June 2, 2011
By Donovan Jackson

We have been receiving a lot of positive comments on our App Wizard Competition and here is the next part in that story – how to make your app work for you. Almost anything becomes a lot more interesting if there is the opportunity to make some money from it. And thanks to Nokia’s Ovi app wizard, you can earn some cash while doing what you love – blogging.

Naturally we have thought of this and made it an easy process to follow. The way the Rands roll in is tied to advertising: in app advertising to be more specific. The App Wizard provides the necessary guidelines and steps to get advertising into your app. If you’ve already had a crack at creating an app, you may have noticed a step which asks if you want to include advertising but perhaps didn’t know how to do it.

Let’s take a look at what you need to do to make that happen:

Firstly, you will need to register with one of two advertising service providers – either 4^th Screen or Millennial Media to get a user ID. It’s a pretty straightforward process, so let’s walk though very quickly.

4th Screen

Registering with 4th Screen Ad will get you an ID (also called a GUID). This will be provided to you by an account manager; you must inform the account manager that the GUID is for the Ovi app wizard. This is necessary to ensure that the GUID complies with Ovi Store advertising guidelines.

Millennial Media

The Millennial Media ID gets the name Ad Placement ID (APID). Again, when you register, an account manager will give you this number and you must indicate that it is to be used with Ovi app wizard.

That’s it – you’re ready!

Once you’ve registered and got an ID you can include advertising in your app. The App Wizard will prompt for the ID to be entered into a specific field as it takes you through the app creation process. Punch your GUID or APID into that field and you are done. Everything else happens in the background: adverts are served into your app and the more people who download and use your app, the more revenue accrues to you.

Doing that introduces a real incentive to make great apps; reach millions of people and you can make some money.

Remember that this is simply another way to make your app work for you, but once your app has successfully been created please go here to enter the competition to win a trip to SXSW.