To App or NOT to App!?!

So yesterday was fun, having two internet marketing giants go head-to-head in a “Battle Royale” of webinars.

In the red corner, Russell “Big Papa Traffic” Brunson!!!

In the blue corder, Amish “Mobile Money Maker” Shah!!!

The battle was fierce, but in the end Russell won the contest with a big showing on his webinar.

But then again, at NES3, Amish received a standing ovation after his presentation and snatched the title of “No Excuses 3 Top Speaker” away from Russell.

So, I’m just going to rule the overall contest a draw! Which means Russell and Amish will be co-holders of the title. (I might even ship them a WWE Championship Belt as a trophy.)

With that said, Amish has already posted the replay of his webinar here. Allocate an hour to watch it. You’ll be glad you did, even if you don’t intend to develop apps, cause you just might realize what I realized… (see controversy below)

Russell’s replay is coming soon…

Controversy at NES3

With that said, an important point of controversy has come up since Amish stole the show at No Excuses 3.

A few leaders at NES3 thought having a presentation on mobile apps was inappropriate for a crowd consisting mostly of network marketers. And I have to admit that they do have a point… to a degree.

The argument is that lead generation and making money with mobile apps is nothing more than a distraction, to someone in the process of actively building their network marketing business… which is totally reasonable.

The Pain of Building My First App

I spent a few months last year developing my first iPhone App with the help of an overseas programmer I hired to create something very very simple. Yet, this simple app was a HUGE PAIN in the ass to produce and cost me about $1000 in programming fees. (Which is actually cheap!)

Even after paying fees, I still had to download the iOS Software Development Kit (SDK) from Apple, fill out a bunch of forms to sign up with iTunes and go through a complicated process via the SDK for submitting my app to Apple.

I even had to reach back to my MIT Computer Science days and brush up on some programming to make this all work.

Basically, after 3-4 months of work, this stupid simple app was finally done and has been live in the iTunes App Store for almost a year, generating a cool $100 per month on autopilot.

You can check it out if you’d like here. There are two versions, “Motivational Photo Maker” and “Demotivational Photo Maker“, depending on what your intentions are.

(Note: Not available on Android, cause I would have shot myself at that point out of frustration and didn’t want to spend another $1000 and cause my stress levels to rise.)

Anyway, I felt accomplished, but the process had been so long and such a pain, I was hesitant to continue developing. It was simply too much trouble.

Meeting Amish Shah…

Months later, I was introduced to Amish Shah, by a mutual friend and the opportunity to have him speak at NES3 came up. Now I knew of Amish through the internet marketing circles as a badass affiliate marketers who had generated $100 Million in sales in 4 years, so obviously that’s someone you want to get to know.

He had moved on to making a killing with iPhone Apps and walked away from a lucrative affiliate marketing business.

(A-ha Moment #1: Walks away from record breaking affiliate career to do apps. Hmmm…)

After talking to him, we figured it might be cool to have something different at NES3 and we invited him to speak.

I honestly didn’t think that networkers would have much interest in developing apps, but thought that a few of the high level leaders in the room could benefit and see how they can incorporate the use of apps in their organizations, cause they’d be the only ones who’d be able to afford developing an app. (Or so I thought.)

Then it turned out that some of our other speakers, Dean Kosage and Jonathan Buddwere actually partners with Amish in a new venture relating to apps and gamification.

(A-ha Moment #2: Dean Kosage, as badass as MLM leaders get and Jonathan Budd are involved in the app business, too?! Hmmm…)

Ray Higdon Has an App?!?

But I was still not budging on getting back into the app scene, until Ray Higdon announced the release of his own app for iPhone, Android and iPad.

(A-ha Moment #3: Another MLM Badass, Ray “Low Tech” Higdon, gets in the game.)

I was like “Whaaaaahhh?!? He must have spent a fortune!”

I know for a fact that Ray is not a tech guy, so I emailed Ray and asked him, “Yo, how much did that app cost you to develop?”

He replied, “$99″

My response, “Whaaaaahhh Da’ $*#@&!!!! HOW!?!? Teach ME oh Great Master!!!”::bowing down::

He then emailed, “Meet Tony. He’s the guy that created the app”

“I knew it!”, I thought. (No offense, Ray.)

Creating the No Excuses App

So I talked to Tony and he blew me away. What Tony had basically done was created a “Wordpress for Apps” system, that allows anyone to create their own app that works across iPhone, Android and iPad for a fee of $99/month for as long as you want to keep the app. That’s it!

(A-ha Moment #4: “A ‘Wordpress for Apps’ Exists! Brilliant!)

