It’s one thing to make an app, but it’s another thing to make money on it. Self-publishing app service iSites by Genwi, which charges users $100 a month for its DIY app tools, will let its clients choose to serve ad networks AdMob, Adwhirl, Mobclix, Vdopia, and Doubleclick Mobile as part of the new AdEngine offering. But it might be more helpful to the ad networks than to the individual publishers in the short term.
Like a lot of other DIY app services, Genwi’s self-publishing app platform is aimed at small businesses and mid-sized companies. In an e-mail conversation with paidContent, PJ Gurumohan, CEO and Founder of Genwi (pronounced “Gen-Y”) says that retail is a growing area for the company, with Vans Hub (Vans Shoe), Nice Kicks, Goodbuy Girls, Florida Super Comics as representative of its new clients.
He adds that “thousands” of app publishers have used iSites to create and manage apps and that it currently has over 1,400 active app publishers.
Breaking it down, over 40 percent of its clients are news/media properties, ranging across all the major content areas including sports news, entertainment, and food/travel/fashion blogs. Another 10- to 15 percent of them also include traditional publishers, newspapers and broadcasters, including PBS AZ Horizon app, UTV from Ireland, KSPR Springfield Missouri and suvida cox7 media.
With large media companies spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and tons of hours creating and maintaining their apps, whether DIYs can compete is worthwhile question. A recent BIA/Kelsey forecast on mobile and local advertising suggests that small businesses are likely generate some real money from apps.
The researcher says that U.S. mobile ad revenues will grow from $491 million last year to $2.9 billion in 2014 for a staggering CAGR at 43 percent, thanks to rising mobile search ads, display on both apps and wap sites and text messaging. But the big spending will come in the form of local ads, which now makes up less than half of the mobile ad market.
But attracting ad revenue from apps, even local ones, still requires some level of scale — which is why publishers can’t expect to see any payoff for some time.
Gurumohan says that iSites users can expect anywhere from a few thousand to 50,000 downloads of their apps. “The goal for most publishers is not just downloads, but also views & repeat usage,” Gurumohan says. “Businesses trying to monetize their app with ads are especially interested in views and repeat usage.”
Aside from that, ads are just the start for many of its users. As more retailers make use of DIY apps, e-commerce will become a more important part of the revenue mix on top of the display ads they’ll be running, Gurumohan notes. Once e-commerce is added to the mix, publishers might be able to realize some incremental revenue.
In trying to help its clients realize some revenue more quickly, Gurumohan cites some early examples.
Blue Nation Blog used the iSites internal sponsor banner feature and sold ad banners to Energy Monster drink for a few thousand dollars just for the basketball season, not a whole semester. Gurumohan claims that there were “immediate revenue spikes in a matter of days.”
The clients are not likely to rely on the ad networks alone either. Schurz Communication which own’s Catch it Kansas and KSPR is selling ads with local businesses through their ad sales team and will use DoubleClick to supplement that.
Vdopia and Mobclix, for example, can help with higher CPM’s if the publisher has even a simple brand but niche and targeted audience, Gurumohan adds.

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