I'm not a marketing expert, so correct me if I'm wrong here ...
Let's assume an iphone app gets CPM of about $1 [1,2]
So if their first app grossed $100k, that means about 100M impressions. That sounds insanely high to me - 100 impressions each for 1M users? 10 impressions for 10M users?
When I then see that they're trying to sell books for $99 a pop so you can cash in on their winning techniques [3], it rings of late-night infomercials telling me how to get rich buying foreclosed homes.
I don't have hard numbers, but my impression is that @tferriss took the same approach - making the bulk of his money off of book sales (and his prior supplements business), pitching virtual assistant techniques that never would have made that kind of money for him.
So the real 4-hour work week strategy they're copying is to give the impression of success with little effort, and then sell people books detailing your special technique.
Less than 10% of our sales numbers are from the ebook. The ebook was just a side project to see if we could share some information and make some extra money at the same time. You'd be surprised at how much ad revenue these apps make. Check out how much the paper toss guys make with just 5 apps - http://www.develop-online.net/news/36155/Paper-Toss-dev-make...
If you go to the freetheapps site it is _so_ used-car salesman. When you go to leave the page it has a Javascript popup that begs you to stay with yes/no dialog.
My already very low view of Andrew Warner just got even lower. slimy get-rich-quick guys give me the shivers.
Freetheapps is not Andrew Warner's site. Mind explaining your low view of the guy?
It seems to me he provides a great resource to the tech entrepreneurship community in Mixergy and hardly deserves to be called a 'slimy get-rich-quick' guy.
When I interview someone who wasn't referred by someone I know or when I'm unsure of the numbers before an interview, I often ask them to log into their affiliate or paypal or bank account to show me activity using Skype's desktop share. Or I ask for their accountant to confirm their numbers. Or I ask to see their tax returns. I always keep what I see private.
In this case, I didn't need to do that because: a) $80k per month for iPhone makers isn't shocking -- as other have said in the comments -- b) anyone who checks out the app store on a regular basis will recognize the apps these guys made because they're often the most popular in their categories. You can check on this right now, and c) the big part of this story was that they outsourced everything and elance confirmed that.
Finally, I can't be 100% accurate with every interview I do -- not even close. I count on readers to point out when I get my data wrong and when I let my interviewee get away with lying.
I don't think that's the case here. But when it comes up, say something.
I respect readers' opinions and feedback. Anyone is welcome to call me "slimy," but there's no need to do that to get my attention.
Just to correct the impression. I was calling the interviewee's slimy for their sales page tactics.
My opinion of you (already low) dropped through association.
I understand you're trying to keep up the pace, but sometimes the right thing to do is give up quantity for quality.
As mentioned, his primary interest here was that the guys had outsourced every aspect of creating the apps and had created a business doing it. Sure it may not be the most high quality business but it's still interesting to look at by virtue of the success.
He made his money from this, and busted his butt to build that business.
4 hour work week is about how he was able to continue to live off that business, while devoting only 4 hours per week to it. It was an alternative path to selling it off or continuing to burn himself out as a hands on manager. There's also a lot in there of various things he tried and failed.
Overall, it's similar to the YCombinator ideal of busting your butt while you're young to solve the "money problem" once and for all. 4 hour work week is a different approach to the same goal.
Comments
I'm not a marketing expert, so correct me if I'm wrong here ...
Let's assume an iphone app gets CPM of about $1 [1,2]
So if their first app grossed $100k, that means about 100M impressions. That sounds insanely high to me - 100 impressions each for 1M users? 10 impressions for 10M users?
When I then see that they're trying to sell books for $99 a pop so you can cash in on their winning techniques [3], it rings of late-night infomercials telling me how to get rich buying foreclosed homes.
I don't have hard numbers, but my impression is that @tferriss took the same approach - making the bulk of his money off of book sales (and his prior supplements business), pitching virtual assistant techniques that never would have made that kind of money for him.
So the real 4-hour work week strategy they're copying is to give the impression of success with little effort, and then sell people books detailing your special technique.
Less than 10% of our sales numbers are from the ebook. The ebook was just a side project to see if we could share some information and make some extra money at the same time. You'd be surprised at how much ad revenue these apps make. Check out how much the paper toss guys make with just 5 apps - http://www.develop-online.net/news/36155/Paper-Toss-dev-make...
I'm not saying it isn't possible. I'd be interested in seeing how your numbers compare.
They have ~2M daily users and 47M installs, generating 600M monthly impressions. That lines up pretty well with my estimate of about $1 CPM.
If you go to the freetheapps site it is _so_ used-car salesman. When you go to leave the page it has a Javascript popup that begs you to stay with yes/no dialog.
My already very low view of Andrew Warner just got even lower. slimy get-rich-quick guys give me the shivers.
Freetheapps is not Andrew Warner's site. Mind explaining your low view of the guy?
It seems to me he provides a great resource to the tech entrepreneurship community in Mixergy and hardly deserves to be called a 'slimy get-rich-quick' guy.
I think slimy get rich quick was referring to the snake oil peddled by the interviewees.
If Andrew can be accused of anything, it is for writing a sloppy puff-piece and not submitting these fantasy claims to any scrutiny.
If I recall correctly, in previous interviews Andrew has talked about running background checks and verifications on reported incomes.
Overall I think he's a great interviewer.
Thanks Kranner.
When I interview someone who wasn't referred by someone I know or when I'm unsure of the numbers before an interview, I often ask them to log into their affiliate or paypal or bank account to show me activity using Skype's desktop share. Or I ask for their accountant to confirm their numbers. Or I ask to see their tax returns. I always keep what I see private.
In this case, I didn't need to do that because: a) $80k per month for iPhone makers isn't shocking -- as other have said in the comments -- b) anyone who checks out the app store on a regular basis will recognize the apps these guys made because they're often the most popular in their categories. You can check on this right now, and c) the big part of this story was that they outsourced everything and elance confirmed that.
Finally, I can't be 100% accurate with every interview I do -- not even close. I count on readers to point out when I get my data wrong and when I let my interviewee get away with lying.
I don't think that's the case here. But when it comes up, say something.
I respect readers' opinions and feedback. Anyone is welcome to call me "slimy," but there's no need to do that to get my attention.
Just to correct the impression. I was calling the interviewee's slimy for their sales page tactics.
My opinion of you (already low) dropped through association. I understand you're trying to keep up the pace, but sometimes the right thing to do is give up quantity for quality.
As mentioned, his primary interest here was that the guys had outsourced every aspect of creating the apps and had created a business doing it. Sure it may not be the most high quality business but it's still interesting to look at by virtue of the success.
"(and his prior supplements business)"
He made his money from this, and busted his butt to build that business.
4 hour work week is about how he was able to continue to live off that business, while devoting only 4 hours per week to it. It was an alternative path to selling it off or continuing to burn himself out as a hands on manager. There's also a lot in there of various things he tried and failed.
Overall, it's similar to the YCombinator ideal of busting your butt while you're young to solve the "money problem" once and for all. 4 hour work week is a different approach to the same goal.
If you want to get rich, write a book entitled How to Get Rich with only one line in it: "Write a book entitled How to Get Rich"
Wisdom from my dad.