An example of what we mean can be taken from Woot.com, they began just having one great electronics deal a day and now have grown to offering one great shirt and so forth.  The thought is taking an idea and exposing it to new markets while using an existing business model.

We are going to take this week to focus on proof of concept, production feasibility , and proof of marketability.  We are taking a new approach to this process.  The plan is to develop customer profiles and with those profiles define how a user would interact with our project.  From these assumptions we will be able to understand how to design the UI as well as decide if conceptually the process makes sense.

There is a lot more that goes into every step and I know that I am simplyfying the process but this is a 10,000 ft. view of what we are trying to accomplish.

Are there better ways out there to test an idea?  Let us know!

The first one is that development will always take longer then expected.  Though this typically is the case in a lot of instances we always assume it will take longer for the other guys but not for us.  You need to view the project linearly so that you begin to focus on how this extra time is an opportunity not a setback; which is our take away from this lesson.  Focus on how you can generate more users, customers, and exposure during the down periods so that you are more prepared when things start to move more quickly.

The second is developing a strong bond amongst the management team.  The free time we do have is spent developing, working, or brainstorming to advance the project but little time is spent strengthening the foundation.  All work and no play is the entrepreneurial motto but when times are tough you will turn to the people on your sides and without a strong base the project could crumble.  What we have decided to do moving forward is quarterly spending time together on things we enjoy outside of work a ‘Go Tournament’ may be just around the corner!

Additional resources:

http://venturehacks.com/articles/jobs-customer-development

http://uk.techcrunch.com/2009/08/30/the-long-lost-formula-for-start-up-success-no-really/

http://startup-marketing.com/

We are currently in our soft launch but come December you will be sure to see more from HappenOn!

Ok, that may not be precisely true.  I’ll let Blake and Grant speak for themselves.  I have no idea what I’m talking about (when it comes to product development).

Really, you should start reading every blog you encounter with this frame of mind as a starting point. Let’s do an experiment:

1-Pick a blog, anything will do
2-Say this to yourself “This person has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about”.
3-Start reading.

Maybe you found a good one, maybe not. But in either case, you went in asking the writer to prove himself to you. Start reading this blog the same way. We can’t call ourselves experts, because we’re pretty much just starting out. We’re writing about something for which there is no single best path. We may make mistakes along the way, but (hopefully) we’ll live to tell you all about them. When we hit on something really good, we’ll write about that too.

So let’s kick it off. Product Development, Stage One:

Brainstorming.

TryState was formed without any pre-existing product ideas. If you already have an idea you’re working on, I think it’s still worthwhile to think about this. Eventually, you’ll be back in brainstorming mode.

1 – Write what you know.
On any given topic, there are many people who know just as much as you do. Don’t hamstring yourself by picking something that’s not your forte. It’s the first lesson most writers learn, and I think it applies here as well. If you’re already an expert in an area, you can more clearly see what’s missing. Instead of looking at the situation around you and asking “Why?”, you’ll be looking at other, alternative situations and asking “Why not?” Once you start asking yourself this, I think you’re on a good track.

2- Surround yourself with it.
During our brainstorming phases, we’re constantly reading the news and keeping up to date with the state of things. This might be more important in software than in other areas, because things can move so quickly. For us, we were emailing news stories and cool new products we discovered each day. We didn’t just read about them, we signed up for them, used them, commented on them, and discussed what was great or lacking about them. Imagine starting a band, and gathering in basement somewhere with a bunch of albums figuring out your influences. Don’t have everyone in the group read the same things. Draw from a wide area and cross pollinate as much as you can. Read a blog on Design. Find sources that get you to think about things differently.

3- Connect with others. Give back the to community.
You can talk about you’re ideas with you’re close friends all day, but they may not tell you when you have a stupid idea. Guy Kawasaki once gave some advice that if you can convince a woman that you’re tech idea is good, then you’re got a good idea. I think what he meant that as an honorific, as in someone who’s more grounded than you are. Find someone that’s not in your group, someone that can give you a solid opinion. Run your idea by someone outside the target market and see if there’s a different way to spin it. If anything, getting feedback will give you some motivation to keep on going.

This is something we haven’t done much of yet. Hopefully this blog will create an avenue that lets us share more with others in the community. Anyone have good ideas for how to do this?

