Mobile apps are a powerful tool to market and grow your business. Find out why you need one, how to build one and how much it’ll cost.

Mobile apps are big business. According to Statista, there were 197 billion mobile app downloads in 2017. It’s estimated that 81% of smartphone users have the Facebook app on their phones. And research from Flurry Analytics shows that Americans spend an average of five hours a day on their smartphone, and 92% of this time is spent using mobile apps.

If you’re wondering how a mobile app might take your business to the next level, read on to find out.

How much does it cost to develop a mobile app?

The cost to hire an app developer will depend entirely on the solution you choose. We’ve laid out the options in the table below. As you can see, freelancers can significantly reduce the cost of getting your app off the ground. By comparison, Clutch estimates the average cost of an agency-designed app ranges between $30,000 USD and $700,000 USD, with a median cost of $171,450 USD. 

5 reasons why your business needs a mobile app

Now that you know the cost of a mobile app, let’s look at what kind of return you can expect on that investment.

Mobile apps aren’t just for big businesses. Whether you’re a small business, a startup with big plans or an established company, a mobile app can deliver you stickier customers, better sales volumes and useful insights into how your company is operating.

How do mobile apps help small business grow?

You can increase sales

In 2018, retail sales over a mobile platform crossed $600 billion USD. Considering 85% of consumers say they prefer an app over a mobile-friendly website, mobile apps are an enormous sales channel.

A mobile app gives you a direct sales channel to your customers. You can use push notifications, coupon codes and special promotions to market your products or services to your customers wherever they are. Moreover, a purchasing portal and payments system means you’ve made it easier and more convenient for your customers to buy from you.

Finally, a mobile app means your local business can go global. You’re no longer constrained by geography and can reach customers anywhere.

You can build brand loyalty

Living on your customers’ phones means you’re always top of mind. You can connect with your customers 24/7. It also helps differentiate you from your competition to better position your brand. A recent survey by Clutch found that 58% of small businesses don’t have a mobile app and only 30% plan to build one in the future. Offering a mobile app to your customers puts you in a rare category.

You can communicate with your customers

A mobile app can help you connect with your customers, not only for marketing but also to provide support. You can include an FAQ section, link directly to your support phone number or even build in a live chat window to immediately address customer needs.

But a mobile app also provides a channel for immediate marketing communication. You can send push notifications for special promotions, recent developments or reminders. While you don’t want to bombard your customers with constant communication, push notifications are a powerful tool for remaining in contact. Data from Localytics shows 65% of push-enabled users will return to an app within 30 days of downloading it. This is crucial when the average app gets deleted just 5.8 days after its last use.

You can streamline your business processes

A well-built app can help your business run smoother. If you have a payments platform, you can take the pain out of invoicing. If you’re running a retail store, a mobile app can help you keep track of your inventory. Restaurateurs can use a mobile app for bookings to help them better plan staffing. No matter what business you’re in, a well-built mobile app can help it run more efficiently.

You can learn valuable info about your customers

Apps are great for collecting data about your customers. This doesn’t mean you have to spy on your clients. Rather, you can gain valuable insight about customer behavior. You’ll be able to see at a glance the number of customers using your app, where they’ve come from and the products or services they engage with most.

You can expand this to collect demographic info on app users to get a better idea of who your customers are. You can survey customers to find out their age, their income, their interests and other retailers and services they use. This can be a wellspring of information to help your marketing efforts.

Should I build an app or a mobile website?

The question of whether to build an app or a mobile website is a tricky one. A mobile-friendly website is easier to build, but statistics point to the strong return on investment for mobile apps.

The average adult in the US spends 2 hours and 43 minutes per day using mobile apps, versus just 27 minutes browsing the mobile web. Obviously, consumers prefer apps.

There’s plenty of evidence that apps are better for sales as well. E-commerce apps are more effective at closing sales than mobile websites. A study by Criteo found consumers view 4.2 times more products per session on mobile apps versus mobile websites. Conversions on mobile apps are also 3 times higher than on mobile web, and 1.5 times higher than on desktop.

How do I create a mobile app for my business, and what is the process of mobile app development?

If you’ve decided you need an app, there’s a process you should follow to make your app a reality. We’ve broken it down into 11 steps.

1. Ideation

This is the initial concept for your app. It’s likely that if you’re reading this, you’ve already got an idea for an app. If not, check out our guide on generating business ideas and apply some of the tips to your mobile app ideation process.

Once you have an idea, though, you should think through what kinds of features will help your app address its target market. If your app is solving a problem for users, what features make the most sense as a means to solving that problem? If it’s providing entertainment, what features will make it most engaging for users? Sketch out some ideas and a list of features.

2. Validate demand

Once you have an idea and list of features, it’s time to figure out if there’s a market for your app. You’ll do this by determining your total addressable market (TAM) and then estimating the percentage of that market your app could appeal to.

For example, let’s say your idea is a mobile app for dating. Your total addressable market would be the number of single people within the geographic market you’re targeting.

Once you’ve determined the total addressable market, you need to look at existing solutions. Using our dating app example, you could look at apps like Tinder and Bumble. Are there user problems these apps aren’t addressing? What percentage of the market is likely to have these unaddressed problems? Is it a large enough market to make demand for your app viable?

After you’ve determined this, look back at your list of proposed features. Highlight the ones that specifically address user problems that aren’t being addressed by existing solutions. Then think of the features that users expect from an app like yours (for example, the ability to like, match and chat with other users). Narrow your list down to all the features that your target user would want.

3. Determine your MVP features

Now it’s time to narrow that features list even further by determining a set of MVP features. Your MVP is your minimum viable product. MVP features are the minimum set of features your app needs to launch with to function and fulfill its use case for its target market. These are the core features that make your app attractive to users and set it apart from its competitors. Coincidentally, they’re also the only features you should focus on building into your app’s launch version.

It’s tempting to consider every feature you’ve dreamt up an absolute non-negotiable. But it’s important to be brutal in trimming your app down to an MVP for launch. Not only will this ensure you can get your app to market quickly. It also avoids “feature bloat,” which is jamming your app full of features that users won’t end up utilizing and that will make your app slow and difficult to navigate.

To learn more about developing a great digital product, make sure to read our complete guide on pulling off the perfect digital product launch.

4. Wireframe

Wireframing is the process of building the skeleton of your mobile app. A wireframe represents how an app functions, what user events trigger what screens and how users will move through the app.

For wireframing, you’ll likely want to hire a graphic designer rather than an app developer. You’ll want to make sure your designer is an expert at UI (user interface) and UX (user experience). This will ensure they build a wireframe that results in a completed app that’s easy for users to navigate.

5. Determine your platform and tech

Next you’ll need to decide what platform you want to use to build your app. This isn’t just a choice between iOS and Android. You’ll need to decide what kind of app you want to build: native, web or hybrid.

Native apps

A native app is an app built to work on the user’s smartphone or tablet. This will be an iOS or Android app, or perhaps Amazon Fire.

Native apps are built specifically for a device and installed directly on the device itself. They’re downloaded from an app store such as the Apple App Store or the Google Play store.

The benefit of native apps is they can often be used offline. They also allow the app to directly access features of the device, such as the camera or geolocation features. They tend to perform faster, as they store their information on the device.

The downside of native apps is that they’re much more costly to develop and maintain. They also rely on your app being approved by the app store platform you deploy it on. While the Google Play store has a fairly simple approval process, the Apple App Store can take more time.

Web apps

Web apps use the device’s internet browser. Users don’t have to download web apps and can access them from any device. They also don’t have to go through a curation process in an app store. They’re cheaper to build and easier to maintain than native apps.

The downside of web apps is that they can’t be found on an app store. They rely on users finding your web app through an internet search. They also can’t be used offline, and performance can vary dependent on the browser the user chooses. Web apps can’t access a device’s features either. Perhaps the biggest drawback is that web apps don’t live on the user’s device, meaning they don’t put your brand top of mind.

Hybrid apps

A hybrid app combines elements of native and web apps. Hybrid apps use the device’s browser engine, not the browser itself, to access online features, but can function whether or not the device is connected to the internet. They can also access the device’s hardware, such as the camera or accelerometer. Hybrid apps also tend to be less costly to develop than native apps.

The disadvantage of hybrid apps is that they can be less stable than native apps. Hybrid apps use a component called webview to access online features, and webview tends to not perform as well as online features in native apps. It can also be difficult to develop hybrid apps to function the same across different platforms.

Which should I choose?

Your choice will come down to what you want your app to achieve. You’ll have to weigh up the performance of your mobile app against the cost of development. Native apps are the most stable and offer the most functionality, but are also the costliest to develop.

6. Prototype

Your prototype is the point at which you’ll want to hire a mobile app developer. Depending on the platform you’re targeting, you may want to hire a specialist in iOS development, Android development or a developer who’s skilled at both.

Your prototype will be a working version of your wireframe. It’s there to provide a proof of concept. You can use your prototype for user testing. Let friends, family and even strangers in your target market test the prototype and gather their feedback.

7. Design mock-up

This stage is where a graphic designer takes your wireframes and prototype and brings them to life. Once again, you’ll want a graphic designer who can not only make your app look beautiful, but who understands UI and UX principles.

You can also get your graphic designer to work on some of the elements you’ll need to submit your app to the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. This includes a feature image and an app icon.

8. Development

Once you have your mock-up, your developer can code the fully working version of your app. There are a variety of tools they might use to do this. Some of the common skills you might be looking for in a developer would be tools such as:

• Flutter
• Xcode
• Android Studio
• Phonegap
• Xamarin
• Corona

They may also be proficient in various programming languages, including:

• Kotlin
• Swift
• Python
• Rust
• JavaScript
• Java
• Ruby
• PHP
• C++
• C#

9. Test and debug

After your app developer has coded your mobile app and applied the design from your graphic designer, they’ll put it through its paces by testing it. They’ll make sure it works on a variety of different devices and screen formats, and a variety of mobile OS versions. They’ll also test it for various connection speeds.

The testing process is the chance to make sure all the features in your app work as expected, and work in a variety of situations. The process should reveal any bugs plaguing your app. This is the developer’s chance to work out these bugs.

10. Deploy

Once your mobile app has been tested and debugged, it’s time to deploy it to app marketplaces. Depending on the platform you’ve chosen, you may be publishing it on the Apple App Store, the Google Play Store or both. Fortunately, we’ve written in-depth guides on how to publish your app on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

11. Add additional features

Remember all those beautiful features you dreamt up that we cruelly forced you to abandon earlier? Don’t despair! You can add additional features to your app as you gather user feedback. If you’re able to validate demand for a certain feature among actual users of your app, and if it’s technically feasible, you can always add the feature into a future release. This is why you should maintain a relationship with the mobile app developer you hire. They can help with ongoing maintenance, as well as build new functionality for you in the future.

I have a great idea for an app. How do I get it made?

You’ve been converted to the idea that mobile apps are a great source of business. You’ve decided what kind of app you want developed and what you want it to do. Now you just have to figure out how you’re going to get it built.

Unless you’re an expert coder, chances are you’re going to need some help making your mobile app a reality. There are a range of solutions to consider for hiring a mobile app developer.

Should I hire an agency to build my app?

You could hire an external agency to develop your app. Agencies will be able to work with you from the initial concept of your app all the way through to deploying the product on platforms such as Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store. However, you can expect to pay a high price for agency-based mobile app developers.

Should I hire an in-house app developer?

You could hire a full-time app developer for your staff. This gives you the benefit of constant oversight of the project. However, you’ll need to weigh up whether or not you’ll need the developer’s skills on an ongoing basis after your app is finished. Also, it may be difficult to find a single developer who’s skilled in graphic design, front-end coding and back-end coding.

Can I build a mobile app myself?

There are a variety of software programs that allow you to build an app with no coding knowledge. They use pre-made templates and easy interfaces to help you design your app. Most of these software platforms offer a limited range of app functionality, and many insert their branding and run display ads on your app unless you pay for a premium version.

Should I hire a freelance app developer?

A freelance app developer is a lower-cost solution than hiring an agency or an in-house staff member. Because freelancers work all over the world, you’re likely to find a skilled developer for a fraction of the price of an agency or in-house staff member. Freelance mobile app developers can work with you through the entire app development process, from concept through to deployment.

Why should I hire a freelancer to design my mobile app?

A freelancer can be a smart solution if you’re looking to design a mobile app without spending six figures. In addition to cost, freelancers can provide other benefits.

Find someone specialized

While hiring an agency or in-house developer can deliver you skilled work in general mobile app development, hiring a freelancer can help you find a developer with the specialized experience you’re looking for.

Are you developing a game? You can find freelancers who specialize in mobile game development. Building a retail portal? You can browse through portfolios of projects similar to yours. No matter what kind of app you’re building you can find a freelancer who’s an expert in your proposed project.

Save time

Freelancers are highly motivated to deliver projects quickly. Hitting deadlines means they can take on more work, receive higher ratings from employers and build their profile and portfolio. They rely on favorable reviews to get future work, so timeliness is prioritized.

Save money

As you can see in the table above, a freelance mobile app developer can complete a project for a fraction of the price of an agency or in-house developer. Because freelancers rely on employer ratings and are competing for work with other freelancers, they’re motivated to deliver quality projects at competitive rates.

How do I find the best app developer?

You can click the button below to post a new project. Make sure to describe in detail what you’re looking to achieve, the problems you want your app to solve, the functionality you need and the platforms where you want it deployed. You should start receiving bids on your project within minutes. Once you see a bid that suits your needs, simply accept the bid and begin communicating with your mobile app developer.

Alternatively, if you’ve seen a project in the showcase above that’s similar to the one you want done, click through to contact the freelancer. Or, if you’ve seen a showcased freelancer who has the skills you’re looking for, click through to contact them.

