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I live in a country where people HATE to pay for an app. 85% of people use Android. And if you ask for $0.99 you literally get death threats and get called greedy. That's why I was very skeptical to charge anything more than a few dollars. The result? - People classified my app as low-quality as it's cheap. - I attracted the worst kind of customers. - My revenue was shit. Then I noticed the amounts other successful apps were charging. $79.99 for an annual sub? $12.90 for weekly? I was in disbelief, there is no chance someone is paying that much for an app. Turns out I was wrong. It's only when I also increased my prices I saw the results. I had MORE purchases. I had MORE satisfied customers. And most importantly BIGGER revenue. I would have never thought that someone would pay $40 for my app. Now it's just casual purchase.

ASO and SEO only. One app. The initial investment was only 10$ for domain and hosting. It can be done.

I have more than 20 apps. But now it's time to focus more on quality rather than quantity. I will now focus only on my main 3 apps and from 2026 I will be moving to paid ads. It's the only way where you can systematically grow to huge numbers without praying or hoping for random viral that you can't always reproduce.

This is great news and should end all grifters with fake screenshots. Personally I didn't want to give my api key and app info to random websites even if it comes from people I find trustable. This feels much more secure.

Finally reached my goal of $3,000 MRR. It means a lot to me as it's my breakeven point (same amount as my current salary in eastern Europe). Most of it can be attributed to 1 of my apps, where I found high popularity keyword with no competition and combined it with SEO traffic. It's huge motivation to continue.

Fix your keyword research, then fix your ASO, then fix your onboarding, then fix your offer, then fix your ratings, then fix your product, then fix your A/B testing, then fix your shareability, then fix your retention, then fix your margins etc. Most people try to have the perfect product on their first try. But successful iteration is what gets results.

If you want to localize your app and don't want to spend too much time on it. Focus on german and french.

These 3 conditions must be met before I start building an app. - There must be at least 1 competitor already with some results - It must be focused on a problem that people are able and want to pay - The topic must be relevant now but also 10 years from now The last one is very important. Especially if you want to build real, long-term source of income. It's called an evergreen business. If you build your apps on topic that are always relevant you gain so much advantages: - Your app can become popular at any moment - You have stable and predictable income - With every year passed you gain more credibility With these approach I can create multiple apps with low MRR, but thanks to compounding after few years I have diversified portfolio of apps that are only getting more valuable.

My first app totally FLOPPED. I worked on it for 12 months. Perfectioning every detail. I made sure that buttons have pleasing effects. Support every type of login. Added newsletter. In my mind I was already thinking about scaling and how would I handle thousand of users. Reality? - 5 downloads a day. - No purchase. - High costs on server and the whole ecosystem. To save this I even tried paid ads (that huge spike), but they didn't bring any purchase. All that time and work went down the drain. But it DIDN'T stop me. I sat down behind the table, grabbed a pen and started analyzing what I did wrong. I watched number of podcast, read couple of books. And started writing my reflections: - My home country is too small, I need to go worldwide. Make use of my english. - Android users don't like to pay, let's also publish to App Store. - Let's not waste too much time on first version, start with small project. - Ambition is great, but everything takes time. Start small, pick little niche and try to get purchase there and then move up - Trends are cool, traffic is huge. Let's try to implement AI in my app Based on these reflections I created my second app. And in one month I was already at $300 MRR.

I never had big break-through. My revenue always grew little by little. It doesn't produce those amazing viral posts where you go from $0 to $1M in a month. But it's much sustainable attitude. I always iterate on my apps, try to test features and see the results. This not only produced higher revenue but it always taught me a lot. Each new thing I learned I apply to my new app and it always works. I don't have to pray for one viral hit, I have systems and practices that I personally confirmed.

This is my best converting paywall: > simple > big title describing the wanted end result > only one always visible bug button on bottom to purchase > button label must be action: "Get Results", "Start 7-Day Free Trial" etc > 3 benefits of an app (always focu on user, don't just mention features) > One image picturing the end result of why the user is purchasing the app (for weight loss it's skinny waist, for money making it's cash etc) > two options for subscriptions with annual at the top with tag ("popular", "the best" etc) > always display discount and original price > reviews > no place to scroll > if it makes sense for your app display a graph of progress, users love graphs > show price per week > short labels > annual sub prepicked

One key factor distinguishing profitable apps from those that flop is the founder's ability to look at the app with true eyes. These are the canceled trials for my app. I could claim users just wanted to try it or found it too expensive. Or any other excuse. But the truth is - the app just sucks. I failed to deliver on the promises in onboarding. And it doesn't matter if I, as the developer think otherwise. Because users ultimately decide. That's why it's crucial to listen to real data and real users and not my own opinions and feelings.

NEVER delete your apps. Even if they are unsuccessful. The algorithm changes on every platform. On YouTube you have videos that popped off after 10 years. You have songs that became hits after 15 years. Trends change and it's always better to have an app with 10 year history. This is an app that I consider failure as it didn't have the hype I wanted. It averages on few downloads a day. But sometimes it brings some random purchases. Today I got two more. Sure, it's not ground-breaking but it would be $0 if I deleted it.

