When I told people I was building a tool that turns blog posts into videos, most of them laughed.

"Who needs that? Just hit record," one friend said.

But I kept noticing the same thing: writers pouring hours into brilliant posts that only a few hundred people ever read.

So I built Blog2Video anyway, late nights after client work, one rendering bug at a time.

The first version was clunky, and the first demo crashed halfway through.

Then a finance writer tried it, and his week-old article became a polished video in minutes.

He shared it, his audience grew, and he told two other writers about it.

They told their friends, and suddenly I had paying customers who had never heard of me.

A few months later I checked the dashboard: $10,000 in revenue from the idea people laughed at.

Link: https://blog2video.app

So the sotry starts like this... I've been building apps while working a 9-5 job, the amount of time I've spent on them compared to the money I've made is pretty depressing lol....

I actually enjoy building things. That's never been the problem

The problem is I keep finishing apps and then realizinggggg I have absolutely no idea how to get people to use them

So I started questioning how I was choosing ideas in the first place

Instead of trying to come up with the next big thing, I spent some time looking through existing apps. Mostly checking which ones had a decent number of ratings, what people were complaining about, and whether I could realistically build something better.

And somehow I ended up making a satellite dish alignment app 💀!

Yeah. Satellite dishes... I know it sounds ridiculous, especially when everyone seems to be building AI apps

But here's what caught my attention!!!

Some of these satellite finder apps have thousands of ratings. And when I started reading the negative reviews, people were complaining about things like inaccurate compass directions, confusing interfaces, and not being able to see the screen properly outside

One thing I found interesting is that a phone compass can be thrown off by nearby metal. Which is pretty unfortunate when you're literally trying to align a giant metal dish

So I built SatAlign around making the process simpler and being more careful about when the compass readings can actually be trusted

Nothing revolutionary. Just trying to make an existing tool less frustrating.

I'm not going to pretend this is some successful business yet. I haven't figured out distribution, and I have no idea whether this particular approach will work.

That's actually why I'm posting

I can build apps. I can spend weeks polishing tiny details nobody might even notice. But getting the first actual paying customers? Still figuring that part outAnd it's an awkward niche too. I can't exactly imagine satellite dish alignment going viral on TikTok lol

Has anyone here built a boring, extremely niche utility app that actually made money?

I'm especially curious how you found your first users without spending a fortune on ads

The funny thing is, this boring little app actually started making some money. Nothing life-changing, but seeing someone pay for something I built was pretty motivating

Now I'm trying to figure out how to reach more people in such a weird niche

Anyone here had success with boring utility apps? How did you find your first customers?

I have built a macOS app(CleanCache) which can clean various cache, log, big, old files. Also for developers I added extra features like clean AI local model, VM image, gradle cache, derived data clean etc.
It is completely free now. For this app, which approach is good to monetise?

Nola — a note-first expense tracker with an Apple Notes-inspired feel and optional AI that turns plain-language spending notes into expense entries.

Right now I'm working on iOS app, but I don't have an Apple Developer Account

Beta link: nolapp.vercel.app (use mobile phone)

Hi! I created a website and I want to promote it on tik tok but idk what i’m doing wrong. I did publish a lot of tik tok and it never blow up. Does someone has tips to helps me please?

small team (AVIL LAB). same idea, two stores, very different results. real numbers:

android:

- around 20k new users a month

- most from nigeria, india, bangladesh. revenue per user is tiny, around $0.012

- money comes from admob + a few subs

ios:

- around 150 new users a month

- china was the #1 source at some point, no idea why

- 8 active subscribers, about $39 a month

what we think the difference is:

- on google play the store search sends traffic for temp mail type words even to small apps. on app store we are not in top 150 for most words

- android users in our countries dont pay, but they come. ios users pay, but they dont find us

- our ios paid ads cost $1.52 per install, android google ads cost us 2-20 cents

so for ios we focus on ASO first (subtitle, screenshots), ads later.

anyone else with the same app on both stores, is your split also this extreme?