Before you contact a developer or post a project, you’ll need to think about the information they’ll need to complete the project and include this information in your job posting. Specifically, consider:

• What are you trying to achieve? What finished product are you looking for and what problems is it meant to solve?
• When do you need it? Do you have a specific timeframe in which you need the project completed? Be sure to set firm but realistic deadlines.
• What are the specifications? Are you looking to build a native app, web app or hybrid? Are you building for iOS, Android or both?

You’ll likely receive bids from several freelancers once you post your project. Shortlist the candidates who best suit your needs and budget, and ask them about:

• Their portfolio. Find out what work they’ve done in the past and see if their output aligns with your vision for the project.
• Their service scope. Can they build your app end-to-end, from concept all the way through to deployment? Will you need to hire multiple freelancers to complete the project, or can you find a single worker who can see your project through every stage?
• Their needs. Find out what they’ll need from you to complete the project. Set clear expectations for communication and updates and make sure to thoroughly answer any questions they have about the project to ensure the product they deliver matches your expectations.
• Their availability. How much time and attention do they have to devote to your project? Will they be available in the future to provide help with updates and ongoing maintenance?

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to build an app?

Clutch estimates the average cost of an agency-designed mobile app ranges between $30,000 USD and $700,000 USD, with a median cost of $171,450 USD.

How much does it cost to hire an app developer?

The average salary for mobile app developers, per PayScale, is $68,478 USD per year. By comparison, the average mobile app development project on Ndiwano.com is completed for $543 USD.

What programming language is best to use for mobile apps?

A variety of languages can be used to build mobile apps, but some of the most popular mobile app development languages are:

• Kotlin
• Swift
• Python
• Rust
• JavaScript
• Java
• Ruby
• PHP
• C++
• C#

Can I build a mobile app if I don’t know how to code?

Yes. There are a variety of Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms that will let you build an app with little to no coding. These platforms are great if you’re building a simple app, but they offer limited functionality and you often have to pay extra to remove their branding and ads. The top SaaS platforms we inspected range in price from $99 USD per year to $180 USD per month.

How do free apps make money?

Free mobile apps can make money in a variety of ways. One model is the freemium model, which offers a free download but charges for premium in-app content. Another way to monetize a free app is through advertisements. You can even combine the freemium model with the display ad model, offering a free version with ads and allowing users to pay for an ad-free version.

Developers working on a tight budget might be tempted to skip QA testing. However, the cost of correcting errors after product rollout can be higher than the cost of initial QA testing.

If you’re new to QA testing, this article can help you understand its fundamentals.

• What is QA testing?
• The QA process
• Getting started with QA testing
• QA testing best practices
• Top QA testing software
• Further QA resources

What is QA testing?

QA testing is the process developers use to verify and assure the quality of a software product or service before releasing it to customers. doesn’t involve creating the product, but rather examining the quality of the end product and the outcomes it can achieve.

QA testing typically involves:

• Finding and fixing errors, bugs, and redundancies
• Confirming logical flow
• Ensuring seamless User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX)
• Anticipating and fixing unexpected software flaws
• Ensuring developers meet customer requirements and expectations

The primary aim of QA testing is to verify if a product meets customer requirements and specifications. The secondary aim of QA testing is to ensure that developers fix any issues or problems before launch. The final goal of QA testing is to find and execute solutions to the specific challenge at hand.

On a broader note, QA testing aims to improve the quality and efficiency of a software development process. Its ultimate goal is to ensure that professionals or software development companies deliver the best product possible in keeping with industry-best quality benchmarks.

Traditionally, QA testers were brought on board toward the end of the software development cycle. The software was first developed and then forwarded to the QA team to assess and offer feedback. However, developers soon realized this wasn’t optimal. As a result, QA teams now work alongside software developers in a collaborative process to suggest and implement solutions on an ongoing basis.

A QA tester or analyst is driven by the responsibility to deliver the best possible product to customers.

The QA process

A good QA process checks whether the product meets your specifications and needs. While software testing can vary slightly depending on the company’s practices, the main stages remain the same.

• Analysis of requirements. QA analysts review and analyze the specific requirements of a project. They develop clarity on the parameters of their involvement. Most QA teams start early in the product development cycle. Analyzing requirements is crucial as it sets the framework for effective and executable quality control.
• Planning. QA professionals start the test planning phase once they have a good understanding of project requirements. They must define the scope of their work and come up with a testing strategy specific to the project. Planning also involves laying out the QA approach for each stage of the software engineering cycle, the type of testing called for, and the tools required.
• Test case development. A test case is a combination of actions that must be performed on a system to ensure it functions correctly. Its purpose is to ensure that separate features within a software fall within applicable guidelines and standards. Test case development sets out step-by-step processes for each testing sequence. It includes checklists for both manual and automated testing methods.
• Test execution. This is the process of executing the prepared test case and determining the differences between expected and actual results. It involves capturing test results and reporting bugs, errors, and other problems. QA testers create additional sub-tests to test these issues. Final test results are brought before the team members for further action.
• Verification. This involves retesting the product once the development team has fixed all issues brought up in the test execution stage. Verification involves regression testing and analysis, where QA testers check if identified bugs have been successfully resolved and whether new bugs have appeared. The verification process ensures the optimal functionality of the product.
• Documentation and reporting. This stage involves preparing a document outlining all tests conducted during the product development cycle, along with their results. It gives detailed insights into the number and nature of errors and anomalies detected. The document lists the entire chronology of the testing process and can be used to reinforce future product testing cycles.

Getting started with QA testing

If an application is too buggy, it can be frustrating to use, decrease customer satisfaction, and negatively impact your market reputation. This makes it all the more important for developers and QA engineers to work together and ensure that no bugs escape into production.

To develop and deliver high-quality software, you can’t compromise at any stage during app testing. As more people start using your software, you want to be even more careful with the QA.

Follow these steps to design and implement an effective QA process to test your software.

1. Make it an ongoing activity. You must incorporate QA testing into every step of the software development lifecycle. The earlier QA teams become involved in the process, the better your chances of identifying issues and determining corrective actions.
2. Implement a DevOps model. DevOps is a merger of development and operations teams designed to fuel faster development and delivery of applications. It’s a leap from traditional processes and can bring substantial competitive advantages. A DevOps model reduces failure rates and improves time-to-market.
3. Implement operational transparency. Clarity is important in QA testing to achieve faster results under demanding deadlines. Testers need a clear understanding of a software product’s final deliverables to be effective. Further, transparency enables other teams to inspect the testing process and learn from it.
4. Enable results-oriented QA testing. This strategy helps QA teams focus on the specific business goals of a software product. Results-oriented QA testing is based on achieving a faster and more dynamic testing environment. It enables QA testers to prioritize resources and deliver the best outcomes.

With an ever-growing demand for high-quality software, QA professionals are always under pressure to deliver solutions under deadline. Since QA testing is an evolving industry, you’ll want to have access to the best resources available.

• Test scenario checklist. This is an essential tool for QA test management. Test scenarios cover usability testing, performance testing, exploratory testing, acceptance testing, security testing, and all other aspects of general functional testing. You can ensure that common software errors are quickly identified and fixed by maintaining a checklist of the most common test cases.
• Bug trackers. Save time and resources by turning to a bug tracking software like Airbrake for error data management. The software allows users to identify and aggregate bugs efficiently. QA testing involves finding, reporting, and tracking bugs that may become unmanageable in larger project scenarios. A good tracker provides advanced bug-tracking options.
• QA testing blogs. There are a host of blogs related to QA testing, Google’s Testing Blog being one of the most prolific. Google’s testing team provides detailed breakdowns of issues encountered and fixed, with easy-to-grasp infographics and screengrabs. Following this blog is a free and convenient way of keeping up to date with current issues and of rapidly expanding your QA expertise.

QA testing best practices

These QA best practices can help ensure the highest standards of product delivery.

• Combine manual and automated testing. You can expect to have the best QA testing results with a careful combination of manual and automated testing methodologies. Use manual testing to cover a wide range of scenarios and conditions, while any test that needs to be performed repeatedly should be automated using test automation tools. Automation doesn’t work across all parameters, so use it to supplement manual testing.
• Use crowd testing. Crowd testing can help you improve the scalability of your testing by making use of a much larger population of QA testers within a short time. Hundreds of QA testers working simultaneously on multiple devices—performing cross-browser testing and testing on different operating systems with varying software compatibility—can deliver results in a matter of hours. For the best results, work out a combination of in-house testing, crowd testing, and automated testing.
• Use continuous integration and delivery testing. Continuous integration lets developers update small sections of code into a central module. You can run test scripts every time the code gets updated. With continuous delivery and integration testing, you can release fresh installments of your product periodically. Both systems are efficient in addressing issues affecting user experience.
• Include risk management. Incorporate risk management objectives into your QA testing processes. By outlining and assessing the risks, you can control them from the start and improve the execution process. This can streamline your QA activities and deliver a high-quality final product.
• Achieve quality with speed. Regularly review your QA process efficiency over different stages of the product development cycle. Don’t let software quality and speed become mutually exclusive. Aim to achieve high-quality outcomes by increasing efficiency and facilitating easy communication between teams. Some ways to achieve quality with speed would be to test the unit code as it’s developed, use continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), and conduct parallel testing.
• Ensure effective methodologies. Effective software QA testing processes can lower the costs of developing a product by ensuring the software conforms to requirements and guidelines.
• Conduct continuous monitoring. Ensure relevant standards and procedures are followed throughout the development process by continuously monitoring QA test practices.
• Use analytics. Predictive analytics can help you predict where bugs are likely to occur based on past test data—helping you develop new tests and determine which QA metrics to track. You can use different types of data, such as defect data, testing-related data, development data, application data, operation data, and customer usage data.
• Cover multiple exigencies. Use your QA testing methodology to cover the widest possible range of conditions and scenarios. This should include different devices, operating systems, and user profiles.
• Use regression testing. New additions to a code can lead to errors in features that previously passed QA testing. Employ a vigorous regression testing system to overcome this challenge.

Top QA testing software

In-house testing may not always be possible or cost-effective, which is why you should look at using any one of a number of testing tools to evaluate your product. Because each product’s requirements are different, though, they may not all be appropriate for you. Do enough research to find the one that works best for you.

Top QA testing software includes:

• Testim.io
• Aqua ALM
• Kualitee
• Mabl
• Testsigma

Further QA resources

Whether you’re an individual working on your first web application or a startup with dreams of going big by launching your all-in-one iOS mobile app, we welcome you to use these resources to get the maximum benefit.

• 5 Tips for Becoming a QA Tester
• What Is Unit Testing? Frameworks, Examples, and Best Practices
• How to Build a Remote Test Automation Team

Hire a quality assurance professional

More and more businesses around the world are recognizing the benefits of tapping independent talent to execute and refine their QA testing needs.

Connect with hundreds of professionals or agencies around the globe if you need help with QA testing. At Ndiwano.com, we make it easy to find the right independent software testing professional for your next job.

• Software QA testers
• Test-driven development specialists
• Unit testing specialists
• Software testers

Roblox’s mission is to bring the world together through play. The platform does this by empowering anybody to imagine, create, and have fun with friends while immersing themselves in millions of unique 3D experiences provided by a worldwide community of developers.

With over 202 million monthly active users (67% of whom are under the age of 16) Roblox is a phenomenon that’s taking the world by storm. Yet, Roblox still remains a mystery to many, and this is why we have created this guide; to reveal everything you need to know about Roblox and understand why is everyone talking about it right now.

Ready?

Here is all you need to know about Roblox

• 1. What is Roblox?
• 2. When was Roblox made?
• 3. How does Roblox work?
• 4. How popular is Roblox?
• 5. Why is Roblox so popular?
• 6. What are the most popular games in Roblox?
• 7. How to make a Roblox game

1. What is Roblox?

Roblox is an online platform and marketplace where users may purchase and play games. Roblox itself is not a game; rather, it’s a platform where individuals can play games created by other developers. In this regard, it’s more like the PC platform Steam than an online children’s game.

What distinguishes Roblox from other platforms, including storefronts such as Steam, is that all of its games are developed by its users. On Roblox, the enjoyment comes not just from playing games but also from creating them. These games are developed by users of the site rather than Roblox Corporation. The official website boasts that its users have created more than 24 million games on the platform alone.

2. When was Roblox made?

Roblox’s beta version was built in 2004 by co-founders David Baszucki and Erik Cassel under the brand DynaBlocks. That same year, Baszucki began testing the initial prototypes. The company’s name was changed to Roblox in 2005, and it formally launched on September 1, 2006.

In August 2007, Roblox improved its servers and launched a premium membership program called “Builders Club.” In September 2019, this paid membership option was renamed Roblox Premium.

Roblox’s iOS version was published on December 11, 2012, while the Android version was released on July 16, 2014. Roblox launched its Developer Exchange service on October 1, 2013, allowing creators to convert Robux (virtual currency) generated from their games into real-world money.

More recently, Roblox announced the introduction of “Party Place,” which operates as an online hangout. The feature was developed in July 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and was made using new technology that was utilized during the platform’s 2020 Bloxy Awards.

On December 3, 2020, Roblox was given clearance to launch its services in China, thus allowing greater availability around the globe.

3. How does Roblox work?

Roblox is a game environment that’s home to millions of different games. They all share a similar appearance and feel since they are all part of the same graphical environment. They do not, however, coexist in the same gaming universe. Each Roblox-created game is a distinct and separate game. Users can download any game on the Roblox platform and aren’t required to have any other software unless they want to build their own game.

Roblox has a Roblox version of nearly every game type imaginable, including racing, action, role-playing, shooting games, and more.

