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Delisted Overnight: A Cautionary Tale for Indie iOS Developers

russ.app

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Re: Delisted Overnight: A Cautionary Tale for Indie iOS Developers

#61

Post by bitL »

function_seven wrote: post #21
jsty wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For apps you install on your own machine, I think the JetBrains perpetual license model is probably my favourite so far. After a certain period you can stop paying the subscription and keep using the old version. But if you want to keep up to date with features and bug fixes, you keep paying the subscription. It just seems to align incentives on both sides quite well.

I really like their model as well. I think the really novel part of it is that, when you decide to stop paying the subscription, you keep the perpetual license for whatever was current a year ago . So if you just updated to the latest and greatest, and you love it, then you need to pay one more year subscription in order to "buy" it out right. I think that's clever

It used to be more friendly - you could have kept the last update before your time was up, not to roll back 1 year.

Re: Delisted Overnight: A Cautionary Tale for Indie iOS Developers

#62

Post by prohoney »

segmondy wrote: post #42

Why should he hold Monopoly on search placement for the phrase "weight tracker"? The other side of this story is that another developer is now happy to be able to feed their family.

It's a matter of unpredictability. Imagine you had an investor. Now his investment is 44% down.

Re: Delisted Overnight: A Cautionary Tale for Indie iOS Developers

#63

Post by rooster8 »

xwdv wrote: post #19

Take it from someone who’s worked with client apps making ten times as many downloads at similar price points: if you want to be successful in the app business you need to look beyond optimizing App Store search terms. You need to be marketing and promoting your application across multiple channels to a wider audience. It does not sound like this developer was doing that, so while it is sad he has had revenue slashed…

First off, yours is a great message to send out to anyone reading this. You can mitigate risks like this by having a more direct relationship to your users, and this was a wake-up call to me.

That said, a few counterpoints:

1. Something like 70% of all installs, for all apps, come from App Store search. It's the most popular way for users to find what they're looking for.

2. My business had to come alive before it could grow to be robust. I built this app from scratch. I didn't have an audience. I just built it, and App Store search connected me to people who were looking for an app like this, and it grew to the point where I could do it full-time.

Has the time come for me to take steps to make my business more robust? Yes. And your advice is great in that regard.

But a fledgling business must first survive before it can grow to be robust. This is a tale of me hitting an inflection point. I hope to learn from it, and grow.

Re: Delisted Overnight: A Cautionary Tale for Indie iOS Developers

#65

Post by v011d »

benmdi wrote: post #3

Wow. I literally use this App every single day. I think it was $5 and I have gotten enormous value from it for 3+ years. Sad that what is probably a random glitch on Apple's part can just kill a person's livelihood overnight. I used to be a full time iOS contractor but have moved away from it in the last couple of years. Dealing with this kind of junk is one of the main reasons why. I have lots of similarly frustrati…

where have you moved to?

Re: Delisted Overnight: A Cautionary Tale for Indie iOS Developers

#66

Post by rooster8 »

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #64

Had hoped there was a happy ending, hope for the dev and his family that there will be one.

Thank you! I will surely post an update if anything changes. I'm sure that no matter how this turns out, my family and I will all be fine.

Re: Delisted Overnight: A Cautionary Tale for Indie iOS Developers

#67

Post by gauravjain13 »

rooster8 wrote: post #52
danial wrote: post #43

If you're reading this, I'm so sorry this happened to you, Russ. The problem is worse than being de-ranked for your keywords. The search is downright broken. Searching for 'predictive weight loss tracker', 'predictive weight tracker', anything with 'tracker' yields no results on my phone. Removing 'tracker' and only searching for 'Predictive Weight' or 'Predictive Weight Loss' gives me only one result: Happy Scale. I…

Thanks for your support! Yes, it specifically seems like anything with the word "tracker" in it got axed. Maybe it's just a glitch?

I just bought your app – looks fantastic! I'm sorry this is how I discovered your app, and hope the issue gets resolved.

Re: Delisted Overnight: A Cautionary Tale for Indie iOS Developers

#68

Post by tedmiston »

danial wrote: post #43

If you're reading this, I'm so sorry this happened to you, Russ. The problem is worse than being de-ranked for your keywords. The search is downright broken. Searching for 'predictive weight loss tracker', 'predictive weight tracker', anything with 'tracker' yields no results on my phone. Removing 'tracker' and only searching for 'Predictive Weight' or 'Predictive Weight Loss' gives me only one result: Happy Scale. I…

It seems like you may be onto something here.

When I query "weight loss tracker", what's interesting is that MyFitnessPal comes in at #4 which has a subtitle of "Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker".

I also get 0 results for "predictive weight loss tracker" even though that matches the app's subtitle. Seems weird.

The Happy Scale app itself does look really well done though. Looking forward to giving it a try.

Re: Delisted Overnight: A Cautionary Tale for Indie iOS Developers

#69

Post by AJ007 »

jdboyd wrote: post #53
segmondy wrote: post #42

Why should he hold Monopoly on search placement for the phrase "weight tracker"? The other side of this story is that another developer is now happy to be able to feed their family.

He shouldn't get a monopoly, but going from 1 to not in the top 400 overnight is suspicious. Not that Apple ever promised that wouldn't happen. But it is probably worth complaining about publicly in case that helps shake something loose.

If an Apple employee connected to a competing app was able to remove the search result then that is suspicious.

This doesn’t sound particularly different than people who thought they were entitled to whatever search result position on Google due to their SEO effort and built their entire business around non-retaining users. I recall stories of companies getting sales to their e-commerce site, for free, from Google listings, and taking on long term liabilities and leases for warehouses or fulfillment locations only to end up bankrupt.

Who knows what is really going on here, but you certainly aren’t entitled to any search result listing save for your actual app or company name, presuming it isn’t generic.

Re: Delisted Overnight: A Cautionary Tale for Indie iOS Developers

#70

Post by rooster8 »

bitL wrote: post #60
rooster8 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for your support! Yes, it specifically seems like anything with the word "tracker" in it got axed. Maybe it's just a glitch?

Maybe change "tracker" to "monitor" until they fix it? I usually search for both when it comes to fitness/diet and it might not be blacklisted.

I do have "monitor" as a keyword, too. The thing about "tracker" that makes it so valuable is that it comes up as predictive text. If you type "weight loss" in the search bar, "weight loss tracker" is suggested, and "weight loss monitor" is not. PS: Thank you for proffering a helpful suggestion!
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