How To Create Free Android App For Your Blog/Website: Tutorial

A website or blog is considered successful when it receives legitimate and dedicated traffic to it. Unless you know how to get traffic, you can't dream to have a profitable blog. There are number of methods to increase website traffic that you might read in different blogs written by experts. One of them is creating apps for your blog/website and distribute them through popular publishing platforms. Most of the bloggers with basic skills of HTML and CSS3 hesitate to create their own app as they think it isn't possible without coding. Being a blogger and web developer, it's mandatory to at least do some research on every topic related to bring traffic on your blog. I know that advanced app making requires knowledge of coding, app creating softwares and programs but still a simple blog/website application can be made easily without any programming skills.

You would ask that how it is possible? No coding, no program and no software, then how can I make an android app? With the speedy increase in technology where everyone is trying to have a prominent online presence, there's a competition of beating others in terms of gaining more readership. This competition has also given rise to those services that give people access to resources that facilitates them. Online apps creating services is a good example of these services. With an online app creating service, one can easily create and publish an app for any operating system. They offer from BBM to Android, iOS and windows phone apps. As you all know that Android is most popular and widely used platform globally so I have chosen Android app creation as my main topic.

Read More: Start A Blogging Career With These Tips

Well before proceeding to main tutorial, I must tell that I have selected appyet.com for this tutorial. I have chosen this website because apps made from AppYet are customizable, have clean and user friendly interface, supports both RSS feeds and Website URL for app and finally it's totally free. I have tried many other platforms too but I like AppYet the most. It doesn't offer website app creation but it is also useful for making apps for social media channels like facebook pages, twitter accounts and much more. In this tutorial I'll explain only how to make an app for blog or website. You only need to follow the steps and an app for your blog would be ready in minutes.

Read More: 14 Blogs You Should Follow To Learn Blogging

Now we begin the tutorial.

1. Go to AppYet.com and sign up with your Email Address.

2. After you get yourself registered at AppYet.com, a new window will be opened asking you to enter "Application Name" and "Package Name". Application name must be unique so that people can easily identify your app. Package name is automatically created after you write application name but you can also modify it. After filling the form, click on "Create App".

3. Now you will be redirected to "Application Details" page. Under the general settings, modify the options as per your desire that include changing app icon, app menu header and content rating. Click on "Save Changes".

4. After modifying general settings, go to "Modules" category in the menu. This is the place where you will be editing the app menu and app feed.

Here you will see a number of modules designed for a demo app. I recommend you to delete and disable all unnecessary default modules. For this purpose, click on "Details" button against each module to go in module settings. At the bottom of module settings, click on "Delete this module" button or if you don't find deletion option, just disable the module so it will be excluded from original APK.

5. After disabling and deleting unnecessary modules, time comes to add your own Feed. For this, scroll down to the bottom of "Modules" page and you will see different options to add feed from various channels.

That includes RSS/ATOM, blogger, wordpress, web and different social channels. I can't bound you to any specific channel but as I am talking about a blog app so according to my perception RSS/ATOM feed is the best way to go through. Web can also be a good option if your site is mobile optimized or mobile responsive. In this tutorial I will explain RSS/ATOM feed option.

6. Click on the orange "Feed (RSS/ATOM) button. A form will be opened to create a module. Name this module and click on save.

7. After creating a new RSS/ATOM feed module, you will see module details page with two menu options "General" and "Feed".

There would be multiple options under the feed category. In the RSS feed URL option, write feed URL of your blog. Those who want to make android app of "Blogger" blog add the Feed url in following format.

http://www.helpitx.com/feeds/posts/default?redirect=false&max-results=99999

Replace www.helpitx.com with your own blog domain. This is for bogs powered by blogger only.
If you are working on Wordpress then the feed url can be different.

8. Modify other options and click on "Save Changes".

9. That module will act as your primary feed module that will appear as the app opens. With the same procedure you can add more modules too for specific categories and social channels.

10. After creating and modifying all options, go to "Build" menu in the app details page. Click on "Submit to build". This will initiate the app building process and after a few minutes, probably between 5 to 10, the APK file for newly built android app will be sent to your Email address.

Download and install the app from there and check if it is right for you. If not satisfied, try again the same procedure and play with settings to check what really works.

Hope that it's clear to you now. If there is any query regarding app creation, feel free to ask me via comments or my social channels.