The American Way!

Written on 1:35 PM by Mark Osborne


Ironic that I got an opportunity to be included in an article in the 'American Way' magazine around July 4th...for those of you unfamiliar it's the American Airlines in-flight magazine - perfect audience to talk to about iPhone apps!!!

Apparently they are doing an article on the emerging app industry and want to talk to developers about the process - my PR person heard about the opportunity and is going to pitch our little project to them for coverage!!!

I had to do a "1 Sheet" about the project and me so I'll include that below for your review - would love to hear your comments about how I should revise for future use.



Status update...Audio is DONE - Thanks to Adam Schneider! Graphics will be done this weekend - Thanks to Amber Osborne! 1st draft version of the code will be done this weekend - Thanks to Alfred the Great! Still expecting a Beta version on the 17th of this month WOO HOO!!!!


Here's the pitch I sent to the magazine...

Mark Osborne thinks the iPhone is the Wild Wild West of marketing. The fastest guns, tghe savviest snake oil salesmen, and the hardest working prospectors are striking it rich. He decided it was time to practice his quickdraw and pick up a shovel. Mark has promoted bands and sold advertising with radio stations for years. He had friends boom and bust in the dot.com rush of the late 90's and recognizes the same opportunity with the iPhone. He is on a quest to develop a "Million Dollar iPhone App." The irony is he doesn't own an iPhone and has never programmed software!



"Originally it was a project to become more familiar with new technology. I bought a 'for Dummies' book and was going to Tweet and blog about the experience of learning to write and application and sell it through Apple's AppStore," says Mr. Osborne. Then he came up with an idea he thinks will sell and decided to get serious about the project. Calling on his wife's graphic design skills, a friend's closet sound studio, and a college-kid he met on Craigslist who said he could teach him how to code; he is pursuing his dream in his spare time while continuing his day job.

"I have always fancied myself an inventive marketer - the AppStore is an incredible opportunity to test my skills."

Not only is Mark writing a "Million Dollar iPhone App," he is also writing a guide to show others how to turn thier own ideas into success.

"I wanted to write a book that condensed all the things I've learned about marketing from being on the street pushing demo CDs, selling door-to-door, and working with top advertising agencies around the country. The story of developing and selling an iPhone Application seemed like the perfect format."
Mr. Osborne plans to launch his application by Summer's end, completing a 60 day plan to go from day-dream to product. Then the real challenge comes - turning a $.99 application into a goldmine. Every step of the process is documented in his blog, with headlines going out over Twitter and through Facebook status updates, building more and more followers, all of them wondering - Will he succeed?

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Basketball in the Dark

Written on 9:35 AM by Mark Osborne

If you show people a video of a professional basketball team (with or without Kobe and/or Lebron) playing in a darkened gym (and missing lots of baskets and bumping into each other BECAUSE they are in the dark) they will rate the players WORSE than the amatuer players in a video playing with the lights on. Even if you point out that one team is playing in the dark, they will "take that into consideration" and still rate the other team as better. Even if you show them the SAME team - one video they're playing in the light, the other in the dark, they will rate the team playing in the light better. This is called Fundamental Attribution Error.

Fundamental Attirbution Error is the tendency for us to blame the person, not the circumstances. For example, I never let my band play a gig with a bad sound system, because everyone will walk away thinking the band sucks, not that the sound system sucks.

This is the same reason why I cannot tell you about my idea for my iPhone app untill it is ready to roll out. If I don't explain it correctly you will loose interest and decide it's no good. But if you had seen it when it was all done, with the bugs worked out, you'd think it was great. And you never get a second chance to make a first impresssion!

The other reason is I need to focus EVERY purchase/page view I can into 1 24hour period. The AppStore ranks apps based on activity in 1 24hour period. Breaking the top 200, top 100, 25, 10, etc gives an INSTANT lift to sales just because it puts the app on the radar for more people, meaning more sampling, etc etc etc.

So - please stay interested, I'm still shooting for a launch within 60 days! In the meantime I'll keep you posted on the process...

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Traffic Traffic Traffic

Written on 7:11 PM by Mark Osborne

As I'm working on my idea, I'm also working to publicize it...(hence this blog).


Everyone I know is now VERY aware that I'm working on an iPhone app (I went out the other night and people I haven't seen in months asked me about it) so I guess Facebook works.




I've also been submitting this blog address to search engines and directories, tyring to get listed and ranked...there are a MILLION different websites claiming to do "Search Engine Optimization" that's SEO to the uninitiated...it's ridiculous, everyone wants $19.99 to get my site "listed in the top of search engine results" and "drive traffic" etc etc etc.




It's all so much hyperbole I can't help but laugh, at the same time there are some basics that I thought I would pass along to everyone.



Submit your website to the major search engines

I went with Google, Yahoo, and MSN - other than that I think you're talking about drips in the ocean.
Submit your BLOG to specific BLOG directories that reference your categories (listing here).


Use Title, Description and MetaTags so when the search engines send thier robots to crawl over your site they get a good picture of what your site is so they can.


Get people to link to you (anyone wanna link to me? Please do)


There's a few others, but that's the basics that everyone should do, and I think that pretty much makes your site "findable"


Additionally I'm getting a little sneaky and posting some Craigslist ads under Computer gigs - "get your own gig making iPhone apps, follow my story etc."


So...tell your friends

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60 days and counting?

Written on 10:32 AM by Mark Osborne


I've found some cool resources for aspiring Million Dollar App developers...