I am working on a simple web app that lists all the requirements you need to start a business. The requirements are categorized into legal, equipment, software, documents, branding resources and operating expenses. It also lists inventory/stock for businesses that need it.

Each requirement has recommended products with actual prices that you can use to build a custom startup cost estimate by adding only the products you need to a cost calculator.

Check it out at hustlecare.net/us , If you have any feedback, I will greatly appreciate it.

Let's be honest. Most technical founders make amazing products, but hate marketing, ad creative testing, and optimizing acquisition funnels.
You spend weeks shipping code, fixing bugs, and improving UI, while user acquisition stays completely flat because marketing is a full-time game on its own.
I am looking to fix that for you.
I am a young French acquisition and growth partner. My English is not native or perfect, but my execution, dedication, and obsession for scaling are unmatched.
This is important: I have zero capital to invest. I bring my time, skills, and sweat equity. If we run paid ads, your project needs to have an existing budget or strong organic momentum we can scale together.
The deal is simple:
You focus entirely on the product, code, and tech.
I take complete ownership of 100 percent of the acquisition (creatives, funnels, data testing, scaling).
I am not looking for a fixed salary or a traditional job. I am looking for a real, high-impact partnership with a founder who wants to win.
If your product performs behind the scenes but nobody knows about it, shoot me a DM with your project details and current metrics. Let's see if we click.

I'm not looking to sell my app, but I was wondering if anyone else has received a similar email? I been in the app business for less than a year so I’m a bit green 😂

Someone can spend ten minutes writing a note and then tap Back by accident. The database is fine; their work is still gone.

For forms in my apps, I want a deliberate choice: keep a draft, discard it, or return to editing. A draft also needs to be clearly labelled so it doesn't look like a saved record.

Working solo, it's tempting to count only completed saves. The half-written entry deserves a place in the design too.

spent some time on market research lately and pulled ~62K mobile apps (iOS and Android, just what shows up on the charts, not my apps) that made a top chart at some point and checked how many clear $1K a month in store revenue, split by how old the app is.

under 1 year: 9.2%
1-3 years: 20.7%
3-6 years: 23.1%
6+ years: 20.4%

the big jump is right after year one. after that it's basically flat. being old doesn't help on its own.

my read: a lot of mobile apps that "failed" at month 6 didn't fail, they just weren't done yet. rankings want months of retention and ratings before they push you, and your first users are the ones who find what's broken.

the flat part is interesting too. a 7 year old app isn't more likely to earn than a 3 year old one. the old apps still making money are the ones that kept shipping updates.

caveats so nobody has to post them: store revenue only, ad money isn't in here. the under 1 year group includes apps that launched last week, so it's a harsh number. and revenue is modeled, so trust the shape more than any single %.

how long did you give your last app before you moved on?

The STT sometimes waited 2+ s to decide a sentence had ended. Turns now end on 300 ms of quiet audio plus a transcript that has stopped changing

Hey everyone! I built CareerFlow, a free job application tracker designed for students and job seekers who want to keep their job search organized.

It lets you track applications, interviews, offers, rejections, and follow-ups, as well as organize your resumes in one place.

🔗 https://jobpath-pilot.lovable.app

I'm looking for people who are currently applying for jobs or internships to try it out.

I'd love to know:

- Would you use something like this instead of a spreadsheet?

- What's one feature that would make it more useful to you?

Honest feedback is appreciated. Thanks!

Hi all. I’m an indie iOS developer. I’m good with the code, but I want to get better at the business side.

I’m looking for courses or other good resources about:

• Growth and user acquisition
• Revenue: subscriptions, paywalls, pricing
• Marketing: App Store Optimization (ASO), social media, paid ads
• Retention and analytics

So far, I found the free RevenueCat courses. I'm looking for more resources at that level.

