How to Validate Your App Ideas with Jordan Valeriote

Winning with Apps – Jordan Valeriote

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About the Episode

How to do make sure that your app idea has the great chance of success? Well today’s guest talks about the process he uses to validate his app ideas. Also, listen to the part of the show where he shares some of the biggest mistakes he’s made in the app business.

Jordan Valeriote is the Co-owner of The App Ward.

Show Notes

Validating Your App Ideas

Jordan is a great believer of “App Empire”, a book written by Chad Mureta about financial success in the apps market. Jordan applied everything he learned from this book when he launched his first app. He himself has written an e-book, Get My Two–Step Process for Picking Winning App Ideas, on the subject of how to give an app its fair share of success. Basically, it talks about validating the app idea as a sound one before doing anything else. How to do this? Jordan advises to go search for apps similar to your app. Check out the competition, so to speak. This will give you a clue if this app is popular and if there is a demand for this genre. Look at rank history, look at the top 2 ranks that lasted for 3 months, then answer the question, “Is your app similar to this?” If it is, that is a good indication that there is demand for your app. The second step is to promote the app and Jordan recommends cross promoting or basically advertising in similar types of apps.

Big Mistakes an App Creator Can Do

Jordan expounds on sound business practices that he did not do but should have done. Here are the mistakes he feels everyone should avoid:

Do not hire the first developer you have interviewed. Go with your gut feel. If you think the developer is not up to par, do not hire him. If you have already hired him, let him go. In the long run, such a decision will save you time and money.
Check out preconceived notions. Jordan thought pop-up ads were tacky until he found out how much other guys were making out of these tacky pop-ups.
Never assume you know the market’s mind. Test theories. For example what is the happy balance between too many ads and too few ads? Get the stats to support assumptions otherwise throw them away.
Capitalize on what works. If you had a killer app, go and build version 2. Do not go for an entirely new app. Then capitalize on your existing base and cross promote.
Go for the winning formula. If you have a killer app, analyze why it is so. Then replicate it on your next app. Do not get sidetracked with what you want to happen but always use the market pulse as your guide.

What advice would you give to anyone looking to make it in the app business?

When thinking of creating an app, do not leave anything to chance. Research, go out, ask. It is important to know what people like. Then go for repeatability. If the app has worked before, try something similar.