While the article was last updated 2018, I think 2015 is more appropriate.
Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best New App (2018)
101–110 of 197 posts
Re: Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best New App (2018)
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Woah... no sales on 1 million impressions?! I understand the context, but still.
Yep, that's why I really don't agree with the point 3 of this article. > 3. Don’t be afraid to ask for money Only ask for money if you know you will get major coverage (either Apple placement in a feature in a country speaking a language that your app supports, or general public publications). After switching to freemium model I earn more money per month than with a paid app during a year. Another thing is, the autho…
if i understand freemium correctly, you give the "core" for free and charge for additional features, or are you talking about ads ?
Re: Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best New App (2018)
#103Just to be clear: the app makes ~20 downloads per day (checked on App Annie premium and Sensor Tower premium) except for the fact that you change the price from paid to free multiple times, causing multiple spikes in downloads generated by sites like https://www.148apps.com/ and https://appadvice.com/apps-gone-free which basically list all apps that have become free from paid. So claiming `about 10,000 downloads each…
The 10,000 number was true at the time the article was written, it’s since fallen even lower than 20 downloads a day last I checked.
Re: Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best New App (2018)
#104Lots of motivational quotes in that article, and I guess it's appropriate considering the product. People often criticise scientific studies for too small a sample size, sometimes even when the effect size is large enough to get significance at small numbers (i. e. n=2 is plenty when studying "can bullets kill"). Yet they'll lap up vague business wisdom with gusto as long as it generally agrees with what they want to…
> middle-class white men from suburbia I keep wondering why people always include white. Is the idea that non-white middle class men from suburbia have superior perspectives and life experience? If we removed “white” isn’t the point still accurate?
It seems obviously true that the majority of people from tech are white.
Beyond that it isn't much of a stretch that the 'average' experience of a white man from suburbia is different from that of a black man from suburbia.
Re: Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best New App (2018)
#105Sounds cool, but the scratch your itch advice isn't for everyone. Most everything I would want as an app, maybe 1% of the population would every even consider using, and that's assuming they knew about it.
Re: Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best New App (2018)
#106What if you don't have any itch? Seriously.
Sometimes you can scratch an itch of someone you know.
Re: Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best New App (2018)
#107> "All-in-all the project took me an hour to program" Come on, it's more than that. Being compliant to Apple Developer Guidelines takes some more time.
That's a strange statement. It's a very simple app, which specific guidelines do you think should have taken significant time for him to write code that complies to? In my experience the guidelines are mostly common sense once you get used to the "Apple way", and are straightforward to comply with, especially if you're already familiar with them (OP had submitted several apps before).
This is accurate. I should have possibly mentioned in more detail that at the time I had a lot of experience with prior apps, so whipping another one together—particularly for such a simple concept—is trivial.
I’m surprised anyone here thinks something like Snaplight would take more than an hour to build (no repos, testing on device but otherwise no tests, simple permissions, uncomplicated UI that only improved post-launch, etc.).
Re: Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best New App (2018)
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep, that's why I really don't agree with the point 3 of this article. > 3. Don’t be afraid to ask for money Only ask for money if you know you will get major coverage (either Apple placement in a feature in a country speaking a language that your app supports, or general public publications). After switching to freemium model I earn more money per month than with a paid app during a year. Another thing is, the autho…
if i understand freemium correctly, you give the "core" for free and charge for additional features, or are you talking about ads ?
Free app with in-app purchase that unlocks more functionality.
Re: Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best New App (2018)
#109Lots of motivational quotes in that article, and I guess it's appropriate considering the product. People often criticise scientific studies for too small a sample size, sometimes even when the effect size is large enough to get significance at small numbers (i. e. n=2 is plenty when studying "can bullets kill"). Yet they'll lap up vague business wisdom with gusto as long as it generally agrees with what they want to…
> middle-class white men from suburbia I keep wondering why people always include white. Is the idea that non-white middle class men from suburbia have superior perspectives and life experience? If we removed “white” isn’t the point still accurate?
I always felt that phrase was an ugly affirmation of the phenomenon and consequences of "white flight" [1]. Almost like the meaning conveyed is "there only are white men in suburbia, duh".
Re: Oh shit, my weekend project turned into an App Store Best New App (2018)
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the original screenshot in the post, it looks like it debuted at $0.99, I wonder if there's a way to look up App Store price history
You're right, totally missed from the screenshot and based my comment on the current App Store data. I looked the app on Appannie (non paid account) and the pricing history is quite interesting: 26 Mar 2017 - 0.99 to Free 29 Mar 2017 - Free to 0.99 19 Jul 2017 - 0.99 to 1.99 20 Jul 2017 - 1.99 to Free 02 Aug 2017 - Free to 0.99 04 Feb 2018 - 0.99 to Free 10 Feb 2018 - Free to 0.99 03 Mar 2018 - 0.99 to Free 27 Mar 20…
I just looked at the lifetime stats for the app and in total it only ever generated ~$4,000 in profit.
I would often change the price to 1. See if I could squeeze a few more dollars out of the work and 2. Generate more downloads.
A fun "trick" for getting more downloads is to temporarily make a paid app free, as many, many people follow "Apps Gone Free" type of bots or directories and if your app has any substantial numbers behind it more people tend to notice when it switches to free.