Weekly Review 1

Hi, it’s Kuba - the creator of Bookie, Coffee Note, and Memorize. I’m an independent app developer for Apple platforms and have 6 apps on the App Store. I’ve been doing that for the last 3 years, and I finally made my way to writing a blog.

2024 was a ride, and after things got too bad on Twitter this summer, I desperately needed to find some other place to write. As of now, you can find me on either Threads, Blue Sky, and LinkedIn, all under @kubamilcarz. But the blog is more of a long form content—ideal for my life schedule. Schedule. What do I do exactly? Let’s talk about that.

I’m a software engineering master’s degree student, working as a Flutter developer, making a startup on a side, and being an independent developer. So the time I have is pretty limited to say the least. Even if that sounds like a lot, and may be a lot, there’s still plenty of things happening just in iOS development part. And the blog will focus solely on that. I’ll be putting out here my story as an indie developer, exact numbers, trends, and how I want to prepare for certain events. Like a diary of my exact thoughts and what influences me in a form of weekly reviews.

So, the numbers (according to App Figures): 200 subscriptions, $123.15 MRR (although in the past month it dropped from an all time high $158.66. I’ve been testing all sorts of methods, ads, but never actually delved into ASO that much. It changed 2 weeks ago when I bought Astro (https://tryastro.app/?aff=Zejye) (*affiliate) - a tool for ASO optimization - and focused on heavily. So far, I noticed real change across many markets I follow and optimize for. Higher popularity keywords are still far, but closer than ever before so it looks promising.

My main area of focus is definitely Bookie - my reading tracker app I published in December 2022 and is the product I’m most proud of. Secondly, Coffee Note - coffee journal, caffeine tracker, and a place for all home-made baristas. And thirdly, Memorize - SRS flashcard study app. I try to split my time on those projects 60-20-20, and I’m quite happy with the results. I’ll be posting more updates though starting next week.

Have a nice evening and a great Monday! See you next Sunday.

Kuba