I dropped Indiegogo an email during the two weeks I was setting things up to make sure they were aware of the project and see if they could offer any feedback. I did this because they obviously know what works, but also I wanted to make sure our project was on their radar. I knew Indiegogo sends out regular emails to their users highlighting new projects and I figured typed.com would never get featured in this if they didn’t know it existed…

Perks

When building the perks I wanted to make sure they were good value for money and had enough benefits that people would want to contribute. I set limits on some of the higher more expensive perks because I wanted to create a sense of urgency, but I also wanted to control the flow of perks that offered lifetime accounts — Too many free lifetime accounts could drag typed.com down in the long term and make the service unsustainable.

Launch Day

Launch day got off to a good start… that was until PayPal locked down Realmac’s account. This then meant the only way people could contribute was by credit card and this definitely hurt sales, I noticed a big slow down while this was going on. I phoned PayPal and tweeted at them and actually managed to get the account unlocked within a few hours. The orders resumed and all was well again until it wasn’t…

PayPal blocked the account again, this was just hours after unlocking it. Ugh. They now wanted scanned copies of my passport, driving license, and utility bills. After frantically finding and supplying these the account was unlocked again and things were back on track. Having this go on during launch was super stressful.

The day ended on a high note, as the campaign started trending on the Indiegogo homepage. At around 7pm, less than 12 hours into our campaign it hit the goal of $20,000 (USD).

Typed.com didn’t get as much press coverage as I’d have liked at launch. I think this was because it was a crowdfunding project for a web app, not a native app. Here’s a collection of links to some of the bigger sites that were kind enough to give us coverage: Engadget, The Next Web, MacStories, MacNN, and iMore.

Campaign Duration

Towards the end, there were too many perks. In hindsight, I should have just set the limit higher, but I had no idea they would sell out so quickly. The higher perks definitely performed better than I ever imagined. The breakdown of where the revenue comes from is interesting, the Founding Member perk ($350) was the most successful. This makes up 30% of the total revenue.

As with all product launches, the biggest spike in revenue took place at the launch of the project. Throughout the campaign, I posted on Twitter and sent out timely emails to Realmac’s mailing list (around 250K subscribers). Without the existing mailing list, I’m not sure it’d have raised half of what it did. Typed.com was featured in one of IndieGoGo’s newsletters and that definitely helped give it a nice bump.

The campaign was supposed to finish on February 27th. As interest in the project was still high Indiegogo reached out to asked if I wanted to extend it for two weeks. I agreed, and while sales definitely slowed down it was still worth it and helped push up the total raised considerably.

What now?

If you’re part way through building a product or just starting out, I can’t think of a valid reason why you wouldn’t turn to crowdfunding. It’s product validation, marketing, community building, and revenue all up-front before the product is even finished.

Further Reading

• Kickstarter Guide
• Indiegogo Guide
• It will be exhilarating by Studio Neat.
• Wistia Videos

There’s been a fair amount of talk lately about whether it’s still sustainable to be an indie developer. The short answer is yes, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. I think most developers will agree it’s now harder than ever to make a living on the App Store.

The peak for indies on the App Store was around 2013. It was much easier back then to launch a financially successful app. Things have changed. The larger, more established companies now take the lions share of revenue. This is particularly true for games on the iOS App Store, less so on the Mac. However, we need to face the facts that this is what happens when a market matures, the bigger companies take over and make it harder for the little guys to get a foothold in the market.

App Store Revenue and Chart Position

However, #8 in the paid charts on the Mac App Store has never really been that great. As Daniel Jalkut rightly pointed out, it’s not about being in the top paid charts, it’s about being in the top grossing charts.

I thought it would be useful to share the revenue numbers for Realmac Software’s apps on the same day as Redacted was launched. I hope this inspires other developers to also share some numbers so we can build up a more complete picture of the current App Store economy on both Mac and iOS.

Below is the app revenue for a single day — 6 May 2015. It’s a snapshot in time. There was nothing special about yesterday’s numbers, it was just another day. We’ve had much better, and we’ve had much worse.

Note: All App Store figures are after Apple has taken their 30% cut. Clear revenue is also split between Halftone and Impending.

