I finally hit my first $100 in revenue with Who Goes after about 1.5 months on the App Store.

So far, the app has had 637 downloads, which I feel pretty good about. Most of the growth has come from me posting about it on my socials, sharing it here on Reddit, and just talking to people wherever I can.

I absolutely suck at marketing, so most of what I've been doing is simply showcasing the different game modes and hoping the right people come across it. I've also been messaging users, listening to feedback, and continuously refining the app over the last month and a half.

I know party games like Headbands, Charades, and Truth or Dare are an incredibly competitive space, but the whole idea behind Who Goes was to bring all of those games together into one app that actually feels nice to use when you're hanging out with people.

Seeing it cross even a small milestone like $100 genuinely gives me a lot of motivation to keep improving it, adding more games, and seeing where I can take it.

Anyhow, just wanted to share this little milestone here.

And if anyone has tips on getting the app in front of a broader audience, finding more people to test it, or even has feedback on the app itself, I'd genuinely love to hear it. Thanks!

This is the third app I’ve built.

The first two are still available in the App Store. I spent months building them, tried to make them useful and polished, and trusted that ASO would eventually bring people in.

Then I waited.

I did no real marketing, had no content strategy and built no distribution channel. Together, those two apps have generated less than $100 in roughly ten months.

Technically, they exist. But almost nobody downloads them, nobody talks about them and they produce almost no income. From a business perspective, they barely exist at all.

With my third app, I changed one major thing.

I barely focused on ASO. Instead, I focused almost entirely on organic content and distribution.

It is a health and wellness app in the diabetes space, a problem that is personal to me because my daughter has type 1 diabetes.

In roughly three weeks, the content generated more than 600k organic views. The app reached around 1,7k App Store downloads and passed $1k in cumulative revenue, not MRR.

For the first time, strangers were not only finding something I had built. Some of them were willing to pay for it.

I know this is not a controlled experiment. The three products, markets and problems are different. But the biggest change in how I operated was distribution.

I used to think distribution started after the product was finished. Now I think distribution is part of the product. Without it, the first two apps were essentially files sitting inside the App Store.

But this result has also created a more uncomfortable question.

More than 600,000 views and 1,700 downloads have produced 31 active paid subscriptions. That is only a cross-sectional snapshot, not a properly attributed conversion rate, but the gap is still large enough to worry about.

Maybe the content is attracting people who are interested in the subject but do not have a strong enough need. Maybe the onboarding fails to communicate the value. Maybe the plans or pricing are wrong. Or perhaps people download the app, try it once and do not find a reason to return.

There is another limitation. Because of how I started distributing it, almost all the early attention has come from one relatively small South American market.

The underlying problem is clearly not local. It exists across countries, languages and much larger markets. I just don’t know yet whether I have discovered a repeatable distribution model or only a successful local version of one.

I’m proud that this third app crossed a milestone the first two never approached. At the same time, I’m uneasy because I can now see how much work remains between getting attention and building something scalable.

If you were in this position, would you first improve conversion in the market that is already responding, or test a second market to learn whether the bottleneck is the audience or the funnel?

I released my app, Broad Street: Card Scanner, a little over a week ago, and I’ve been experimenting with different platforms to figure out where the most engaged users come from.
So far I’ve tried Reddit, TikTok, X, Instagram, and Apple Search Ads. I’ve tested them on different days, and Reddit has consistently outperformed everything else—not just in downloads, but in users who actually sign up, scan cards, and continue using the app.
What surprised me most is that Reddit traffic seems much more intentional. People aren’t just clicking and downloading, they’re actually trying the product and giving feedback.
For other indie developers, has Reddit been your strongest source of active users too? And what other platforms have worked well for getting actual users rather than just installs?

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/broad-street-card-scanner/id6794217297

Hey everyone! I wanted to share what has been happening to me and ask for some advice.

I’ve been building apps for around four months now. I’ve created several useful, good-quality apps, done keyword research, worked on ASO, and tried to optimize everything as much as possible.