Robux, a virtual currency, enables in-game transactions on Roblox. Players purchase Robux with real money and then “spend” their Robux on goods in the games of their choice.

Additionally, developers can earn Robux through the games they’ve created and can then exchange their accrued Robux for real money.

To do this, users have to go through the official Developer Exchange and meet certain conditions. They must:

• Be at least 13 years old
• Be a member of the Outrageous Builders Club tier
• Have at least 100,000 “earned” Robux in their account

4. How popular is Roblox?

Roblox is extremely popular around the globe. Let’s look at some user and growth statistics that demonstrate this.

• Roblox has 202 million monthly active users, as of April 2021. This is a considerable jump from 2020 when the platform had 80 million users.
• Roblox has an average of 43.2 million active users every day. This is a dramatic increase from 14 million daily active users in 2016
• The Roblox platform is home to 9.5 million developers
• During the platform’s all-time peak usage, Roblox had 5.7 million concurrent users
• Roblox community developers earned over $328 million from the platform
• Roblox offers over 40 million games
• 67% of Roblox users are under the age of sixteen
• The largest portion (28%) of Roblox’s daily active users are based in the US and Canada. These regions are responsible for 12.1 million daily active users alone.
• Roblox has 11.8 million daily active users in Europe, which equals 27.3% of Roblox’s total worldwide user base.
• Roblox has 7.2 million daily active users in the Asia-Pacific region. Over the last four quarters, Roblox has attracted 2.6 million new daily active players in this region alone.
• Outside of North America, Europe, and Asia, there are 12.1 million daily active Roblox users. Over the past two years, this figure has increased by 2.361 times.
• 9.73 billion hours of user engagement, or total time spent on the Roblox platform, was recorded in Q2 2021. This is a large increase from the 2.1 billion hours of user engagement recorded in early 2018.
• In the first two quarters of 2021 alone, Roblox had accrued 1.3 additional billion hours of engagement.
• Roblox daily active users log in to the platform for an average of 156 minutes (2.6 hours) every day.

Ref: Backlinko

5. Why is Roblox so popular?

Let’s examine six good reasons why is everyone talking about Roblox:

1. Roblox games cost nothing to play. Roblox can be downloaded for free, and it also doesn’t require money to play. In comparison, Minecraft—a similar game to the ones that can be found on Roblox—costs $26.99 to play. Many children don’t have money to spend on video games, therefore Roblox allows them to experience these games at no cost. Although you can pay for specific things within a game, for the most part, you can play them without having to do so.
2. Roblox games are available across numerous platforms. Roblox attracts a broad audience by being available on basically every platform. Even if you don’t own a PC, there are other methods to connect and play on Roblox. It’s also accessible on tablets, smartphones, and even XBOX. The game’s lightweight nature explains why it’s available on so many platforms. It doesn’t require many resources or performance requirements. In fact, it will operate on basically any computer manufactured within the past seven years. The game is also playable on the majority of mobile phones running Android 5.0/iOS 8.0 or above. Because of this, you can play with anybody you want on whichever platform you choose. It’s ideal for connecting with friends and partaking in fun virtual experiences together.
3. Roblox games offer a wide range of game modes and content. Roblox is more like an app store than an individual game. You can choose from a variety of game types, game formats, and game genres. Role-Playing (RP) games, such as Brookhaven RP, let you create your own character and play that character in a fictional universe. Adopt Me! is an extremely popular game that lets users build homes, raise cute pets, and make new friends. The Tower of Hell is yet another famous Roblox game. It’s an obstacle game featuring difficult courses that put your abilities and patience to the test. Murder Mystery is another game that’s recently acquired popularity. It’s a social deduction game in the same style as Among Us. In each round, one player is designated as the killer, one as the Sheriff, and up to ten players as innocents, all at random. There are remakes of classic games such as Pokémon, racing games, and even a Windows Error Simulator. Roblox’s appeal is that there’s an endless supply of variety and there’s a game for everyone. If you become tired of one video game, you can switch to another for an entirely new experience.
4. Roblox is a platform that inspires creativity. Roblox is also a platform for building and creating. Within Roblox, you can bring practically any idea to reality. You’re provided with the necessary tools to develop your own unique maps and games. If you’re new, there’s also a lively developer community where you can ask questions and get support. Roblox is built on the programming language known as Lua, which is simple to learn. It’s so simple that even children can learn it. Roblox’s development team has a variety of in-depth videos available on its YouTube channel. These videos cover topics aimed at total beginners to experienced programmers. All of these features provide people with a creative outlet for their thoughts and ideas.
5. Roblox has a large and friendly community. In this era, one of the most crucial elements of gaming is social connection. It’s an opportunity to meet new people, share experiences, connect over common interests, and embark on game-based adventures together. In the past few years, more individuals have met through gaming than at any other time in history. People can also feel less alone when they play online games. Roblox has a large community of users who can connect with each other to play games. As of March 2021, it’s one of the largest communities in the world, with almost 200 million total users and over 42 million daily active users. Roblox’s power to instantly engage with and make friends has been a prime reason behind its rising popularity.
6. Roblox rewards developers for their work. When a developer’s creations are successful within the platform, Roblox rewards them—primarily through Robux, Roblox’s selected currency. Robux can be attained via a monthly subscription to Roblox Premium or by purchasing it individually. Monthly subscriptions range from $4.99 to $19.99 each month, with extra options to purchase more Roblux costing up to $99.99 for 10,000 Robux. While Robux is not strictly necessary because Roblox is a free-to-play platform, some games provide avatar modifications, items, incentives, or other game upgrades that can be purchased with Robux. Additionally, there are some premium games that you must purchase using Robux in order to play. The majority of Roblox games, however, do not require Robux to play. Additionally, the Developer Exchange Program was set up so Roblox Corporation can share a portion of the Robux that a developer’s game earns if their game is successful enough to qualify. Through this scheme, Roblox handed out $250 million to developers in 2020, with the most successful game creators receiving more than a million dollars. This figure is expected to rise, with more and more individuals eager to try their hand at game development and earn money off the next great concept.

6. What are the most popular games in Roblox?

Here below we have listed the 6 most-played Roblox games worldwide as of February 2022, by all-time visits (in billions)

Adopt Me! (27.39 billion visits)

With over 200,000 players, Adopt Me! is no doubt one of the most famous games on Roblox. In fact, the game has been so popular that the developers have recently established their own company to independently produce games.

Adopt Me! contains two roles: baby, who must be cared for, and parent, who cares for the baby. Vehicles, houses, and an in-game trading system provide further fun. 

Players were able to adopt pets after the pets update, including common pets like dogs and cats as well as rare pets like sharks, griffins, and unicorns. Pets have the same moods as babies and can be taught tricks by the pet trainer at the school.

Brookhaven RP (16 billion visits)

In terms of the most popular Roblox game, Brookhaven RP currently takes the title. Boasting over 400,000 players and over six billion visits, the game has dramatically risen in popularity since its release in 2020.

In this role-playing game, users can own their own property, drive their own car, and engage with the rest of the world in any way they wish. There are police, bank robbers, and pizza delivery people. It’s a family-friendly version of the Grand Theft Auto V role-playing game.

MeepCity (13.06 billion visits)

Meep City is another popular role-playing game, proving that 2021 was the year of RP games on Roblox. It often has around 100,000 active users at any given time and allows gamers to explore a large world and control their own estate.

Additionally, each estate has a purpose. Players can open a dance club, a pizza restaurant, or a school, for example. Other players will then come to your estate and spend their in-game cash. It’s essentially like owning your own virtual business, and Roblox users love the concept.

Piggy (10.07 billion visits)

Piggy is something of a Roblox icon and the horror game typically attracts over 40,000 players. In Piggy, you can pick from 12 distinct maps and game types, all of which revolve around battling for your life against a family of bloodthirsty pigs. Users must join with other players to hunt for clues that can save them. The survivors must flee the map using various keys and tools, while Piggy’s goal is to discover and kill all of the survivors.

The game is recognized for inspiring the development of several character-themed survival horror games, many of which have very similar concepts and objectives. Piggy was originally inspired by the British children’s cartoon Peppa Pig, as well as the horror game Granny.

Murder Mystery 2 (7.54 billion visits)

Murder Mystery 2 is an old-school Roblox game that first appeared in 2014. It has had close to five billion visits and has a regular player count of around 100,000.

The game’s concept is simple: There are several “Innocents” and one “Murderer.” It’s the murderer’s mission to kill as many innocents as possible before the innocents and the Sheriff discover who they are. Additionally, the Sheriff is the only one who carries a weapon.

Royale High (7.37 billion visits)

Royale High is essentially a school simulator; however, it takes place in a world where attending school is genuinely enjoyable. The game’s entire idea is to complete classes to level up your character and collect Diamonds, which can then be spent to personalize your character with haircuts and other cosmetics.

With a teleportation staff, you can travel the world and meet new people. Since its introduction in 2017, the game has had about six billion views and maintains a regular playing base of roughly 30,000 – 40,000 people.

7. How to make a Roblox game

To make a Roblox game, all you need is a good idea, hard work, and perseverance.

The beauty of Roblox is that anyone can create games on the platform. Roblox enables young people to realize their own gaming innovations. It does this by providing a set of game development resources that basically anyone, even children, can learn to use.

There’s a dedicated Developer Hub that provides all of the required resources to learn how to create a game. For many developers, the platform’s tutorial on how to create and make a game public has been very useful.

Roblox also has its own YouTube channel, which features educational webinars, tutorials, and more. Additionally, there are plenty of Roblox developer forums where developers can troubleshoot and learn new things.

The scripting language used in the games is known as Lua, which is easier to learn than most other programming languages. Roblox even has the following helpful video tutorial that teaches viewers how to get started scripting in Roblox Studio using the programming language.

With Roblox, developers don’t have to worry about issues like how to set up servers; they simply build the game, and then users can easily play it through online multiplayer capabilities. It’s therefore up to each developer how involved they want to be in game development.

If a game is successful, developers can continue to grow it, since Roblox makes it simple to transform their invention into an online multiplayer game.

First, however, you must come up with an idea for your game before you can begin creating it. The more unique – or creative – your concept, the better. There are several ways to ensure you choose a successful game concept. Your initial step should be to generate lots of new game ideas.

Keep in mind who you’re creating the game for when you’re brainstorming too. The audience you choose is crucial since it influences the result of your game. With role-playing games, for example, creators are targeting highly-social individuals looking for virtual experiences that still mimic elements of real life—such as going to school, working a job, and meeting new people.

Once you’ve compiled a list of potential games, consider which ones you’d like to play yourself. Remember that if the game isn’t enjoyable for you, it won’t be enjoyable for your intended audience. After you’ve reduced your search to a few ideas, choose one that you believe will be successful in terms of monetization or general popularity. Your choice might be influenced by current trends, your target audience, or other factors.

Additional tips to keep in mind when creating a Roblox game include:

• Make a weekly checklist of what needs to be done: This will help you stay on the right track during the development phase and ensure none of the smaller tasks are forgotten.
• Set goals: Setting regular, small goals makes it a lot easier to streamline the game creation process and maintain your motivation.
• Start with a prototype: Feedback is critical to being able to perfect your game for your target audience. It doesn’t matter if the game isn’t perfect yet. There’ll be lots of time later to fix any bugs and make it polished.

Find a roblox game developer for hire

The bottom line: Roblox is a gaming phenomenon 

Roblox empowers anybody to imagine, create, and have fun with friends while immersing themselves in unique 3D experiences brought to life by a worldwide community of developers. Unlike standalone games such as Fortnite or Minecraft, Roblox is an entire gaming universe that’s home to more than 40 million games.

Roblox’s popularity is no surprise. Not only is it free to sign up to and play, but its games are available across multiple platforms and it offers a wide variety of game modes. Roblox also has a large community, encourages creativity, and rewards developers for their hard work.

The beauty of Roblox lies not only in its ability for anyone to play but also for anyone to bring their very own game idea to life. Roblox is changing the very nature of gaming as we know it, and it’s exciting to think about the innovative new ways the platform may develop into the future.

Etsy is a third-party e-commerce platform that makes it easier for small creators and businesses to expand their reach, showing (and hopefully selling to) a wide audience that may not have ever found them otherwise. For many, this allows them to turn talent and a few products into a lucrative business, building momentum and collecting reviews on a trusted site that customers are willing to purchase from.

Creators and small e-commerce businesses often find themselves with valuable, high-quality, and sometimes niche products to sell, but the struggle is real when it comes to competing against major brands to build an audience and get traffic to the site to make those purchases. If customers search for a “hand-woven blanket” in Google, there are plenty of options available through big-name businesses that promise to offer exactly that. This is why many turn to Etsy.

In this post, we’re going to discuss everything that sellers need to know about how to sell on Etsy so you can see how to open up your Etsy store and position it for success. 

Here is What you Need to Know Before Selling on Etsy

• 1. What is Etsy?
• 2. How does Etsy work?
• 3. Nine essential tips for selling on Etsy
• 4. How to open an Etsy shop
• 5. Is selling on Etsy worth it? 
• 6. Alternatives to Etsy

1. What is Etsy?

Founded in 2005, Etsy is an online e-commerce marketplace for independent makers, crafters, and collectors who can open virtual storefronts to sell their products. Around 80% of sellers are women, and all are independent creators. 

It’s a little like Amazon for independent sellers who are selling handmade, unique, or niche products. The goal is to create an expansive marketplace of products from different sellers so that customers can find great vendors. There are over 4.3 million sellers on Etsy as of 2020 and over 60 million products as of 2019, and the platform is growing rapidly, meaning that there are plenty of great finds for customers. 

