Path to creating a digital product

[Rhino]

Thanks!! It's launching mid-August, so not yet.

My main plan is app store optimization, something like 70% of users find an app through app store search. I really went HAM on ASO and optimized it for several countries, got some great keywords. I think I did as well as I possibly could with ASO.

I'll now focus on posting around forums and perhaps building an Instagram. Not sure though. I'm not good at marketing, it's gonna be a challenge.

Not touching paid anything for now, except maybe influencer marketing if needed.

Good idea. I built an app a few years ago and had quite a bit of success with ASO (just over half a million downloads) and didn’t use any paid media at all. The app itself was for a company in the cannabis industry, so it literally wasn’t possible to use paid ads due to the ad networks seeing the industry as a bit of a grey area. Anyway, I got it to rank in the top 3 for a whole load of competitive keywords, and it ended up being in the top 50 in the medical category! (Not bad seeing as I had never built an app before).

Some things I did that worked...

Writing a killer app description:

• Look at the top 5 apps ranking for your keywords.
  
• Copy the entire app description from each app into a word document.
  
• Rewrite the entire thing (it should be impossible to tell that you’ve written it from the other descriptions I.e. do not directly copy it), using the key bits from each competitor description (you can find these by looking for the sentences that contain the keywords the app shows up for).

Develop some content:

• Create 5 or 6 short articles (400 words ish) about stuff related to your app
• Make sure the articles contain some of the keywords that you want your app to rank for, and then link them to your App Store page

Social media:

• Create a spreadsheet to populate with social media posts. You need several columns: Date, Content, Link, Hashtags, Image etc
• If you need to monitor the word count for the post content, then you can just use a formula to count the characters in a separate column and then use conditional formatting to turn the cells red when the go over 280 characters (twitters current limit). If you can’t do that I think HubSpot used to have a pre-done spreadsheet that you could download for free, although I’m not sure if that’s still a thing...
• Use the articles that you wrote earlier to inform your social media content and start populating your spreadsheet.

Create accounts/pages on the following social networks:

1. Twitter
2. Facebook page
3. Pinterest
4. Instagram
5. YouTube
6. Google +*

*i know, G+ is terrible and most people don’t use it. However as it’s Google’s own network, links coming from Google + are given more prominence by their search algorithm than the majority of other social mediums. I even went as far as testing this a little while back, pages that were only shared on google + were indexed faster than pages being shared only on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

Make sure you properly compete each profile, add images, a good description and make sure you add links to your App Store page.

Automating social media posts:

• Create a Buffer or Hootsuite account (they have free versions but I think you have to pay for Buffer if you connect more than 3 accounts) and then connect all you new social media accounts to whatever platform you choose.
• Now use your spreadsheet, either upload it or copy the posts directly into Hootsuite/Buffer and schedule them to go out for the next couple of weeks.
• Aim for 3 posts a day on each platform. And make sure they cover different time zones.

Building links:
Create an account on the following websites:

• Reddit - works best when you find the most relevant sub-reddit and post something that doesn’t sound like an add. This should be easy to do if you’ve created good enough content earlier on.
• Hacker News (Ycombinator) - Allows you to quickly register and share a link on their tech related feed.
• Tumblr - Quickly create a relevant profile. Use your articles that you’ve already written to create posts. Make sure you add images, hashtags and definitely link the keywords in the posts to your App Store page.

These are just some of the first websites you should look to get links from. It’s really quick to do, and they are all high authority websites so your app page will get the SEO benefits (so to speak).


Obviously the above is not everything you’ll need to do to market your app. It’s just what I did when I launched the app I mentioned earlier, longer term you want to build a name for your app and get more natural links and mentions that way, but when your just beginning you need to start with the quick wins.

After you’ve built the easy links you can then focus on contacting other relevant online media (blogs etc) to try and gain some more coverage for your app.

There’s also a load of websites that are essentially directories of apps, so you should try and find out what they are, and then submit your app to them. Oh and don’t forget to create an actual website for your app, it only had to be one pager, but it’s worth doing.

