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Ask HN: My Nursing Reference App is Helping Poor Clinics, Losing Money
16 points by mncolinlee on Aug 19, 2013 | hide | past | favorite | 9 comments
I just wrote this Android app as a solo portfolio piece without carefully considering how to monetize it. At the time, I was more concerned with learning new APIs like Google Volley and also with creating an interesting side project to advertise my app development services.

Now, I have entire clinics in poorer countries like the Philippines and Nigeria which depend upon my free, ad-supported app.

I will soon pass a request limit and need to start paying API fees to Pearson which are quite a bit greater than my Google AdMob advertising revenue. If I do not find a way to gain more paid subscribers or earn more ad revenue, I will start losing a significant amount of money.

I want a way to keep my app alive for clinics in poor countries, but to hopefully also meet the break even point. Does anyone have any advice for a solo developer?

Thanks!

Here's the app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.colintheshots.nursingguide&hl=en



Grants might help fund it. If your software is genuinely helping third world clinics, you can probably get some funding for it. Talk to a nonprofit grant-writing organization specializing in third world health care.

You might also be able to negotiate a special rate (or even free) from Pearson as a charitable contribution. If their software costs are what threaten your financial stability, and it's for a good cause, they might be willing to write it off.

So talk to Pearson, and talk to nonprofit health care grant specialists. Those would be potentially more effective than trying to figure out how to monetize.


As for monetizing... if you can stabilize your app financially so it's at least self-supporting via grants/charity (ooh, get Pearson to sponsor it!), you could then leverage that success into a for-profit startup targeted at the money-rich American market.


Maybe you can find a way to charge for it in richer countries, while keeping it free in developing countries?

People might feel more likely to pay for it if there as some nominal, charitable aspect to it: "Buy now and help support women's health clinics in Nigeria", that sort of thing.


I was just going to say, if the problem is that you are losing money due to the popularity of your free app, the clear solution is to charge for it. Either people will pay, or they will stop using it.

Now, that's a bit cynical, and given the OP's concern about keeping it free for those in need, there are a few variations on this:

* Only charge for the 'pro' version which has more features/no throttling

* Charge based on licensing requirements, or some other requirement that people with money would care about, but those without do not

* Charge via microtransactions, but offer free credits to nonprofits/those in provable need


I like the idea you mention. Sounds like it can be used for many endeavours.

OP, do you have any traction in developed nations?


Yes, the top country for my customers is the United States followed by the Philippines and Nigeria.


You can look for collaborators/co-founders who may able to help you http://sideprojectors.com


What about have users register their own api key and let them insert that into your application?


I noticed that they closed off generating new API keys. It's possible that this is because they created their own iOS app and could be working on an Android one.




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