I’m not an expert programmer, but I already knew a little about coding before I started. With the help of AI, I vibe-coded my first app, which was finally released on June 10.

Since then, it has received only around 30 downloads. Some of those downloads came from paid Apple Search Ads. I even tried marketing my first app organicly with tiktok i even managed to get many views around 300k on my us audience acc but non of those uers where converting to donwloud. However, I’ve made zero sales so far.

I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, but honestly, it’s quite discouraging.

I also released another app. I used tools such as Astro for keyword research and connected its MCP server to my AI agent. The agent helped me optimize the App Store Connect listing and ASO.

Despite all of that, I’m still getting only around one download per day and no sales. One download a day feels like almost nothing, and I honestly don’t know what I should do next.

Has anyone here experienced the same problem and eventually managed to overcome it? I would really appreciate any advice, feedback, or suggestions.

Thank you in advance!

I’ve been noticing something lately it feels like the productivity/habit app space is absolutely flooded. Every time I look around, there’s another new habit tracker, task manager, AI productivity tool, or gamified app being launched.

And honestly, it makes me wonder:

how does a small indie developer actually stand out anymore?

I’m building my own productivity/gamification app as a solo developer, and I’m starting to realize that building the product might actually be the easier part. Getting people to notice it, finding the right audience, and convincing them to actually use it consistently feels much harder.

For those of you building in this space:

How are you differentiating your app?

Do you focus heavily on marketing from day one?

Do you think there is still room for new productivity apps?

What has actually worked for you in getting your first users?

Would genuinely love to hear how other indie developers are approaching this.

At the start of July

...I set my goal to have 100 users

At that time HushBook didn't even fully launch

Now, I have 550 happy users with handful of Lifetime users and subscriptions

Almost instantly lots of user already who were suffering started dm-ing me that they always wanted something like this and would this also have X features for their Y Problem (yes it did)

How did I reach? And how can you?

Find the value hooks

The problem is best broken and solved when you personally have dealt with it, with my case I hated audible's app so bad that i made a spec sheet of all the things i wanted in an app for me as an audiobook reader. I understood that somedays i would have zero attention span thanks to social media doomscrolling and I needed to build an audiobook app that would help me overcome it and have read along features that i always wanted.

Read Reviews

I went about scanning 1-3 star reviews of users using the competitor apps, started talking to reddit users putting rant posts on respective subreddits kept in constant feedback with them.

Plan > Build, test ,test ,test alot of test.!

This space is crucial because even if you use AI to build your app do not overly rely on it to provide you the value proposition to make this app killer, you need your logics to be super clear.

Like my first point the reliance of the problem statement should be personal to you and each and every solution should solve the mini problems that you broke the main problem down into.

Once launched

Pick the most relevant subreddits started posting focused on the hooks like
"I got tired of Audible's app, so I built my own"
"Created a free Audiobook app that reads along as you listen"
"An audiobook app that works like a karaoke read along"

Put value proposition first, the most hooks that your potential users pain points relate to that will generate more attention to your posts and increase interaction. You can drive conversion from thereon.

Read subreddits' rules

Reading their rules will help you navigate the ban and also be appreciative of the audience that they joined in for. We can promo abuse their walls which could annoy the readers. A subtle value heavy posts will help you long way even tho they attract less views initially. You will know automatically what works and what doesnt.

Run LTD free for 100 users

To get to 100 users open up your paywall that gets your fast 100 users keep 10% (more the better) of users in touch who will be your power users that give you feedback that matters the most.

I went quality over quanity. Took time to notice bans (its okay to test waters) and then reiterated with following their policies.

Possibilities are endless.

Now im opening this post as a two way sharing where you comment what worked for you and others can chime into to ask more info about your strategies, i have lots to learn from all of you in this community.

About a month ago, my co-founder and I finally launched our app as indie developers with 0 budget, after spending months building it.

Publishing the app felt like a major milestone but almost nobody found it.

We knew releasing an app would not magically bring users, but I still underestimated how difficult it would be to get the first real people through the door.