My questions:

1. Which courses, paid or free, helped you the most?
2. Which newsletters, podcasts, blogs, or YouTube channels do you follow?
3. Are there communities where people share real numbers and experiments?
4. What would you skip as a waste of time or money?

Thanks!

if you hired someone to build your app, check this stuff while everyone is still friendly. the source code should be in a repo you own, not theirs. the apple developer and google play accounts should be under your name and your business, because moving an app between accounts later can be a pain. same for the domain, the hosting or cloud account, the database, the email sending service and any api keys, you should be able to log in to every one of them yourself and not through them.

the easiest test is to ask yourself if you could hand the whole thing to a different developer tomorrow with only what you have in hand. if the answer is no then something is sitting in their account. also ask for a short doc on how its set up and where everything lives, even half a page helps.

and do it before the final payment, not after, because thats when you actually have the leverage to get it fixed.

i build apps and sites for work and this is the thing i wish more founders knew, feel free to message me or ask in the comments if youre trying to figure out where yours stands

Whether you're traveling or just tracking everyday spending, receipts can be surprisingly frustrating. Some are hard to read, some are in another language, some use a different currency, and a week later you can't even remember where you bought something.

I've been building an expense tracker called ExpenseEasy to solve exactly that. In the latest version, you simply snap a photo of a receipt and the app reads it, translates the line items, converts the total to your home currency using the current exchange rate, and pins the store on a map using the address printed on the receipt. No GPS required, so it works even if you scan the receipt later at your hotel or when you get home.

It also supports more than 160 currencies with offline exchange rates, automatically tags expenses to trips, and can generate a shareable trip expense report when you're done.

No bank login. No ads. Your data stays on your device.

I’m currently promoting my motivation app through two TikTok accounts, posting around 2 times a day on each.
Some of my previous posts reached 5K–47K views, but lately a lot of my content struggles to get past 200–800 views, even though I’m using similar formats.
I’ve been experimenting with different hooks, images, and slideshow styles.
Has anyone experienced something similar? What helped you get your views growing consistently again?
I’d appreciate any advice from people who’ve used TikTok to market their apps.

So I am planning to sell my Android app- audio and video ai noise reducer. This app helps user to remove noise from the audio and video. The app has two modes - local processing and cloud processing. Local processing is completely free (as supported) and cloud processing is paid.

Even though the app has more than 100 purchases for cloud processing yet my infra cost is zero(I'll reveal full architecture once the deal is finalised).

It has already more than 4000+ users, admob monetization enabled.

What's included - full source code , existing Google Play app transfer to your eligible developer account, app branding and assets that I own

Hey everyone 👋

I’m an indie iOS developer from India. My app PDF Scanner: Scan & Edit just crossed 1,000 ratings with a 4.1★ average on the App Store.

It lets you scan documents, edit PDFs and share them easily. It’s built with Swift and SwiftUI.

I’m improving it based on user feedback, and I’d love your suggestions too!

📲 App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6761626831

Thanks for the support! 🙏

Would love your feedback on how to improve my App.

Just released Cashfield: Spending Tracker to Play Store for Android!
Still waiting for Apple to review to go live there as well
Trying to market it now with ugc style videos to get more traffic and more feedback since I give 7 days free trial

Please let me know your thoughts if you tried it out or if you have some ideas on marketing side. Appreciate it !

How do you guys market to your audience either through ads or organically what worked for you guys and roughly how much time and money went into it?

I'm currently a college student applying for internships, and one thing that kept annoying me was trying to reImember where I'd applied.

Some applications were through LinkedIn, others through Indeed, Workday, or company websites.

Then I'd completely forget which ones I needed to follow up on.

So I built Avenor Apply.

It's a simple web app where you can track applications, organize interview stages, save application links, and keep track of follow-ups.

I'm not trying to build some massive AI platform. I just wanted something simple that actually solves this problem.

It's free to use, and I'd genuinely appreciate feedback from anyone currently job hunting.

Would love to know what features you'd want in something like this.