4- You’re not going to hit the first time.
We’re going into this expecting to swing a few times before we hit. Our goal is to constantly be in brainstorming phase, even when we’re in development. Hopefully, this will keep our minds in a creative zone and keep us primed with N+1 and N+2 product ideas.

5- Ideas are a dime a dozen. The value of an idea is in its execution.
For most ideas, I wouldn’t be too worried about someone stealing it from you. How many ideas have you read about on the internet, seen on TV, or heard on the radio? How many have made you want to drop everything you’re doing, start it, and do it faster and better than the other guy? There are plenty of ideas out there to get you rolling. Unless you’re dealing with combination of a network effect where the first player wins AND a low barrier to entry, shop it around and see what responses you get. But most important of all, brainstorm with the intention of bringing an idea to life.

Aside from that, have fun! Get excited and make stuff!

Brandon

Basic Metrics

iPhone app:

• Downloads (from App Store reports) *Tracking other apps http://www.apptism.com/
• Registrants – how many of these people register? (App Store)
• Rank – track you apps rank each day: Best for data, AppFigures, AppSales Mobile, AppStatz, AppStore Clerk, App Viz, My App Sales, Heartbeat (http://www.markj.net/sales-stats-tools-for-iphone-apps/ Best for ranking, Applyzer, AppRanking, MajicRank, Mobclix
• Rating – what is your apps rating out of 5 stars? *See review/comments below
• Revenue – from app sales or ad impressions (App Store)

Online or mobile campaigns: Related Post: (http://trystate.wordpress.com/2009/07/16/optimizing-ad-…s-and-research/)

• Impressions
• Clicks
• CTR (click through rate)
• Sales
• Conversion Rate
• Cost
• CPA (cost per acquisition)

Advanced Metrics

iPhone app:

• Comments – what are people saying about your app?

Top App Review Websites

1. Appscout
2. Affsafari
3. Apptism
4. Touch Arcade
5. AppShopper
6. AppCraver
7. iPhone Application List
8. 148apps
9. AppVee
10. App Store Apps
11. iPhoneAppReviews.net
12. AppRater
13. Smoking Apples
14. Native iPhone Apps
15. iUseThis
16. AppGamer.net
17. TapCritic
18. What’s on iPhone
19. AppSmile

Top Blogs

1. TUAW
2. The iPhone Blog
3. Apple iPhone Apps
4. Apple iPhone School
5. Just Another iPhone Blog

Top YouTube App Reviews

1. iJustine
2. tysiphonehelp
3. appstorereviewer
4. bbsipodtouchhelp
5. iPhoneHelper786

• Registrants per hour – when you spend ad dollars, does it drive registrants?
• Rank by hour – when you spend ad dollars, does it help your app store ranking?
• Upgrade Downloads - when you release a new version, what % upgrade?
• Revenue – from app sales or ad impressions

Online or mobile campaigns:

• Tracking CPA across different campaigns
• Conversions and CPA for individual keyword
• Conversions and CPA for categories of keywords

These numbers are based off of 1 day use from 33,000 users assuming that there are 3 impressions per usage *Average impressions per usage 1-5

100,000 impressions

2,600 clicks

2.6% CTR

$1.90 eCPM

$190 earnings per day

*We can adjust the numbers how we see fit just add them in the equations

This is a full list of definitions for the following acronyms

http://developer.admob.com/wiki/Definitions

CPM = (earnings x 1000)/ impressions

Earnings = (eCPM x # impressions)/1000

eCPM = (earnings/# impressions) x 1000 *Average iPhone $1.90 Range $.50-$4.00

CTR = (clicks/ impressions) x 100 *Average iPhone 2.6%

Clicks = (CTR x impressions)/ 100

*Admob has been recommended highest on my research so here is a step by step tutorial on how to set up and operate an account

http://www.onlinemarketingrant.com/how-to-set-up-a-mobile-advertising-campaign

_______________________________________________________________________

*1 billion apps download/ 50K apps = 20,000 average download

________________________________________________________________________

Business Models

Market approach and business model of competitor**READ

http://bdnooz.com/tag/lbsn/

Price Points and Business Models**READ

http://www.pinchmedia.com/iphone-application-price-points-and-business-models

Different Revenue Models, basic

http://thehopkinsonreport.com/2009/02/11/episode-43-iphone-app-revenue-model/

Reviews of networks

Admob FAQ (Basic Questions)

http://www.hehasanegroproblem.com/wwww.admob.com/help.php

Good review of 3 different ad networks

http://www.onlinemarketingrant.com/top-3-mobile-ad-networks

*Side not Admob is no longer working with aggregators like Adwhirl

http://eequalsmcsquare.com/admob-withdraws-3rd-party-ad-networks-0

Publisher Perspective vs. Advertiser Perspective

http://www.onlinemarketingrant.com/top-iphone-ad-networks

Good explanation of AdWhirl and Pinch Media reports

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/06/just-how-much-money-can-free-iphone-apps-make-quite-a-bit/

