I'm going to share something that makes me squirm a bit. The actual numbers from my first year running Svift Studios. Not the curated, LinkedIn-friendly version. The real thing.
Total revenue from January 2025 to January 2026: $2,847.
That's it. That's the number. Divided by 12 months, that's $237/month. Divided by roughly 1,400 hours of work, that's about $2/hour.
Was it worth it? Complicated question. But let's get into the details first.
The Month-by-Month Breakdown
Here's what actually happened, month by month. I'm including context because bare numbers don't tell the story.
- January 2025: $0. Convert wasn't even on the App Store yet. Spent the month polishing and panicking.
- February 2025: $12. Launch month. 4 paying users. I celebrated like I'd won the lottery.
- March 2025: $18. The post-launch slump hit hard. Nobody was finding the app.
- April 2025: $17. Same story. Started questioning everything.
- May 2025: $89. First Reddit post got some traction. Brief dopamine spike.
- June 2025: $142. Added the free tier with subscription upsell. Game changer.
- July 2025: $168. Steady growth. Started to feel like maybe this could work.
- August 2025: $203. iOS 18 widget update drove downloads.
- September 2025: $247. Another Reddit post. This one actually planned.
- October 2025: $312. Best month yet. Currency alerts feature launched.
- November 2025: $489. Holiday bump? Or the compounding effect finally kicking in?
- December 2025: $641. Black Friday promo worked. Also: more currency volatility meant more downloads.
- January 2026: $509. Slight dip but still solid.
What Actually Worked
Looking back, a few things clearly moved the needle. Others were complete wastes of time.
The Free Tier Switch
This was the single biggest change. For the first 4 months, Convert was $4.99 upfront. Downloads were abysmal — maybe 5-10 per day on good days.
In June I switched to free with a "Convert Pro" subscription at $2.99/month or $19.99/year. Downloads jumped to 80-120 per day within a week. Conversion to Pro settled around 3-4%.
The math worked out way better. 100 downloads × 3.5% conversion × $20/year = $70 vs. 8 downloads × $5 = $40. Plus recurring revenue.
Reddit (When It Worked)
Two posts drove probably 40% of my total traffic. One on r/iphone about unit converter apps. One on r/digitalnomad about currency tracking. Neither was promotional — I just answered questions and mentioned Convert where relevant.
The posts I explicitly wrote to promote the app? Zero traction. Reddit can smell marketing from miles away.
Shipping Features Users Asked For
Every feature I shipped based on user emails performed well. Currency alerts, cooking units, the larger widgets. Every feature I shipped because I thought it was cool? Crickets.
What Completely Flopped
This list is longer. And more painful.
Product Hunt
I spent 3 weeks preparing for the Product Hunt launch. Custom graphics, animated demo videos, coordinated upvote timing with friends. Result: 47 upvotes, around 200 website visits, maybe 15 downloads.
Total time invested: probably 60 hours. Revenue generated: roughly $30.
Twitter/X
I posted build-in-public content for 6 months. Screenshots, progress updates, lessons learned. Grew to about 340 followers. Downloads from Twitter? I can attribute maybe 8 total.
The indie dev Twitter community is supportive and I made some genuine connections. But for actual user acquisition? Basically useless for a consumer app.
Press Outreach
I emailed 50+ journalists and bloggers. Personalized pitches. Follow-ups. The whole playbook from every "how to get press coverage" article I'd read.
Responses: 3 (all polite rejections). Coverage: 0. I don't blame them — a unit converter from an unknown studio isn't exactly news.
The Uncomfortable Lessons
A year in, here's what I actually learned. Some of this contradicts the standard indie dev advice.
Your First App Probably Won't Make Money
Convert is doing okay now. But if I'm being honest, the first 6 months were a rounding error. The experience I got building and shipping it was worth more than the revenue.
If you're building your first app expecting to quit your job in year one, recalibrate. It's possible. It's not probable.
Growth Isn't Linear
Look at those monthly numbers again. Months 1-4: $47 total. Months 8-12: $1,892. Same app, same market. The difference was compound effects — more reviews, better ASO ranking, more features, word of mouth starting to kick in.
If I'd quit at month 4, I would've concluded that indie apps don't work. The lesson: give it time. More time than feels comfortable.
Most Marketing Advice Is Written by Marketers, Not Developers
The tactics that actually worked for me — answering questions on Reddit, shipping features users requested, ASO optimization — weren't sexy. They didn't require a "content strategy" or a "brand voice."
The tactics that didn't work — Product Hunt, Twitter threads, press outreach — are the ones everyone writes about because they're interesting to write about. Survivorship bias is real.
Subscription Pricing Is Hard to Get Right
I changed my pricing 4 times. Started at $4.99 one-time. Then free with $3.99/month subscription. Then added a $29.99/year option. Then dropped yearly to $19.99.
The $19.99/year price point with a 3-day trial had the best conversion rate. But I only discovered that after months of testing. Don't set your price once and forget it.
Would I Do It Again?
Yes. But differently.
I'd spend less time on marketing theater (Product Hunt launches, Twitter presence) and more time on what actually moves apps: ASO, solving real problems, and being present where potential users already hang out.
I'd launch with a free tier from day one. The psychological barrier to paying $5 for an unknown app from an unknown developer is huge. Let people try it first.
And I'd be more patient with myself in those early months. The first few months of single-digit revenue aren't failure. They're the startup cost of building something real.
Year Two Goals
I'm targeting $12,000 in year two. That's $1,000/month, or roughly 4x my current run rate. Ambitious but not crazy.
The plan: ship Anchor (my ADHD focus app) in Q1, continue iterating on Convert, and keep doing the boring things that actually work.
I'll share another update in 12 months. Hopefully with better numbers. But even if not — I'll share anyway. The honest version.