Anyways I’ll stop there as I feel like I’m rambling, hopefully you’ll find some of it useful.

 

[• nikita •]

I just quit

 

[• nikita •]

Posting this in the main forum this time to get more feedback!

I realized I've been trying to start businesses with incredibly low entry barriers and when I did, I did nothing to add more value. I spent a few days brainstorming and came up with three solutions to problems, all of them working best as an app.

1. In the mental health niche, easiest to monetize, most difficult to make. Highest entry barriers but with the potential to help a lot of people.
2. Food/nutrition niche. Initially started as a different idea but morphed when I looked at the keyword tool and discovered a ton of searches for something with low competition.
3. Social network. Very reluctant with this one as social network apps usually die a tragic death, but it's something I wish existed and I've seen people post about this need too. No idea how to monetize. How do you even market a new SM app? Unfortunately, it's the one I most want to make

Made landing pages, ran FB ads. The mental health one got the most email opt-ins (something like per 50 ad views, 10 clicks, 5 opt-ins). Next was the social network, averaging at 3%, and the nutrition with 0 (lol).

Realized Google Ads were better for this as people are actively looking for solutions. Getting conflicting data though :/

While it's pretty much the same result as FB in terms of conversion, some of the keyword conversion %s of the nutrition app were insane. Like 60 - 100%. Two even got 200% which I don't know how lol. The SM one got 1000s more impressions which is why it costs more...

So looks like I'll either be making the SM or the mental health one.

 

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[• nikita •]

Woke up today much calmer and with a sense of relief I never felt in my life. That if I lose my job I'll be fine. In fact, I think I will quit. I can't half a$$ this.

Updates:

• My app which I mentioned was featured, was featured again, but globally, and resulted in thousands of downloads and trial signups (will know the revenue for sure in a few days). It's still gathering hundreds of downloads days after the feature. The best part is the feedback I'm receiving, the solid conversion rate figures I have, and an idea of what direction to take it in.
• Freelance jobs really picking up.
• I am on my way to my July goal.

God I'm so happy I read MJ's books. If I hadn't I'd still be trying random things like the stock market and being generally directionless.

 

[• nikita •]

So, I made £11k ($13.5k) this month, and next month it's going to be about £20k ($24.5k).

Funny thing is last year at this point I had 0 coming in from my business but I set a goal to reach £20k per month by July. So I made it, but a year late haha!

I'm planning on moving to a hot country once we can travel again now that I have the funds. I'm thinking a nice villa by the sea, mm yes. I just need to do it before the winter sets in so my productivity doesn't take a dive from the bad weather.

 

[Hai]

Hah, also forgot to mention. Just told my dad I finished an app and he told me I need many many years of education and extreme genius ("which you're not") and maybe then I can think about starting some business in the future. So I've finished something and he's saying I can't build the very thing I've built until a decade has passed and I've got a pile of debt and worthless higher education (because it is worthless for my goals)? Where in the future?

In other news I've been watching this cherry red Audi R8 go past me this week and I thinks it's my lambo moment. Holy sh*t it's beautiful.

This is the slowlaner´s fallacy(to be perfect before starting). Almost everyone falls for it.
All that matters is that you can fill a need/solve a problem incrementally.

The skills can be obtained on the go, but if you constantly work on the solving the need step by step, you will be gold.

Focus on solving the need(but make sure the need is real), don´t focus on raising intrinsic value/skills(action fake) solely because it "might become handy" later.

Beeing an expert in something doesn´t mean you are solving a need.

But I´m sure you know this. Keep going!

 

[• nikita •]

Just got my first subscriber!

I was sitting celebrating my mum's birthday with my family, and I decide to refresh my app's stats to see how many people have signed up today. Well, 6. But also a new subscriber! After 70 sign ups.

Although it's only $5.25 profit, it really does feel like Christmas day. Someone wants my app! Someone likes it enough to pay! I've added value to someone's life. And the best feeling is that I'm actually helping someone with a problem that used to plague my life, anxiety.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Spent an eternity trying to change the status bar color and align buttons to look right on different screen sizes. Added an app icon though and I'm getting another kick out of looking at it on my phone.