The AdWhirl report, embedded below, says that applications that crack the top 100 in the Free Apps list make $400-$5000 a day – a wide range to be sure, but even at the low end that works out to around $12,000 a month. Among these top apps, AdWhirl is reporting an impressive $1.90 eCPM and 2.6% CTR.

http://www.pinchmedia.com/appstore-secrets/

Here are some of the key data points:

• Being in a top 100 list, increases daily users by 2.3x
• Average app has a prety short shelf life (like 30-60 days)
• Average revenue per paid app: $.70
• Need to have a CPM of $8.75 to make as much with a free ad supported app
• Estimates that < 5% of apps are suitable to be ad supported

Lots of Graphs:

• Number of downloads needed to hit Top 25 or Top 100 list
• Impact of price cuts on revenue
• Free app usage over time
• Paid app usage over time
• App usage over time by category
• Engagement over time for free, paid, & by category

___________________________________________________________________

Pay-per-click ads start at 30 cents; AdMob expects the market to settle around 40-50 cents per click, and is offering developers a 50% cut. Brand ads cost a minimum $30 per 1,000 impressions (CPM), and AdMob takes a 40% cut.

____________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________

Pay-per-click ads start at 30 cents; AdMob expects the market to settle around 40-50 cents per click, and is offering developers a 50% cut. Brand ads cost a minimum $30 per 1,000 impressions (CPM), and AdMob takes a 40% cut.

___________________________________________________________________

Additional

Other LBS applications on iPhone

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/09/28/the-state-of-location-based-social-networking-on-the-iphone/

Location Based Software Conference

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/xingx/lbsn2009.htm

6 iPhone Application advertising Networks

http://www.longest.com/2008/09/26/top-6-iphone-application-advertising-networks-for-publishers/

For Revenue:

• Medialets : Insert ads into your application using easy to drop in Objects, also track your users interaction with your application, earn a CPM.
• AdMob : Offers ads for your iPhone using Javascript” code. AdMob has been around for a while and has publisher solutions for mobile phones, not just iPhone applications.
• PinchMedia : Offers ads and analytics for your iPhone application, exclusively for iPhone applications.

For Ad Swapping:

• PurpleTalk : PurpleTalk allows you to join an advertising exchange with other iPhone developers. You earn advertising views of an advertisement for your application when you advertise others. You do not make money with these ads however it is a free way to increase the adoption of your own application.

For Analytics:

• PinchMedia : Offers analytics for your iPhone application, exclusively for iPhone applications.

39 Advertising Networks and Optimizers

http://www.longest.com/2008/10/17/37-advertising-networks-and-optimizers/

Affiliate Networks

As a publisher you will have to implement these advertisements on a case by case basis by choosing the ads you want to run.

• ClickBank
• PayDotCom
• Commission Junction
• Rocket Profit
• Share a Sale

iPhone Advertising Networks

• Medialets
• AdMob
• AppLoop
• PinchMedia
• PurpleTalk

Mobile Advertising Networks

• Admob
• Quattro
• DeckTrade

Advertising Network Optimizers

• Rubicon Project
• Pubmatic
• YieldBuild

Top Online Advertising Networks

http://www.longest.com/2008/01/25/top-online-advertising-networks/

Below is a list of the top advertising networks for you to use when looking to publish ads on your site to generate revenue.

• Google Adsense
• AdBrite Ads
• Yahoo Publisher Network
• ValueClick Media
• komli
• Blue Lithium
• Burst Media
• Advertising.com
• Tribal Fusion *Largest
• Casale Media

Maximize Revenue from Fill-Rates

http://www.longest.com/2008/01/15/maximize-revenue-for-your-site-automatically-with-pubmatic/

You can past code onto your website to show Google Ads, AdBrite Ads, or any other ad network. Determining which will be most profitable for your site is next to impossible. Therefore let someone else do it for you automatically. PubMatic does just that, they determine which ad network is the most profitable for any advertisement size you choose.

