Indie Support Weeks in the Apple Developer Community | Hacker News Reader

Indie Support Weeks in the Apple Developer Community

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45 pointsjamil724 comments

I absolutely hate to be that guy who links his own work, but I have seen my sales flatline in the past week and it's lead to me driving the price down of my app to the point where i'm thinking of just making it free for the exposure.

Please, if you could download, share & rate my app - If you'd like to try the app without paying, email me at adam@adamfallon.com and I will send you a promo code!

My app is a clever spin on a note taking app that gives you 7 workspaces, and your notes sync over iCloud to macOS, iPadOS & iOS. Think of it as Post-It notes for your Apple devices.

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/nitronotes/id1502080216

Edit: An update with search and keyboard Shortcuts for iPad & macOS is currently in review with Apple. In the meantime if you've any feature requests you can send them through the app :)

I had a look at your app and maybe I'm missing it, but I can't really see what it offers over using just notes? Notes is a distraction-free editor, it syncs out of the box and it comes preinstalled on all devices. You don't have to use folders but when you need to, you can, you can use sync from different services (iCloud, Google, Exchange, etc), you can draw in notes, add pictures, and I'm sure there's more. All of this is not to put down your application, I think it looks neat — the point is more so that at the moment I can't see what it offers over what's already available by default. If you want to reach more buyers, it might be a good idea to make your value proposition clearer.

First impressions:

1. Screenshots don't show much worth the price. Yes, I know this is unfair, but screenshots which show the true value proposition really matter. I don't get this here.

2. I can already do this with Notes.app.

3. With editing features that make Notes more of a datastore than just plain ol' text, the app could be interesting .. like, a JSON or XML editor overlay, maybe .. hmm ..

> "With editing features that make Notes more of a datastore than just plain ol' text, the app could be interesting .. like, a JSON or XML editor overlay, maybe .. hmm .."

Could you expand on that a little? Do you mean keyboard buttons to insert patterns common when writing in those languages?

I think what the GP means is exporting the data to various formats. Maybe saving your content to iCloud Docs could be an easy win? I do something similar with an app of mine.

I've added this feature in the pending update actually :)

Well, you've already got a macro interface, so yeah - some kind of inline editor for JSON records I paste to my Notes could be quite useful .. and would help differentiate in a way that isn't "Just more Notes" functionality ..

Hey thanks for the feedback.

I'd start by saying that I am no way positioning this as an alternative to notes - we are aiming for two different things.

This app is aiming to be the scrap of paper beside your computer you scribble on during the day. Notes is the A4 Binder that can hold everything, but you need to dig to get at it.

The navigational simplicity replicates that - I can fly taking notes with this.

That said, I think if you use notes the way I did, to jot stuff in during the day i'll compare;

So the main frustration I have with using notes across devices is the inconsistent (and especially on iOS) the tap-tap-tap style of navigation to drill down from Folders > Sub Folder > Note.

I hated not having search to hand in Notes on iOS either - with my pending update (in review with Apple) you swipe from top to bottom (or hit Cmd + Shift + F on keyboard) and you get full text search over your 7 dots.

Hopefully some of that gets at your questions RE: Value prop.

Your app seems really similar to Tot by Iconfactory:

https://blog.iconfactory.com/2020/02/meet-tot-your-tiny-text...

That could be the reason you're seeing sales drop?

Nothing new under the sun

Tot is a clone of FiveNotes: https://www.apptorium.com/fivenotes

And Looks to be heavily inspired by QuickNotes too: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/quick-notes/id1260480179?mt=12

I messaged John on Twitter after he reached out to his followers about Indie apps. Happy to see my app has made the list!

For anyone wondering, it's called Snipline (https://snipline.io). It has very few users, but the people that do use it tend to reach out to me and it's really nice to see the value that they get out of it.

Dude, Snipline looks _awesome_. This would be mega useful for me, and pretty much everyone on my team.

The only thing holding me back from committing is the recurring subscription... $9/yr isn't really a lot, but I'm always hesitant to sign up for recurring things because of the likely chance I stop using it but forget the subscription. I much prefer Alfred/Dash style pricing, where I pay approximately once per year for a new "version". Two questions to that point:

1. Are you open to letting people pay once, without setting up a subscription? More of a year-long license model?

2. Do you have any infrastructure setup for teams? I could much easier justify putting this on my AMEX and allowing my entire team access.

Apple does a good job of alerting you when a subscription is about to renew and you can cancel the subscription but continue using the service before the subscription term ends.

But this isn't an iOS app...

Silly me, I'd assumed it came through the Mac App store.

Thanks!

I decided on a subscription to help support the server costs and continue development. I do appreciate that not everyone likes subscriptions and I think that has hindered traction somewhat.

I send out automated emails a week before renewals to remind people about the subscription, and of course I'm happy to refund anyone that mistakenly rolls over.

> 1. Are you open to letting people pay once, without setting up a subscription? More of a year-long license model?

I'd love to do this but both my infrastucture and payment system aren't really set up to do so. I'm more likely to do a limited run one time cost (Pay once and access forever), but I haven't fully decided on that yet.

> 2. Do you have any infrastructure setup for teams? I could much easier justify putting this on my AMEX and allowing my entire team access.

Not currently but I do have some ideas in the works. Either sharing snippets between users, or a public directory where the community can share useful snippets. A team subscription also does sound like a good idea, I'll mull it over :).

For now, since it's all synced to the server, your team could all log in with the same account and share access. Not ideal, but it is a work-around!

Yeah, the team sharing stuff (kinda like 1Password vaults) would make this an absolute buy for my team. I manage a technical support team, and we have a _ton_ of CLI commands that we toss around. Part of onboarding is giving people a giant `.bash_aliases` file and a knowledge base article they can read to understand them all. Having that native and searchable would be amazing.

Either way, I've submitted this for a security review (I work at a BigCo, so red tape...). We'll see!

It's very odd for me to conciliate that you work on a big enough company to have red tape and that you are worried about accidental renew of nine dollars per year.

Do you think a one-time license with the price of $1,000 would be an easier sell within your company?

Hah. The $9 license fee is something I worry about _personally_.

If I can put this on my AMEX (which is where the red tape comes in), it's a no-brainer. It's an even bigger no-brainer if my team finds it interesting and I can do `$9 * TEAM_SIZE`.

> Yeah, the team sharing stuff (kinda like 1Password vaults) would make this an absolute buy for my team

I admit it would be useful on my team too, I'll have a think about the best way to implement it.

>Either way, I've submitted this for a security review

I appreciate it, thanks!

This site would be way easier to consume if it had some category/description listed for each item. The names are often not descriptive enough to understand, and I can't possibly click into each app.

I don't see either Tuck or iClip listed... I'll reach out to the developer[0] and let him know he should get in on this.

Tuck is REALLY fantastic. Really recommend it, and iClip is one of the many remember-all-your-clipboard things... can't imagine working without one.

[0] https://www.irradiatedsoftware.com

I think the sentiment is good, but... IMO this list isn't very easy to read - especially as more entries will be added. I think you need at least a couple of screenshots, a paragraph of what the app is all about and preferably some sort of category to group them.

Can we make an android version?

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