Despite this, I released improved onboarding and got 3 new trials, plus got tons of views on TT slideshows that led to an average of 15 installs a day, all from organic Was overall a challenging week but I would have been happy with this outcome 2 months ago, so important to keep perspective

Intense week at my 9-5, feels bad man. Mobile app is plateauing. Getting views on slideshows but no conversions. Only beacon in the night is an upcoming scan-your-bookshelf feature that could go viral with TikTok books girls if I post it right

Almost 50K views on a viral slideshow but no conversions. I show Aleph on the last slide, didn’t want to come off as too forced. Clearly have to mention it sooner next time or find a useful way to tie it into the slideshow content

Very excited about this new app store collateral. There's a chance they'll reject me because I'm using book covers, but it's worth the risk IMO

Milestone: no more 0s in revenuecat. The free trials are coming in. Lots of romance novels. Let’s go lads

New high mark for installs and a new free trial yesterday: annual, not cancelled yet 🙇‍♂️

Did not do well, got 1/10th the views of yesterday’s post, but I think I know why: the successful slideshows haven’t been task-focused, they’ve just shown cool book covers. This one was maybe a bit condescending and preachy.

Best day yet, thanks in part to @frederickjames’s post on App Store search ads and the ridiculous nature of TT slideshows Only had one trial start, and that user cancelled renewal, but I’m still really happy with the progress

Posting a TT slideshow with slightly more aggressive marketing: a how-to style list of steps to becoming a better reader, with Aleph's features shown twice throughout. No mention of the app itself, and no direct links (only because TikTok doesn't allow 😇)

New onboarding design I'm working on. Instead of listing app features (which is how it works in prod now), Aleph's new onboarding helps the user create a reading goal they can get become about Steps: 1. asks how many books they've read recently 2. asks what form of books they prefer 3. asks what they're reading now 4. encourages them to set a daily goal 5. sign in 6. paywall

Best day yet yesterday. Not sure whether the installs came from the TT slideshows or my App Store Search Ads. I have a new release in review that adds RevenueCat and PostHog, so once that’s out it’ll be easier to track where users are coming from.

It is genuinely crazy that you can start a TikTok account from scratch and just start posting slideshows to thousands of people

My tenth release since launching Aleph, my first iOS app, is in review now. Good time to assess things: 💵 Revenue: $45 (2 monthly subs, 1 annual) - Late August: Start posting on this profile with 5 followers. Build Aleph in a few days - Sep 8: Launch Aleph - Sep 12: Go to Russia for two weeks on Sept 13, stay offline whole time - Get 3 users! - Sep 26: Back in the US, go back to work but still ship and tweet constantly - Early Oct: Visits plateau, realize nothing is happening or will happen without drastic measures - Around Oct 5: Start posting TikToks into the void - Oct 10: Start posting slideshows, get tons of views - Mid-Oct: Installs begin again but no new conversions - Oct 13: Set up App Store Ads, add GoodReads import, add revenuecat and posthog - Oct 14: Understand that marketing is as technical as building

Took @topphamilia'a advice and started building out SEO and AEO-friendly pages on readaleph.com. Thanks mate! More to do here but duty called on all fronts today (kids and real job)

We’re so back So ends a quiet spell of almost 2 weeks

Trying to market my reading app on TikTok 💅 Stylized book slideshows are getting likes and bookmarks despite these posts being 100% organic and the account very small. Going all in on these, just need to grow the views and subtly work my app in

🚨 Do (almost) everything you need with App Store Connect straight from the CLI I created an MCP to guide me through the entire build, upload, review, launch, iterate process with Apple and it makes it 10x faster straight out of the box Currently testing it on a new app I want to build: a relaxed, conversational language tutor using GPT-Live So far it got the app fully ready for upload and test flight in under 5 minutes. It opened the hard-to-find App Store API setup page and guided me through the process, so everything can run from the CLI I will release this next week if it keeps working so well

Hitting a wall on distribution for Aleph, my reading app So far I've tried... 1. Artsy, atmospheric clips of people in libraries: gets random likes. Nothing really communicated, just pure vibes 2. AI UGC: one randomly went viral, but the app looked like shit at the time so I didn't know how to continue 3. Self-narrated POVs: I promoted these, so no idea how they do organically. But overall higher effort 4. Lists of books in slideshows and Claude-generated video presentations The biggest signals: a well made AI UGC clip can go viral. However, even high viewer count doesn't guarantee installs, because none have converted well My next step: do AI UGC and book lists, and selectively promote the better performing ones