Can you make money if your app is for free

Apps generate a lot of data in terms of user behavior, which is highly desired by those who are in different research fields. Entrepreneurship Tech Navigator views 6 min. Well, besides the platform, the type of revenue that an app makes will largely depend on the monetization strategy, which we will cover in greater detail shortly. We also selected for you an interesting video about mobile app developing.

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We use cookies to allow monry and selected partners to improve your experience and our advertising. By continuing to browse you consent to our use of cookies. You can understand more and change your cookies preferences. It may sound too good to be true, but there really are free smartphone apps that will pay you to use. We tested eight of these apps over a four-week period, using each of them equally, so it’s easy to spot vor of them require the biggest time investment in order to make serious money.

How Much Money Can an App Earn?

Our number one goal at DollarSprout is to help readers improve their financial lives, and we regularly partner with companies that share that same vision. Some of the links in this post may be from our partners. Need some extra cash? Do you spend a lot of time on your smartphone? I know I do. What if, instead of wasting time on your iPhone, you could actually make some money instead?

The App Market overview

We use cookies to allow us and selected partners to improve your experience and our advertising. By continuing to browse you consent to our use of cookies. You can understand more and change your cookies preferences. It may sound too good to be true, but there really are free smartphone apps that will pay you to use. We tested eight of these apps over a four-week period, using each of them equally, so it’s easy to spot which of them require the biggest time investment in order to make serious money.

Some of these apps can be used whenever you have a few minutes spare, regardless of where you are. For these, we dedicated the equivalent of 10 minutes per working day for 20 days or every working day for four weeks to testing these apps. Other apps can only be taken advantage of in certain circumstances as you go about your everyday life.

Our tester kept these apps installed for four weeks and used them whenever the opportunity arose. This came from just four of the eight apps we tested — we didn’t earn enough points to cash out on the fro. See our reviews below to get an idea of how much you can expect to make if you download these apps. Job Spotter pays users to take photos of job adverts in windows and submit them to the app’s creators. Jobseekers can then view these adverts online.

Snappers are rewarded between five and points per advert, depending on its originality. This is calculated by a bespoke algorithm within the app — essentially a computer programme that decides how ‘valuable’ the advert is. A unique advert for a small ap is worth more points than a generic opportunity for a large company across multiple locations.

With Job Spotter, you’ll earn points for each job advert you snap on the high street. Job Spotter is simple to use. Simply open the app, press a button to load the camera, snap the advert and the store’s name, then submit.

You should be done within seconds. You might be surprised how many job adverts you come across when you’re actively looking for. Each point earned is worth one US cent. Of the eight apps we tested, Job Spotter was the highest-paying by some distance.

Roamler pays you for performing small mystery shopping tasks around the city. These tasks usually involve taking photos of stock in shops or supermarkets, and answering questions about product availability. Typically, each task takes no longer than a few minutes. The more complicated missions tend to offer better rewards. Roamler is an invitation-only app, so you’ll need to track down an invite code from an existing user.

We managed to secure a code by asking for one on the Roamler UK Facebook page. New users have a;p complete a series of unpaid tasks before getting any opportunities to earn cash. This helps ensure that only committed users are offered paid tasks. It also helps equip users with the necessary knowledge to complete tasks correctly. Even after completing this training, we still failed some tasks, so there’s a learning curve involved.

With each task completed, you’ll earn experience points which eventually allow you to ‘level up’. Higher-level users are offered more paid tasks. We reached Level 2 within a few days. At this point, new paid tasks typically popped up every couple of days.

In London, some tasks could be completed across 50 or more locations, but you have to be pretty quick to accept them or another Roamler user will beat you to it. We didn’t travel too far out of our way to perform tasks, only accepting those within a short distance. Level 2 users can accept a maximum of five tasks a day, so committed users could earn far more over four weeks than we did. It all depends on how much effort you’re willing to put in.

Toluna is primarily an app moeny pays you for taking surveys. It’s simple to create your own short surveys, or gather opinions on can you make money if your app is for free topic you’re interested in. This creates a unique sense of community among Toluna users. There is an impressive range of gift cards, rewards or sweepstake entries for you to spend your points on.

Of all the survey apps we tested, Toluna was the easiest and the most rewarding to use, although it did crash twice just as we were completing a major survey.

