Great course, by the way (Foundations). It helped me build my first app!
But what a drag: After spending about 60 hours to build an app and get it accepted by the App Store, actually launching the durned thing has turned out to be a real pain in the neck. I’m fast approaching 100 additional hours! I had to make a landing page, which meant learning some CSS; I made an instructional video for that page; I read up on the art of the soft launch, etc. Now, apparently, I need to read up on ASO so I can monkey with keywords and titles and screenshots and do AB testing etc. etc. Not to mention, I still need to get some early users that can give me some “social proof” for my landing page, etc. etc.
Ready for the question? It’s simply this: Is there a way to get around all this “extraneous” work so I can get back to making apps? A service I could use, or something? I could have made one or two other apps by now, if I weren’t having to do all this other stuff!
(full disclaimer I haven’t launched yet so take everything I say with a grain or even a bucket of salt. That being said, I’m extremely close and I’ve done a ton of research)
For me learning about this stuff is one of the fun parts!!! If you wanna be an indie dev, then you’re also a business owner, and so you gotta learn whatever you need to get your business off the ground.
Now if you don’t enjoy learning about web dev there’s a ton of tools out there to create your website (Webflow, Wix, SquareSpace…). If you don’t wanna pay you can also just use ChatGPT to help with some quick HTML/CSS then deploy on any hosting provider with any 15min tutorial.
For ASO, I’ve been learning about it via the RevenueCat podcasts. For me it’s been a great intro. They are AWESOME.
Your landing page doesn’t need “social proof” if you’re just starting out. Just present the product, for your first users it should be plenty enough.
A/B Testing, you probably don’t need that early on, this is optimization stuff so should probably go after validating PMF.
If you really don’t enjoy working on all that stuff, you probably need a co-founder that does. No single tool could ever replace a determined human learning about this whole array of important stuff. Or I guess you could also hire a bunch of freelancers.
If you really don’t wanna find a co-founder, and you don’t wanna hire freelancers, and you basically don’t want to do business owner stuff, and you just want to write Swift code (which is perfectly fine too), maybe what you’re actually looking for is a job as an iOS dev ?
Thanks for the reply! Yeah I’ve seen people say such things, that the marketing is more fun for them than the app making. Definitely the opposite for me though, especially since I’m working full time and only have so many “extra” hours in a week to make fun stuff.
I mean, making the landing page counted as fun, since that was basically more coding… But “user discovery” and “building a presence on social media” and so on feels like endless paperwork by comparison. You’re right, I’ll probably need to look for some kind of partner arrangement if I want to “move” some of these things!
You can look up tons of ASO related stuff on AppFigures
But generally what you’re asking is “why can’t I just make products people buy” which is the question of every business.
Yes you can continue to make apps, but if you never find an actual market for them, and people can’t discover your apps, then none of them are going to be successful.
Like @CalStark said, having a cofounder who’s interested in marketing could help, if that’s a route you want to take.
Thanks for the replies y’all. I’ve found a nice book on ASO that I’ve started reading on the side, for the sake of becoming a little more “well rounded” at this – and I’ll admit it’s rather interesting – but it’s definitely going to be a back-burner thing while I learn and build more stuff. I guess I’ll just have to be my own main customer for now
You can do this!! And congratulations on finishing Foundations (this course will forever be dear to my heart) and publishing your first app. It’s a huge achievement. Would you be inclined to share your app ? I’m always curious to try new apps!
The marketing aspect of things takes time and I understand it might feel tedious after your coding efforts. But just like with code, your knowledge will capitalize over time; and I’m sure once you start to see benefits (users discovering your app, giving you feedback, engaging with you on social media about your creation) maybe it will motivate you to enjoy the marketing side of things!
But really, publishing an app in the limited amount of time you have, you’re killing it.