Lot of trials. But I have trouble converting them. I tried: - Streaks - Level System - Achievements What would you add to increase conversion and retention?

It feels like there is some kind of negativity and pessimism in the space. People getting little bit more depressed and losing motivation. I notice it everywhere. - Get your vitamin D - Give yourself a little break - Walk in nature - Don't put too much pressure on yourself and look at the progress your made throughout year

I live in a country where people HATE to pay for an app. 85% of people use Android. And if you ask for $0.99 you literally get death threats and get called greedy. That's why I was very skeptical to charge anything more than a few dollars. The result? - People classified my app as low-quality as it's cheap. - I attracted the worst kind of customers. - My revenue was shit. Then I noticed the amounts other successful apps were charging. $79.99 for an annual sub? $12.90 for weekly? I was in disbelief, there is no chance someone is paying that much for an app. Turns out I was wrong. It's only when I also increased my prices I saw the results. I had MORE purchases. I had MORE satisfied customers. And most importantly BIGGER revenue. I would have never thought that someone would pay $40 for my app. Now it's just casual purchase.

ASO and SEO only. One app. The initial investment was only 10$ for domain and hosting. It can be done.

I have more than 20 apps. But now it's time to focus more on quality rather than quantity. I will now focus only on my main 3 apps and from 2026 I will be moving to paid ads. It's the only way where you can systematically grow to huge numbers without praying or hoping for random viral that you can't always reproduce.

My first app totally FLOPPED. I worked on it for 12 months. Perfectioning every detail. I made sure that buttons have pleasing effects. Support every type of login. Added newsletter. In my mind I was already thinking about scaling and how would I handle thousand of users. Reality? - 5 downloads a day. - No purchase. - High costs on server and the whole ecosystem. To save this I even tried paid ads (that huge spike), but they didn't bring any purchase. All that time and work went down the drain. But it DIDN'T stop me. I sat down behind the table, grabbed a pen and started analyzing what I did wrong. I watched number of podcast, read couple of books. And started writing my reflections: - My home country is too small, I need to go worldwide. Make use of my english. - Android users don't like to pay, let's also publish to App Store. - Let's not waste too much time on first version, start with small project. - Ambition is great, but everything takes time. Start small, pick little niche and try to get purchase there and then move up - Trends are cool, traffic is huge. Let's try to implement AI in my app Based on these reflections I created my second app. And in one month I was already at $300 MRR.

$5,000! It feels I’d been on the brink of this monthly revenue for ages, and finally crossed it. This is 50% of the $10,000 goal I have for next year which is really amazing as I was quite excited just a month ago when I was at $3,000. It is really fascinating how quickly you can grow with the right products. The points that helped me: - Adding localizations - Testing different price points - Improving screenshots on App Store - Releasing new apps - Improving onboarding to feel more personalized - Going into very niche and low competition spaces

If you want to localize your app and don't want to spend too much time on it. Focus on german and french.

Lot of trials. But I have trouble converting them. I tried: - Streaks - Level System - Achievements What would you add to increase conversion and retention?

Fix your keyword research, then fix your ASO, then fix your onboarding, then fix your offer, then fix your ratings, then fix your product, then fix your A/B testing, then fix your shareability, then fix your retention, then fix your margins etc. Most people try to have the perfect product on their first try. But successful iteration is what gets results.

It feels like there is some kind of negativity and pessimism in the space. People getting little bit more depressed and losing motivation. I notice it everywhere. - Get your vitamin D - Give yourself a little break - Walk in nature - Don't put too much pressure on yourself and look at the progress your made throughout year

Finally reached my goal of $3,000 MRR. It means a lot to me as it's my breakeven point (same amount as my current salary in eastern Europe). Most of it can be attributed to 1 of my apps, where I found high popularity keyword with no competition and combined it with SEO traffic. It's huge motivation to continue.

Positivity is one of the most underrated elements of success. Always stay optimistic, always stay positive. There are 0 disadvantages.

This is great news and should end all grifters with fake screenshots. Personally I didn't want to give my api key and app info to random websites even if it comes from people I find trustable. This feels much more secure.

21 days ago I started building in public: - no followers - don't know what to post about - 0 comments 21 days later… - 170 followers - ton of ideas on what to post about and build - a lot of great connections in DM's and discussions in posts.

I never had big break-through. My revenue always grew little by little. It doesn't produce those amazing viral posts where you go from $0 to $1M in a month. But it's much sustainable attitude. I always iterate on my apps, try to test features and see the results. This not only produced higher revenue but it always taught me a lot. Each new thing I learned I apply to my new app and it always works. I don't have to pray for one viral hit, I have systems and practices that I personally confirmed.

me seeing yet another developer using chatgpt to generate his ASO keywords: