[JOURNEY] Building iOS Apps 5000$/month MRR

obik69 said:

Lots of doubts lately

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shut 'em up

One thing I’d watch with this model is not getting stuck building 10 half-dead apps just because shipping feels productive. I did similar with small utility sites before, and the boring part was always the same... one got traction only after I killed the others for a bit and kept pushing angles on the winner. TT can bring installs fast, yeah, but if day 1/day 7 retention is crap then subscriptions won’t save it. Maybe set a hard rule like 2 weeks traffic test per app, then either improve hook/onboarding or dump it. Your dev side is probably not the bottleneck here, the creatives and offer will be.

Bulk managing 20 iphones for TT/IG reposts sounds great on paper but watch the account churn... reposting same-ish content across a phone farm gets reach throttled fast, especially IG. I burned through a bunch of accounts last year doing exactly that before I realized the algo was just quietly capping the dupes. What helped was treating each phone like its own "creator" with slightly different hooks/captions instead of true 1:1 reposts. More work but the accounts actually survived.

@Nexora550 point on retention is the real one though. You can have the smoothest reposting setup in the world but if d7 is trash you're just buying yourself dead installs. Honestly with your dev background I'd spend an afternoon wiring up proper event tracking before you even ship the first app, so you're not guessing why something flopped.

8GB mac mini for swift builds is gonna hurt sooner than you think btw. Not unusable just... expect xcode to fight you.

Nexora550 said:

One thing I’d watch with this model is not getting stuck building 10 half-dead apps just because shipping feels productive. I did similar with small utility sites before, and the boring part was always the same... one got traction only after I killed the others for a bit and kept pushing angles on the winner. TT can bring installs fast, yeah, but if day 1/day 7 retention is crap then subscriptions won’t save it. Maybe set a hard rule like 2 weeks traffic test per app, then either improve hook/onboarding or dump it. Your dev side is probably not the bottleneck here, the creatives and offer will be.

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Yea I have same feeling. I just wanna deliver to client SaaS of apple devices (wanna hit 60-80 devices per 1 PC) - I almost finished container and building site for rent up for him. Once I finish it wanna deliver app and build own small TT farm 5-10 devices and use it to promo.

The WP Nerd said:

Bulk managing 20 iphones for TT/IG reposts sounds great on paper but watch the account churn... reposting same-ish content across a phone farm gets reach throttled fast, especially IG. I burned through a bunch of accounts last year doing exactly that before I realized the algo was just quietly capping the dupes. What helped was treating each phone like its own "creator" with slightly different hooks/captions instead of true 1:1 reposts. More work but the accounts actually survived.

@Nexora550 point on retention is the real one though. You can have the smoothest reposting setup in the world but if d7 is trash you're just buying yourself dead installs. Honestly with your dev background I'd spend an afternoon wiring up proper event tracking before you even ship the first app, so you're not guessing why something flopped.

8GB mac mini for swift builds is gonna hurt sooner than you think btw. Not unusable just... expect xcode to fight you.

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Yea, I know this, will fix make videos unique somehow (bought remuxe repurposer, will test it) if wont work will make AI bulk slides generation.

- I need deliver 1 app (just to understand process - make first steps - loop with improve)
- Create few angles to interest someone to install app and see how it goes (just to understand process - make first steps - loop with improve)
- Setup 10 iphones x 5 accs + warmup 7 days + 3vids/slides a day x 1000 views each x 14 days = 2.1m views (if this wont bring any buying customers means app sucks or need change angle) (just to understand process - make first steps - loop with improve)

Few days ago I was depressed and scaried to build farm for client, its too hard bla bla bla, but after 3-5 days struggle I found solutions, just by doing, they appear by doing, by researching (just needed stop thinking it takes too long, its too hard) but when u move forward everyday means u progressing, thats huge impact for me.

lucky.sparks said:

shut 'em up

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exactly 3 words I used and I almost deliver first version of SaaS for client in next 7days, then security/stability/scaling to more devices. Explained above

ActiveRevenue said:

this is the kind of transition that makes sense — moving from short-term tactics into something you can actually keep. small subscription apps can be powerful if you find the right pain point, but the hard part is not development alone. it's distribution, retention, and finding users who actually care enough to pay. the weekly structure is smart. with a 24-month target, consistency will matter more than any single app idea.

