Lessons learned after first year as indie iOS developer
Edit half a decade later: https://medium.com/@cherpake/yearly-summary-2022-6th-year-as-indie-developer-19286b192ff3
So year ago I decided to try my luck and see if I can quit my job and become indie developer, focusing on building my own projects, without taking any freelance jobs. It was nerve wrecking at times, but mostly FUN!
I had an app I built for myself (https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/app/remote-control-keyboard-trackpad-for-mac-pro/id884153085?mt=8&at=1000loWa), and in 2014 I decided to publish it on App Store for fun, and to see if it will return $99 I paid for Apple developer account. As you can see 2014 was a bust, I earned a bit less than $99, 2014 was a bit better with earings of $250.
First quarter of 2016 was fun, I read a great story (https://stories.appbot.co/how-i-got-2-3m-app-downloads-without-spending-a-cent-on-marketing-f4823b6bc779) by Stuart Hall which inspired my to test my theory, that I can productize my app. I added bunch of in app purchases, improved UI, and spent some time learning about ASO, and implementing the lessons. Here how my last 4 quarters looked like.
So here are things I learned this year:
Build useful app
Listen to your users, I have a feature that allows users to suggest new features and most of those emails were helpful. Obviously not all suggestion will make it into your roadmap, but some will, and those users will be super excited, and usually leave a great review for the app.
Reviews
Reviews matter a lot, like seriously a lot, make it easy for your users to review your app, don’t be shy about letting them know that it helps, and now you even can reply to those reviews. Look at it from user perspective, if you going to pay for something, you want to know that it worth it.
Have a way for users to try your app
For each of my apps I have two versions: paid upfront, and trial. Some people don’t want the hassle of in app purchases and will pay upfront, but some will hesitate, and for those offer a chance to check if the app suites their needs.
Marketing
I tried marketing using Facebook/AdSense and other paid tools and it was a total disaster, but I have discovered relatively cheap and good method to market my apps: paid to free/discount. If you have a paid app (doesn’t work with in app purchases) — put it on sale for day or two. There are many websites that monitor this kind of thing and will put your app in their listings. You will get downloads, those users will leave reviews, and you will go up in App Store ratings.
Apple SearchAds
Use SearchAds, if not for marketing, then for researching keywords. Before SearchAds you had to rely on some external tools, that claimed to guess keyword traffic volume and relevance. Now Apple provides that information — and with small amounts of money you can actually learn which keywords lead to conversions, and use them in your app title and app store keywords.
Keywords
Double or triple your keywords, SensorTower have this document which is super useful. For example I prefer to sacrifice Mexico as a market, and use those keywords to double my US keywords. Also you will notice that UK and Australia keywords are used in many countries — so there is no point to have those keywords the same, which will be conventional logic for as both countries are English-speaking.
Website
Buy a domain name and build a website. Why? It’s your chance to market your apps. I have 3 iOS apps, which require user to install an app on their Mac, download landing page include links to all 3 (https://www.cherpake.com/mac-helper/). Every user must visit it-so every user is exposed to my other apps as well. Also, you want web presence in the Google search results, in addition to your App Store listings. Also use Apple app banners for your mobile users. It’s also a great place to have dynamic FAQ section for your users to minimize support emails.
Updates
I remember that Apple suggest your release frequent updates to your app, what they don’t tell you, is that with each update, your app rating resets itself, and if you app doesn’t attract massive audience just with its brand, you will not have reviews or ratings and you your bottom line will suffer. So sure don’t let your app to stagnate, but release those updates when its matter.
AdMob
In my free apps I have ads that 50% of the time run home campaign advertising my other apps. Why? Cause I found out that my apps used in short sessions, and running ads doesn’t generate a lot of money for me, but advertising my apps, and converting users from free to paid, pays a lot more.
Apple Affiliate Program
Subscribe to Apple affiliate program — it will allow you to get 7% from anyone who goes into App Store using one of your links, and not only from your own apps, but from anything else their purchase. It also a great tool to monitor revenue in real-time. It only shows stats for those who purchased using your links, but soon enough you can figure out average percentage of your total revenue.
Crashes
Initially I started using Fabric for crash reporting, but soon enough I added some events to better understand how users are using my apps.
Support
Setup support channel for your users. With roughly 30K monthly users, I find that it doesn’t take too much time, allows me to discover issues with my apps, and solve them either by improving the app or by adding info to FAQ. I personally prefer to use email, and finding HelpScout very convenient. They have a nice setup that allows you to forward them emails from your support email and its free.
Track your stats
Sure you can track your stats with iTunesConnect, but if you want to do it with style and ease take a look at AppFigures, they also provide reviews as RSS feed, which I have incorporated into my website.
Edit:
And if you got here, you might be interested in how its going so https://medium.com/@cherpake/yearly-summary-2022-6th-year-as-indie-developer-19286b192ff3