Some sellers stick to creating items on demand as orders roll in, while others have an inventory ready to go. Sellers can stay small while others scale significantly on the platform as their businesses grow. 

Some on-platform sellers have thousands of reviews, vast arrays of products, and even customized branded packaging. They’ve gone beyond a “hobby business” and found full-time profitability and success.

Here, artists can sell physical goods like home goods and clothing, digital downloads, vintage items (which must be 20+ years old), and craft supplies through either organic search or promoted listings. They can do so on their terms, choosing when they’ll ship out items, what shipping carriers they want to use, and how much they want to charge. They can also enable or disable different third-party payment options, giving sellers a large amount of control over their storefronts while still granting buyers high levels of flexibility that benefit them. 

Meanwhile, users can browse different product categories or search exactly what they’re looking for. Once they find an item they like, they can read detailed descriptions and view images of the product, check out reviews, and look at the seller’s profile. They can even message the seller directly with any questions that they have. It’s a personal, direct interface while still allowing sellers to have a professional virtual storefront appearance. 

2. How does Etsy work?

Etsy is a straightforward platform for both customers and sellers.

To get started on Etsy, you just need to create an account, choose a username, and then head to the “Sell” section of their site to open up your shop (which we’ll talk more about). Sellers will set up their store with a description and profile picture, upload their inventory, and create product listings. You can customize shipping costs, carriers, and delivery times as you choose. 

While it’s free to open a shop on Etsy, you’ll pay a fee for each product listing, and a transaction fee with each sale. 

To become a customer on Etsy, you can create an account or checkout as a guest. You can then browse products by category or search for products if you have something specific in mind. When you find what you’re looking for, you can review detailed product descriptions, reviews on the product and the seller from other customers, and information about shipping options. Payment options vary based on the seller, but credit card and PayPal payment options are almost always available. 

Customers and sellers can communicate back and forth. This allows customers to ask about products before purchasing, request updates about order tracking, and discuss concerns or further questions once the item is received. Sellers can also reach out to ask for reviews. 

Do you need a business license to sell on Etsy?

Etsy’s company policies do not require sellers to have a business license to open or operate a shop on the platform. Many sellers operate without a business license.

That being said, Etsy isn’t the only one with a say here. It’s important to check your city, state, and country regulations to see if they require a business license or any specialized permits. Some areas may require you to have a business license and permits if you’re selling certain categories of products, like food or living plants. If you’re unsure, you can consult a local business lawyer or a qualified small business CPA. 

Even if your local and federal government doesn’t require a business license, there are perks that come with a license you may want to consider. This could include the protection of your personal assets or potential tax savings. Again, this is worth talking to a lawyer or CPA about to see what’s best for you. 

How much does Etsy take? 

While it is free to open a storefront on Etsy, selling on Etsy does come with a price tag attached. 

Their new pricing structure and policies (which launched June 23, 2021) include the following:

• Listing fees. Every listing you create costs $0.20 regardless of whether or not the item sells. (The exception to this is a private listing, where you’re only charged the $0.20 once it sells) Listings last four months after which they’ll automatically renew for another $0.20 each unless you disable automatic renewal.
• Transaction fees. Each sale processed through Etsy will incur a 5% transaction fee. This is 5% of the price displayed for the listing plus the amount charged for shipping and/or gift wrapping. As a result, it’s important to factor this into your pricing structure and shipping costs.
• Payment processing fees. Payment processing fees depend on the method customers choose to pay with. Etsy Payments may reduce these costs, but they vary depending on the location of your bank. 
• In-person selling fees. Heading to a farmer’s market or a craft fair? You can use a Square reader to sell items from your Etsy store to customers in person and receive a $0.20 transaction fee along with Square’s payment processing fees.
• Optional subscription fees. Sellers in good standing with the company can pay for a $10-plus-tax-per-month subscription to Etsy Plus, which offers additional tools for growing brands. Each month, this subscription gives you 15 credits for product listings, or $3, and $5 in Etsy Ad credits, but you must use them within the billing cycle.
• Pattern fees. Want to create your own personalized website off of Etsy? Etsy’s Pattern tool allows you to do this. Following the 30-day free trial, it has a monthly subscription fee of $15.
• Regulatory operating fees. Sellers in some countries will receive Regulatory Operating fees on every transaction, which is a fee based on a fixed percentage of the price displayed in each listing plus shipping. These often come as a result of increased costs associated with compliance regulations in each country.
• Shipping fees. While you can set costs so that your customers are paying for the overall shipping costs, Etsy allows sellers to purchase shipping labels for easy order fulfillment. The cost of the shipping label and add-on features like a signature confirmation or insurance will be deducted from your balance. 

What can you sell on Etsy?

You can find an enormous array of products on Etsy, but the three most common types of goods according to Etsy’s own data are handmade items, vintage items, and craft supplies. Approximately 90% of items on the site fall under the handmade category, which can include any of the following (and more):

• Homemade clothing and jewelry
• Small-batch cosmetics 
• Food, including everything from spice rubs to sourdough starters to cupcakes
• Live plants 
• Home decor 
• Pet goods like leashes and collars 
• Home goods like plates, chopsticks, and pillows

If the item isn’t vintage or a craft supply, it must be made by the seller and list all people involved in the creation in the “About” section of the product. There’s no drop shipping or curating of products to sell on the platform by third parties when it comes to handmade items, increasing authenticity. 

Craft supplies can include party supplies and can be handmade, commercial, or vintage. 

Note: You must also use your own original photographs in listings, even for commercial craft supplies. All photos need to really represent what the customer will purchase. 

What can’t be sold on Etsy?

There are some things that cannot be sold on Etsy.

You cannot resell goods from other sellers on Etsy. 

You also can’t sell any of the following, as they’re prohibited by Etsy’s selling policy: 

• Alcohol, drugs, tobacco, and drug paraphernalia 
• Medical prescription drugs
• Certain animal products 
• Human remains 
• Dangerous items like recalled items, hazardous materials, or weapons 
• Items that promote, support, or glorify hate or violence 
• Internationally regulated items 
• Illegal items or those that promote illegal activity
• Mature or pornographic content 
• Items that infringe on someone else’s intellectual property 

3. Nine essential tips for selling on Etsy

When you want to start selling on Etsy, there are steps you can take to set your storefront and your products apart from the rest. 

You won’t want to skip the following essential Etsy selling tips:

• Post high-quality photographs. You need to post original photographs, but they still need to be dazzling. As users are browsing, they’re going to choose the ones that look the most more often than not. Use high-resolution, clean images that clearly show the product. Include multiple images on the product page for best results.  
• Optimize for search. Many people are using Etsy as a search platform to find products they want, whether it’s a fifty-year-old sourdough starter or a wreath for Christmas. Whatever you’re selling, make sure that each listing is optimized to show up in search when users are looking. Include keywords in the product description, and consider using different keywords in the product listing to cover your bases. 
• Treat your storefront like an actual storefront. If you want to turn Etsy into a viable income, treat it like the business opportunity that it can be. Choose a great profile picture (which can be a custom logo), use consistent branded images, and make sure that the personal profile attached to your business profile is strong, welcoming, and approachable. 
• Provide great customer service. Potential customers may reach out to ask questions before making a purchase. Existing customers may reach out to follow up on an order or to request help if something went wrong. Getting great customer service will make them want to purchase again and leave great reviews. Both help your business.
• Research the top competitors in your space. You can learn so much from even a short bout of competitor analysis. You can see how users are writing about their products, what terms they’re showing up in a search for, how they’re pricing products, and what reviews say about them. Use this information to improve your own business. 
• Build a social media following. Some popular Etsy creators build dedicated followings just like businesses do, and these users will happily follow you on social media. Create an Instagram, a Facebook Page, or even a Facebook Group to keep your enthusiastic customers up to date about everything happening with your business. 
• Consider custom, branded packaging. This goes back to “treat it like a real business because it is.” You can purchase custom, branded packaging supplies like boxes, mailing envelopes, product labels, and even thank you cards or usage brochures that come in handy every time you fulfill an order. 
• Offer discounts for future purchases. Want to incentivize repeat purchases? Etsy has features in place that allow sellers to generate custom coupon codes. You can send these out at any point, but you can also send them in postcards or messages after a customer converts, encouraging them to purchase again later. 
• Become part of the Etsy community. Want to help your storefront and account to gain some credibility quickly? Integrate yourself into the Etsy community. Participate in the forums without being overly promotional, and try to partner up with other sellers to create enticing package deals. Trust can go a long way.

4. How to open an Etsy shop

If you’re ready to open your first Etsy shop, let’s go step by step through the process of creating an account, opening and optimizing your shop, uploading product listings, and starting to make sales. 

Step 1. Sign in or create an Etsy account. Creating an account on Etsy takes just a few minutes, and you’ll need to create both a personal account and then, through that, set up a storefront.

First, head to Etsy’s home page and select “Create Account” at the top of the page. You’ll be asked to enter information like your name, address, and contact information. You’ll also choose a username. Then you’ll receive a confirmation email from “registration@etsy.com,” which you can verify quickly.

You can then log into your new account, where you can add an “About”  for your profile and a profile picture. 

Step 2. Click Sell on Etsy on Etsy.com. Once your profile is complete, you’ll find the “Sell” option on Etsy and click it. 

Step 3. Click Open your Etsy shop. At the bottom of Etsy, you’ll see the option to open a shop. Click it. 

Step 4. Optimize Your Etsy Shop Profile. Once your new shop is open, it’s important to start optimizing it for search, visibility, and a solid first impression right away.

Make sure to use the following best practices when setting up your shop’s profile:

• Use a cover photo for the homepage of your storefront, which will be 3360 x 840 pixels. They are both desktop and mobile friends and should represent your brand well. 
• Write a strong “About” section for your store, explaining what you offer, what makes you unique and credible, and anything else you feel could help set you apart. 
• Use a shop icon that’s consistent with your business logo and overall branding.
• Look for keywords that users might search for to find your products. If you’re selling jam, you may have relevant products for searches like “homemade jam,” “organic jam,” “natural preserves,” and “sugar-free jam.” Consider which keywords may give you the most visibility and try to include them in the profile copy and title.
• Introduce any and all team members in the Shop Members section. 

Step 5. Write an Impressive “About” Page. We mentioned the “About” page above, but it’s so important we’re going to dive a little deeper into it here. 

Your “About” page gives you 5,000 characters to explain who you are and what makes your business exceptional; you want to take full advantage of that.

This is your chance to highlight why your creations are exceptional and why they should buy. You can highlight your achievements, experience, knowledge, and your business’s USP. 

When writing your “About” page, it helps to keep the following in mind: 

• Be welcoming and approachable; you want potential buyers to like you and feel a rapport with you
• Talk about what made you want to start your business; storytelling is always a plus
• Introduce partners or vendors that you work with to develop or source product materials
• Use short, concise paragraphs and simple sentence structures 
• Include links to social media and/or a list to opt-in to your email list 
• Include links to any third-party media that mention you or your products 

Step 6. Set your shop preferences. Your shop’s preferences will tell Etsy basic but crucial information about how you’re choosing to sell your items. 

The preferences include:

• Shop language. This is the default language you use on your profile and in product listings. You cannot change it later but you can add translations in other languages by enrolling in other languages after officially opening your shop.
• Shop time commitment. Is selling products your full-time or part-time job? This won’t impact the actual setup of your shop, but Etsy uses it for information purposes.
• Shop country. Where does your shop operate out of? This can matter for a number of reasons including certain restrictions based on location.
• Shop currency. This determines the currency you’ll use to price items in your listings. Note that currency conversion fees could apply if your shop currency is different from the currency used by your bank of choice. 

Step 7. Choose your shop name. We’ve also mentioned this already, but again, it’s important enough that it gets another section. 

Your shop name does more than represent your brand; it is your brand. It can help explain to users who you are, set the tone for your shop, and help you stand out from others. It’s important that it’s memorable and relevant. 

You’ve got 20 characters for your shop name. You’ll choose this when setting up your store. And though it can be changed at a later date, it’s important to remember that brand name recognition is important; you want customers who go looking for you to be able to find you. 

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the core offering of your business?
• What feeling or vibe do you want your store name to convey?
• If you ask family or friends about the store name, what did they think?
• Does the name look good on a business card?
• Is the name easy to spell, read, and type without errors?
• Is there an alternative meaning in other languages that could be offensive?
• Is the name already taken? 

When coming up with store names, we know that it can be difficult and that a lot hangs in the balance. Here are some creative ways to come up with high-performing names for your Etsy store:

• Use descriptive names that evoke the feeling you’re going for. “BoozyJams,” for example, is pretty straightforward; you’re going for the fun vibe of “boozy” instead of “liquor,” and it’s descriptive. 
• Consider opting for puns or creative word choices. Puns can be memorable and show a sense of humor that customers love. “NoWayCrochet,” for example, tells users that you’re offering crochet goods and that you’ve got a sense of humor.
• Try combining two words. Trying to find something creative for your home-grown plant business? Try something like “Plantastic” or “Plantorama.” It’s on-topic but something that others are unlikely to have. 

Step 8. Keep your shop policy simple. Etsy allows store owners to set up their own shop policies. This is a huge advantage, but it’s important to remember to keep it simple; otherwise, you may end up driving users away, and those are users who were likely high intent and interested in purchasing.

Common examples of shop policies include:

• Free returns within 30 days 
• Returns or replacements made for damaged items as long as you send proof of item receipt and damage within 5 days of the shipment being received 
• No returns on personalized items 

Policies should be simple and straightforward. If you’re unsure of where to start, Etsy has a basic shop policy template that allows you to adjust different options as you see fit. 