We were rejected from completing a lot of surveys after filling out our demographic information, but were able to complete a far greater proportion of them compared to the other apps we tested. We completed 11 major surveys and dozens of minor surveys during our day testing period, earning a total of 27, points. Fronto places adverts on your phone’s lock screen and pays points for unlocking your phone.

If you click through to the websites advertised, you can earn more points. Fronto has minimal impact on your smartphone usage unless you’re easily distracted by viral articles. Our tester kept Fi installed on his phone for four ls and racked up 6, points.

Pocket Bounty allows you to earn js by taking surveys, downloading apps, entering competitions and even watching videos. However, uour can expect to frree a lot of time filling out demographic information, only to then be told you’re not suitable to take. Those with careers outside these fields may have better luck. Trying to earn coins by downloading apps proved similarly time-consuming. With some, you only need to install and open the app to earn coins, but other downloads only pay out if you get through to a certain point a specific level of a game for example.

Many of the download links were interrupted by pop-up miney. You’ll earn one coin fot watching a minute advert, and this typically triggered the appearance of another ad you have to watch for free. This is definitely the least time-effective method of earning coins. The competitions are typically littered with dozens of tick boxes asking if you’d like to be contacted by advertisers, so be vigilant when scrolling through.

Our tester earned coins over the day period. Receipt Hog pays you to take photos of your receipts, and those collected by others in your household. The maximum amount of coins you can earn from submitting receipts is capped at per week. Receipts from other types of retailers, including clothes, electronics and home improvement stores, earn you one spin on the ‘Hog Slots’.

This slot machine game pays out between 0 and 2, coins per spin. Each receipt submitted earns you one entry to the monthly sweepstakes, where huge coin bonuses are handed. But it will take a minimum of 10 weeks to earn this just from scanning receipts, although big wins on the Hog Slots can speed up your earning potential. After four weeks of snapping receipts, we earned just coins.

You can earn points or Swagbucks as they are called by making web searches, watching videos or completing surveys. There is also has an associated cashback site which rewards you in Swagbucks rather than cash. It quickly became apparent that watching videos and making web searches would not the most time-efficient method of earning Swagbucks. The sporadic rewards offered while using the search engine weren’t worth the extra effort of navigating to it in the app, while yojr videos only paid a pittance.

The quickest way to earn Swagbucks for free appeared cab be filling out surveys. However, as with all of the survey apps we tested, we were often rejected from taking part after filling out our demographic information.

The Swagbucks cashback site had plenty of available deals, although not compared to the likes of Quidco and TopCashback. There are plug-ins available that make it almost effortless to earn Swagbucks from your desktop computer.

For example, you can make the Swagbucks search engine your default option — or run Swagbucks video ads in the background while you’re working. Making serious money from the smartphone app appears to be a real slog. We spent ten minutes a day attempting to ffee out surveys fan 20 days, and earned Swagbucks.

Voxpopme pays you for offering your opinion on a range of subjects. Simply upload a one-minute video of you talking about the subjects offered to you. You’ll earn 25p for each video. Money Compare is a trading names of Which? Money Compare content is hosted by Which? Limited on behalf of Which? Financial Services Limited.

Money-saving Tips. In this article. Job Spotter Roamler Toluna Fronto. Use Which? Money Compare. Try Which? Our best-selling monthly delivered to your door, unlimited phone access to our money experts, and. More on Making Money.

Cashback sites. All on Making Money. Latest money-saving tips news. Open Banking turns two: 15 apps set to transform your money.

22 Best Money Making Apps for 2020

Another type of tools worth mentioning works with in-app video ads. Organizations can use the Slack app for free, but companies that require a bit more flexibility and support can pay a premium for those services. Despite advertisement is wide used by developers, it remains the most hated by users, so it should become a part of the interaction and act as its natural. The value of WhatsApp to Facebook may simply be the community of users that are enjoying the service. Here are screenshots for the Uber app for iOS: Note that Uber uses verbs in their screenshot descriptions, which is the correct approach. Image source: Sensotower Developing a free mobile app is definitely the right business strategy. A number of apps can you make money if your app is for free be found on each platform, including Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, and Amazon. Subtly tease them with those enhanced features and benefits. Email marketing has always been and still is a powerful money-making strategy. Considering the capitalistic society that we live in, you have to wonder: How do any of these companies make money? In the app world, developers are in high demand and are compensated accordingly. Apps yoyr to be displayed at the right time to be effective. No, I know what I’m doing… Yes, show me appp This graphic can help steer you in the right direction in terms of what you should be looking .