Clear for iOS — $4.99

• App Store Sales: $853.60
• Productivity Paid: 3rd / Grossing: 14th
• Top Paid: 65th / Grossing: 373rd

Clear for Mac — $9.99

• App Store Sales: $454.13
• Productivity Paid: 3rd / Grossing: 8th
• Top Paid: 15th / Grossing: 35th

Ember for Mac — $49.99

• App Store Sales: $66.04
• Direct Sales: $49.99
• Direct Upgrade: $22.35
• Graphics & Design Paid: 101st / Grossing: 72nd
• Top Paid: N/A / Grossing N/A

RapidWeaver for Mac — $89.99

• Direct Sales: $855.03
• Direct Upgrade: $699.69

Typed for Mac — $29.99

• Direct Sales:$29.99

Final Thoughts

Why would you put the fate of your success in the hands of search and chart ranking algorithms that you have little understanding of and zero control over?

Further Reading:

• Redacted for Mac launch
• Making it as an Indie Developer
• 4 Years of Success and Failure on the App Store

Whatever type of product you decide to build, you need to make sure it’s something you’re interested in, something you care deeply about. Don’t build it if you’re not passionate about the idea or possibilities it holds, don’t build it because you think there’s a gap in the market and it’ll make you millions because it won’t.

Build it for the fun of doing it, build it because you’re passionate about making great products, build it because you enjoy the process, build it for any other reason than to get rich.

Making a living from building and selling apps is bloody hard work. Most apps fail to make a return on the cost of development, let alone sustain a lifestyle. The chance of failure is very high and the odds stacked against you. If you followed your passion and your app does fail, at least you’ll have shipped something that you can be proud of.

Building and shipping a great app is not all you need to worry about. There’s also this other thing called marketing. As creators, designers, and builders we often try to ignore it. We tell ourselves marketing is not real work and our product is so great there’s no way it can fail, it’ll all be just fine… Well, guess what? it won’t.

I know a lot of people hate marketing because of its sleazy image. But marketing doesn’t need to be sleazy and doesn’t need to cost anything, but you do need to do it. Good marketing is about getting people interested in your product before it’s even shipped, it’s about building hype, building a following of people eager to use and try your app. It’s about being smart, tipping the odds in your favour and not leaving things to chance.

The worst thing you can do is throw your app up on the App Store and hope for the best. You need to build a great app and have a solid launch plan in place, this is the only way to win in the App Store. If you don’t have either you’re setting yourself up for failure.

A while ago I read an article on living a year with a distraction-free iPhone. I laughed when I read the title, this guy must be one crazy fool I thought to myself. After reading the article I felt like maybe I’m the crazy fool and this guy is actually on to something.

My iPhone made me twitchy. I could feel it in my pocket, calling me, like the Ring called Bilbo Baggins. — Jake Knapp

So yeah, I’m guilty of reaching for my iPhone too often. With friends, during lunch, waiting for the bus, in a taxi, looking after the kids, in the bathroom, brushing my teeth,  last thing at night. In any spare moment I’d pick up my iPhone and refresh Twitter, check for new photos on Instagram, read articles I’d saved in Pocket, it was an endless stream of things to fill any gap of time.

I also stumbled across this video, it’s a little over the top but it was enough to make me feel uncomfortable. It was enough to make me want to do something about how much I was using my phone.

Over time I started making small changes. I started to try and be a little more mindful of when and why I was using my iPhone. I started reading books again before bed instead of browsing Twitter. At home, I instigated a “No Technology Day” on Saturdays, and yes it’s exactly what it sounds like. I started checking in on things a little less, so much so I actually forgot to take my phone out with me on several occasions.

Progress was being made, but I found it too easy to fall back into bad habits as everything was still right there on my phone. I decided it was time to step things up a notch.

I started by deleting my Facebook account, and to be fair this was easy as I’m not really into Facebook. Next up was Instagram, to begin with, I just deleted the app. For the first week or so I missed it. I found myself twitching to launch it, scanning the home screen wondering where it was, then remembering I’d deleted it. Three weeks in and things got easier, I stopped missing it. It was one less thing to worry about and it felt good, so good in fact that I went ahead and deleted that account too.

