You may or may not be surprised to learn that there are nearly 3,000 apps making at least $1 million in annual revenue. This number represents a significant growth from past years, telling us that apps are becoming an increasingly legitimate source of revenue for businesses.

If you’re looking to exploit of this emerging tactic, there is a myriad of ways you can go about it. Global Resources LLC consultants recommend considering the following techniques to make more money with apps.

Release Paid Apps

The most palpable way that you can make money through an app is to simply sell it directly to customers. While certain apps in both the Google Play and the iTunes App Stores are free to download, others cost anywhere from $0.99 and up to download. Logic tells us that this is a tactic that can work for any type of business. Having said that, your app (of course), has to offer some kind of tangible value that customers would be willing to pay for. Something like a game or dating service, for example, could possibly work. Conversely, an app that offers products from your store that customers could also buy online might not be worth it.

Offer Premium Upgrades

Consider making your app free to download in its most basic form, but then offer another option as well. You could offer certain special features to the app users if they upgrade to a paid premium version of the app.

This is a strategy that could be relevant for streaming services, business tools, or anything where you could separate the functionality into different levels.

Offer In-App Purchases

In-app purchases are similar to the premium upgrade model and allow users to buy access to higher levels (on a game), unlock special features or functionality.

This is something that’s particularly popular in gaming apps. Having said that, you could also offer it in entertainment or photo editing apps.

Monetize Through Advertisements

If you don’t want your customers to have to pay anything to use your app, one realistic option is to make money through advertisements.

You let people put up ads on your app and get paid on the basis of impressions or clicks.

This works similarly to advertisements on websites. Thus, it could work for basically any type of app. However, advertisements tend to be particularly popular for the apps that are completely free for people to use, like news or media apps.

Check out Global Resources Reviews to learn more.