After a year of being free on the iOS app store, my app Dark Hacker News has received some positive reviews and maintained a 5-star rating.
About a month and a half ago, I decided to make Dark Hacker News a paid app at $1.99. I felt at this point it had enough features and I've never had a paid app on the app store so I decided to just go for it!
In the first month and a half as a paid app, its been able to generate $42 in sales! I've never made money off of an app I've built so its been awesome to see those sales come in.
At one point in June I even made it to #7 on the list of top paid news apps!!! (I'm not exactly sure how the app store algorithm works, but hey I'll take it) Up to this point I really haven't done any marketing so I'm considering getting the word out there to see how it would impact sales.
All in all, it's been awesome to make my first real dollars as an Indie Developer!
Awesome!! The bookmarks folder feature was one I really wanted to get into the app so I'm happy to hear you like it! Let me know if you have any features you'd like to see added and I can add them to my backlog.
> In the first month and a half as a paid app, its been able to generate $42 in sales!
> At one point in June I even made it to #7 on the list of top paid news apps!!!
So being #7 for sales in a whole category on Apple's all store (famously the easier market in which to make money as compared to Android) means only $42 in sales? Are the economics of making apps really this tough?
Maybe that's why everyone just tries to make a game app? Is that the only way to make money?
I would guess many news Apps are free, with subscriptions used to make money.
Also, looking at the list on my iPad, I‘m sure the top lists aren’t global. They seem local by country (and might even be personalized, but that would surprise me)
That was my thought too. The listing have to be more localized or personalized for a small indie app like mine to climb the charts for a day. I'd like to talk with someone who has more experience with the app store rankings and algorithms that drive them. I'd be curious to know all of the factors that are in play.
Can you check the top paid news chart now? Thanks to the HN support we are back up to #8! I'd be curious to see if it is at #8 for other people as well.
Yeah I'm really not sure on this one. I was only at #7 for a brief moment during a weekday. I have to imagine the apps that are consistently high in the rankings are making much more on a daily basis. On my post on IndieHackers I included screenshots showing the #7 ranking (https://www.indiehackers.com/post/i-made-my-1st-sale-and-mad...).
Yes, the economics of mobile apps really are that tough. The App Store has been around for over a decade now, and the "race to the bottom" has brought us the almost exclusive use of in-app purchases for monetizing apps.
Market is a big part of app success which is why we see games and companies with real budget making the $$ in the App Stores. Gotta market to those whales!
Furthermore, users expect a very high quality mobile app these days and often don't want to pay for features. Got a great app with a few amazing paid features? Expect some negative app reviews. Everyone, app developers included, expect amazing, free, mobile apps. It's unrealistic.
That's a great question. Let me try and find an example post to see if it does. If it does not, I'll definitely add that to my backlog because I'd love to have that feature as well.
I wonder how much difference it would make to have a free trial for a week. I don’t mind paying for apps, but I also don’t like paying for something I’m not sure I’ll be using. Especially when I’m already using an app with (from what I can tell at least) pretty much the same features. Once I try it it’s possible I’ll change my mind and actually buy it.
And people on a forum largely dedicated to struggling devs trying to start a business are asking for a free trial over that $2. There's something to reflect on here...
Yeah I've thought about simplifying the icon or at least making it look less sinister. Maybe take away the red eyes or something. Appreciate the feedback!
Thank you!! So glad you like the folders. I really felt like bookmarks were missing something until I added folders. Let me know if you have any other feedback or features you'd like to see. Enjoy!
Thank you! So it turns out I had it free on the app store for about a year before I made it $1.99 this May. Having it free for so long gave me a chance to get it in front of more people and add more features in the meantime. I'd definitely consider making a free trial option so that users who wouldn't otherwise buy it could try it as well. I appreciate the feedback!
Sure thing! My stack for Dark Hacker news is React Native and Expo. Since I've primarily been a web developer and have some React Web experience, React Native made the transition to mobile development a lot more seamless.
From building this a year ago to today, I've learned so much more about React/React Native and in general my technical skills have gotten much better. There are definitely things I can refactor to make more performant that I'd like to do.
I'd also like to make a pass through the code to convert any remaining React class components to functional components using React hooks. I'd also like to update to React Navigation 5 which recently released.
Let me know if you have any technical questions about some aspects of the app and I'd be happy to answer them. Thanks again for the download!
Are you using the managed or bare workflow? I just ejected because IPA size was massive (around 180mbs). Ejecting reduced IPA to around 90mbs and actual app store size was around 9mbs.
I'm still using the managed workflow for the time being. I've considered ejecting to the bare workflow, but haven't made the jump quite yet. Wow that's awesome! At the very least I should try ejecting to see how slim I could get the app size.
Great job! Just bought it too. At $1.99 it's a steal considering how much I am on HN on a hourly basis. :-)
I've been using the "Hacker News (YC)" app on iOS written by Dharmesh Patel, and it works good, but it hasn't been updated in over 2 years, and unfortunately it has occasional display formatting issues on the iPhone 11 Max Pro.
I take my screenshots on the iOS simulator on my Macbook Pro. Then I frame them with this cool tool I found on ProductHunt called AppMockUp. (https://app-mockup.com/)
Thanks for the shout-out <3 (I made AppMockUp). Be sure to check out the latest beta at https://beta.app-mockup.com where there are loads of new features available.
I’ve been using Hack for awhile. Just looked and saw there is a bunch of option now in the App Store! Does yours, or is there one that collapses threads like the reddit app? So many times I upvote and star a post on Hack because that’s what the swipe does.
On Dark Hacker News you collapse threads by tapping anywhere on the comment you want to collapse and it will collapse that comment's thread. Let me know if you have any other questions!
About a month and a half ago, I decided to make Dark Hacker News a paid app at $1.99. I felt at this point it had enough features and I've never had a paid app on the app store so I decided to just go for it!
In the first month and a half as a paid app, its been able to generate $42 in sales! I've never made money off of an app I've built so its been awesome to see those sales come in.
At one point in June I even made it to #7 on the list of top paid news apps!!! (I'm not exactly sure how the app store algorithm works, but hey I'll take it) Up to this point I really haven't done any marketing so I'm considering getting the word out there to see how it would impact sales.
All in all, it's been awesome to make my first real dollars as an Indie Developer!
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