Step 9.  Add product listings to your shop. As your shop is open, you can go to your “Shop Manager” and then click “Add listing.” 

Step 10. Optimize product photos. Make sure that every single product photograph that you upload is excellent. High-quality, not-cluttered images are an absolute must.

Try to include as many images of a product as possible to help a client feel comfortable about purchasing. 

A clothing company, for example, could show the item from the front, from the back, and on a model. 

A creator selling homemade chocolate truffles could show photographs of the array of truffles, the truffles in the packaging, and a truffle broken open to show the ooey, gooey center.  

Think about what would help your products sell, and invest in the pictures to get those sales. 

Step 11. Add relevant categories and attributes. Users can browse different categories of products on Etsy, making it essential to ensure that your products are listed in the most accurate category possible. This helps interested customers find you.

You’ll see that there are plenty of different subcategories available for every category on Etsy. Take the time to go through each one to see what best fits your brand and products. 

You’ll want to do the same thing for attributes, which helps the red halter dress you’re selling show up when users are browsing “clothing” and then “dresses” and choose to view only red items. Attributes can include use, color, occasion, and more. 

You can test different categories on Etsy to see what works for you. An easy way to do this is to check the search results for different possible categories that you think your products may fit into, and then assess which searches had results most similar to yours. 

Step 12. Maximize your tags. Tags are short phrases or even single words that are 20 characters are less than you would use to describe your product. And they’re a big deal on Etsy, as the platform uses them to determine whether or not your product is relevant to buyer searches. 

Tags, when combined with attributes and categories, wildly influence search results. It’s crucial to take the time to get them right. 

Tagging best practices are relatively simple:

• Include tags with phrases and long-tail keywords like “organic fine ground flour” instead of just “flour”
• Use all 13 tags available on every product listing 
• Try to use some tags that are similar to your product keywords 
• Check for missepllings 
• Only use tags in one language 
• Keep it relevant; only use tags that people searching for your products may want to find 

Step 13. Write effective product descriptions. Product descriptions matter. They explain why users should purchase, and it should detail the product’s condition, age, physical description, uses, measurements, ingredients, and (if relevant) manufacturing process. 

The product descriptions often carry equal weight to the product photographs as being the two big factors that most influence purchase. 

The product description is an integral part of your listing. It details your product’s measurements, condition, color description, 

Some product description best practices include:

• Specify who the product can help and what pain points it can resolve
• Mention the materials or techniques that went into product development, including relevant information like “small-batch” or “gluten-free made”
• Use keywords that you included in your tags or attributes if possible 
• Always mention the age of vintage products in the descriptions 
• Think about using descriptive terms like “modern,” “boho,” “natural,” or “calming,” as these can come up in search 
• Detail the dimensions and weight of the product and if possible the size of the package when shipped 
• Include information on how long it will take to create and ship the product from the order date 
• Use simple sentences and short paragraphs, but rich language, and don’t be afraid to keep it interesting with the copy

Step 14. Choose how you’ll get paid. According to Baymord Institute, 6% of online shoppers have abandoned their carts in the last quarter because there weren’t enough payment options. It’s important to consider that while online shopping is becoming the norm, there are still potential customers that will hesitate to share their credit card details online, no matter how secure your website. This lost opportunity can be easily avoided by maximizing available payment options for your store.

Etsy store owners should take advantage of Etsy Payments. This gives you the ability to offer a wide variety of payment options without having to open multiple merchant services accounts. Etsy payments can be used to accept:

• Credit cards
• Debit/bank cards
• Etsy Gift Cards and Etsy Credits
• PayPal
• Apple Pay
• Google Pay

You’ll want to make sure you also provide options for in-person customers. Square has partnered with Etsy to provide sellers with a quick and secure way to complete in-person payments from your phone or tablet and sync your shop inventory. Simply go to the Shop Manager page, choose Square from the Add Channel options, follow the prompts and you’re good to go. You also get a Square card reader for free when you sign up.

Step 15. Set up billing. You’re almost there! Now, it’s time to set up billing, which is how you will pay Etsy for any fees, which may include subscription fees or any fees that can’t come out of your balance.

Depending on your country, you may need to enter payment information in the form of a debit or credit card to open your shop. This must be a Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or Discover. Sellers in France can use a Carte Bleue. Sellers located in Austria, Germany, and the Netherlands aren’t required to have a credit card on file.

If you are required to have a credit card on file, you’ll see an authorization charge to verify the card, but the charge will be dropped from your statement as soon as verification is made. This typically happens over a several-day period. 

Sellers can also add a prepaid card to your account after adding a credit or debit card; it can’t be your only primary payment method. 

Step 16. Open your shop. If you’ve arrived at this point, you’re finally ready. It’s time to launch your shop, making it visible to all your new, anxiously awaiting, and soon-to-be customers. To do this, simply click “Open Your Shop.” 

You’ll be given a website address to your shop, which will be:

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/[yourshopname] orhttps://yourshopname.etsy.com

Congratulations! And remember that you can edit your shop at any point. 

5. Is selling on Etsy worth it? 

Most sellers would agree that selling on Etsy is absolutely worth it, particularly as long as you’re factoring all the seller’s fees into your pricing.

Selling on Etsy does take time, energy, and some upfront costs in the form of listing fees and any other costs associated (which may include business licenses, product material or manufacturing costs, tax preparation, and more). It can also be slow going at first while you’re learning the platform and slowly gaining momentum over time.

There are several distinct cons that are worth pointing out:

• There’s fierce competition on the platform; there are plenty of shoppers, but there are also a lot of business owners, too.
• If you have a great product, someone else will likely notice and play copycat to try to generate their own version; unfortunately, however, this is almost always true in business.
• There’s often a distinct lack of customer loyalty because there are so many options and users are excited to try them, especially at low costs; they may be looking for handmade products but not necessarily yours, though building a brand can help with this.
• It can be more difficult to build a following, including on social media or through an email list; this is because you need to send users off-site to sign up for an email list or to check out your blog, and it’s harder to really elevate your brand on the platform.

All that being said, the pros of Etsy often outweigh the cons. The list is shorter, but the items on it carry a ton of weight. It includes:

• It’s quicky and easy to set up, it’s easy to use on an ongoing basis, and it’s relatively cost-effective.
• It has enormous reach and the potential to put you in touch with an engaged and trusting audience faster than your own website likely would.
• It’s a great way to expand to new audiences, test new products, and learn about business ownership without exorbitant fees.

6. Alternatives to Etsy

If you’re not sure if Etsy is right for you, or if you decide that it is right for your needs but you’d like to expand your reach further, you can check out the following Etsy alternatives:

• eBay, which has a larger focus on reselling goods, but you can sell new and original items here, too
• Poshmark is a fashion marketplace, so you can list used, new, or boutique items 
• Amazon is a third-party marketplace platform that sellers can use to expand their reach further
• Mercari is a Japanese e-commerce platform that sells new and used items (including vintage and handmade items) to US and Japanese customers

In addition to third-party marketplaces, you also have the option to create your own e-commerce website. This is fairly easy to do, especially with sites like Wix and Squarespace (which have e-commerce integrations) or e-commerce website platforms like Shopify. You will need to handle your own credit card processing, shipping, SEO, site building, and site registration. 

Conclusion 

While there are both pros and cons to selling on Etsy as we’ve discussed above, the reality is that it’s a little like a creator’s paradise in many ways.

There’s a massive, engaged, and trusting audience on Etsy. Here, users are more willing to buy from small creators than they might be on a site like Amazon because the goal is to try to find handmade items from niche creators. The fees are also relatively low cost compared to some other platforms, and the ease of setup and continual use is hard to pass by.

If you’re ready to launch your own creator business, Etsy is just a few clicks away. It might be time to get started. 

Considering making a video game but don’t have the technical skills or expertise to know where to start? Perhaps you’ve always possessed a keen mind for business, but when it comes to the business of video game development and marketing, you’re scratching your head in confusion.

The good news is that you don’t have to have prior experience in the video game industry to create a successful video game. You just need to understand the simple step-by-step process, as well as the creative and technical team members you need on your side, to get the job done.

Thankfully, we’ve created this in-depth guide to not only reveal the video game development process but also to help you clarify all the questions or hesitations you might have along the way. There are seven key stages in developing a video game.

Let’s take a closer look at each.

The 8 Stages of Game Development

• Stage 1. Planning your video game
• Stage 2. Pre-production
• Stage 3. Production
• Stage 4. Testing
• Stage 5. Pre-launch
• Stage 6. Launch
• Stage 7. Post-launch
• Stage 8. Market the finished product
• The general challenges behind game development
• Video game developer job description & responsibilities

Stage 1. Planning your video game

Before any video game is unleashed into the world, it must stem from an idea. This idea is formulated during the planning stage, which begins with brainstorming these elements of your video game:

• Type
• Key features
• Format (2D or 3D)
• Characters
• Setting
• Time period
• Platform
• Target audience

The next phase of the planning stage is proofing a concept, which takes all of the ideas brainstormed and determines how feasible they are to produce.

Stage 2. Pre-production

This is the stage where the ideas brainstormed in the planning phases are given further thought, including how they might be brought to life. It involves a lot of collaboration, experimentation, and prototyping.

The pre-production stage may involve the following scenarios:

• Writers and project leads discussing the narrative of the story
• Engineers and writers discussing technological constraints and how these affect potential narratives
• Artists and designers ensuring visuals, color palettes, and art styles adhere to what was determined during the planning phase
• Developers and engineers determining in-game mechanics, physics, and how objects will render on a player’s screen
• Project leads and multiple departments determining the “fun factor” of the game

Stage 3. Production

The production stage is the one that often has the most time, effort, and resources spent on it. It isn’t unusual for the production of a video game to last months, if not years, as ideas previously brainstormed and discussed are now brought to life.

The production phase involves:

• Establishing milestones and sprint schedules
• Designing and rendering character models
• Implementing realistic audio effects
• Developing dynamic and immersive environments
• Recording audio for character voices
• Writing code

Stage 4. Testing

During the testing stage, the video game is thoroughly checked for quality control. This involves playtesters:

• Identifying bugs
• Determining if the game is too easy or too hard
• Conducting “fun factor” tests to ensure the game was satisfying to complete
• Conducting “stress tests” to try to break the game or uncover glitches
• Seeing if any features can be used to exploit the game
• Determining if the character dialogue is boring or inauthentic

Stage 5. Pre-launch

The pre-launch phase largely consists of marketing your video game to create hype before its official launch. This includes:

• Releasing a hype video with a mix of cinematics and sample gameplay
• Offering an exclusive preview of the video game at a major gaming convention
• Sending early-access Beta copies to video gaming influencers so they can livestream it to their followers
• Advertising methods, such as print advertisements, T.V commercials, social media ads, etc.

Stage 6. Launch

In the lead-up to the official launch date, the team will work on the following tasks to ensure the game is as polished as possible before it makes it into the hands of the public:

• “Squashing” both major and minor bugs, with major bugs taking priority if working on a limited timeline
• Polishing the game, such as adding extra depth or texture visually, or any other tweaks which may seem minor, but help to make the experience more immersive for the player
• Finally, launching and distributing the video game among the public

Stage 7. Post-launch

Even after the official launch of a game, it isn’t unusual for additional minor bugs to require squashing. Additionally, teams must develop extra content or updates to increase the replay value and appeal of a game.

Post-launch tasks include:

• Customer support
• Reviewing bug reports or complaints of bugs in online forums
• Squashing additional bugs
• Providing regular software updates for the game and new downloadable content, including new levels, additional storylines, or multiplayer modes

Stage 8. Market the finished product

One key aspect of your video game’s success that you’ll have to master includes its marketing. To successfully market your video game, ensure you have the following:

• Websites: Ideally one for your video game company and a separate website for each game you produce
• Blog: This should showcase the development of your video game and allow your target audience to keep updated with its progress. These updates also help to generate more excitement and give your company authenticity and authority.
• Social media accounts: To promote your company and your current video game project. You can use channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to share updates, exciting news, sneak-peeks, and more.
• RSS feed: This will provide your fans with another method for keeping up to date with news regarding your company and video game
• Video game trailer: This short video gives your potential players a taste of what they can expect from your video game. You don’t need a finished game to create one, and you can even update your trailer periodically as you create additional material to use in it.
• Playable demo: A playable demo is vital for sending to journalists, video game influencers, and potential players. It’s also necessary for marketing your video game at conventions. We recommend having a downloadable demo on your website so those interested can gain a better idea about your game.
• Press kit: If you want your press inquiries to be taken seriously, you’ll need to put together a professional press kit containing everything a journalist, blogger, or influencer needs to advertise your game. This includes relevant game screenshots, videos of critical gameplay sequences, previous press coverage, a one-page summary of your team, and a fact sheet.

To get your game in as many peoples’ hands as possible, there are plenty of places where you can publish your video game. We’ve listed the 13 most popular below:

• Steam
• Itch.io
• Game Jolt
• Gog
• Humble Bundle
• IndieGameStand
• Kongregate
• Gamers Gate
• Game House
• Desura
• Google Play
• Apple Store
• Amazon Appstore

Each platform has different rules regarding upfront payments, royalties, game formats, and more. It’s recommended that you visit and research each one to determine which platforms are right for your video game.

The general challenges behind game development

While the stages of video game development may seem quite straightforward, it’s important to also note that the process can have its challenges. Thankfully, none of these are too difficult to overcome, especially once you’re aware of them.