Now I'm wondering whether it's a good idea to read through some more tutorials before building this. I know I can pull something together but whether it will be well structured or pure spaghetti code is the problem. I don't want to delay making this even more, but I don't want to have a badly built app either.

A couple thoughts came to mind while reading your progress. So check it out, great work getting started! Looks like you did a bit of market testing up front. I'm not sure if it was enough since you mentioned doubting if people would buy. What has you doubting this? Is the value not there? If not, then probably focus on that area first. Getting the app online and monetizing it doesn't make sense if you don't have an offer that's valuable for people. I'm not sure how valuable your rewards system is yet, but to me it makes sense to address the area of doubt. Make your end product valuable and awesome enough and your spaghetti code will be nothing more than an afterthought at best for your customer. You'll be modding and changing the app as it grows over time anyway.

 

[• nikita •]

There's a beautiful contrast between your posts when you started out and your posts now — a real testament to the hard work and time you've put into this — I just thought I'd point it out:

Yes! I had a read through the entire thread yesterday and felt such happiness to see that despite how much doubt I had, and how little experience in app development and running a company, I got results. Being able to quit my job, not because I'm sick of it but because I actually can and because I've started making money myself... it's a weird, surreal feeling.

I still haven't made it yet -- and I'm not totally secure -- but I believe I'm well on my way to success. Thanks to everyone here! This place has changed my life.

 

[• nikita •]

Almost got pressured by my parents into wasting my money for a mortgage. I was excited to get out of their house because they create a horrible atmosphere, but I realized I'd have no money left, and I'd owe my parents a lot. I don't like owing people things, especially people who'd use it against me in every conversation. I will buy a house when I can buy it in cash. Thinking of just F*cking off to a cheap country for 2 weeks while my dad is at home so I can avoid the constant fighting and pessimism. He was at home 24/7 for 2 months and I'm 99% sure I had a mental breakdown from the stress. I know I'm not supposed to blame my parents for my downfalls, but there's only so much you can take. /essay

Anyway, my app is doing awesome, about to roll out a huge update. My agency is also doing really good. Got a mentor recently and it's been a huge help.

 

[• nikita •]

Steadily plugging away at the app. Some features I've been trying to rid of bugs for weeks. Stack Overflow isn't as active for Swift as it is for Javascript. I'll get there but it's taking a long time.

I rethought a feature of the app and redesigned it, surprise surprise my UI design has got better too and now it looks like something I'd pay for rather than something a lazy student shat out.

My deadline for 1st draft is end of March...

PS: If you guys need any UI inspiration or don't know where to start with your designs, Dribbble is brilliant.

 

[• nikita •]

This is the slowlaner´s fallacy(to be perfect before starting). Almost everyone falls for it.
All that matters is that you can fill a need/solve a problem incrementally.

The skills can be obtained on the go, but if you constantly work on the solving the need step by step, you will be gold.

Focus on solving the need(but make sure the need is real), don´t focus on raising intrinsic value/skills(action fake) solely because it "might become handy" later.

Beeing an expert in something doesn´t mean you are solving a need.

But I´m sure you know this. Keep going!

100%. I used to be obsessed with starting courses and learning things just because "they might make me money some day". I like the rush of doing something new with the excuse that it will pay out some day.

I'm so happy I didn't just continue trudging through courses waiting to feel ready.

 

[Andy Black]

Done this week

• GDPR'd everything. Annoying task because without it I couldn't properly market and get people to sign up to newsletters.
• Started converting dev account to organization
• Reading Cashvertising and applying it to my landing page. Looking at how it was before... I can see why my copy never worked.

To do next week

• Research best time to launch, send for review
• Marketing

I need to blow this launch out of the water. Marketing was always my weak point. Hold me I'm scared

Do you really “NEED to blow this launch out of the water”?

It might be helpful to think of marketing as lots of little tests.