PubMatic aggregates ad networks and optimizes to provide your site with the best performing ads. PubMatic allows you to place code on your site once for a particular size and receive the benefit of multiple ad networks filling that advertising space.

The following are free services and I suggest you try them all to determine who can optimize best for you and your site:

• Pubmatic
• Rubicon Project
• YieldBuild

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________________________________________

iPhone App Developers to Generate More Revenue Thanks to Greystripe’s Guaranteed CPM iPhone Advertising Program

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________________________________________________________________

After looking over all of the research I have determined that moving forward with an ad supported app can not only be profitable but is the best decision for the application we are working on.  With that said I belive adding in a paid version later with increased value is the best way to increase profits and deepen your brand loyalty.  There are opinions for and against ad supported apps so I think you have to approach each project individually and evaluate your options and my hope is that this post can help in that process!

Smartphones

http://www.nielsenmobile.com/html/press%20releases/SmartphoneStatistics.html

Who is using smartphones?

• 59% of US smartphone users are male
• Among users ages 18 and older:
  • 10.4% are ages 18-24
  • 29.0% are 25-34
  • 24.5% are 35-44
  • 18.2% are 45-54
  • 13.0% are 55-64
  • 4.9% are 65+
• 35.1% of smartphone users have a household income of $100,000+ (nearly an 8% increase from the previous year)

How has smartphone use grown over the past year?

At what price?

• The average smartphone user paid $205 for his/her device
• The average smartphone user spent $110 on his/her monthly service plan (a 10% increase from the previous year)
• Although men and women spend nearly the same amount on monthly service, men tend to spend more for their device than women ($216 vs. $189)

Business or pleasure?

• 23% say their company foots the bill
• 25% say they use their phone for business but pay the bill themselves
• 52% say they are a personal user (a nearly 10% increase from the previous year)

How is the iPhone faring?

• Research in Motion, HTC and Palm continue to lead the smartphone industry in market share, with Apple trailing in fourth place
• Apple iPhone users report the highest overall satisfaction scores among major smartphone manufacturers
• Mac OS users report the highest overall satisfaction scores among major operating systems

iPhone

http://www.telephia.com/html/press%20releases/iPhone3G.html

What’s in store for the iPhone 3G?

-          Nielsen Mobile reports that 3G networks can improve data transfer rates by about six times over 2G and 2.5G networks, on average

-         Although some consumers may be frustrated at the mandatory in-store activation of the new iPhone, just 15% of current iPhone owners say they bought their phone online, compared to 68% who said they bought theirs in a store

-     30% of smartphone users are likely to upgrade their device in the coming year

How many iPhones are already out there?

-          Nielsen Mobile estimates that there are 2.3 million US mobile subscribers using an iPhone

-          The iPhone accounts for 1% of all embedded mobile phone users in the US

How is the iPhone faring?

-          HTC (25.2%), Research in Motion (23.4%) and Palm (19.3%) continue to lead the smartphone industry in market share, with Apple (11.6%) trailing in fourth place

-          Apple iPhone users report the highest overall satisfaction scores among major smartphone manufacturers

-          8% of recently acquired devices by AT&T subscribers were Apple iPhones

Who is using the iPhone already?

-          Two-thirds (67%) of US iPhone users are male (compared to 48% of all mobile subscribers)

-     55% of iPhone owners are under the age of 35 (compared to 34% of all mobile subscribers)

-          iPhone users tend to be more affluent with 63% earning above $75K (compared to 38% of all mobile subscribers)

-         24% of iPhone owners are Hispanic

-          9.7% of streaming video users and 4.9% of mobile internet users own an iPhone

What features do they use?

-          75% use the phone’s MP3 player

-          68% use the Wi-Fi functionality of the phone

-          76% send email over their phone

How do iPhone users consume mobile media differently?

-          37% of iPhone users watch video on their phone (making them 10 times as likely as the average mobile consumer)

-          82% access the internet over their phone (making them 5 times as likely as the average mobile consumer)

-          17% stream music over their phone (making them 7 times as likely as the average mobile consumer)

-          20% play online games on their phone (making them 9 times as likely as the average mobile consumer)

Business or Pleasure?