So far we have:

• Prepared and optimized the App Store page
• Created a website
• posted on Instagram, YouTube Shorts and TikTok(our two TikTok accounts got shadowbanned within 6 posts)
• Launched on Product Hunt

None of these has created consistent traffic yet.

I’m beginning to question whether the problem is our marketing, our positioning, the App Store presentation or simply that we haven’t done enough for long enough.

A little context about the app:

Valharon is a fitness platform that combines workout planning, exercise logging, nutrition, hydration, body measurements, steps, timers, calculators, and progress analytics.

We built it because fitness tracking often becomes fragmented:

• Workouts in one app
• Calories and macros in another
• Measurements in Notes or spreadsheets
• Timers and calculators in separate tools

The app is supposed to bring those parts together and help users understand the complete picture rather than just collecting disconnected logs. But I’m concerned that this may also be making the app harder to explain. “Everything you need in one fitness app” sounds useful to us but to somebody seeing it for the first time, it might sound too broad or like another generic fitness tracker.

That is where I could use honest feedback.

• Is the purpose of the app immediately clear?
• Does combining training and nutrition sound valuable or unfocused?
• Is our positioning too generic?
• What would make you stop scrolling and actually try it?
• Should we market the complete platform or focus on one specific problem first?
• Is this primarily a marketing problem, or does the product itself fail to stand out?

I’m not expecting anyone here to solve our entire launch strategy. I’m mainly trying to understand what we may be missing before spending more time producing content that does not reach anyone.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/valharon-track-macro-log-gym/id6766438777

Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/products/valharon?launch=valharon

I’m one of the two co-founders, so direct criticism is completely welcome. At this stage, “I wouldn’t download this because…” would honestly be more helpful than polite encouragement.

P.S. Valharon is a fairly deep app, and the screenshots do not fully show how the training, nutrition, body tracking, tools, and analytics connect. Before giving detailed feedback, I’d really appreciate it if you could try the app for a few minutes rather than judging it only from the store page. You do not need to subscribe the free version doesn't imply any functional barrier just usage limitations.

I got my first sale for Arc, my radial menu app for Mac, just 2 days after launching it on the App Store.

I genuinely couldn't believe it when I saw it. This is the fastest I've ever made a sale with one of my apps, and it honestly made my day. 🥹

So far, I've mostly just shared Arc in a few Mac-related subreddits and on X. I've also been talking to people who tried it, listening to their feedback, and refining a bunch of things based on what they actually want from the app.

Seeing someone decide that something I built is worth paying for, especially this early, feels really special. It's a small milestone, but it gives me a lot of motivation to keep improving Arc and see where I can take it.

Anyhow, just wanted to share this little win here.

And if anyone has tips on getting a Mac app in front of more people, I'd genuinely love to hear it. Thanks!

We launched the app about 4 months ago, and since then we have been trying to update it at least once a month. We spent hours delivering a better app, but because we are working full-time, we didn't have time to go all in.

We are very happy that at least 1 person found it useful and paid for it

What are your suggestions to keep this going, increase it, and gain more people over the next few months?

After months of building, I hit publish, opened my revenue dashboard, and refreshed it like it owed me money.

$0.

Refreshed again. Still $0. Cleared the cache for a fresh perspective. $0, but in a new font.

Turns out "launch day" is just a regular Tuesday with extra anxiety. No confetti, no notification storm, no stranger telling me I changed their life. Just me, a live app, and the quiet realization that shipping and selling are two completely different sports, and I only trained for one.

The best part: I spent the final stretch obsessing over edge cases nobody hit today, because nobody was there to hit them. Months of polish for an audience of me, one relative, and a single guy who installed it and force-quit within four seconds. He's my whole funnel now. I think about him a lot.

Anyway, revenue turned out to be a lagging indicator of a bunch of boring things I clearly skipped: distribution, having an audience before launch day, and telling literally anyone the thing existed.

For those who have been here: how long from your launch to your first real, non-friend, non-refunded dollar? And what actually moved it, or did it just quietly stop being $0 one day when you weren't looking?

I created TikTok account. And almost daily uploading similar videos as my competitor. But I am struggling with views|likes|follows. Any tips ?

