With over 140,000 Apps now on the App Store there are many people out there with great ideas for Apps, but since they're not developers they don't really have a way of getting their Apps developed and then published. Contracting a developer to write an App for you could easily cost you $10,000 or more and of course since the average price of an App is $0.99 to $1.99. Even if you charged $9.99 (and it better be one hell of an App) it could take you a long long time to recoup that investment and worse you may never recoup it. Luckily there are developers out there that have seen this as an opportunity to help individuals and small businesses get Apps out there without having to pay an arm and two legs.
Build your own App online
Although I already have my "Learn the Adobe Creative Suite with Terry White" App on the App store, I couldn't resist testing out the service by AppMakr.com that allows you to build your own App all right there on their website. I built my own NEW "Terry White" app which is now available for FREE on the App store. Now don't feel bad if you have/paid for my other App because it still has Exclusive bonus content that the New App doesn't.
AppMakr.com let's you build your own App
Now before you go getting all excited thinking that you'll be the next App Store millionaire success story, there are some things you have to know about this "build your own App" sites. For the most part they are simply allowing you to build and brand your own App featuring your RSS feed(s). More importantly the App you build will be published to the App Store (pending Apple's approval) as a FREE app. Basically this is a way for bloggers and content creators to have their own native App making it easy for your audience to get all of your content in one place.
How does it work?
You simply go to AppMakr.com and start building your App. You can import your own graphics for the icon and splash screen. You can then start pointing the App to your various RSS feeds. So for example, my New App features my Terry White Tech Blog, Best App Site, Creative Suite Podcast, my Flickr.com feed, my YouTube feed, my Twitter feed and my MacNews feed.
Is there any way to make money?
Yes, actually there is a way (and it's OPTIONAL) to have a banner ad on the bottom of the screen of your App. It's small and doesn't stop the user from seeing the content, but what's nice is that the Banner Ad can be setup using your own Ad source such as Google Ad Sense.
Are there other sites that offer this too?
Yes! Actually AppMakr.com was the first one that I ran into, but right after I submitted my App to be published I saw these kind of sites popping up left and right. Also check out isites.us, Seattle Clouds and swebapps.com.
How much does it cost?
Each site offers different options, the average cost is anywhere from $25-$200 to create your App. Most price it as a one time charge per App. So if you want to change it, you're basically going to pay the same price again! Some however, may offer a price that allows for updates.
The Bottom Line
I wasn't really interested in this kind of App at first because my blog(s) already offer a pretty good viewing experience on the iPhone/iPod touch. However, when I realized that I could build multiple feeds into it and even include things like my Flickr.com photos and YouTube feed, I was much more interested. As far as AppMakr.com goes they seem to be at the higher end of the price range and one thing that is sorely missing is the ability to build in a "Contact" page with things like links to your website, email address, etc. One work around for this would be to create a simple "Contact" feed and make one post to it that has your contact info. On the Mac there's a great app called Feeder that would do this easily. If if you made it yourself (XML for a one time thing is not that hard) in a text editor, you'd only have to do it once. Lastly I think it's (AppMakr.com) kinda pricey if you need to make a small change or add a feed that you would have to pay the full price again. With that said, there is competition so you can compare and shop around.
Terry White
The Terry White App featuring his tech blog, bestappsite, Adobe Creative Suite Podcast, Photography, and more.
- Terry White
- AppMakr.com
- Get on App Store
- Free
All info was collected on 4th February, 2010 when the app was reviewed.
About Terry White
Terry is the co-author of The Best Selling "The iPhone Book" 1st, 2nd and 3rd editions. He has been active in the industry for over 25 years and is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit, Inc., Michigan's largest Macintosh Users Group, host of the Adobe Creative Suite Podcast and a technology writer - Terry White Tech Blog.
Pretty sweet service … Thanks for sharing!
Talk soon,
Ryan
I can not download Terry White Built by AppMaker.com on my 1st generation IPod Touch.
The error displayed is:
This App is incompatible with this IPod Touch. This app requires a microphone.
Terry – thanks for the heads up about the Contact Feed. I hadn't thought of that, and I've already published an App with Appmakr. "Adobe Talk" is awaiting approval for it's 2nd build. Heh heh, now I have to look at a 3rd build.
You missed uBuildApp.com – way more features, no monthly fee, free updates, live preview, and so much more. If it sounds like a plug, it is. AppMakr has received a lot of press, but my biased opinion is uBuildApp.com is way better.
Definitely a cool site!
Thanks Ed and Terry for the heads up.
Looks like a very interesting opportunity for folks.
Too bad Appmakr doesn't work on 1st generation iPod Touch. Why not? No one knows.
There's another, free way to get rss post headlines and a few extra words including links on your iPhone.
Use WordPress & Twitter!
I run several sites focused on Temperature & Moisture Sensor technologies & new product news, We are converting them over to WordPress and already have five done.
Adding a twitter plugin has enabled us to blend the five rss feeds to a twitter account as tweets. Then, just looking at our twitter account in Safari (twitter.com/MrPyrometer) shows the tweets in order of postings.
Plus the live links, lets one easily get info from the linked sites without opening another app.
A plugin might make it easy but Safari & a bookmark on the iPhone is just about as easy, and totally free.
Love it!
This was a great tip! Thanks so much. I put together an app for my organization, then saw the cost ~ but my boss was so impressed he whipped out the credit card. I got handshakes he was so happy. Again, thanks!
The bottom line is that there are a lot of non-programming options for apps these days, and AppMakr may not be your best choice. For instance, their apps will not run on the 1st gen iPod Touch, an arbitrary limitation. If you want to learn before you leap, there was a recent survey of almost two dozen app-building options: http://blog.appsfire.com/want-to-build-an-app-here-are-your-options