MBA1972 Should You Offer Your Product in an App Store + Free Ride Friday

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Visit Dell.com deals. Hey oh. Welcome to the Hundred Dollar MBA Show. Pump up the volume for better business goodness every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started with my co founder back in 2014 and today is Free Ride Friday. On Free Ride Friday, we give away a lifetime membership to one of our programs. All you gotta do is leave us an Apple Podcast rating and review to enter our weekly random draw. Listen in on Friday to see if you won. Just like today, it's that simple. It's our way to say thanks for showing us love. In today's lesson you will learn should you offer your product in an app store, many people wonder, are there advantages? Are there disadvantages? Are there risks? Are there worries? When it comes to having your product in any kind of app store, whether it's the Apple App Store, Android Shopify, the Chrome Store, any business or product that has an ecosystem and offers some way to be a part of the ecosystem, part of that marketplace is essentially a partnership. They need you and you need them. Or at least you're kind of interested in what they can give you, which is exposure, which is a way for you to reach an audience. But it's not all sunshine and rainbows. There are a few things you need to consider as well as some options when it comes to being a part of an App Store. We get into that and more in today's lesson. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Gas, snacks, tolls.

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Depending on your product or depending on what you actually offer, this is going to dictate a lot. So in essence, we're part of the Apple Podcasts Store, right? You can find our podcasts on the Apple Podcast app. So we're kind of syndicated on there. But it's not the only option if you're on an iPhone. If you're on an Android, you can always listen to our podcast with different apps, whether you're using Himalaya or using Stitcher or using Overcast or using Spotify, right? If you have an iPhone, you have several different options. If an Android, you have several different options. It's not like what we used to actually, where most people listen to podcasts through Apple podcasts only. The point here is that your audience or your customers have options. So if for any reason you need to not be in that store or not be a part of that ecosystem. It's not a disaster for your customers. There could be other options, like they can access your product, your app, on a browser rather than using the mobile app, meaning they're actually using their phone, but using the browser on the phone. The other thing you need to consider is the actual app store. Different app stores, whether it's Shopify or Apple or Android, they have different rules. For example, if it costs money to use your app, some app stores are going to require you to use their payment processing system to charge these customers rather than you offer the app for free and allow people to sign up on your website. This allows appsource to grow and make a profit. The other thing you need to consider is whatever your product or software, whatever it is, are you going to offer that service, that product to other people outside of these platforms? For example, you might have a fun little app that creates messages or banners on websites, and you built it for Shopify websites. So you're part of the Shopify store so that you can offer it to Shopify customers. But what if somebody doesn't have a Shopify store? Are you going to offer that great little function on different kinds of websites like WordPress or Squarespace, or are you going to just be exclusive to Shopify? Does it even make sense for you to do it on another platform? Like it might be very shopping cart or e commerce focused? So now that we've gone through some of the considerations, what are some of the benefits? What's the good news here? What are some of the positives of being part of an app store? Well, I got a lot of friends in entrepreneurship that have products in app stores and more than not, and most of them are actually quite happy. They get a lot of exposure, they get a lot of installs, they get a lot of help. They get exposure and kind of free marketing through their app store, through Shopify or Apple or whatever. In a lot of ways, it gets them off the ground. It allows them to get a bit of velocity in the beginning and get some reoccurring customers. Many of these app stores have a way for customers to review them, give great feedback, give star ratings. And this kind of gives them even more exposure. Because when people look at the options they have in your niche, they find you and say, hey, love the reviews I see here. So if you got a great product, then usually the cream rises to the top in these marketplaces. What they also like is they know how to target their customers. They know that they use Shopify so they can run ads they can be able to run ads specific to Shopify users. It's just a little bit more niche, so it allows them to really save a bit of money on targeting the right people. Many people like just to focus on one app store because it allows them to really focus all their energy and all their work to making sure their product is great on that platform. For example, many, many products or apps come out on Apple before they come out on Android. Why? Because Apple has a pretty big market share. Apple users spent more money on their phone, so there's a more likely chance they'll spend more money on apps. So people will usually start out, you know, offering their app on the Apple ecosystem, and if things go well, they'll build an Android version. What are some of the negatives? Well, these app stores are very crowded, all right, but they're not as crowded as the entire Internet. When you're not in an App Store, that's basically what you're doing. You're trying to be found in the whole Internet versus being found when somebody's searching for a product in your niche to say, for example, you have a productivity app, they write productivity app or some of the keywords, then you would show up in a shorter list rather than all the apps, obviously. But if you'd write productivity app in Google, you're competing against every single productivity app, web app, mobile app apps, and app stores, ones not in App Stores, ones in different countries. You are in the wild, wild West. Right. Speaking of the wild, wild west, app stores are a little bit more tamed, meaning there's an approval process of getting your app approved. So quality apps usually make it to the App Store. Apple's really known for having pretty strict rules and high standards. It's not to say that, you know, poorly made apps are not there. It just means that there's a bit of a vetting process. So it's not like you could just put whatever you create out in the world in the App Store without anybody approving it. There are gatekeepers, but the procedure is pretty straightforward and it's easy to follow. Now, I want to kind of tie this up a little bit and give you some of my recommendations. My first recommendation in terms of should you have a product on the App Store? If your product is available outside of the App Store too, that's a possibility. Then, yes. This is a definite yes. There's no reason why you should not be in the App Store of your choosing, because it's just going to give you more exposure and give more options to those who are interested in your product. Now, if you're going to focus on just one app store and not be available outside of app stores, understand that this is a partnership. It's almost like a business partnership where you're saying, hey, App Store, I'm going to create this great app. I'm going to provide it to your users. You're going to take a cut of the sales, I'm going to take a cut of the sales, and I'm going to leverage your popularity and your marketplace to my advantage. You are also at the, I would say, mercy of the platform. If the platform goes down, you go down. Okay? If the platform gets mixed up in some sort of controversy in the news, that's going to happen, too. Plenty of people have recently, you know, experienced this with Facebook, you know, caught up in some news, and they built apps on Facebook and therefore, their usership, their customers, went down when people started to leave Facebook. So understand that this is a partnership. If you're okay with that and you're like, hey, I believe in this company, I believe in this platform. I think it's where my business will really strive and thrive. Let's do it right. Go ahead and make it happen. Be part of that App Store. But understand the agreement. Read the terms and conditions. Don't just scroll past it, okay? Actually, this is important when you're signing up to be a partner in an app Store.

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To wrap up today's lesson, App stores are a great way for you to get exposure, to get, you know, some velocity with your first few users, to get ratings and great reviews and feedback and a supportive community. Really. There's communities around these app stores and developers for these app stores that can help you along the way. But understand, this is an agreement. You need to make sure you read the terms. You need to make sure you understand, like I mentioned, you know, the pluses, the minuses, the risks here, the things to consider and be okay with it. Thanks so much for listening to the $100 MBA show. Today's episode's not over, though. It's Free Ride Friday. Let's see who won this week's Free Ride. And the winner is. Larson Soar. Larson Soar says 5 stars. This is a great show. I listen to the show every day before school When I make my breakfast, I love the daily 10 minute business lessons so that I can jumpstart my life. Larson, love the great review. Your mission is to email me over at Omar at 100 MBA net so I can hook you up with the lifetime membership to the automated Webinar challenge over@webinarninja.com AWC. It retails for $99, but it's yours for free because you won Free Ride Friday. If you want to win Free Ride Friday, just leave us an Apple podcast rating and review and you enter our weekly random draw. Listen in on Friday to see if you won. That simple. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Many people like to start their first kind of business, their first software, their first product for an App store, right? Or within an app store because it's a little bit of a structured environment. There's rules, there's ways for you to understand how it works. You're not like in the totally open Internet, right? And like I mentioned, there's communities around it to help support you along the way. Even if you're just new to coding, it just forces you to learn how to code one language, like Swift, if you're building for the Apple App Store and allows you just to learn, hey, this is what I got to do. This is how I submit. There's steps involved. It's a little bit more structured, so it's actually a pretty good place to start if you want to just have a side project and start with your first product on the Internet. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in Monday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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