I'm a young developer hoping to sell my apps I made for Android soon. My applications are basically 99% finished so I'm investigating what would be the best marketing strategy to use to sell my apps. I'm sure the brilliant minds here can give me some great advice.

I'm particularly interested in your thoughts on the following points (especially from experienced Android developers):

• Is it more profitable to sell an app for free with ads or to sell an app without ads for a price? Perhaps a combination of a free ad version and a paid ad-free version?
• If you give away an app for free with ads on it is it ethical to decline bending over backwards to support it?
• How much does piracy actually affect potential sales? Should any effort be put towards preventing it?
• Can you still make a profit off your application if you make it open source? Could you perhaps make more of a profit from the attention you would get by doing so?
• Is Google's Android Marketplace really the best place to release Android apps?
• It is worthwhile enough to maintain a developer blog or website to keep users updated on your development progress and software releases?

Any other suggestions you could give me to maximize profit meanwhile keeping users happy and coming back for more would also be greatly appreciated. While I appreciate general tips and tricks, I'd like to ask that if possible you please go the extra step and show how they specifically apply to selling Android apps. Marketing statistics, developer retrospect, and any additional experience you can share from your time selling Android apps is what I would love to see most.

Thank you very much in advance for your time. I truly appreciate all the responses I receive.