
I Made My First Sale and Made It to #7 on the App Store - murph37
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dark-hacker-news/id1459946382
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murph37
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!

~~~
magicnubs
> 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?

~~~
Someone
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)

~~~
murph37
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.

~~~
Someone
It isn’t in the top 50 in paid news apps (checked iPhone and iPad)

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murph37
That's interesting. It's back down to #11 for me now. So it seems then like it
is personalized to user to some extent.

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geoah
That’s amazing work, do keep it up.

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.

~~~
tonyedgecombe
It's only $2.

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caseyf7
Agreed. The price is fine. I think the sinister looking icon will be a bigger
barrier than the price.

~~~
murph37
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!

~~~
caseyf7
Otherwise, it’s amazing. Exactly what I was looking for and the folders are
something I didn’t know I needed but love.

~~~
murph37
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!

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AaronNewcomer
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.

~~~
murph37
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!

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hilti
Great work! I'm going to buy it.

~~~
murph37
Awesome! Thank you so much for the support!

~~~
fraXis
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.

~~~
murph37
Thank you for the support!

That's one of the reasons I really wanted to make it a paid app so I had more
of an incentive to support it long term and keep it updated.

If there's any suggestions you have or features you'd like to see added just
let me know. Enjoy!

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oavu
How did you do screenshots?

~~~
murph37
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/](https://app-mockup.com/))

~~~
halfmatthalfcat
Wow, this is great! Thanks for the link.

~~~
murph37
No problem!

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bobobob420
Great work mate!

~~~
murph37
Thank you! It was definitely a fun one to build and learn React Native along
the way.

