How I started making money programming PC and Android apps

[Van-Tramp]

In early 2017, and at 45 years old, I closed up my old company that provided my sole income and began learning a new language, a computer programming language. After doing a bit of research I found that C# (pronounced "C Sharp") best fit what I wanted to do. What did I want to do? Originally, to make indie-games for the PC. C# is the cousin to the bigger and badder C++ which is a bit more hard core. C# does everything C++ does, but with less stress about memory management, which it does automatically without my having to tell it everything. That, to me, was a big plus.

First things first, you can learn to code for free. The programs you require to wrote code and compile just about anything you want are all free! Check out Microsoft's Visual Studio to start, although there are others. You do not even need a powerful computer to do this, even an older laptop will do.

So I went to school learning C# by using the free tutorials I found online. First, I wanted a reputable tutor, not just any tween with a YouTube account, so I started with the absolute beginner videos at Microsoft University. This even got me acquainted with the software I would be using to writing code. I finished those with a lot of questions in my head, so I just kept watching other beginner-level videos online. Another extremely simple one that I enjoyed is this one, super simple but very informative. Take notes while watching these videos. I had a huge cheat-sheet of functions built up before I finished the videos. A huge help in the coming months.

I watched video after video, and then wrote my first program. It was a simple game by today's standards, but it was a big one for me. This was only months after starting to learn to code, and I was writing my own game. I learned a ton doing that, with constant barriers being run into, I did a lot of google-searches to find the solutions. Thanks to Q&A sites like Stack Overflow I was getting questions answered easily and learning more and more every day. Anyway, after a month or two I finished my game and it worked! It isn't sell-able or anything but I proved to myself I could do it.

 

[Van-Tramp]

I had two old software projects from my previous company, ones that I wrote in some off-brand language back in 2009 and 2014. So, by mid 2017 I decided to re-write one of them from scratch, while learning the Unity game engine (also free to download and use). I spent the next 45 days re-writing my old program in C# and leaning how to incorporate it into Unity. Why Unity? Because it will compile my game for PC, Mac, Android, iOS, and a ton of other platforms. Literally I could write a single program, and export it out to multiple different languages to sell in multiple different markets. And I did just that over a 60-day period.

By October, I was putting my new app on the PC market. I had contact with a few hundred of my old customers on Facebook, so that seriously helped jump start the word-of-mouth marketing. Over the next 8 weeks, I brought in about $5000 in sales. Not bad for a month and a half worth of work! It trickled in at five to six hundred dollars each month after that for a few months.

In April of this year I took that same PC application and did the tweaks I needed to do to convert it too Android. I also opened up a Google Play Store account (one time $25 fee) and released that same app on the Android market. This took me a single week worth of work, but that work tripled and then quadrupled the income on that app. Monthly sales figures were nearing $2000 a month.

I was using some of that money to learn about marketing, and started my first ever paid advertising on Facebook and Reddit. This really brought some crowds in to see what I was offering! So much so that I had to spend some time re-designing the web page for the app so it would better convert a web visitor to a buyer. Good stuff to learn. Money was coming in and I was learning good stuff.

 

[Van-Tramp]

In May I started on re-writing the other app that I had from my past. It was going to be sold to the same group that bought my first app, and that pool had grown thanks to the ads. Again, I spent about 45 days on the programming and getting it setup on the storefronts. I released it, at the end of June, to both PC and Android markets and my sales immediately trippled.

I do not expect it to hold that income of course, and July has already proven that expectation, but I went from shutting down a business I had for a decade, to learning a new trade all together, releasing apps on the market, and making money within 10 months. It could certainly be done faster (or slower) but it beat my expectation by over a year. And, each new app I work on I intentionally force myself to write code using techniques I do not already know. This forces me to learn more, and I am earning a few bucks too!

I've already made more income in the first half of 2018 then I was making over an entire year with my previous business's final few years. Just this month I started on my next project; a Van Life game in fact. I expect to have it released for PC and mobile by the end of the year. I'm feeling pretty confident with savings set aside to get me through the six months and the know how to create and sell apps.

I really wish I had done this 10+ years ago!

 

[LoveCareThinkDo]

Dude! This is really great. I'm a Java programmer (which C# is a bit of a clone of) but I have never been a professional developer yet. Just college homework stuff. I've been working on a Master's in Computer Science, but that is not working out for me. 

I have considered creating "games" in Unity that are actually interactive diagrams and lessons in Computer Science topics. That is the beauty of Unity. What you make doesn't necessarily have to be a game. 

This is very encouraging.

Now, I just need to find some other job to keep me from starving while I work on my programming skills.

 

[tx2sturgis]

I wish I knew how to do this...I have an idea for a particular type of weather app that as far as I know, no one else has done...

Obviously I wont reveal the exact idea, because I think it has value. Maybe some day, in the nursing home, I will have time to learn code!

 

[wayne49]

Not exactly starting from scratch when you "had contact with a few hundred of my old customers".

Networking. Who you know and who knows you.