This week I deleted the Twitter app from my iPhone.

Twitter was the hard one. I watched the app jiggle and shake like it knew what was about to happen, I tapped the x in the corner and it was gone. My phone is now free of all social networks, no Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, no Vine, no Pocket. Everything’s gone.

Just for the record, I still have a Twitter account and don’t plan on getting rid of it anytime soon. I’ll probably check it once or twice a day at most when I’m on my Mac, and I’m okay with that.

While I was getting rid of all the social network apps I also took the opportunity to cut down on everything else. My iPhone is now free of games and other random junk I don’t need.

Since I started making these changes I generally feel more relaxed. I no longer get that twitch to take out my phone whenever there’s a free moment, and even if I do there’s not much to do on it anyway. I’m hoping that with fewer distractions, I’ll have more time to think and focus on all the things that really matter.

When you get swept along in the shininess of the App Store it’s easy to forget that you no longer know who your customers are. You don’t have any of their details, you can’t even respond to them when they leave a review on the App Store. The fact of the matter is they are really Apples customers, not yours.

When you sell directly outside of the Mac App Store you get the contact details for every single person that buys your products (and rightly so), this is often overlooked but it’s key to running a healthy and sustainable business. Let’s take a look at three of the reasons why not limiting the availability of your software to just the Mac App Store is a sound business decision.

1. Pay Less in Fees

Imagine if your app made $30,000 in the first month it launched. That’s great, apart from the fact that you have to give Apple $9,000 of that. Is the service they provide really worth that much? I’m not so sure it is. Now, lets look at a real-world example, RapidWeaver has been on the Mac App Store since it opened in 2011 and has generated over $2,000,000 in revenue. Apple has taken $600,000 (USD) of that in fees. Ouch!

For the recent launch of RapidWeaver 6, I decided to sell the upgrade directly, and I’m glad I did. The amount FastSpring take per transaction is nothing compared to what Apple takes. I’m not saying you should always launch directly on the Mac, but in this case, I think I made the right call.

When you look at the real numbers you start to realise that Apple taking 30% of everything you make is way over the top, thankfully on the Mac, you can soften this by also selling directly. From my experience, I know a lot of people actually prefer buying directly from the developer, and it’s in the interest of your business that they do.

2. Earn Extra Revenue from Bundles

Ember for Mac was in four different bundles in the last half of 2014. It earned an extra $80,000 (USD) in revenue, not only that it also brought in a lot of new users. If Ember was only available in the Mac App Store I wouldn’t have been able to do this and Realmac would have been worse off because of it.

If you have a Mac app and you’ve not considered putting it in a bundle deal then you’re missing out on extra revenue and customers.

3. Know Who Your Customers Are

When you have a new product coming out you’ll want to let your existing customers know. They’ve already bought from you once and trust you so they may be interested in buying from you again. If you’ve only ever sold on the Mac App Store you have no details for any of your customers. When you sell directly you can simply email them and say “Hey, we know you bought X and we’d love you to check out Y, you’ll even get 20% off because you’ve purchased from us before”. This is a big deal.

Here’s another example, when App Store customers email me asking for a refund I have to say “I’m really sorry but you’ll need to contact Apple directly, we can’t issue refunds”. However, Apple doesn’t always give refunds, and this often results in unhappy customers and bad App Store reviews.

When someone has purchased an app directly from Realmac and contacts me for a refund I can say “No problem, I’ll do that for you right away!”. When you can give someone great service, even if it is for a refund then they are much more likely to recommend or buy from you again in the future.

Final Thoughts

I’m not suggesting you pull out of the Mac App Store and only sell direct, I’m recommending you sell in as many places as possible. The more channels you use to reach potential customers, the more revenue you’ll generate. If your app is only available on the Mac App Store, you’ll only ever be able to reach Mac App Store customers.

There’s a big market outside of the Mac App Store with plenty of great opportunities for indie developers. I’d urge you to start selling your products directly as soon as you can, in a years time you’ll be glad you did.