Here are the main challenges you may face when developing a video game:

• Budget: Video games are rarely produced on a shoestring budget and require the financial backing of a publisher, fundraisers, or other investors. It is therefore common for video game developers to have certain aspects of their video game turned down, simply because the budget doesn’t allow it.
• Time constraints: The challenge of impossible time constraints is particularly true if working with a video game production company, as opposed to bootstrapping your own indie game. Video games can take several months, if not years to create, and sometimes your biggest enemy will be those impending deadlines that may not allow you to fine-tune those tiny, last-minute details.
• Technology capabilities: It isn’t uncommon for a game developer to have a brilliant idea for their video game, only to realize that technological advancements don’t quite allow for that right now. Even if the technology to bring your brilliant new ideas to life will be available within just a few years’ time, it’s still frustrating having to simplify what you want to make delivering a video game possible.
• Creative differences: While it’s common for creative differences or interferences to occur between game developers and publishers, for example, it’s important to note that creative clashes can also happen between team members. It’s vital that everyone is able to voice their ideas and collaborate, but at the end of the day, remain on the same page in regards to the final decisions.

Video game developer job description & responsibilities

Now we can dive deeper into how video game development works and what a video game developer does. As the title suggests, a video game developer “makes” video games, but they also play a pivotal role from the concept phase to the actual product launch.

A video game developer role typically includes:

• Taking the video game designer’s ideas, drawings, and rules, and writing code to turn these ideas into a playable game with visuals and sound
• Providing feedback to designers and other team members regarding game design features
• Providing feedback to production staff about technical game qualities and adherence to the original design
• Providing test specifications to those in charge of quality assurance
• Consulting with stakeholders to implement online features and determine other game requirements
• Programming artificial intelligence (AI) for computer-generated characters within the game

While you will likely take on some of these tasks as the creator of the video game, if you don’t have the technical know-how to code and develop the game, you can always hire a freelance video game developer to complete these tasks. 

Understand the difference between a game developer and a game designer

What is a game designer and how does their role differ from that of a video game developer?

A game designer creates the exciting worlds that allow us to immerse ourselves in an alternate reality as we play a video game. They come up with the game’s concepts, characters, setting, story, and gameplay. Designers must then work with artists, writers, and programmers to bring these ideas for the game to life.

So, while game designers are responsible for the overall creative vision of the game, game developers have the technical expertise to implement the game designers’ ideas and bring them to realization using computer code.

Developing a successful video game

As you have learned, developing a successful video game doesn’t require a degree in game development, nor years of technical expertise on your behalf. In fact, by following the simple step-by-step process outlined in this guide, and with the required creative and technical team members on-board, you could have a successful video game on the market within just months.

Developing your own video game isn’t just an exciting and rewarding experience, but it can also provide you with a brilliant step forward in your business and financial endeavors. After all, the video game industry’s profits are set to climb to a whopping $256.97 billion by 2025, and who wouldn’t want to capitalize on that success?

How can your startup benefit from AI?

We’re at the cusp of a 5th industrial revolution pioneered by artificial intelligence. The business value of AI is forecast to be worth $3.9T in 2022. 84% of businesses agree that AI will give them a competitive advantage, and are already embracing the technology. 80% of emerging technologies are predicted to adopt A.I. technology by 2021. 

In other words, AI is a big deal. Ask yourself, is your startup missing out by not integrating artificial intelligence technology? Let’s look at some of the ways you can make it work for your business.

AI chatbots for startups

A chatbot instantly responds to customers to guide them to the best possible solution in the shortest amount of time.

Emirates Vacations used chatbots in a marketing campaign to give visitors personalized travel tips and answer general questions. Whenever a customer clicked on an Emirates’ display ad, a chatbot window opened.

Each chatbot was configured to only suggest vacation packages that were available on its landing page.

The headline of each chatbot window was, “Explore the world without leaving the page,” to reinforce to visitors that they could get all their answers from a single source. 

This unconventional marketing tactic proved that it was possible for customers to find the precise solutions to their problems with zero navigation and zero clicks. 

This is a huge breakthrough in internet marketing. Prospective customers leave a web page when they can’t find what they were looking for. Chatbots solve this problem by offering a laser-targeted solution tailored to each individual, every time. And all without any human intervention.

So, how can you apply chatbots to your startup?

Install a chatbot on your website

Let’s look at how chatbots can answer the two most common customer queries:

• Requesting more information 
• Ordering a product/service

Requesting more information 

Instead of manually forwarding specific information to interested parties, a chatbot can completely take care of this.

E-bot7 Agent+AI is an example of an AI chatbot that can be trained to effectively inform visitors of the specific details of your startup. This chatbot can direct customers to the best solution, either by sending them to the right person for their query, or by sending them information for further reading.

This is also a great way of qualifying each visitor so that only the most valuable conversations are directed to the founder of a startup.

What makes AI chatbots particularly fascinating is that they’re continuously learning and improving. The technology reads the context of all conversations to understand whether a query was successfully resolved. Over time, chatbots get better and better at understanding queries, and their solutions get more efficient. No human customer service representative could ever match this level of discipline.

The e-bot7 Agent+AI can also handle questions from potential investors. Investors are usually looking for specific answers to help them decide if a startup is worth their time and money.

Some typical investor questions are:

• What does your startup do?
• Are you accepting investors?
• What’s unique about your offering?
• Where are you headquartered?
• How big is your market opportunity?
• Who are your biggest competitors?

As you can see from the screenshot below, chatbots like e-bot7 Agent+AI can answer targeted questions ,and lead the conversation to its intended resolution.

Source: e-bot7.de/en

A chatbot on your startup’s website could be programmed to answer each of the above questions and then suggest booking a meeting with the startup founder for further discussion

Here’s an example of the booking capabilities of the chatbot, Instabot. Whenever a meeting is booked, it’s automatically synced with Google Calendar. 

Source: www.instabot.io

With a chatbot answering visitor questions, qualifying appointments and then scheduling them, a startup founder is free to focus on more important duties.

Ordering a product or service

Chatbots like e-bot7 Agent+AI can lead customers through tailored workflows. By linking to a CRM through an API, a customer can place an order directly with the chatbot without navigating to a different part of the site. Placing orders through a chatbot is much quicker and more direct, which means customers don’t have as much time to second guess their purchase and leave.

Source: e-bot7.de/en

How much do AI Chatbots cost?

Subscription-based cloud solutions start at around $50 per month. These AI bots aren’t very customizable, but they can answer questions, schedule appointments and complete purchases.

Here are a couple of options:

• Chatbot
• Botsify

If you want a completely custom designed bot, prices start at around $30,000 for a standard capability chatbot, and can climb up to $150,000 for a top of the range design.

This pricing may seem too steep, but keep in mind that you’ll be replacing teams of customer service representatives and office rent, so it’s much cheaper in the long run.

There are free, open-source chat bot solutions available such as E.D.D.I; however, you need some serious tech skills to set them up correctly. If you’re not as technically inclined, you can hire a freelance programmer to set this up for you and save yourself a ton of money.

AI marketing for startups

With the ever-changing algorithms of popular advertising channels like Google Ads and Facebook, it ‘s getting harder to keep advertising campaigns both highly targeted and cost-effective.

The combination of Artificial Intelligence with marketing engines is changing that by finally tipping the scales in favor of the advertiser.

Upmarket gym Orangetheory decreased its cost per lead by an astonishing 40% after it added AI to its marketing efforts.

Prior to the insights of AI, Orangetheory classified its target audience into two groups:

Women

Age: Around 35 years

Income: $80,000 – $100,000.

Men

Age: Around 36 years

Income: $80,000 – $100,000

After using AI, the company was surprised to learn that its target audience was actually  younger (between 18–25).

How does AI marketing work?

AI-powered marketing is a highly complex polydirectional process. Here’s a brief overview of how its ecommerce solutions operate:

Data is pulled from campaigns to learn specific user activity and identify profitable characteristics. This data is continuously compared against updated CRM data to identify the highest converting customers.

Using this ever-evolving algorithm, the AI system is capable of adjusting advertising campaigns to ensure it only targets the audience segments with the highest potential of conversion.

But AI marketing goes beyond just customer identification. Thanks to its powerful predictive capabilities, the technology can suggest specific products each visitor is most likely to purchase and communicate with them via in-app messaging to close the sale.

AI powered product suggestions catered to the individual – Source: emarsys.com

Outsourcing some of these administrative marketing tasks to AI means startup founders can get the highest value from their human marketing staff.  

How much do AI marketing solutions cost?

Many of the solutions need to be custom built for each specific business. To arrange a quote, you’ll need to book a demo.

You can find a list of AI marketing providers here.

AI business analytics for startups

AI business analytics can help startup founders take emotion out of their decision making, and focus on hard data to help guide their strategy.

Predictive modeling

Predictive modeling uses existing datasets to predict future outcomes. Not only does this help startup founders make profitable decisions, it also helps identify financial leaks to minimize loses.

For example, Datarobot helps fintechs remain profitable by:

• Predicting and blocking fraudulent transactions
• Predicting the likelihood of loan applicants paying off their loan
• Automating the management of multiple investment portfolios without losing efficiency

But the real power of predictive modeling solutions lies in the ability to create custom models.

If you’re a software startup, you could predict the likelihood of a specific feature increasing sales. Simply upload your dataset, select the target variable and you’re done.

Predictive modelling software – Source: datarobot.com

Free predictive modeling software 

Predictive modeling software is not cheap, and the pricing inflates in proportion to a business’ complexity. But it might surprise you to learn there are free open-source alternatives. 

Because they’re open source, you’ll need some coding help to set them up. That means you may want to hire a freelance programmer to help you out.

GraphLab Create

GraphLab Create uses machine learning to build intelligent predictive models. It can handle fraud detection, user-case recommendations, sentiment analysis, churn prediction and more.

This is an incredibly powerful platform with multiple predictive capabilities. If you want the competitive advantage of predictive modeling software, but you’re on a tight budget, GraphLab Create is a great choice.

Orange Data Mining

Orange displays statistical predictions through stunning data visualizations. You can even create decision trees, hierarchical clusters and heatmaps to aid your decision making. 

R Software

WIth R Software you can build a variety of powerful statistical models, such as linear/non-linear modeling, classical statistical tests, cassiciations, clustering, time-series and more.

Conclusion 

To futureproof your startup, you have to prepare for the 5th and most powerful industrial revolution to date. Harnessing artificial intelligence will not only establish a foundation you can build on with technologies in the future; it provides a powerful competitive advantage today by helping you to focus more on the strategic growth of your startup.

Follow our step-by-step guide to get your app live ASAP

So after weeks of stackoverflow searches, microwaved pizza and your spine slowly settling into the golden ratio, your iOS mobile app is finally finished.

But before your vitamin D deficient body finally encounters the wholesome sun, you need to publish your app to the App Store.

Step 1: Meet the App store guidelines

If you’re going to play in Apple’s backyard, you need to obey their rules. 62% of Apple App Store submission rejections are a result of non-compliance with Apple’s guidelines.

Apple’s guidelines are quite lengthy, and since you’re most probably reading this because you’re frustrated that your iOS app isn’t being accepted, let’s not waste time blabbering about it and get to the point.

Below is a super sleek summary of Apple’s App Store guidelines:

Make your app safe

• Don’t be racist
• No religious discrimination 
• No gender discrimination 
• Don’t target specific groups of people 
• Don’t humiliate anyone
• Don’t intimidate anyone
• Keep user data secure
• No offensive content
• No sexual or pornographic material
• No false information
• Don’t enable anonymous calls/SMS’s
• Don’t risk physical harm (medical apps that provide advice should be wary).

In short: BE NICE DAMMIT!

Your app should perform well

• Only submit the final version of your app (submit all test versions to Testflight beforehand)
• Ensure all metadata is accurate
• Don’t keep any features hidden. Users should not be surprised
• Be transparent about all in-app purchases
• Screenshots should clearly illustrate app operation
• Don’t promote other mobile platforms 
• Clearly describe any new features under the “what’s new” section and don’t be vague.
• Your app should run seamlessly on iPads
• Don’t encourage users to turn off WiFi, disable security settings, etc

In short: Make sure your app isn’t garbage

Have a clear and fair business model

• Don’t overprice your app (includes all in-app purchases)
• Be very clear about what users will be charged
• Don’t manipulate feedback
• Don’t incentivize positive reviews
• Only use in-app purchases and not other forms of payment collection 
• Clearly describe what the user is expected to receive in exchange for purchasing your app (includes subscriptions)
• All advertising should be appropriate to the app’s audience

In short: Be honest and play fair 

App Design 

• Make sure your content is unique, don’t simply add a new feature to an existing app. Make your app obviously different.
• If you use ARKit you must provide a rich AR experience.
• Make sure all app extensions are compliant
• Offer the option of signing in with Apple to any 3rd party social service 

In short: Make your app the prettiest app in the universe!

Legal 

• Keep user data safe
• Be transparent about any data collection 
• If you mine data, only mine data that’s relevant to the core functionality of the app
• Respect users’ permission settings
• Only include a user login if your app includes significant account based features
• App must include a mechanism that revokes social media credential and social media access.
• Don’t use the app to access user passwords.
• Don’t share data without clearly obtaining permission first

In short: Don’t be stealing stuff!

If time is your benevolent friend, you can read the entire Apple guidelines document yourself.

With a fully compliant app, you will have a firm foundation set for the subsequent steps:

Step 2: Join Apple’s Developer Program 

You need to sign up to Apple’s Developer Program in order to have stagedoor access to the app store.

It does come at a price, which isn’t too weighty on the wallet.

Individual developers pay $99 a year.

If you run a development team, they can all have access through the one account for $299 per year.

The developer program offers some pretty cool features such as a beta testing environment, access to Apple build kits, analytics, etc.

Step 3: Set up Certificates, identifiers and profiles

Every app needs a signed Apple certificate in order to run on a device. If your app doesn’t have a verifiable bundled certificate, it will be rejected. To create a certificate you need to create a profile (also known as “code signing identity”).