Pinch Media has posted an AMAZING presentation about App Store sales - being on the top 100 list increases your downloads by 2.3 X - They go on to say you'll need 5,000 downloads a day to make the top 100. So if I can get to 5,000 downloads on my own, I'll make the top 100 which will take me to 11,500!!! That's $11,385 in Revenue for an app @ # 100!!!


They also talked about free apps running ads inside the game (duh, I work in advertising) I really should have considered this option before - I HAVE TO incorporate this into the free version of my app.

Here's another neat thing...

I put together a PowerPoint to demo the application (keep your pants on, I'll share it with everyone soon enough)...there is a neat little program called Wondershare that will convert your .ppt slide show into a movie you can upload on YouTube!



Once I get further through the development I'll share the demo with everyone...





This weekend I'm working with a Sound Designer and a Photographer and a Graphic Designer (the wifey) to put together elements for the program!





We could be live in as few as 60 days!!!

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This child got busy!

Written on 9:49 PM by Mark Osborne


Last night was The Crystal Method show in Atlanta. It was AWESOME! I highly recommend checking it out when they come through your town. The new album came out Tuesday and it's great, my favorite track right now is "Double Down Under."




We were lucky enough to spend some time with the band after the show. We talked about lots of things, among them, iPhone apps...Several people in the conversation admitted their iPhones are jammed full of apps they only played once.


It occurred to me that $.99 isn't really that much of a risk, in fact there's a whole army of panhandlers around America that making at times a very decent living based on this premise.


If you give people a decent REASON to give you $.99 - a lot of people will just give it to you. The trick is to INVITE enough people to listen to your reason.


The App store keeps $.30 out of every app sold, so to make a Million Dollar iPhone App I'll need to sell 1.3 Million at $.99...so how many people do I need to invite to get 1.3 Million to buy? Apple is promoting pretty heavily that they reached a BILLION downloads, but I can't find any current reporting on how many downloads of individual apps that relates to...if you know where I can find this PLEASE leave me a comment!





My "Dummies" book arrived yesterday and I have some work travel tomorrow, so I look forward to reading it on the plane and in my hotel room!

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Wow...I'm impressing myself

Written on 4:35 PM by Mark Osborne

Too bad the "erotic services" section of Craigslist was just shut down today - I saw some really nice people in there last night...I was up till about 3am working on programming basics and graphics for my Million Dollar iPhone app...I also posted an RFP @ ScriptLance a site for freelancers that write programming script (clever name huh?)


At lunch I checked my e-mail and I had a FLURRY of freelancers, although NONE of them are local...One said they could do the type of app I'm talking about for $500 - WOW - $500 for something that could make $500,000 in a few months...There were a LOT of outsource programmers, India, Argentina, Belorus, Spain - my e-mail inbox looked like a Benetton ad...
So I downloaded a Non Disclosure Agreement from LegalZoom for $14.95 spent about 5 minutes customizing it and sent it off to a few folks to talk further - anyone know if NDAs are binding outside of the US?




I'll be calling some of the freelancers later tonight, but wanted to give you an update before I got started on that. Ugh, getting up for work after being up till 3 is draining, but, it'll be TOTALLY worth it...

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Eureka! Oh no! Now I better get BUSY!

Written on 4:28 PM by Mark Osborne



When Archimedes sat in the tub and saw the soap rings he shouted out "Eureka!" which means "I have found it" and indeed - I have found it!


At about 1:30 this morning while flipping channels (I'm a notorious insomniac) it suddenly occurred to me - an iPhone app, so simple, so universally applicable, so irresistible...

...a quick tour of the store showed no one had thought of it yet. A quick tour of the web showed the same...could it be?






So now I have the challenge - I have the idea that can make me "Boy Band Rich"...do I have the wherewithal to execute?



I sent a Twitter to my few followers - a friend (pictured left) responded back that he could be my co-developer, since at least he currently OWNS an iPhone. Good Point! I should think about outsourcing, just to beat my would-be competitors to market with this incredible idea.



So I posted a Craigslist ad here in Atlanta - perhaps I'll get an interested reply and can escalate the pace on this puppy!

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Shouldn't you buy an iPhone first?

Written on 9:24 AM by Mark Osborne

Ironically, I do not own an iPhone (although I have decided to begin writing iPhone apps). I have had a Blackberry since 2001 and can type more than 20 words a minute on the qwerty keyboard...I tried the iPhone and had to hunt and peck to type, which I just couldn't stand for work.

To add to the irony, buying an iPhone will not be my first step on this journey. Here are the steps I'll be following:

Step 1: Apply for iPhone Developer Status - Cost - 1 hour - $99
I had read on some blogs that this was a 6 month approval process, so I made this my first step, wasn't that hard really. I signed up as an individual, not a company, not sure if that was the right choice or not. The application only took 30minutes to an hour, I'll let you know how long approval takes.


Step 2: Buy a book - Cost - 20minutes - $30ish
I was surprised at the low number of websites dedicated to training people (not programmers) on how to develop iPhone apps (hence the purpose of this blog). I did find a few lenses on Squidoo, and some recommended books in Amazon. Will take a couple weeks for the book to arrive.

Step 3: Shop for / buy an iPhone - unknown cost of time and money
I'll begin this process at Best Buy tomorrow

Step 4: Play around with iPhone / download apps

Step 5: Read intro book

Step 6: Order advanced books

Step 7: Begin programming apps

Step 8: Complete 1st app

Step 9: Apply for app to be carried in app store

Step 10: Develop alternative distribution model?

Step 11: Review process, refine

Step 12: Repeat

I'll re-visit this step-by-step process along the way to futher develop the cost of time and $ of each step, and give you a play book to follow along with at home.

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