Oliver Roup has asked developers to think about their mobile business plans as part of the design process over on VentureBeat. His argument is that it's no longer enough to simply add in a banner advert once you've finished coding an app, if you are going to try and bring in some income you need to be thinking of the 'how' from the earliest moment.

Roup (who is currently the CEO of an Ad Affiliate scheme, so has form in making money online) sums it up nicely:

Monetization should not be an afterthought for developers. Business models should be considered first, and then developers should create or integrate technology that will enable the business model to be successful. When app development is approached in this manner, it is unlikely many business models will include relegating 10% of available screen space to static ads.

There are many ways you can monetise an app nowadays, each with their own strengths and weaknesses in terms of implementation and how the users will interact with your app. By deciding early in your design process if you are going for banner ads, shareware sales, in-app purchasing, freemium, or a mix of the methods, you'll be able to make it more efficient and potentially increase the return your app will make for you.

You can read more of Roup's thoughts on VentureBeat. Just before you head over there, though, a question to the users of all these applications... how would you prefer to pay developers for their efforts?