Maybe just “release” it?

Also... think of who you’re trying to help. Put them foremost in your mind. Picture them.

Does that make it seem less scary?

 

[• nikita •]

So, 2 weeks later.

• Been gathering feedback from Reddit, Twitter, bloggers, Discord servers
• Received some really good tips and am about to release the first update
• Preparing for a Product Hunt launch
• Submitting to directories, review sites, etc
• Reaching out to at least 10 people per day with genuine conversation (much higher response rate than typical spam copy-paste emails). Need to raise this number.
• About 2 - 5 new users per day.

I've found that Reddit is one of the best places to find new users and get feedback. Not by posting your product to subreddits, but finding users that post to certain subreddits and messaging them. Ask them genuine questions first and end with something like "the reason I ask if because I have a product like ____ that ____ and I'm looking for feedback. Anything you could share would be amazing!" The key is starting with a question about them and their experience -- who doesn't love talking about themselves? You pick up some real friends and connections too. I've been overwhelmed with the positive feedback.

 

[• nikita •]

Haven't updated in a while!

The app is going well, I'm releasing a big update soon and am doing a harder launch than before. It looks much better than before. Frankly, I'm kind of embarrassed of the first version!
I've also been working on a side project, and just got my first preorder.

I keep having F*ck this moments. I took a week off from my day job and now I can't get back into it. I F*cking hate it. I know this is recommended against, but I might just quit. I am also living at my parents' house right now to avoid the extreme London rent and keep getting told not to move, speak, or make any noise. Was just told not to eat or open the fridge because it wakes them up. Total control freaks, which fine, it's their house, but when you're an adult you start to feel like a caged animal when you can't do anything.

Basically, I've had enough and F*cking F*ck this. I want out. I'd rather be free and die at 30 than live like this till 70.

 

[Vito]

There's a beautiful contrast between your posts when you started out and your posts now — a real testament to the hard work and time you've put into this — I just thought I'd point it out:

Jan 2018

This is starting to take a toll on my health, since I work in tech and stay on the computer all day, I don't really have a rest and everything is starting to hurt. Increase in workload at my day job has made me realize once again how miserable I am. They've added more meetings to my schedule for god knows what reason. I'm terrified I'll get laid off even when things are going well. My anxiety is through the roof and it's really ironic I'm making this app, I think I severely need it myself!

May 2019

Woke up today much calmer and with a sense of relief I never felt in my life. That if I lose my job I'll be fine. In fact, I think I will quit. I can't half a$$ this.

 

[• nikita •]

There's always other jobs, there's always freelance/contracting work. The worst case scenario is you get more work, nothing to panic about.

I'd assume worrying is natural given the big change, if you can, embrace it and use it as fuel to work harder and smarter.

"Strange how I'm at my happiest when I have the least job security." ⟵ This was only last week, you're doing the right thing.

Freelancing is what I'm relying on until my app takes over -- it's just that last month I had an angel of a client and made a lot more money than I normally can.

I go through periods of being happy and free, and panicking. I guess this will be my norm for now!

 

[• nikita •]

So, my app was finally featured on the Today tab as App of the Day yesterday! Should have got around 5-10k downloads, and hopefully it'll skyrocket my daily downloads for a few months, like the first feature did. I'm happy, because this is big recognition from Apple that my app is good.

 

[• nikita •]

Hit $4k from my app this month for the first time!

 

[• nikita •]

I did it! I reached $5k this month off the app! Next step, $10k.

 

[• nikita •]

Hit $7k today. C'mon, I can hit $10k this month! I can't believe it, my app is actually taking off.

 

[• nikita •]

Hah, also forgot to mention. Just told my dad I finished an app and he told me I need many many years of education and extreme genius ("which you're not") and maybe then I can think about starting some business in the future. So I've finished something and he's saying I can't build the very thing I've built until a decade has passed and I've got a pile of debt and worthless higher education (because it is worthless for my goals)? Where in the future?