There are two types of profiles:

1. Development Profiles Certificates that YOU create and sign in order to run your developed app on your phone while testing it.
2. Distribution Profiles

Certificates allow your app to be run on multiple devices. Apple creates this identity after your app is approved.

Now, there’s a manual and automatic method of creating these identities, and since we’re aiming to get our app published ASAP, let’s focus on the automatic device provisioning process.

How to automatically manage identity signing in Xcode 

1. Under “Accounts,” in the bottom left of the window, login using your Apple Development Program credentials.
2. Select the “General” category.
3.  Under “Signing,” tick the box “Automatically manage signing”

If you run a development team, your device will need to be registered on your team provisioning profile

Figure 1 – instabug.com

Step 4: Get an App Store Connect account

App Store Connect manages all of the apps you submit. It’s the door to the App Store.

You’ll need to sign into App Store Connect using your Apple Development Program credentials.

Figure 2 – help.apple.com

You can also access App Store Connect by logging into the Apple Developer Program 

If you’ll be selling your app, you’ll need to sign a “Paid Applications Agreement” under “Agreements, Tax, and Banking.”

A record needs to be created in App Store Connect for each app you want to push into the App Store. This will help you identify and manage each individual app listed in App Store Connect.

Step 5: Input your app details

When submitting your app, you need to make sure you clearly (and beautifully) communicate its purpose both visually and via text.

App Metadata

Metadata identifies your app. It includes details such as

• App description
• Preview images (images or video if you’re a super fancy pants)
• Screenshots
• Release notes of new updates
• App category
• App version 

Apple has laid out strict meta data requirements that need to be met before submitting an app.

It’s absolutely imperative that you keep all metadata up to date at all times.

Keep all images beautiful

You won’t be able to upload your app without a stunning icon. Make sure its meets Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines.

App previews

Your app previews (screenshots and videos) should clearly identify the function of the app and the app’s aesthetics. If your app in reality looks wildly different to your previews, your submission will be rejected.

As a good rule of thumb, aim for about 5 preview images and 1 short video. Make sure you also include previews for different devices.

A common theme in this app publishing process you may have noticed is the integral importance of elite customer service (high quality app, beautiful imagery, clear communication, etc.).

So if you imagine you’re presenting your app to your lover every time you upload it, you should meet (and exceed) Apple’s expectations.

Step 6: Upload your app

We’re on the home stretch now!

Next you’ll need to upload your app into App Store Connect. This is most easily done straight from Xcode.

If your upload is accepted, all is well. If there’s a submission error, there may be bugs present. The error message will let you know exactly which bugs your app is experiencing.

This a good opportunity for you to identify and fix any bugs before your app is officially reviewed.

You can also invite testers via App Store Connect to test your app by simply inputting their email addresses.

Step 7: Get reviewed by Apple staff

The final obstacle to overcome is the review process by Apple staff. An Apple staff member will manually test your app and review all of your metadata.

If you can win over their hearts, your app is a shoo-in, so be romantic!

Hot tip:There’s no better way to flirt with an Apple reviewer than with a fully compliant mobile app.

50% of apps are processed within 24 hours and 90% within 48 hours. Once approved your app’s status will be set to “ready for sale.”

At this point you’ll be in a position to release your app into the App Store. This can either be done automatically in phases over a 7 day period or manually.

Automatic publishing is usually used for version update releases.

If your app is rejected, you can appeal the decision through the Resolution Center.

The resolution staff are usually very compliant and helpful. Keep in mind that more apps in the App Store means more revenue for Apple, so they’ll never nonsensically block your app.

Apple has created a document outlining the common reasons most apps are rejected. If you use this document as a testing template, it should give your app the highest chances of approval.

Conclusion

Building an app is difficult. Publishing it onto the App Store should be the rewarding conclusion of your hard work. Follow our guide to get your app submitted into the App Store successfully every time.

AI technology makes your business smarter and faster

If you’ve always been intrigued by AI technology but too frightened to integrate it into your startup, read on.

Integrating artificial technology into your startup is much simpler than you think, and we’ll show you how to do it.

Automate all of your admin

Lets knock off some easy wins first. Start by outsourcing as much of your annoying admin as possible to AI.

Yes, we now live in a golden age where robots can do all of the annoying admin for you.

This strand of AI is known as Process Automation. As the name suggests, the technology automatically completes tasks, without human intervention.

If this is the only part of your business you outsource to AI, you’ll already have a significant competitive advantage, because you’ll have more time to focus on what actually matters, strategizing and growing your business.

To identify possible processes you can automate, list all of the day-to day tasks that don’t directly contribute to significant growth (AKA, tasks you would pay your nephew minimum wage to complete).

To inspire you, below is a list of AI solutions that already exist for administrative tasks.

Cortanta (Windows) and Siri (Mac)

Though you may only use them to ask about the weather, both Cortana and Siri are actually very powerful AI assistants you already have at your fingertips.

Cortana and Siri are about equally matched in their AI abilities. Even Siri is reluctant to admit superiority.

The operational functions of both AI assistants are just about equal so you should have no issues if you ever change platforms.

The videos below demonstrate the powerful admin capabilities of both Cortana and Siri.

Chatbots

Talking to customers is time consuming, and if you don’t get back to them quickly enough you could lose a precious sale.

Let chatbots handle all of the annoying interruptions while you get some real work done. Chatbots can converse

 with your customers for you via a messenger window on your website. They can even automatically schedule any important callbacks in your calendar!

They’re super easy to instal too, usually by just adding a script to your website structure

. They should come with instructions on how to do this, if not you can reach out to a developer fo help.

Integrating AI into your core solution

This second layer of specialization is a little more complex, but it’s worth doing because it’ll enable you to market your business solution as AI-driven, which will get your startup scaling in no time

.

Deloitte surveyed 250 executives to gather their insights on Artificial Intelligence tech in business. 51% said they embraced AI technology for its ability to enhance the performance of business solutions.

So how can you integrate AI into your core solution?

It’s really not that hard if you understand the other strand of AI technology known as Cognitive Insight.

Imagine having your own personal robot at work with you at all times. This robot can let you know how your business is performing at any time. It can read through chunks of data and then advise the most efficient course of action. It can even predict what each customer is most likely to purchase and when

Welcome to the wonderful world of Cognitive Insight.

Think of Process Automation and Cognitive Insight as the two strands comprising AI DNA. If you understand this relationship, it’ll help you understand how your business processes can be split into these two categories of AI.

Now the scary (but awesome) thing about Cognitive Insights is that the algorithms learn over time. That’s right. The more data you feed into them the smarter they get and the better they get at analyzing them.

A business solution that keeps adjusting itself towards higher efficiency? Yes please!

Now, we’ll talk about the process of actually implanting this bionic brain into your business shortly. For now, let’s help you identify areas of cognitive insight integration.

Identifying AI opportunities for your startup

Customer behavior prediction technology

Start from the customer’s side of things. This data will create the groundwork for an AI solution that predicts customer purchase behavior.

Map out the entire customer acquisition journey. Here are some questions to guide you:

How does a customer learn about your business? List all of the marketing channels.Include any referral processes.Do they download a free ebook  or read a blog post ?

What is the lifetime value of each customer? This is a calculation of the overall net profit each customer will provide before they discontinue their relationship with you.Include all upsells and related products

Who is your target market? Create in-depth customer personas  to identify each of the unique requirements of all of your customer types.

How are your customers currently responding to your business? Google reviews Facebook reviewsGlass door

What are customers asking you? Pull up all of your contact form submissions

What do you currently know about the behavior of your customers? Heat map activity on your website Google Analytics

Pattern recognition technology

Ok, now we’re slightly turning up the complexity knob. Let’s figure out how your business is currently identifying and analyzing patterns,

Pattern recognition doesn’t necessarily involve only repeating sequences, like the patterns on that flannel shirt you wore around your waste during the Grunge era.

Think of a pattern as an identification trigger for a certain action.

For example, speech recognition is a form from AI pattern recognition or Cognitive Insight. If your business interacts with customers verbally, that’s an area you could possibly integrate with AI.

When brainstorming possible Cognitive Insight solutions it’s a great habit to identify how your business could be improved with this technology.

So with the speech recognition scenario, think about how you could improve the satisfaction of your customers with speech recognition technology.

If your customers find it burdensome to keep identifying themselves when they call you, perhaps you could use speech recognition technology to automatically pull up their records at your end when they just start speaking.

It’s going to take a little imagination flexing

 to do this, but your end goal should always be improved customer satisfaction.“A strategy of caring usually out-shines tactics, but when they’re used with the right intent, tactics can help a brand achieve greatness.”

Gary Vaynerchuk

Here’s another example of pattern recognition technology

Let’s say you run a coaching business. What do you think would be your most prominent class of data?

Student performance results.

If you have a lot of student performance data, how can that be used to better the customer experience?

Well, no student likes to feel invisible in a class. Whether you do face-to-face lessons or teach online, you could personalize the learning experience for each individual student. Give each student supplementary lessons to strengthen their specific weaknesses.

You could even use this tech to upsell personalized courses to help each student progress faster. Now that’s a level of attention to detail worth pulling out the wallet for.

This exercise won’t only help you strategically plan your AI upgrade, but it will also encourage you to assume the winning mindset of always putting customer satisfaction first.

Cognitive Insight can also be applied to any area of your business where you would like more transparency. This could be the ability to identify your net cash position in real time, or quantifying how satisfied a customer is.

With the proper application of Cognitive Insight you can become completely aware of every area of your business at all times, and, as a result, always be in complete control.

Now THAT’S a powerful startup!

To help your brainstorming efforts You can read more about the different types of pattern recognition technology here

, here

and here

. Take the time to consider how each of these solutions could be applied to your business, be as creative and audacious as possible!

Integrating AI tech into your startup

All this planning and brainstorming leads to this point, and somebody skilled in this field is going to have to do the coding for you.

But before you rush off and hire a developer, do some research. Most AI tech firms and even individual developers are more than happy to consult with you for free to ascertain whether or not they can actually help you.

Read them your handy brainstorming notes. Not all AI developers are created equal, so one might say your plans are too audacious while another might be very capable of implementing them.

If, like most startup owners, you’ve been living off instant noodles and unfiltered tap water, the most cost efficient option is to hire a freelancer AI developer. There are no lock-in contracts, you don’t need to pay them benefits and you can even chat with them for free prior to any commitments.

You can discuss your AI requirents a consultant for free here

.

Rolling out AI technology in your startup.

Integrating AI into your startup doesn’t need to be an aggressive tear down and rebuilding process. You should introduce it into your business in stages.

Silo any new AI applications into pilot projects and then slowly roll them out once you and your team become accustomed to the new processes.

To make your AI transition as efficient as possible, you can run multiple pilot projects. This is especially beneficial if they’ll be feeding data into each other.

The AI developer you choose should be capable of managing and monitoring these pilot projects for you, so you don’t need to worry about being left alone with alien technology. Remote collaboration is more advanced than ever, so you can work with a developer anywhere in the world.

Final words

You can’t escape the facts. Most startups fail. You should do whatever you can to increase your chances of survival. By integrating AI technology into your startup, not only will your startup be relevant in the future, it’ll have an incredible marketing advantage.

Technology changes at lightning speeds, making it crucial for web developers to stay up-to-date with the current trends.

With 200 million active websites across the world, it is a competitive space. Brands wrestle competitors to take the top rung of search engine ladders. Smart web developers know exactly what is happening in their world and what to deliver their clients.

Here are the top 10 trends in web development.

1. Progressive web apps taking over

We tend to go on and on about progressive web apps (PWAs), but in case you’ve yet to hear, PWAs are web pages with the functionality of a mobile app. When users preload these on a mobile device, they can access the apps even without an internet connection. PWAs combine the best of mobile apps and a website to produce a uniform look and feel across all platforms.

Businesses have three ways to target customers on mobile devices: Build a native app

Native apps give the user experience. But the biggest barrier is getting people to download them from an app store.Create a responsive website

While mobile websites are not as good for the customer experience, they are easy to access.Develop a PWA

PWAs bridge the gap between native apps and responsive websites. These function like a native app but are downloaded through a website rather than an app store.

It is also possible to send push notifications straight to a user’s mobile phone through a PWA. This allows users to reconnect with a website whenever they like. Even when the internet connection is poor, users can share and engage with a website’s content. It helps businesses grow user engagement and conversion rates.

PWAs have many benefits which include:reducing server load by loading two or three times faster than the appthe ability to work offlinecost-effective as it removes a lot of the development and maintenance costs for a native appneeding little storage space as they operate on demand.

Pinterest increased user engagement and Twitter’s Tweets increased using PWAs.

2. Chatbots are getting smarter

Chatbots are popular for engaging interaction when people land on a website. They are super convenient. Some can answer only basic questions, while others can respond to complex ones. They make websites more appealing as they give visitors fast solutions. People don’t want to waste time. They want an immediate answer. Any delay responding can lose that visitor to another site. Chatbots can give your site the immediacy that can be hard for a live customer service team to replicate.

Customer expectations are high and chatbots are reliable in engaging website visitors. Not only do they reply and give instant access to answers, they can be more efficient than a person. They give a business and brand authenticity, and customers 24 hours support.

3. Artificial intelligence is here to stay

With Artificial Intelligence (AI), developers are creating machines that emulate the way humans work and act. The most common AI in current use is machine learning and speech recognition.

Today AI is widely used. Amazon, Apple and Google are world frontrunners. We have Alexa and Siri as virtual assistants, and Amazon’s Polly turning text to speech. Amazon also has its image recognition service, Rekognition. Apple uses AI for its facial recognition FaceID for better security. 

