Last month I caught up with a young Ugandan software developer (names withheld, we shall call him Ben) who narrated to me his hustle and ordeal on how he started earning over UGX 1.7 million per month. There is no doubt that software developers tend to be introverted and so is Ben. Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) scores always put developers with ST characteristics. This score is basically an introspective self-report questionnaire indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.
Ben’s story is one of persistence and resilience, he is a student at one of the Universities in Uganda and he learned to code by myself. He has the affinity to create new stuff and learn new things. That’s how it all started. First, he made a small dating app, which was a failure. Then he made several apps and all of them also turned out not to bear any fruit –but this was clearly a great learning curve for Ben and he gained a hell lot of experience for this.
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One night the developer just got an idea to make an app which is very simple that took him three days to build. The app’s basic idea is to provide random funny and unusual answers to the trivia quiz. He published the app to the Google Play Store and made some ASO (App Store Optimization). This way his app was targeting a wider global audience than his initial Uganda only audience.
Editor’s Note: Ben declined us to mention his app for his own “security” and most importantly to avoid this post from turning into a promotion for his app.
After a year, Ben’s app got several downloads like 50–100 per day, “I earned around 1 – 2 $ per day of the course which is so low but I constantly add new questions and answer because I never want to give up on my app” Ben narrates. At the end of 2019, his app got more visibility because he made some changes in the app description. Before he knew it, this developer was getting around 500- 600 downloads, which gave him 3–6 $ per day. He shared with us screenshots of his app earning trends.
After a month Ben decided to revamp his trivia app. So he made major changes which included;
- An improved app’s User Interface ( Implemented the dark mode theme his app because nowadays its a trend and people go crazy for dark mode )
- Added a new section called “Posts”
- Created a new Icon with material theme and trending style also made new Feature Graphic and Screenshots
- Optimized the description with keywords (Using Google Trends which is so helpful and most of the people don’t care about that)
- Added a promo video for his app using After Effects Template because according to some reports Promo video always increase your installs rate by 25%.
At the beginning of 2020 before the lockdown, his app got 100k downloads by January 2020. He narrates to Techjaja that this was one of the best days of his life
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By April 2020 downloads to his app increased day by day, he got more than 3,000 daily active users, which was not that good according to him but for a mere student in Uganda, it was awesome. He got 7,600 daily active users at peak (Check out below Google Analytics)
His earning increased to about 20- 29$ a day and he earned $476 last month which he received from Google, which is huge money for a student. (Check out the screenshot below)
Ben has really worked hard on this app because he loves it. He told Techjaja;
“Never give up on something or someone you really want… no matter how hard it is, there is always a way”