In other news I've been watching this cherry red Audi R8 go past me this week and I thinks it's my lambo moment. Holy shit it's beautiful.

 

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[• nikita •]

My app got approved!

 

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[• nikita •]

An update, since it's been several months!

• App 1 is doing well. I had it refactored, paid for marketing for a month and learned a lot. I'm changing up the price structure and subscription rates have increased.
• I released a third app and am currently marketing it - it was featured on the App Store! Though sub rate is much much lower than the first app.
• Through releasing several apps I learned that with the first one I stumbled upon huge potential. CPC is low, lots of trials, every change brings improvement. Slow initial progress made me want to ditch it, but I think if I stick with it it'll be a success eventually.
• I'm debating whether I should start my own design agency. Design is hilariously easy for me and the contracts are huge. But it's not really fastlane. Still, it would be better than my full time job.

I set myself a goal of making around £20k per month by July. I'm well below that! But I kind of still believe I can hit that... whether it's through apps or landing more design contracts.

 

[• nikita •]

I've been free from work for a few weeks now, officially since Monday. I'm really happy, even though I have no idea if I'll make enough money from my business consistently. Strange how I'm at my happiest when I have the least job security.

I've joined a new gym, finally don't feel tired any more (slept like a baby for the first few days before I got all my energy back), and am focusing on my business.

 

[• nikita •]

Decided to stop being a little bitch and start taking action again. I didn't coincidentally make $15k in May.

What I'm doing

For my app

• Joining forums relevant to the niche and contributing a lot. Linking my app in the signature. It might take a while, but if I establish a presence on the forum, it could result in more downloads and connections in the niche.
• Contacting Apple employees. I submit the App Store Promote form once a week and I believe this is what leads to it being featured often. I really need that glorious Today Tab feature.

For my design agency

• Contacting app developers and offering them a free logo design in exchange for a review for my agency. Logos are something I do very quickly and very well, and reviews are very valuable on Clutch (directory for agencies).
• Submitting 5-10 Upwork proposals a day. My rating has gone from 90%+ to 75% due to a client not leaving a review (why this is a thing I don't know. Upwork must hate their freelancers). Unfortunately this means I almost never get jobs, because 75% is pathetic. Submitting proposals also now costs money. If I'm able to get above 90% I'll be over the moon.

I have maybe 6 months runway.

 

[• nikita •]

Working on launching my 2 new apps.

I've been going through a lot of mood shifts and at one point even my physical health declined. Of course, every test came back perfect because I knew it was due to my psychological state. Setting proper routines now and time to relax.

One new thing I've started is finding people I'd love to connect and be friends with that are successful, and going after them. Well that sounds a bit strange put in words, but I find that most people around me are either unmotivated or in that "rich person bad!" mindset. Especially at my young age, it's almost impossible to find motivated people who want to be rich like I do lol. I need to be connected with the top of the top, people that are better and more successful than me so I can reach their level.

My goal to be a millionaire at 24 is going to be achieved.

 

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[• nikita •]

Jesus, looking back at some of my posts, I really hate London don't I?

I need to be a bit more positive. Some tough experiences have made me very cynical and being negative just invites more negativity.

That being said, I'm still totally leaving London behind and buying a villa in Greece. I visited for the 3rd time in August and just stared from my balcony in awe for several hours every night. Paradise exists and it's in Greece. I have the exact villa bookmarked and I will buy that exact one.

 

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[• nikita •]

Work has been incredibly stressful. Recently they've started piling projects on me and demanding more and more as if I'm some genius robot that can churn out results without a break. I'm exhausted and have missed my deadline for finishing the app. So I just said F*ck it and took a week off in the middle of their demands.

I'm going to finish the last feature today, and then the main functionality is done. If there was no membership involved, it would be complete. My fulltime job has just reminded me how I need to get out.

The only thing that worries me is how bad my code is. I think it's very brittle and I'm not advanced enough to optimize it.

 

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[• nikita •]

It's done!

Well, nearly. First draft is done. Now I need to integrate membership and lock down any non-member content, fix the UI, and test it.