-          15% say their company foots the bill

-          24% say they use their phone for business, but pay the bill themselves

-          61% say they are a personal user

http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/21/record-revenue-and-earnings-for-apple-on-huge-ipod-sales-but-iphone-sales-miss-expectations/

Some notes of interest from the call:

• While Mac sales were up, that was all due to notebook sales (up over 30 percent), Mac desktop sales fell over 20 percent year-over-year
• Apple had its biggest quarter ever in terms of iTunes music sales — including the biggest sales ever for Christmas Day and Christmas week
• Apple sold 13.7 million iPhones in 2008, well ahead of its 10 million stated goal
• A total of 17 million iPhones have been sold since the originals launch in 2007
• 46.7 million visitors went to Apple retails stores in the quarter — a record
• Apple has 251 stores across 10 countries
• 25 new stores in FY09 — about half will be internationally
• Apple was down 6 percent year over year in education sales and down 10 percent in the K-12 area. Cook says this is due to the poor economy.
• Apple TV sales were up over 3 times from the year ago period, but the product remains a “hobby”
• Apple is watching the netbook market, but has no plans for an entry in the space right now
• OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” still has no timetable in terms of a release

_____________________________________________________________________

http://www.telephia.com/html/LBS_PressRelease_Q207.html

“With consumer awareness increasing, there is enormous potential for even greater LBS growth, especially since Telephia research indicates that there are approximately 130 million GPS-capable handsets in the U.S. alone, and growing,” said Doug Antone,

____________________________________________________________________

Android

http://androidstats.com/

(Site for android stats)

http://www.androidcentral.com/top-10-downloaded-android-apps

(Top 10 most downloaded)

http://www.talkandroid.com/357-android-market-stats/

Heres a rundown of the statistics Medialets have published:

• 167 Apps have been downloaded between between 667,000 and 2.9 Million times.
• Downloads are being driven by 41 apps, which account for between 73% and 83% of all possible downloads.
• Two applications, Pac-Man by Namco and The Weather channel generated the most downloads (50,000 – 250,000).
• Although download ranges can be very large, growth on the low-end was still nearly 80% during the first week.
• 5 Categories account for 61% of all apps.
• The number of apps has nearly tripled since launch, led by the Games, Tools and Productivity categories.

________________________________________________________________________

Blackberry

http://www.blackberrytoday.com/software/popular1.html

(Most popular applications)

________________________________________________________________________

Windows Mobile

http://mashable.com/2008/12/01/top-free-windows-mobile-apps/

(20 top free applications)

________________________________________________________________________

Sales by Vendor/Operating System

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=688116 Quarter 1 2008

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=754112 Quarter 2 2008

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=827912 Quarter 3 2008

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=910112 Quarter 4 2008

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=985912 Quarter 1 2009

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users in 1Q09 (Thousands of Units)

Smartphone Forecasts/Predictions

______________________________________________________________________

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE52A33920090311

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Sales of smartphones will jump 28 percent in 2009 after growth slowed to just 3.7 percent in the fourth quarter due to weakening economies and lack of attractive new models, according to research firm Gartner.

______________________________________________________________________

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE54A55K20090511

HELSINKI (Reuters) – Google’s Android operating system is gaining support in the mobile industry, with 8 million Android phones to be sold in 2009, up 10-fold from a year ago, research firm Strategy Analytics said on Monday.

_______________________________________________________________________

http://www.pcworld.com/article/166394/the_smartphone_forecast_for_2009.html

Phone and operating system analysis and predictions

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=867012

Gartner’s eight mobile technologies to watch in 2009 and 2010 (good stuff)

Great Graph Sites

*http://assets.handango.com/marketing/Yardstick/Yardstick_2008_YearEnd.pdf

(Mobile downloads Market Data Source)

*http://metrics.admob.com/

(Mobile metrics)

*http://www.nielsenmobile.com/documents/CriticalMass.pdf

(Gre

With this page, we’re planning to go in depth with our process of brainstorming, organizing, marketing, and development.  If you have any interest in entrepeneurship or technology, this blog is for you.  We plan to write about the problems we face, our strategies for tackling them, what worked what didn’t work.

Our goal with TryState is to create something that gets used by many people.  Lots and lots of people.  Our techs have a background in Software and Computer Science, so our projects are naturally heading in those directions.  We’ve currently got a social networking application in the pipeline that we’re all very excited about.  Hopefully, we’ll get to announce it you all shortly.

Stay tuned for intros from each of the members.  Ultimately, this blog is for the readers, so please leave us comments and let us know what you think!

TryState signing out.