No startup and development costs!

All I had to do was describe to Tony what I wanted, and he does all the grunt work with the initial build of the app, submitting to iTunes and Android.

Not only that, once it is approved and LIVE, I have a backoffice for the app, similar to wordpress and I can update content, graphics and layout in the app, on the fly in real-time without resubmitting anything to Apple or Android.

“Hallelujah! Praise the Tech Gods, for They Have Blessed Us with Tony!”

Developing the First No Excuses Summit App

The app we had Tony develop was the No Excuses Summit App that everyone at the event and via Live Stream downloaded to get access to the schedule, speaker bios, voting for speakers and stay in direct communication with us via “push notifications”.

It is very slick and you can still download it here (iTunes or Android) or you can simply search for “no excuses summit” in the App Store for iPad, iPhone and Android.

Now I’m hooked!

Tony was a godsend, but even then – his system did require a little tech savvy and cannot be used for developing paid apps or make money from advertising. He targets small businesses, who want to use their apps to stay connected with their customers and as an information tool. However, it does integrate with your autoresponder so you can get your app users on your email list.

For NES, we definitely pushed the limits of what the system could do.

(His system is what you call a “disruptive technology” since it opens the market to a new group of people, who otherwise would be shut out of using any type of app strategy.)

However, I still wasn’t sold on the idea that the average networker could use it as part of a big lead generation strategy, since every app that they would develop would cost $99/month to produce. This was really intended more for branding, customer rentention and some lead generation, like what Ray Higdon did. (Similar to a personal website)

Dean Kosage, Jonathan Budd and Amish Shah Clean House!

And then, No Excuses 3 arrived and on the last day, Dean Kosage & Jonathan Budd floored the room, as the “Oracles of Marketing Future” explained the new paradigm of gamification! There was no denying that apps were gonna take over how we all do business in a BIG way and that leaders need to get involved.

Then Amish Shah takes the stage and floors the room again, by showing people how they can get into the app industry and create their own apps for FREE!

And then again, I go “What da’ #$%&!?”, as I take notes ferociously.

(A-ha Moment #5: Free App Builders Exist. Full list inside Amish’s webinar replay.)

Needless to say, a huge percentage of the room followed Amish into his breakout room, where he, Dean Kosage and Jonathan Budd answered questions, then Amish gave people an opportunity to enroll in his ground breaking course, called “The App Code”

And even then, I was still not totally convinced that the average networker has any real reason to make apps a part of their business, unless:

a) you have no MLM business and want to pursue mobile apps as a money making venture

or

b) are a leader with an organization and want to use apps to communicate with your organization and do some lead generation

…and, as a leader, you better believe that I intended on getting into the app game, which is why I also enrolled into Amish’s “The App Code”

Holy Cow! Newbies Can Create Apps Too!

My final ‘A-ha Moment’ came after going through the first 2 modules of Amish Shah’s “The App Code” last night.

I could not believe what I was learning. Amish had put together training and created his own custom App Builder, which makes creating a mobile app easier than building a website. He made it available to every member within ‘The App Code’ training!

And submitting apps to Apple or Android, was so easy!! (Trust me, I know!)

Unbelievable!

(A-ha Moment #6: I’m gonna build me a ton of apps for massive lead generation)

So where do I stand now with regards to networkers getting involved with apps.

Given how easy Amish (and as far as I can tell, only Amish) has made making apps and generating leads and making money… looking at mobilbe apps as a potential leads source is no more distracting than a networker to build a website, in my opinion.

In fact, making money just with apps could be the mobile world’s answer to the funded proposal.

That’s not to say that as of now, people who generate leads via apps have an advantage. Lead generation via websites is very mature and the formula for generating leads is pretty well solidified.

Lead generation via mobile apps is in its infancy, evolving quickly, potentially volatile and has many unknowns. You still have to be a savvy marketer, just like with a website, to adjust to changes.

So you can look at the immaturity of the app market place as a potential rabbit hole you may want to stay out of, in exchange for what is already known and can produce results for you now, like many others have before you…

Or you can look at the world of mobile apps as an opportunity to pioneer some new innovative ways to do lead generation, make money and stake your claim on the world’s next big search engines – The App Store and Google Play.

Either way, in my opinion, mobile apps is as viable a lead & traffic strategy as any other for today and is the future on how we will do business and acquire customers, overall.

What say you guys?

Ferny Ceballos

P.S. Watch Amish’s Encore Presentation from NES3 and You Decide!

(Original Post Here: To App or NOT to App?!?)