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I had the privilege of interviewing Benny Hsu just a short time ago to discuss his recent success with his iPhone App. When I decided to finally launch my podcast, I knew that Benny was one of the people that I wanted to interview. His story is incredibly inspirational, and due to my recent interest in building iPhone Apps, I wanted to learn as much from him as I could!
If you are not familiar with his story, Benny created an iPhone app called Photo 365 that quickly turned into a big success for him. How big? Well, its was so big that Apple featured it as an App of the week, and on the podcast Benny shared that his highest earning day during that peak period was $2,927.44! Can you imagine watching your earnings grow like that all day? I would love to check my earnings one day and see it nearly hit $3,000 for the day!
In addition, during this podcast interview Benny shares the exclusive information of how much the app has made to date in total. He has not shared this anywhere else…including his own blog!
In this interview, Benny shares his story how he went from not really knowing what to do in college to eventually working in his family restaurant, where he has been for a little over 10 years. Then about a year ago he heard how Pat Flynn was able to outsource nearly every aspect of his iPhone App business. This inspired Benny to take some action..after all, he could outsource the programming!
He read the book: How to Create iPhone Apps without Programming Experience (I've read this book myself and its a good one) to get some basic education, and then began the process of creating an iPhone app.
So, he took action, thought of a great idea, and then executed that plan. He launched his Photo 365 iPhone App in August of 2011. To say the least, its been a big success for him. So much so, that he is already near the end of creating 2 additional iPhone apps that he plans to launch very soon.
I absolutely LOVE stories like this! Benny had a “normal” job of working in his family's restaurant, but was still able to create something that is now bringing him a decent income even now. He goes into more details about how much the app is making him right now.
During the course of our interview, here are some of the things we discussed:
- Outsourcing iPhone Apps on Elance.com
- Photo365 iPhone App
- How Photo365 became App of the week
- How he made $2,927.44 in 1 day
- How much Photo365 has made to date (exclusive information here!)
- The “dark side” of owning an iPhone app
- How to Market an iPhone App
- Benny Hsu's blog: Getbusylivingblog.com
- The importance of simplicity
Overall, I really enjoyed the interview with Benny and found it highly motivational. In addition, I was able to ask some questions about my own iPhone App: Ad Alert, which I will be launching in 2 weeks. So, I was able to get some great pointers, but the information he provided can be applied to any iPhone app out there.
So, if you are considering creating an iPhone app, you definitely will want to listen to this interview. In addition, I would love to hear any comments or questions that you might have below.
If you enjoy the podcast, please consider leaving a review on iTunes right here! More reviews helps Apple know whether or not I have a good podcast and will eventually help more people find it. Thanks for considering.
You can also read more solopreneur success stories here.
Listen to the Podcast Here:
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10 Comments
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Great interview! My favorite thing about your story Benny is that you prove that just like you said – to have a successful app you don’t need to have a completely original complicated idea. You don’t need to create the next Angry Birds! Just listen to the market and let the market tell you what they want! That is great advice no matter what business you’re in!
Congrats on your success and I’m looking forward to hearing about the success of your new apps in the near future! 🙂
Thank you so much Thomas! Appreciate the kind words!
Awesome interview spencer! The research aspect of apps is very similar to creating websites or ebooks – create something that the market is already buying, but improve on it.
Lots of other great points made in the podcast.
I do have one question:
When you get an idea for an app and are looking for an app developer, do you have them sign an NDA or something like that BEFORE you give the details of app? or do you have them sign AFTER? or not at all?
Thanks again!
Thanks Shuck! I don’t do any type of NDA. I’m of the opinion that there are millions of great ideas – a great business is built through execution. So, a bad idea can make really good money with proper execution and marketing. Whereas the most brilliant idea every could never make a single dime without good execution. Anyway, I’m not a fan of NDAs at all…no need in my opinion.
I agree with Spencer’s answer. Most programmers aren’t in the business of stealing ideas. I haven’t used a NDA since my first one (working on #3 now).
Plus you have to think if they do steal your idea, will it be worth the time and money to sue someone living overseas? Probably not.
Thanks for listening!
Thanks so much for the interview. You asked some great questions so I hope it proves to be valuable to your audience!
Great example of making a good product improving an existing idea. I had a professor once tell me “you don’t need to re-invent the wheel, just start off where others have failed and ended.”
Benny, do you have any other apps published or in the works?
Amir
Thanks Amir! Yes I do have a couple more apps in the works right now. Hope to have them out in the next 1-2 months!
thanks for a great episode Spencer and Benny
Benny – a question for you
you mentioned the use of keywords in your submission. can you shed more light on which fields are searchable / crawlable within the app listing page on itunes?
in other words, do you recommend we insert our keywords in the “keyword” area only? or also in the app description and title? any others?
thanks again
Great question Sunil.
I would definitely focus on adding your main keyword in your app name if you can. I just read an article that says out of 100 searches, 91 were for app function. So people don’t search for specific names of an app. Just what it does. So focus on that.
Then there is an area where you can add more keywords. Focus on that next.
I’m not sure if it will search your description for keywords. It doesn’t hurt though.
But those two areas they definitely search.
Hope that helps!