Software developer's guide to release a side project: Part 1 (iOS app) | Hacker News Reader

Software developer's guide to release a side project: Part 1 (iOS app)

db42.in

29 pointsindiepop126 comments

IMO: If you are finishing up a side project iOS / Android app, don't bother with a website. Just get it out of the door! Traffic doesn't drive itself to the website. If you drive traffic somewhere, you may as well drive it directly to the App Store.

There is no reason a quickly cobbled together website that has the same screenshots your App Store listing has will convert any better than the App Store.

Plus, the iTunes web page is pretty good at SEO and will probably turn up before your own page for relevant keywords.

In fact, the time you save by not building a Landing Page, you can invest into:

a) Writing a great description of your app. Also includes relevant keywords for your niche, you may want to use a keyword-research tool. https://searchman.com/ seems to be the best free tool atm(?).

b) Make sure your screenshots not only show meaningful data, but also clearly communicate why/what your app is useful for, e.g. how a problem is solved. Explainer texts can make it A LOT easier to communicate that. Shameless plug of a side project of myself: http://www.screenscott.com

c) When the app is live, make sure it gets downloaded and reviewed. Tip: Ask friends / family to download the app and give you feedback. If you get criticism -> Great, you'll know what to do next. If you get positive feedback -> Great, they've already written the review! Now you just need to ask them to post it in the App Store :-)

It's amazing how much non-programming work is required to get an application release-ready. Add to that list domain acquisition, email configuration, staging environments, legal documentation, status pages, error tracking, user and subscription management and feedback mechanisms.

Our startup is tackling this domain, and we'd love to hear more of these "petty issues" web and mobile apps need to resolve before shipping - we've found that, while seemingly minor, they present a huge hindrance to the launch of developer side projects.

The mastermind group I'm has collectively learned that "shipping is a skill", just like programming or UI design. As you've discovered, there's an awful lot of steps between building some software and actually getting it into people's hands.

Side projects for me are weekend projects. I toss them onto my personal site and watch it for a few months to see if it gets used and if I get any feedback. If it does, I'll polish it some more and try to do something with it.

But I'm not going to go make up branding, set up a new domain, and build a bunch of marketing when I don't even know if the project works for people or not.

So in my mind, Part 1 of releasing a side project is: Have a personal site with enough traffic to act as a testing ground for your ideas.

If your side project lingers on your personal site where nobody sees it, how would you ever know if people need what you're making? This is the typical "if I build it they'll come" pitfall.

You're basically talking about validating your idea before you spend any more time on it but if you truly care about validation, it's actually the opposite: you'll need to spend more time to validate your idea.

Your assumptions about my motivation are incorrect -- I need what I am making. That is why I make things. If other people also like it, then I turn it into something more. Sometimes.

It has built up into a little site with a few thousands users each month. Which I know is small potatoes to a lot of people, and doesn't hold a candle to my actual job. But it is plenty for me.

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