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Can we ban bots or people that use AI in their replies? If you can’t THINK for yourself to even reply to a forum post something is wrong with you.

hey mate, just keep working and keep it up. there is no overnight success.

$5k mrr is definitely possible and you can pull this off within one month if you do it right.

build high converting apps, make sure everything is in place and fully functional, top notch quality, then focus on distribution. you are just one viral video away from making it happen.

darkblitzrc said:

Can we ban bots or people that use AI in their replies? If you can’t THINK for yourself to even reply to a forum post something is wrong with you.

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I don't even care about stuff like this imo ^^

nakamura said:

hey mate, just keep working and keep it up. there is no overnight success.

$5k mrr is definitely possible and you can pull this off within one month if you do it right.

build high converting apps, make sure everything is in place and fully functional, top notch quality, then focus on distribution. you are just one viral video away from making it happen.

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I'm ready for this, I try not think about money right now, as I focus on learning curve and proper setup on ios farm, as we all know this game is about traffic (10/10 app without proper traffic won't make a dime, and I track competitors with trash gui, design, has like 9k downloads month) so definitely there is a space to make something better then competition.

I build this JV and track it weekly with claude as I push on myself pression, that I don't want to fail in front of public, we will see after 24months what progress I've made.

Yesterday I figured out that I build very general app (first one I was talking from beginning), then realised what if I do this general shit => to niched shit (and found out same functionality but more niched and usefull for people) - now this have sense in my head, that building something niched and usefull (atleast in my mind - and terms of marketing, what can be sold)

Sorry for messy answer and my english

obik69 said:

I don't even care about stuff like this imo ^^

I'm ready for this, I try not think about money right now, as I focus on learning curve and proper setup on ios farm, as we all know this game is about traffic (10/10 app without proper traffic won't make a dime, and I track competitors with trash gui, design, has like 9k downloads month) so definitely there is a space to make something better then competition.

I build this JV and track it weekly with claude as I push on myself pression, that I don't want to fail in front of public, we will see after 24months what progress I've made.

Yesterday I figured out that I build very general app (first one I was talking from beginning), then realised what if I do this general shit => to niched shit (and found out same functionality but more niched and usefull for people) - now this have sense in my head, that building something niched and usefull (atleast in my mind - and terms of marketing, what can be sold)

Sorry for messy answer and my english

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no worries, keep going. when you notice one niche or app doesnt bring any return, just move on to the next one. just dont stop.

This sounds much more sustainable than constantly chasing loopholes. With your development background, the technical side is probably the easy part. The real challenge will be distribution and finding app ideas people will actually pay for.

I like that you've set a realistic 24-month timeline. Looking forward to seeing what happens when consistent execution meets 14 years of experience. Good luck on the journey!

@obik69 going from general to niched is definitely the move. Cold traffic from tiktok doesn't buy general utility apps unless it solves a very specific, painful problem they can relate to in 3 seconds.

Since you are building that Appium manager, just be careful with the automation footprints. Tiktok reads device telemetry like crazy now. If those iphones are performing the exact same swipe and upload patterns at the same intervals, they'll shadowban the whole batch. I ran a small setup with 8 physical devices last year and had to introduce random micro-delays and offset coordinates on every tap just to keep the accounts alive.

Also, remuxing is getting harder. If the pixels are 95% the same, the algorithm still catches the duplicate. Sometimes just changing the background or adding a random 0.1 second crop works better than standard repurposers.

Good luck with the M1 mini, xcode is going to swap that SSD to death lol. Keep updating this.

I like that you want to move out of blackhat. I have been intersted in blackhat for past few months as a side project.
But the more I get into it, the more I notice that the amount of time/money some people spend to try and make blackhat profitable is insane.

It seems to me that if they invested those resources in a regular business, they would succeed and create something that has a bigger potential to work long-term.
I finished one blackhat oriented product, and looking back at the time spent on it...

malopaolo said:

This sounds much more sustainable than constantly chasing loopholes. With your development background, the technical side is probably the easy part. The real challenge will be distribution and finding app ideas people will actually pay for.

I like that you've set a realistic 24-month timeline. Looking forward to seeing what happens when consistent execution meets 14 years of experience. Good luck on the journey!

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The hardest part for me is design (prepare animations, design - frontend), backend and functionalisties of app is the easiest part with claude nowadays. So I still see huge issue with generating something like character for app in diffrenct scenes, so I decided I use 2D just to deliver app, and then maybe hire someone to build me graphics.

SMM Junction said:

@obik69 going from general to niched is definitely the move. Cold traffic from tiktok doesn't buy general utility apps unless it solves a very specific, painful problem they can relate to in 3 seconds.

Since you are building that Appium manager, just be careful with the automation footprints. Tiktok reads device telemetry like crazy now. If those iphones are performing the exact same swipe and upload patterns at the same intervals, they'll shadowban the whole batch. I ran a small setup with 8 physical devices last year and had to introduce random micro-delays and offset coordinates on every tap just to keep the accounts alive.

Also, remuxing is getting harder. If the pixels are 95% the same, the algorithm still catches the duplicate. Sometimes just changing the background or adding a random 0.1 second crop works better than standard repurposers.

Good luck with the M1 mini, xcode is going to swap that SSD to death lol. Keep updating this.

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Yea, I know its only their weapon to fight with automation, due to iphone sandbox, but Im concerned about limits of appium/wda as most apps easy handle depth of UI tree snapshot, sadly tiktok works on 15/60 when u go above session expire, hang, freeze etc, and with 15 dept u dont see much elements, but for me little scatchy. So i think just for tiktok I will switch to other solution of HID mouse/keyboard emulation, and OCR automation. But Im far a way to start marketing yet.

apiguy said:

I like that you want to move out of blackhat. I have been intersted in blackhat for past few months as a side project.
But the more I get into it, the more I notice that the amount of time/money some people spend to try and make blackhat profitable is insane.

It seems to me that if they invested those resources in a regular business, they would succeed and create something that has a bigger potential to work long-term.
I finished one blackhat oriented product, and looking back at the time spent on it...

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Even with this, I will stay with blackhat, just to have cheap traffic (to not spend much $$$ for ads), so I think blackhat methods stay with me for long, but I run away from blackhat products/affiliations, because when u promote BH method with BH product , you fight with algo/reports and so on. Its way harder. If you dont master ASO + Paid traffic, there is no other way to promo this apps then bh methods

Closing week 24, opening week 25.

## Week 24
Spent the week getting a new app off the ground — mostly groundwork:
- structured the whole thing — how it's laid out and how every screen should look,
- built the welcome page,
- got the basic shell of the app in.

Still on the fence about user registration / accounts. It'd be useful, but it's a real chunk of extra work, so I haven't committed to it yet.
The actual logic is next week's job.

## Current blockers
Time's the bottleneck.

## Week 25 plan
- Build out the app logic.
- Decide the registration question.
- Keep reading, a chapter a day.

## Coming weeks
Finish the app + the backend. Once the backend's actually there I'll sort the money side: how the paywall looks and how I charge — trial/full paid from the start, or a free core with the extras behind a paywall/trial. Not deciding until the backend exists.

## Reading
*$100M Leads* by Alex Hormozi — still stuck at 48 pages, didn't get to it this week.

See you next Sunday

obik69 said:

Closing week 24, opening week 25.

## Week 24
Spent the week getting a new app off the ground — mostly groundwork:
- structured the whole thing — how it's laid out and how every screen should look,
- built the welcome page,
- got the basic shell of the app in.

Still on the fence about user registration / accounts. It'd be useful, but it's a real chunk of extra work, so I haven't committed to it yet.
The actual logic is next week's job.

## Current blockers
Time's the bottleneck.

## Week 25 plan
- Build out the app logic.
- Decide the registration question.
- Keep reading, a chapter a day.

## Coming weeks
Finish the app + the backend. Once the backend's actually there I'll sort the money side: how the paywall looks and how I charge — trial/full paid from the start, or a free core with the extras behind a paywall/trial. Not deciding until the backend exists.

## Reading
*$100M Leads* by Alex Hormozi — still stuck at 48 pages, didn't get to it this week.

See you next Sunday

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Good luck but Alex is more or less another sales course seller. There are much better books to read but better then reading is focusing on your app.

Also it's taking you way too long to make app. live that way i would rather hire. So you save on time.

Good luck!

Loveoverenvy said:

Good luck but Alex is more or less another sales course seller. There are much better books to read but better then reading is focusing on your app.

Also it's taking you way too long to make app. live that way i would rather hire. So you save on time.

Good luck!

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Drop the names here
Yea I know hes course seller and I feel it when reading the book, kind of (I will teach u, but upsells in book). But it has some value more or less.

Closing week 25, opening week 26.
Lots moving this week — some real progress, a lot of doubt.

## Week 25
- Shipped a big update to the app.
- Started working on localization — getting it ready for more languages.
- Did the ASO homework: dug up keywords for different countries to target.
- Spent some money to get serious about it:
- an App Store keyword-tracking tool Astro— $130,
- the Apple Developer account — $99,
- bought my girlfriend an iPhone 14 (280$), and in return I get her iPhone 11 to finally test on a real device. Catch: only in about a week, once she's moved her stuff over.
Still grinding on polish and honestly nothing's lining up. The big one: as soon as I add an extra language, the GUI text breaks — stuff overflows and misaligns. Annoying.

## Current blockers
- **Localization layout.** Text doesn't fit / shifts around once a second language is in. Needs proper handling.
- **No real device yet.** The iPhone 11 is coming, but not for another week.
- **Payment model undecided.** Still don't know how to split it — see below.

## Week 26 plan
- Fix the localization layout so text holds up across languages.
- Figure out the payment model.
- Lean toward shipping: get it stable and bug-free, then iterate.

## What's on my mind
Plenty of doubt this week — whether this whole thing even works out. Everything's dragging, and trying to make it *perfect* is honestly bigger than me right now. That's the trap I keep falling into.
Still stuck on payments: free vs paid, and where to draw the line. I keep reading competitor reviews where people rage that *everything* is behind a paywall and slap them with 1/5 stars. Don't want to be that app.
Maybe the move is just: screw perfect. Ship it once it works and doesn't crash, then keep updating. We'll see.

See you next Sunday

did not know there was an ASO tool! but when i saw it was yearly i was like meh!
I mean is there no other way to actually pin point ASO? did you try help from claude etc?

Edit: After little google, i found free tools that does same as astro actually, on github....not sure if its same quality as urs, but ill try

Delontekoq said:

did not know there was an ASO tool! but when i saw it was yearly i was like meh!
I mean is there no other way to actually pin point ASO? did you try help from claude etc?

Edit: After little google, i found free tools that does same as astro actually, on github....not sure if its same quality as urs, but ill try

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I think if u calculate it 130$ + 99$ cost /12 months = 19$ month (costs u wont notice), can handle it per year with full time job (just more painful as u pay upfront for whole year)

But honestly this tool is okay, but u kinda need it for 1 week, u find keywords and push app (maybe later for tracking for what u rank).

why did you choose iphone not android for phone farm?

also regarding ASO, I switched from Astro to AppSprint ASO, founder has nice videos on youtube. Every time when release a new app I get 3 days free trial and cancel it

Closing weeks 26–27, opening week 28.

First — sorry for going quiet, I skipped the last update. Time's flying and I just kept my head down building. So this one's two weeks rolled into one.

## Weeks 26–27
- Poured a ton into the app. Polished it hard and shipped a bunch of new features — a proper tracking, media import (camera + files), richer notifications, cost tracking, plus loads of small UX fixes and a QA pass.
- Got localization done properly — hundreds of strings, plural rules, the whole thing. This is what was breaking my layout before, so that blocker's basically handled now.
- Did a big research pass too and locked in two niche directions to go after — one fun/viral, one more utility.

## Where things stand
Honestly? Close. The core is there and it's solid. Next up is wiring in the paywalls, and I really think that within the next two weeks the app should actually be live in the store.

## Next up (weeks 28–29)
- Add the paywalls / finish the monetization side.
- Get it store-ready and submit.
- Then flip the switch to marketing — start pushing TikTok / IG content.

## What's on my mind
Still fighting the urge to make everything perfect, but for once the finish line's actually in view. Once it's live the real game starts — distribution. That's the part I need to get uncomfortable with and just post.

See you next Sunday