Now successful companies turn to web developers to add AI functionality such as voice search and chatbots. Benefits of AI include:super-fast searchingimproving visitor engagementpersonalising the shopping experiencedriving marketing to engage target markets.

4. Cross-platform mobile development

Cross-platform mobile development is the development of apps that work on any platform using only a single codebase. It does away with developing an app multiple times so it operates on each platform.

Cross-platform development has some pretty significant benefits:write reusable code that allows you to export your app to many platformscode is easy to maintain and update by changing the codebase and it syncs apps across different platformscost-effective to develop and maintain, and most development tools are freedevelopment tools are super convenient and quick to usethe simplicity of publishing an app on multiple platforms gives it wider reach and the potential for higher return on investment.

But nothing great is without its downside, and the same is true with cross-platform development:performance can be slightly slower than a native apppoorer delivery of graphics and 3Dcross-development tools can lack the specific features of Microsoft and Applea native app is better for accessing device hardwaredelayed platform updates that take time to roll out across all apps.

5. Machine Learning

Machine learning goes hand-in-hand with AI to create programs that can learn from data sets. Using machine learning will make you a more versatile developer particularly at the backend.

Machine learning is either supervised or unsupervised:Supervised machine learning  is when you train the machine by giving it inputs and the corresponding outputs. This allows it to learn how the two relate to each other. This is the most common method of machine learning.Unsupervised machine learning is where the machine is only given inputs without the corresponding outputs. The machine has to work out patterns to classify the inputs.

Analysts believe machine learning is set to transform web development by:data mininganalysing customer behaviourremoving security threatsproducing customised information and content.

Machine learning collects information that allows businesses to improve user experience with their brand.

6. Power of storytelling

Storytelling is not just about content, but also the visuals and the end user experience. Successful brands know this and use storytelling to build brand loyalty. And it works across all industries. Creating narratives brings a brand or product to life, and engages people on an emotional level.

While some brands and products lend themselves to a good story, some work better without a story. As a web developer, you need to know your target audience before doing anything.

Storytelling is powerful form of communication that:simplifies complex ideas to give them meaning in contexthas the power of persuasion where facts miss the mark, and allows target audiences to draw their own conclusionsdraws on emotions and feelingsmakes content memorableshares information.

7. Voice search optimization

Voice search is more popular than ever. According to Google, 20% of searches from mobile devices use voice. Optimizing sites for voice search is important for web developers to make websites mobile friendly. 

Fortunately, Google Chrome and Firefox already support voice search technology. Optimizing for voice search is as simple as adding an API that recognizes the function. 

Optimizing websites for voice search:promotes higher search engine rankingboosts traffic, because voice search adds credibility and makes a website more visiblegives faster results for better user experience and engagement.8. Increasing demand for video

Websites are no longer a static advertisement for a company. The use of videos enhances the way consumers engage with brands and their websites.

Video conveys your message more effectively than text content and allows users to consume information faster. A video brings content alive and makes it relevant in context for the end user. Video enhances marketing strategies

Every keyword used on a website is an opportunity to link to a video to boost the chance of users finding a business. Google now displays videos in search results.

Videos also keep people on a website site longer which is one of the main ingredients to help page ranking. The longer a visitor stays on a website, the more important Google bots thinks it is.Shareable across social media

Videos are super easy to share across social media and in emails. Creating original video content is important. When the business shares video, it drives target audiences to interact with its content in a way simple text on a page can’t.Video boosts sales

Wyzowl research found 74% of people who watched a product video ended up buying the product. Videos help people engage with a brand to learn more about what they offer. Wyzowl studies also found that 76% of businesses believed video gave them a good return on investment.

Websites with videos enhance a visitor’s experience and enhance engagement with the brand.9. Simple, single pages

Developers are moving away from building deep, labyrinthine site structures and towards building tall, all-encompassing single pages.

With more people accessing the internet from mobile devices, a single page layout makes user navigation easier. 

These websites are cheaper and faster to develop, and cheaper to host.

10. Bold, minimalistic designs

Leading on from simple, one-page websites is the trend to create bold, minimalistic website designs. The new trend is to limit design elements so there is no distraction from the message.

Talented web developers and designers know that using more white space makes a website easier to read and more appealing. They understand how people want to use websites. The use of fewer colors, but in a bright, bold color spectrum, emphasizes a company’s message, products and services.

Simple designs also load faster, which decreases your bounce rate. No matter how amazing your site might be, if users get sick of waiting for it to load they’ll head somewhere else.

This article covers the basics: understanding how a blockchain works and how to use blockchain applications in various real-world industries today. We also highlight the benefits of using blockchain networks.

• Blockchain basics 
• Types of blockchains 
• Purposes of blockchains
• Blockchain network benefits

What is blockchain?

A blockchain operates on a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), where each new transaction is recorded on a digital ledger that’s distributed across a computer network. It stores information electronically in groups called blocks. Any information stored on a blockchain is considered secure.

Understanding blockchain basics

To understand how a blockchain works, you’ll want to understand the concept of a block. Databases usually structure information in tables, but a blockchain uses blocks that link together to form a chain, which becomes the blockchain. 

Information is stored as a record, and multiple records can be stored inside a block. The block groups together and stores records until its storage capacity is met. 

At this point, it’s closed and linked to the previous block on the chain using a hash, which is a unique code. Any new information is compiled into a new block, which is linked to the latest one once it reaches capacity.

The blockchain stores information without letting anyone edit it retroactively. Once a block has been filled, no changes or edits can be made to it without the entire chain being disrupted. 

If an edit is made to a block after it’s been committed to the blockchain, its hash will also change. When this happens, the next block in line—which used the previous hash to link itself to this block—will become unlinked. 

It’ll then have to be modified to be relinked to the first block. As a result, even the smallest edit to a block can trigger a domino effect that’s both significant and undesirable.

Worth noting, a record must be checked before it’s added to a block. In place of a centralized authority to verify the information, different computers within the peer network—called nodes—take responsibility for this task. 

They can all access this data and compete with one another to be the node that adds a record to a block. Only after verification can the information be included in a block or blockchain.

How can you trust the nodes in the network? Unlike centralized authorities in charge of other technologies, the nodes are operated anonymously. To build trust, blockchains require prospective nodes to prove themselves by passing certain tests called consensus models. 

Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) are two examples. The first demands that nodes employ great amounts of computing power to mine blocks and prove to others in the entire network that they can be trusted. In the second, interested parties purchase certain tokens, permitting them to mine more.

This distributed system of verification—coupled with the difficulty of editing a block after it has been added to the blockchain—establishes confidence in blockchains as legitimate and secure ways to store information digitally.

Types of blockchains 

Now that you understand the basic logic of blockchains, let’s look at a few classes of blockchains and examine their relevance.

• Public blockchains
• Private blockchains
• Permissioned blockchains
• Consortium blockchains

Public blockchains

A public blockchain is open to all, meaning anyone can access and contribute to it. As the entire ecosystem is open source, there are no restrictions on who can perform activities related to that blockchain. 

Mechanisms like Proof of Work (PoW) and cryptography are employed within the algorithm to secure the database. PoW is a way to add new blocks to the original blockchain network. Cryptography is a method of securing information so no one can understand it apart from the intended recipient.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency operating on a public blockchain.

Public blockchains use incentives to encourage participation and interest. They’re also the most decentralized and distributed chain solution, with no possibility for a central figure to take control of the system.

Private blockchains

A private blockchain only admits verified participants to the network. You usually require an invitation to the blockchain network, in addition to some form of approval. This approval can be executed by a network operator or is a clear protocol defined by the rest of the network.

Private blockchain networks limit access to the blockchain network and its activities, including the management of the shared digital ledger. Unlike in a public blockchain, network operators have certain prevailing powers, such as the ability to make changes to the blockchain. 

Even verified nodes may have limited access to activities on the blockchain. Not everyone is permitted to validate changes, for instance.

Therefore, a private blockchain is distributed to an extent but not decentralized. It relies on basic blockchain technology, but its trust mechanisms are a significant departure from those of a public blockchain. A private business, for instance, may benefit from using such a blockchain to document its financial history.

Permissioned blockchains

Permissioned blockchains provide a middle ground between public and private blockchains. These are built to offer high levels of customization for each actor, so virtually anyone can participate in the network after passing certain validation checks, but with varying degrees of access.

Depending on the actor’s role in the blockchain network, they can be permitted to perform certain activities and not others. This flexibility makes permissioned blockchains a viable consideration for many businesses that don’t want to close off the blockchain but may want to restrict permissions, like writing information into the blockchain, to certain participants.

Consortium blockchains

Like permissioned blockchains, consortium blockchains are semi-private. However, they serve a specific purpose: to strengthen cooperation efforts between companies.

Often, companies or organizations collaborate to deliver high-impact solutions. They rally around common goals and work together to meet them. Blockchains amplify the trust between them by offering these groups more transparency and accountability mechanisms for their operations. 

Consortium blockchains also make it easier for new actors to join established coalitions and build on existing work.

Purposes of blockchains

The proliferation of different types of blockchains has also allowed the technology to penetrate a wide range of industries, like real estate, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and financial services such as credit cards. 

Below, we explore some use cases of blockchains in the real world today:

• Cryptocurrencies
• Banking and finance
• Smart contracts
• Health care
• Supply chains
• Voting

Cryptocurrencies

Blockchains are most closely associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, since they store information about transactions. Blockchains were first presented in a research project in 1991, but they quickly rose in popularity with the introduction of Bitcoin by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009.

Fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar are controlled by a central authority, putting an individual’s wealth in the hands of financial service providers like banks. Any damage to these institutions can result in significant consequences for people’s financial holdings. 

Cryptocurrencies are significantly more secure because they rely on a blockchain. Transactions can’t be edited without the knowledge or approval of the network. With these kinds of digital currencies, the risks are lower, as are the transaction costs, because no singular entity serves as a middle person.

Banking and finance

More traditional money exchange systems can also benefit from using blockchains for their operations. The technology isn’t bound by certain constraints that limit the functioning of these institutions. 

For example, banks can reduce processing times and offer their services around the clock by incorporating blockchains for recording transactions.

Blockchains speed up the process of making transactions between institutions and can deliver them more securely. Longer processing times render the money in transit more vulnerable, especially in large amounts.

Smart contracts

A smart contract is a code written into the blockchain to execute the terms of a contract agreement. The code is bound by a set of conditions and runs automatically only when the conditions, which the users decide, are met.

Transacting parties must submit their part of the deal to the blockchain. The code verifies that the conditions they set are met. These conditions could indicate the amount to be paid by one party or a deadline to do so; for instance. If the conditions aren’t met, the transaction or deal doesn’t go through.

Smart contracts eliminate the need for a middle person to sign off on the deal and assure both parties that they won’t be cheated. In place of this third party, the contract is the verifying authority that guarantees a secure transaction between the actors involved.

Smart contracts can be used for any kind of agreement between two parties, monetary or otherwise, like keeping records of real estate transactions.

Health care

Blockchain technology is also attractive to medical professionals and institutions. It can enable secure medical data storage, such as patients’ health records. 

A medical record can be written into the blockchain, guaranteeing a patient’s data can’t be tampered with owing to the blocks’ immutable nature. For further security, these can be located on private blockchains using private keys, so only relevant medical professionals can access the data as needed.

Supply chains

Raw materials and finished products change hands throughout the production and manufacturing process. A blockchain can add a layer of trust and verification, as suppliers and retailers can trace the path that the materials took before reaching them.

An entry can be added to the blockchain every time the material is passed from one actor to another. With no way of modifying the information without every actor in the network knowing, this can act as a reliable source of information. Companies can benefit from using consortium blockchains to keep track of this information.

Voting

Blockchain technology can revolutionize voting by forming the basis for a secure online system. It can increase transparency and prevent malicious actors from tampering with votes. Results would also be available almost instantaneously, as the blockchain eliminates the need for election officials to manually count or recount the votes.

Blockchain network benefits

Regardless of the kind of blockchain you decide to use, blockchains offer many potential benefits.

• Highly accurate. The blockchain verifies information without human intervention. This does away with any related risks. Relatedly, the watchful eyes of multiple nodes ensure that mistakes are avoided. 
• Efficient. A blockchain gets the job done and is fast. Smart contracts, for example, can execute only if certain agreed-upon conditions are met. A block can only be linked to the newest one that’s already on the blockchain. There’s no room for bending such rules when most of the control sits within the technology itself.
• Secure. Blockchain systems, even public ones, have mechanisms of validation in place and can’t be altered. The cryptographic hashes that link blocks together are essential pieces of the puzzle, as they build the blockchain and ensure the blockchain security system is robust and safe from those with malicious intent. Depending on the blockchain network, nodes must be approved by some form of consensus. 
• Transparent. Barring more private blockchains,the existence of everything on a blockchain is visible to all participants in the network of computers. With high levels of transparency, accountability is almost built into blockchain-based systems.
• Decentralized. One of blockchain technology’s biggest contributions is its elimination of centralizing authorities. It distributes control and management of the blockchain across the network. Individuals need only trust the technology and each other, as opposed to relying almost exclusively on an unknown party.

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Blockchains have not only been established as a powerful technology, but they also have great potential across industries. Besides their current use cases, blockchains have direct applications in the rapidly evolving market for digital assets like NFTs and the Internet of Things (IoT). If you’re looking to incorporate blockchains into your operations, we suggest hiring a professional blockchain developer.

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If you need help choosing among the huge talent pool, our Talent Scout recruiters can zero in on the perfect fit for your company. Take the first steps toward building more secure, stable, and effective solutions using blockchains.