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Indie App Dev Secrets Build Your Future App.pptx
- 1. Indie App DevSecrets: Build Your Future App Damjan Dabo
- 2. A little bitabout me
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- 11. And then inspring 2022…
- 12. I quit myjob 😅
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- 16. You should start makingyour own apps
- 17. 1. Play withnew technologies ✨
- 19. 2. Bring backenthusiasm 🤩
- 20. 2. Earn extramoney 🤑
- 21. Sell your app Examplefor $500 monthly revenue: $500 * 12 months * 3 years = $18k
- 22. Start as early aspossible
- 23. 1. Learn aboutthe market
- 24. 1. Learn aboutthe market
- 25. 2. Learn fromothers
- 29. 3. Build youronline presence
- 30. You will increaseyour reach
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- 38. What if someonesteals my idea?
- 39. Don’t be afraidof copycats
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- 43. 1. Generate appideas 💡
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- 45. Solve your ownproblems
- 46. 2. Build inpublic
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- 49. 3. Build yourMVP ️ 🏗️
- 50. Release as soonas possible
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- 52. 4. Don’t reinventthe wheel
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- 63. Don’t build everyfeature request
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- 72. Take advantage ofBlack Friday
- 73. Try short formvideo marketing
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- 76. Become active onsocial media
- 77.
- 78. Thank you! Follow meand check out my blog 👉 bento.me/dabo
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Editor's Notes
- #1 Hello everyone! Thank you for joining! My name is Damjan Dabo I’m super happy to get a chance to share with you today the things I’ve learned as an indie developer. This is my first ever talk on any meetup so please be nice to me 😆 Drop any questions in the comments and we will go through them at the end of the presentation
- #2 Let me first introduce myself a bit more
- #3 I’m born and raised in Zagreb Croatia
- #4 In 2017 I started working in digital agency called Infinum
- #5 For most of the time, I worked on Philips NutriU project. It’s a recipes app for airfryers and blenders.
- #6 For a short time, I also worked on Porsche Group Card Slovenia project. It’s a loyalty app for Porsche Group dealerships.
- #7 I moved to Munich in spring 2020
- #8 I got a job at a healthcare startup called iATROS as a Flutter developer.
- #9 But I missed working in Swift so just after a few months, I moved to consultancy called Pixida for iOS development job.
- #10 There, I worked on BMW Motorrad Connected App. It connects to your BMW motorcycle, reads telemetry data and tracks your rides including GPS data, speed, and lean angles.
- #11 … And then in spring 2022…
- #12 I quit my job 😅 Something I wouldn’t recommend doing to most people. Especially if you are starting from zero and you don’t earn anything from your apps yet. It was super stressful and super weird not to earn salary anymore.
- #13 I released my first app Itemlist 2 years ago in November 2022. It’s a home and small business inventory app. It’s main use is tracking your belongings and finding items quickly.
- #14 When I launched the app, it was called Golden Squirrel and it got a cute squirrel on the app icon. People thought it was a game, and not an inventory app. So I rebranded it in August 2023. After rebranding, the revenue started coming in. You can see Black Friday 2023 peak. In spring, there was a first organic peak, probably because of spring vacations. In summer, the revenue peaked to almost $1000. It’s because Americans went on their limited vacations and finally got time to organize their homes. This year, Black Friday was awesome. It was the first time Itemlist surpassed $3000 revenue in 28 days.
- #15 Recently, I’ve started working on my second app, Herba, a plant growth journal app.
- #16 Let’s continue with the main part of today’s talk
- #17 Enough about me 😆 let’s talk about why you should start making your own apps
- #18 First reason is: To play with new technologies
- #19 Every year during WWDC, Apple announces some new technologies that only come with the latest iOS version. At your full-time job, you often don’t get a chance to work with them for years. But if you work on your own app, you can use what ever technology you want. This way you can have fun and stay competitive on your job by learning new stuff in advance.
- #20 Second reason is: To Bring back enthusiasm for your profession. On your full-time job, you often need to work on boring stuff. But with your side projects, you can work on what excites you and you can get back that enthusiasm you had for your profession when you were just starting out.
- #21 Third reason is: to Earn extra money If you only earn a few hundred dollars per month from your apps, it’s enough to pay for your vacations or your more expensive hobbies.
- #22 And if you need to earn some extra cash fast, for a new car or downpayment, you can easily sell your app for total yearly revenue times 3. For example if you have 500 dollars monthly revenue, you can sell your app for 500 times 12 months, times 3 years, equalling 18k dollars.
- #23 you should start as early as possible
- #24 One reason is to learn about the market
- #25 You learn about the App Store, what kind of apps people search for, What kind of apps succeed, How to rank higher on App Store search with ASO (App Store Optimization), etc.
- #26 You should also learn from other indie devs on social media.
- #27 To make the best out of social media you should create accounts on X, LinkedIn and Bluesky.
- #28 Follow other indie developers. You can find them by using the search function. You can also check people who they follow or who follow them.
- #29 Interact with other developers. Comment on their posts. Support them and become part of the community. You can also start conversations by sending direct messages.
- #30 Take advantage of social media to build your online presence
- #31 You will also increase your reach It’s super useful if you are an indie dev. You will get more eyeballs on your product which leads to more downloads and sales. You will get support from the community and you will never feel alone. You will get new opportunities you don’t expect, like I got an opportunity to talk to you today.
- #32 Use a tool like Typefully to cross post and schedule posts. It will save you bunch of time and make posting more enjoyable. Typefully also has some AI writing functions helping you avoid grammar mistakes and write better.
- #33 The best way to build your online presence as an indie developer is to build in public.
- #34 You can share what you are working on to get valuable feedback and build excitement for your product even before your launch it.
- #35 You will get TestFlight beta testers helping you improve your app.
- #36 Building in public is also a way to validate your idea. If when you post about your next app sparks a lot of engagement and excitement, it’s one way of knowing people are interested in trying it out.
- #37 After launch, you can also share your revenue data in public It gives more context related to what you are doing and inspires others to follow you and learn from your
- #38 Do you remember the backlash Marques got for his wallpaper app? There are tons of scammy apps out there, but their makers are anonymous. Because Marques is a public person, he needed to adjust, to listen to people’s feedback and improve upon it. Customers and the world benefits from it. Building in public puts your face behind your app, making you more motivated to build the best possible product because it represents you. Customers also feel safer when they see the creator taking pride in their work. It’s much harder to scam people when you’re visible.
- #39 [wait] I know what you are thinking about right now, [click] what if someone steals my idea?
- #40 [click] Don’t be afraid of copycats. Benefits of building in public by far surpass the drawback of someone copying you. People will start copy you only after you become successful, and by then, you are miles ahead of them in terms of competition.
- #41 Just ask this guy if his business is suffering from building in public 😆
- #42 There is also a networking effect. By being active on social media, you will meet new people and it will become easier to you to talk with strangers and to make new friends.
- #43 Now that you feel more motivated to start, how do you start?
- #44 Let’s explore how you can generate app ideas
- #45 Learn how to do ASO keyword research You can find many free tutorials online Find keywords with popularity of at least 30 for a specific niche Find successful apps that rank high for those keywords Think about in which ways your app can be better than those apps Link: https://appfigures.com/resources/guides/keyword-research
- #46 If you have a problem that is bothering you, the chances are others face the same problem too. Search existing apps that solve that problem and see if you can compete with them. You can also observe your surroundings and find common problems that people around you face.
- #47 Start building in public from the beginning. Announce your app before you even start building it. Share what you do, problems that you face, ask the community to give you feedback. It’s the best way to get early feedback, build a better product, and build excitement for your app.
- #48 Create a landing page for your app with a form to collect emails. With every post you make, attach a link to the landing page so people can get notified when you release the app. This way, you will get more beta testers and you will get first users even before the launch.
- #49 To create landing page and build your email list: You can use a tool with a generous free tier like EmailOctopus.
- #50 Next step is to start building. Build your MVP (minimum viable product). It’s the first version of your app that contains only necessary features needing to validate the idea.
- #51 The idea behind MVP is to release your app as soon as possible to validate your idea early and start getting feedback.
- #52 With MVP, you want to focus on quality of features, and not quantity. Put just those features needed so user can get things done, not any more.
- #53 To speed things up, don’t reinvent the wheel. Use free or cheap software as a services (SaaS) to speed things up. They will give you superpowers without much effort.
- #54 One example is RevenueCat that helps you build and grow your subscription based apps. Don’t think if you should use a tool like RevenueCat, but think how to get the most out of it.
- #55 You should monetize your app from the MVP This way, you can start making money immediately after launch. It’s also a great way to validate your idea: if it sells, you are doing something good. You can monetize by offering subscriptions (for example weekly, monthly and yearly) and a lifetime option. You can take a look how your competitors monetize their apps to get idea which monetization model to use and how much to charge.
- #56 After all the hard work of developing your app, now it’s time to launch it.
- #57 To prepare for the launch, first make a press kit. You can use a tool like ImpressKit to help you out. Email journalists to get a chance to be featured in magazines. ImpressKit has a list of contacts you can use.
- #58 Contact App Store editorial team to get a chance to get featured on the App Store. Contact form is now baked into App Store Connect. You should contact App Store and journalists a few weeks before the launch so they have time to feature you.
- #59 You can also launch on Product Hunt. Nowadays, it’s kind of a gamble launching there because they decide if your product gets featured. If it’s not featured, it will not rank and participate to become a product of the day. But just by asking for support from the community on social media, you build relationships and awareness of your product.
- #60 There are also alternatives to Product Hunt like Uneed and MicroLaunch.
- #61 If your app requires login, you can send emails to your users and ask them for feedback. You should also include “Contact us” button in your app to make it easy for users to contact you.
- #62 I highly recommend you to add a features wishlist to your app. It’s a great way to get features ideas from your users and to learn which features users want the most.
- #63 A great tool for adding a features wishlist to your app is WishKit. It provides an iOS SDK with built in UI. It’s also connected to it’s own backend and you get access to a web admin dashboard. You can add WishKit in only few minutes.
- #64 Build your app with user feedback in mind, but don’t put much focus on every feature request. Your time is limited, so be very selective.
- #65 So what comes next?
- #66 Continue learning ASO and work on it.
- #67 Ratings give boost for ASO. In your app, ask for ratings using native prompt. After user does an action that gives them dopamine boost (like finishing a task), show them the ratings prompt.
- #68 For keywords research, you can take a monthly subscription for a more expensive tool like Appfigures.
- #69 To track keyword rankings, you can use a cheaper tool like Astro.
- #70 To get extra downloads and ratings, you can make a temporary campaign giving a huge discount or giving your app for free for up to a few days. With initiative like Indie App Santa or Apps Gone Free, you will get bunch of downloads and ratings. To get the most out of it, give lifetime for free, show the paywall during onboarding, before the log in screen, And show rating prompt immediately after they get the free purchase.
- #71 Because you have user feedback, you know what to work on to keep improving your app. Improving your app leads to user satisfaction increase which leads to better user retention.
- #72 To improve retention even more, take advantage of email marketing and push notifications. Every time I publish an app update, I send an email to my users, and bunch of them open the app to try out the new update.
- #73 Black Friday season is when people are happy to spend money. It’s the best time for indie developers to get free marketing and extra sales. Create a discount of at least 50% off. Lifetime discounts work great. Run the campaign one week before and one week after the Black Friday. Post your app on as many Black Friday directories as you can find to get downloads. Directories: https://indiegoodies.com/blackfriday https://app.indieappsales.com/ https://rarebigdeal.com https://github.com/trungdq88/Awesome-Black-Friday-Cyber-Monday https://github.com/mRs-/Black-Friday-Deals https://github.com/twf-nikhila/Awesome-Black-Friday-Cyber-Monday-deals#apps
- #74 Many Indies have success with TikTok and Instagram Reels marketing. I don’t have much experience with it yet, but you can try it out.
- #75 Let’s recap
- #76 Start today! Take action after this talk.
- #77 Become active on social media. Make accounts on X, LinkedIn, BlueSky and become active on them.
- #78 Start building your MVP in public, and launch it as soon as possible.
- #79 Thank you for your attention! I hope things you learned today will help you in your indie journey. You can find me on X, Bluesky and LinkedIn, feel free to DM me there for any additional questions You can also follow my journey on my blog Dabo dot dev Scan this QR code to get all the links There is also a link to this presentation file
- #80 It’s time for Q&A [take a look at comments]