How to Find Help With Android Development

We've all come across sticking points when developing our Android apps that just don't seem like they should be causing so much trouble. Surely someone has solved this problem before, right?
Chances are, your issue or something like it has been solved and re-solved by the Android developer community many times over.
There's no sense in re-inventing the wheel unless you're creating a brand new platform. Most of the time, you just want to finish a tasks, not change the world.
Help when you're stuck
Obviously, doing a Google search is a good place to find help and tutorials when you know what you're stuck on.
More often than not, you'll find a post from stackoverflow.com, one of the most complete question and answer sites for programming topics (including Android!). This immensely popular site should be at the top of your list to browse and search when you're having trouble. The moderation system helps make good answers more prominent.
If you have searched Stack Overflow (it's important to search so you don't post a duplicate question) and can't find a question that matches yours, consider asking the question yourself. Many other people are likely also going to come across your issue.
What about when you don't what you should be looking for?
Tutorials and blogs are a great way to follow in the footsteps of someone who has accomplished a specific task. This has the added benefit that the author can include additional related information that you may not have known was important.

Rather than implementing everything from scratch, it's often a good practice to see what others have done and build off of that to meet your needs. Not all tutorials are up to date, though, so be sure you see how old it is (or what Android version it is targeted at).
Aside from random Google searches, where do you look for tutorials? Android Developer Tutorial, as you might expect, catalogs tutorials for Android developers - from beginner tasks to more complicated things like licensing and in-app billing. There are even tutorials on releasing your app and marketing your app afterward.
Contributing
Beyond just asking questions and reading what others have done, consider sharing what you have learned with other Android developers.
Did you find a quicker way to fix something than the article you are reading suggests? Did you figure out a clever way to solve a common problem? Is one of the lower-rated answers on a Stack Overflow question the correct one for you?
The Android community is built on developers that value sharing information and helping each other. Your contributions would certainly be welcome.

Timothy Mackenzie is a software engineer that escaped the cubicle world at a large company to go solo with Android app development. He uses this freedom to teach others how to make money with Android apps. See the Android income blog for reviews of Android app stores as well as ad vendors to earn money from.
For a complete guide taking Android developers from starting out to making money, take a look at the Android Income Powerstart Guide.

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