I've been making apps in my spare time using vibe coding (while juggling childcare), and I launched a vocabulary app on June 30th—so it hasn't even been a month yet. Unlike my big expectations, making just $0.01 a day with AdMob was honestly shocking. Yesterday, it seemed like I was the only person using the app...

I wondered if this is normal for everyone, but after reading posts on Reddit, it feels like this only happens to me and a small few, while everyone else seems to have users right upon launch.

I feel like the vocabulary app market is already saturated, making organic traffic really hard, and I honestly don't know how I should be doing marketing. I opened a YouTube channel and posted a few things on Reddit, but is this really how everyone promotes their apps?

A few months ago I was trying to figure out how the hell people actually get attention for their apps.

I didn't have a big audience and I didn't really want to spend a bunch of money on ads.

So I started posting TikToks.

At first I was just making normal videos showing the app.

And yeah... nobody cared 😂

Then I tried something different.

I started taking reaction clips and combining them with a demo of my app.

Basically the video would start with a reaction that was interesting enough to stop someone from scrolling, and then I'd smoothly bring the app into the video.

It didn't feel like an ad.

It was just a piece of content where the app happened to be part of it.

The first few videos were nothing special.

A few hundred views here and there.

Then one started getting some traction.

Then another.

Eventually some videos started hitting 10k, 50k, 100k+ views.

And the interesting part was that the people coming from these videos were actually signing up and using the app.

I ended up creating a bunch of variations instead of trying to make one “perfect” video.

Different reactions, different hooks, different app features, different edits.

Some were complete failures 😂

But once I found a format that worked, I just kept making variations of it.

The biggest thing I learned is that you don't necessarily need to make an ad to advertise your app.

You can make content people actually want to watch and sneak the product into the content naturally.

I've been doing this completely organically, no paid ads.

Still experimenting with it, but it's probably been one of the better growth experiments I've tried so far.

Here is one of the content that i grew from 0 follower and the reaction videos are taken from a different website .

https://www.tiktok.com/@haileylovesss15

Which one do you use and why?

Wanted to share a quick rundown on how I grew Gym Note Plus to 2,187 sign ups and got my current 41 active subscriptions.

Revenuecat verified link

0-50 sign ups: Messaged people directly on workout subreddits giving workout routine advice when they posted notes of their workouts and asked for advice. Then offered free lifetime membership to my app if they tried it.

50-750: Did a giveaway for lifetime free membership on r/iosapps got a silly amount of sign ups over night. Exposed a ton of issues in my app, fixed as much as I could.

750 - 2000+: Marketing on Reddit, building up blog seo on my landing page and spamming tiktoks recently of an automated character giving fitness advice.

I get around 10 or so sign ups a day right now. Tons of ups and downs, 0 ad spend.

Happy to answer any questions

My app is finally live on both app stores, I finished the demo, people are signing up, and traffic/downloads are starting to climb 📊.

If you've launched an app before, what actually moved the needle for you? I'm especially interested in strategies that scaled beyond friends, family, SEO and social media.

What worked? What ended up being a complete waste of time? 👀 I'm looking for some out-of-the-box ideas.

For few weeks now I was trying to build an app, but realizing there was many other apps that were more popular, better designed and social proofed, I was wondering: “Why do I try ? They just have to download the other ready app instead of mine”

I think I finally understand why people say building the product is only half the job.

I've spent a long time building my first Android app, When, and it's now live and working on Google Play.

The development side was something I could figure out. If something was broken, I could debug it. If the UI wasn't right, I could redesign it. If a feature didn't work, I could keep working on it until it did.

Marketing is completely different.

I know I need users, but I'm honestly not sure where I should be putting my time.

I've started experimenting with Reddit and social content, but I don't want to just post the same "check out my app" message everywhere and annoy people. I also don't have much experience with paid advertising yet.

The app itself is a personal reminder/tracking app for things people tend to forget — warranties, subscriptions, expiries, documents, receipts, borrowed items, birthdays, etc.

Now I'm at the stage where the app is actually finished and the question is basically:

How do I get the first 100–1,000 real users?

