In this episode, Teri welcomes Nick Schwab, founder of Invoked Apps. Nick has become a specialist in ambient sound skills. Indeed, he practically launched the category all by himself! In the episode, we talk about how he came up with the idea for ambient sound skills, monetization plans and the Alexa rewards program.

Welcome Nick Schwab!

What’s your story?

I’m an API developer by trade. I work for Ford Motors, doing web-based software. In my free time, I create Alexa skills, Google actions and Cortana skills. I started working with Alexa in 2016, experimenting with different things, and eventually I hit the gold mine!

What do you mean by “hit the gold mine”?

Well, my first Alexa skill was called “Bargain Buddy.” It lets people to look up daily deals on Woot.com and Meh.com. For example, you could ask Alexa what today’s deal was and she would give to you. After that, I made a skill called “Opening Bell,” which allows users to look up the stock prices for US companies. It won 3rd place in an Alexa contest, and I won a cash price and a trophy. And that was that, for a while. The idea for an ambient sound skill came later on. I’d moved into a new apartment and all was going well until a person with a very noisy dog moved in one floor above me. Like clockwork, their dog would begin to bark everyday at 5 am. I’m someone who really loves his sleep, so I needed a solution. I devised rain ambient sound skill to block the noise. I used it for a month and really liked it. Finding that it did its job perfectly, I decided to release it about a month later. This would prove to be a wise move. One week after I’d released it, it had been downloaded 500 times. On Christmas day, when Alexa skill downloads usually soar, the skill was downloaded 20,000 times. Following this, I released a thunderstorm ambient sound skill and an ocean ambient sound skill. After seeing all the great feedback and raving reviews streaming in, I decided to double down on ambient sound skills. I now have 41 ambient sound skills in the Alexa skills store.

How do you find the number of users on Alexa vs Google?

They’re vastly different. In the US, with Alexa, I have around 150,000 users a day. With Google, it is only around 1,000. Maybe because the Echo was only released this year in Canada, I’m not seeing many users from Canada yet. I think we’ll see more users as the market settles in.

Those are some great numbers. Do you have a team?

All 50 skills are all me. I work on them when I get home from my day job and on the weekends. I plan on continuing working by myself, at least for the foreseeable future. I might be able to invest more resources and hire a team, but it all depends on how the monetization of the skills goes. Right now, I’m making a decent amount of money with the Alexa rewards program.

Can you tell us more about the Alexa rewards program?

Sure. Every month, Amazon rewards the top engaging skills in different categories ( I think, based on a combination of number of users how often the skill is used and the length of the session.) The number one skill in a region gets $5000. The program is available in the US, the UK, Germany, and now in Japan. The more regions and categories you fit under, the better. That’s why I’m pushing for Canada. I think it’s a great way to attract developers. When the program launched for games, in 2017, I saw a jump of 1000 new skills in a month. Before that, the games category had had only 500 skills. We’re talking about a 300% increase!

You spoke about monetization. Could you please tell us more about it?

It’s still very new for me. I launched it about a week and a half ago. It’s all about enhancing the user’s experience when using the skill. For example, you can choose enhanced looping, so you don’t hear the track fade out and fade back in. You can also choose higher quality sounds or choose to combine sounds. The monetization works on a monthly subscription model.

You’ve made the best ambient sound skills out there. But,  you’ve also made a game, Deal or No Deal. Could you tell us more about it?

I’d been working on ambient sound skills for a while and I wanted to try something new. At around that same time, Amazon launched the Alexa rewards programs for games, and I wanted to start getting remunerated for my work. I’d noticed that there were a lot of TV games shows that would translate really great to voice. I worked on my game for around three weeks and then released it. People really loved it. It has around 700 reviews in the US. It was also incredibly fulfilling to receive feedback from blind people, people who wouldn’t have been able to play this game otherwise.

Do you have any tips for developers?

When it comes to reviews, the foolproof way to get great reviews is to build a skill people love. If you ever find yourself thinking “Man, this would be a great skill” then build it yourself. Scratch that itch. You never know who else might have the same itch too. Lastly, reach out to people. Listen to podcasts and go to events. Get involved. Networking is super helpful and there are some amazing people out there willing to share their knowledge, like the Alexa Slack community.

List of resources mentioned in this episode:

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