How Not to Make Money from Apps

By Zhenyi Tan

The more I think about it, the more it seems that my “advice” about selling apps to small business teams is outdated. It’s much harder to sell business software now than it was 10 years ago.

Why? Because of popular tools like Slack, Google Docs, Notion, WhatsApp, etc., more and more small businesses have put together makeshift systems that work for them.

The system doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to work. If the system works, they don’t need new solutions, which means they won’t look at your offerings.

Even if they are looking for solutions, 10 years ago they would google for apps to help run their business. There weren’t many back then, so you could get lucky with SEO. Now, when they google for the same thing, they see listicles of the best whatever apps in 2024, filled with the same AI-generated slop that Google likes. It’s funny how Google results are now just a list of lists.

This is why so many people are doing social media marketing. They’re not selling apps, they’re treating their app as a membership program.

So how do you make money from apps these days? I don’t know. Maybe you should get into farming instead.