Earnings Report - March 2024
What apps I've made and how much money I've earned
The year so far
If I start this article with how much I earn from my apps, without context, it would just be some arbitrary number that doesn't really mean anything. You can't learn anything from just the number. The number doesn't show my journey, or how I'm achieving that number.
A number is also relative, to some it will be extremely low and what others earn in a single day. To other, is will be an aspirational figure of somewhere to head.
With that in mind, and with this being the fist earnings report, let's start where I started with iOS app development; 2023.
2023
App Released | Release Date | URL |
Pomodoro Timer | 2nd March 2023 | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pomodoro-free-tomato-timer/id6445844661 |
Sleep Sounds | 6th July 2023 | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/relaxing-sounds-pink-noise/id6450679902 |
Step Climbing Home Workout | 20th Oct 2023 | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ascend-stairs-home-workout/id6468963385 |
I first opened Xcode in late January of 2023 with the intention of learning a new skill in SwiftUI but also with the intent of one day publishing apps and making money. I didn't fall into this and I didn't start by accident. I wanted to make money with this, and it has taken way longer than expected, and way longer that it should have and would if I started again.
My mindset back then was that I was going to create one app, publish it to the App Store and start making money immediately. Needless to say, this wasn't the case.
As you can see from my sales chart above, I made less than $25 in my first three months. To say that this zapped my confidence and motivation would be an understatement. I spent a lot of time on these apps, the Step Climbing app in particular, so I felt like I was playing a losing game.
So I gave up. After publishing my last app in October, I decided to stop even looking at my sales and just stop with the iOS app development. It wasn't the get rich quick scheme I had hoped it to be.
I should say that I did no promotion on these apps other than on TwitterX, for the Step Climber app. This gained some traction but I realised that my followers weren't my target audience for the app, so it fell at the first hurdle. It's since done a bit better, which I will come to, but the key takeaway here was that I didn't market and didn't know how.
So that was it for 2023. Factoring in the fee to join the Apple Developer Program, I was at a financial loss. But the best was yet to come...
// Summary of 2023
Text("I can't do this so I'm giving up.")
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2024
This year has been a bit different so far. The main reason is that I’ve decided to get my shit together. I saw my best month of 2023 come in December, and to be honest this gave me a new lease of life with the app business.
I know I was meant for coding. I do it for a full-time job and I love it. When I didn't do it as a job, I did it as a hobby and loved it.
So, at the turn of the new year, I decided to go all-in with iOS app development and also other areas of my life like fitness, and self-growth. I won’t bore you with the other stuff, but let’s chat about what I did with the apps.
Micro-Apps
This year I would change approach. Instead of spending three months on one app to then fail at the marketing stage, I decided to make lots of small bets, lots of small attempts at wins. I decided to make tons of what I now call 'Micro-Apps'.
What is a micro app? Here is how I define it and my rules for the game in 2024. Feel free to copy, or adjust to your liking. A micro-app must:
Be small enough to build and ship within one week (not including ASO, screenshots and approval etc.)
Do one or two things really well, nothing more
Be well designed and simple, not rushed due to the timescale
I also decided to no longer shy away from pay-to-download apps, over subscriptions and in-app-purchases (IAPs). I've seen lots of apps do really well just from being upfront with one payment. I think a lot of people prefer this over hidden IAPs. This doesn't work for all models, but I decided to be open to it where the app is tiny and offers nothing more than the initial proposition, such as a widget application.
Overall, this was a better approach for me as I tend to get bored when spending a lot of time on an app, and I always get demotivated when I see it fail. This way, I can build and fail quickly, and before I realise it's failed, I've already built the next one.
Eventually I'll have a ton off app assets making me money or not.
One app per month in 2024
This is the goal and, so far, this has worked well for me with 5 apps being released already.
I'm still working on an app for March (cutting it fine!) but here are the apps I've released so far as of March.
App Released | Release Date | URL |
Calibre Wallpapers HD | 28th Jan 2024 | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/calibre-wallpapers-hd/id6476269206 |
Open Breathwork Meditation | 5h Feb 2024 | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/open-breathwork-meditation/id6477297453 |
Nature Wallpapers | 8th Feb 2024 | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/nature-wallpapers/id6477598422 |
Laws of Power: 48 Life Quotes | 20th Feb 2024 | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/laws-of-power-48-life-quotes/id6478054089 |
Vocabulary Daily Words | 27th Feb 2024 | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vocabulary-daily-words/id6478528574 |
As you can see, February was a busy month 😅
Now, some of these apps have done pretty much nothing. Take the breathwork app; since its launch it has had one IAP, of around $2.99 in revenue. Does this worry me? No, because it only took me a week and I moved on. But the Laws of Power app, that places the laws of power on your lockscreen widget, has done most of the revenue I've earned this year so far. And this is a one-off pay to download app. With micro-apps, just like regular apps, it's a numbers game. Only with micro-apps, the time to build your portfolio is way smaller, and the time to fail and find a winner is also much smaller.
Don't you love your apps?
Of course I do, I still make sure they are of good quality, I don't just release rubbish. I also don't give up on them. With all my apps, I constantly revisit to change up the ASO, run A/B tests with the app store images and paywalls etc. I keep shaking them up to see if I can breathe any more life into them. I do this between building new apps.
Earnings so far
With that out the way, let's look at my earnings for 2024 so far with this approach.
I've also earned $5.50 so far today as I write this (9th March 2024), so rounding up it's about $100. Almost double what I made all last year, in 2 months and one week. Not bad.
Is this life changing money? Of course not! But it's showing me that effort is directly linked to reward. If I can keep up this momentum, there's no reason I can't see some $100 months before the summer. Let's look at the monthly progress for January and February:
Month | Sales |
Jan | $19.99 |
Feb | $50.28 |
March (so far to 8th) | $24.47 |
As you can see, the trend is going upwards. If we round down to $20 for the first week of March, and keep up that momentum, I'll be ending at around $80.
This is why I can see myself hitting $100 months in the next few months. I just need to keep creating apps and checking in on the apps I've already released to tweak them where needed and run tests.
Again, this is not life changing money by any means, and thankfully I don't rely on my app earnings for anything other than extra pocket money at the moment, but I will be re-investing some of this into ads in order to try treat this like a real business.
Conclusion and what's next?
So that's the story so far. I am not rich. I am not supporting myself with this business.
But I know that if I continue like this, one day I will.
I also know that this model of micro-apps isn't for everyone. The more apps there are, the more maintenance there is. But this model suits me. I get distracted and bored way too easily, so this quick-iteration way of working is perfect for me. I can fail fast, and I can success fast and move on. I'm enjoying going back to the simple pay-to-download model that was all we once had. And it seems that others feel the same. I've also joined Apple's small business programme this month, so I expect my proceeds to also improve with less going to the big man.
// Summary of 2024 (so far...)
Text("I can actually do this, keep going.")
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Until next time
I'll be posting revenue updates each month, starting at the end of March with a complete picture of whether I hit that $80 goal or not. From here, these reports will be shorter as there will be less to fill you in on, but I'll include detail of what I did to earn any revenue I make and what I can pass on.
Thanks for reading 😊