This is my first non-technical article in my blog, in this article I will write about almost a year journey on Windows Phone and recently started journey of Windows Store. I will take Windows Phone app example and provide my learning on each step. All the learnings of making app in Windows Phone applies to making apps in Windows Store as well.

I started making apps since January, 2012 and my first app was Alphabets got published on 31^st Jan 2012.

This was pretty Vanilla kind of app, it would be good to say it was boring app. I don’t like Vanilla kind of apps then obviously why anyone else will like it. What I do with Vanilla kind of app if I download by mistake I UNINSTALL it immediately.

I wanted to earn money also with apps so I made it paid app, it got downloaded only 5 in first one and half months and 12 so far, see below graph.

Observing 5 download in one half months I decided to submit a free app of same app with ad.

And free one got download 1070 so far and I earned better than paid app through Ad.

I was not very happy with the download progress of free app as well. Yes, there was learning.

Learning 1: The app should not be plain Vanilla which can’t keep engage user for long. Your app should engage user for longer duration, the longer your app holds the user the ad will give you more money.

Then I searched on marketplace and found lot of similar apps I downloaded few similar apps and walked through few of my friends (who are parents) all the four apps along with my app and I asked my friends which app you liked most, obviously I didn’t tell them which one is my app to get unbiased feedback.

Here is the feedback: The images used was best in my app but they will like to use other app because it has voice as well though it was hardly audible. I always wanted to use voice but due to laziness I never did and I integrated there feedback almost after 6 months.

As soon as I implemented voice in my app and it got published in mid of August, I got first rating and review comments and so far 19 review comments of this app. The overall rating of this app is 4 star when writing this article.

Learning 2: Feedback, Feedback and Feedback. If you are not getting review comments of your published app walk through your apps to the target audience if possible, in my case it is kids’ app I walked through friends who are parents to get better feedback.

Learning 3: There was one more learning, DON’T BE IN HURRY TO MAKE APP, spend time to make the app think through how you can make it better and better and better.

So when I got few good review comments and good rating of my app I achieved very little of Learning 1.

In between I keep on creating useless apps without thinking much what can be the best way to implement all the learning.

Then I thought lets create another app for kids keeping in mind to keep the kids engaged with the app for long so that ad can refresh and I can earn some money. Then I created Toddler Counting free app with Ads.

By this app I could succeed to an extent to engage the end user (kids) which reflected in my Ad earning. The download numbers are decent enough keeping in mind this app is only for kids. This app got 35 comments and has 4 star at the time of writing this article.

Learning 4: Get into shoes of target audience and think what they will like, make the app accordingly.

Then my next app was Christmas and so far this is most successful app I have created.

I spent almost three weeks (after office hours and weekends) to create this app and I am getting the result of it by earning.

I got the idea of making Christmas app with Countdown only, then I thought lets search in marketplace and find what kind of apps are available in market. I found bunch of apps around Christmas in marketplace.

I installed 6-8 apps which serve different purpose of Christmas. But I don’t want to keep 6-8 apps of Christmas on my mobile and none of them has the feature I was looking for.

Learning 5: Spend some time to find out, is there any similar app already available like the app you are planning. If yes, is your UI, user experience and features will be better than the available app in market. If yes go ahead and make the app otherwise drop the idea.

Learning 6: Create an app with relevant features around it. Not one app for one feature. No one like to clutter there phone app list with multiple apps revolving around same purpose.

Here is the link of Christmas app http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/christmas/4733e414-386a-40dc-87f7-c931e7b51489 . Yes it is paid app.