How do I monetize my Website (100K visitors a month) and iPhone App (20K downloads)

Well, the biggest cost here wouldn't be in the app, but in the server infrastructure. As usual with connected apps, people often forget they have to be connected to servers. The app itself is just a view to what the servers provide, so it's not the major cost. 20K $ to 100K $ should be enough. On server stuff, I expect it to be a lot more, particularly if you aim for a wide audience (several million $). On a Whatsapp clone, I'd consider: - solutions for performing calls through servers, not that easy. Look at what Twilio provides. WebRTC is an upcoming protocol that will ease that (web & mobile). - solutions for API, IM and user accounts management. Look at StackMob or Parse which are MBaaS (Mobile Backend as a Service). Hope it helps!

You missed the opportunity to try and describe your service here, I wonder if you're generally missing the ability to effectively describe what you do to who you think is your customer? Strategy is simple. Tactics and implementation are where wins and losses are made. By "the brand connecting is missing somehow" I'm guessing you're saying you're getting underwhelming sign-ups. That points to messaging being off or it being accurate and no one cares about the service you're offering. Given that you didn't provide any details where we could help (web link etc), you're best bet is to schedule a call with myself or someone else like me on Clarity that knows something about product positioning, customer acquisition and measurement and analysis.

Congrats on your steady growth on Twitter and YouTube - that's definitely a good sign that you're on the right track! Sponsorship, brand integration, product placement, reviews, and endorsements are all good ways to make more income with your YouTube videos. Sponsorship would be like a regular, ongoing company that is mentioned at the start and/or end as helping make the video/show possible, brand integration would be making a video based around the company's product or service, product placement would be using the company's product briefly in a video, a review would be sharing your thoughts on the company's product or service, and an endorsement could just be saying at some point that you found a company with a product or service that you like and think your audience would as well. Hope that helps and otherwise if you would like more information on any of those or ways to get companies involved, please feel free to request a call with me!

Hi there! Best of luck as you complete your college degree. From experience I will try to give you some insight into the world of startups and mobile apps. First some things to consider: 1. You live in a world of social klout 2.Apps must (specially iOS) must be very well developed, otherwise the users themselves will filter you out. 3. Apps must be relevant if you want to succeed. You've have probably seen this, a lot of paid apps go for free for a while when their sales begin to stall or never actually make any pay back to the developers. Free is an easy way to get users and thus paid advertisements or in app purchases (if they are good enough to keep) Assuming you will have all 3... Let's move on to your question: Most investors won't entertain an idea alone, specially if you haven't any prior successful experience in running a startup or app development company. Some do however, consider depending on your social klout, learn about growth hacking and consider growing your social relevance before the completion of the app. As mention by Ryan Holiday, a blogger not too long ago got investment for a book from a simple screenshot of his followers' requests for the same topic... he decided to write a book and through his community market it. This was a no brainer for the publisher investor. With that said, an often unspoken rule of networking is that you don't ask for favors in your first intro. You don't do that in your personal life, you shouldn't do that in your professional. Make friends in the right place, build relationships with a backbone in honesty, mentorship and through time as they see you work and guide you they themselves begin to entertain the idea... In the future, when you ask, your chances are much better that way. Get yourself a team, find a developer to mentor you and help you improve as you learn. Most new entrepreneurs think that their product at launch is their "final-good enough for a while- product" and is not! Complete opposite, you must realize that your initial launch is nothing more than the 1st iteration of the many to come if you want your community of users to stick with you and share their experiences with others as you help them and improve their lives by listening to their suggestions and issues with your app. If you have a developer this will become easier in the long run as well as tell an investor that you are capable of being a leader, even if is of 1. Best of luck, give me a call if you wish to talk a bit more :)

One thing I like about your question is the fact that you're ASKING it. Trying to quantify profit. Most people never even get that far. They treat profit--especially if it is that of their own business--as some ethereal thing they will "get later" if possible. "To manage we must measure" is a business maxim and a fundamental one for me. If we don't build Profit into our revenue equation, we're unlikely to get any. And so asking this question and building profit right into your revenue target is a powerful idea nearly all small business owners totally miss. As for an answer...that amount is really up to you. What do you need to survive? There are so many variables we don't know about: what kind of business, what scale, what paths to market are you using, etc. etc. that affect costs, together with the price tolerance of your marketplace, that it's not possible to give an "average" answer. When I train business owners on how to set their operation up for success, I recommend 20-30% of revenue be built in as a monthly amount for profit. However, this is usually for consultants, and may not be possible for other business models. Sometimes 5% profit is what's achievable, say for a commodity provider, and if they make money with that, OK. Have you done any studies of comparative firms in your niche?