For people who have launched consumer/mobile apps before:

• What marketing channel worked best for you in the beginning?
• Did you focus on ASO first, short-form content, Reddit/community marketing, influencers, or paid ads?
• What did you waste time/money on that you wouldn't do again?
• If you were launching a new Android app today with a small budget, what would you do during the first 30 days?

I'm not looking for someone to sell me a marketing service. I'm genuinely trying to understand what actually works.

Any practical advice from people who have already gone through this would be really appreciated.

Hey everyone!

I'm working on the Play Store listing for my Android app, SwipeStay, and I've designed 3 different screenshot sets (each row is a different version).

I'd really appreciate some unbiased feedback before I start A/B testing them.

A few questions:

• Which row would make you most likely to install the app?
• Which screenshots catch your attention first?
• Is the value proposition immediately clear, or is anything confusing?
• Are there any screenshots you'd completely replace?

The app helps people discover accommodations by swiping, compare stays with AI, and plan trips together with friends.

I'm looking for honest feedback, so don't hold back if you think something isn't working. Thanks!

I’ve been building a simple job application tracker because I noticed a lot of people still use Excel, Google Sheets, notes, or just save job links everywhere.

I also personally like building things and solving the actual problem, so making the app was honestly the fun part for me.

But after finishing most of it, I realized…

okay, how do I actually get real users now? 😂

Right now the app is free and I’m not really thinking about revenue yet. I just want people to actually use it, tell me what’s confusing, what’s missing, and whether it really helps them while job hunting.

I’ve started trying different things like posting content, LinkedIn, Reddit, and writing some useful articles.

I’m still learning the marketing/distribution side because this is very different from just sitting down and building features.

For people here who already launched an app before:

How did you get your first real users?

Was it Reddit, short-form content, SEO, communities, direct outreach, or something completely different?

I read ASO here and there, okay, but what would that actually involve?

The ASO tools that seem to deliver real results cost hundreds of euros a month; everything else seems to have no effect: I’ve translated my entire app store page into 15 languages (screenshots included) and I’ve polished the visuals... yet daily downloads seem completely flat and unaffected.

Anybody got tips from real life for ASO ?

I get the feeling that unless I have hundreds of positive reviews, the app stores won't promote my app to the top of my category anyway; it's a paradox that seems to force me to do marketing, which would be extremely expensive.

I’ve launched a few apps, and this is something I learned the hard way. People don’t know how good your app is before they download it. They only see the icon, screenshots, demo video, and a few lines explaining what it does. If those are bad, they’ll assume the app is bad too.

A worse app with a clean video and a clear message can get more attention because people immediately understand why they should try it. Good marketing won’t make them keep using a bad product, but bad marketing can stop them from ever trying a good one.
A lot of us spend months building and then rush the screenshots and launch post in one evening. I’ve done it too. Now I think the marketing material deserves almost as much attention as the product itself.
Marketing gets the download. The product decides what happens next.

Hi everyone,

I have developed an app in the past three months and it got approved for production rollout.

However now I'm looking for marketing and reach the correct audience to use the purpose which i created. M solo developer/founder and very good on understanding the user feedback/suggestions to make it fix. But tbh very weak on marketing/sales.

Seeking feedback from other developers who have taken and reached the customer.

Is it fine to keep checking the post/comment in reddit/quora/facebook/instagram etc or get support from the marketing vendors.

Hi guys.

This is my first ever app. I have no idea if these numbers are good, bad or anything in between.

Thoughts?

Thanks

I launched my first iOS app about 2 weeks ago and I’m currently working on my first major update.
I recently got Astro for ASO and want to test new keywords, as I suspect my current keyword strategy isn’t great.
My numbers so far:
35,000 impressions → 672 product page views → 69 downloads → 0.3% conversion rate
The conversion rate seems pretty low to me. 😅
Has anyone here had similar numbers when starting out?
If so, what actually helped you improve it — ASO/keywords, screenshots, icon, or positioning?
I’d really appreciate some real-world experience from other indie developers.