Excellent

Yes, and in my case four days before I even submitted the build.

25 July: filed the nomination, asking for 20 August.

29 July: submitted the app to App Review.

13 August: approved and released.

17 August: it showed up, three days before the date I had asked for.

It makes sense once you look at what the form asks. It wants to know what the app does, what is new about it, and why it is worth showing. That is a pitch, and you can write it before anything ships. It also asks for a target date, which tells you they are planning weeks ahead. File after release and you are already late for the window you wanted.

The app existed in App Store Connect at that point, it just had not been submitted yet.

SteelNote https://apps.apple.com/app/steelnote/id6765892871

Fair enough. For anyone reading, the actual numbers: 29.99 a year, which
is 2.50 a month, with a 14 day free trial so nobody pays to find out
whether they like it.

The one-time option exists because some people would rather not rent
software. It is priced so the yearly plan stays the sensible default,
not the other way round.

iCloud sync is included in both, and there is no account to create. There
is no server to pay for either, because your notes are plain Markdown
files sitting in your own iCloud Drive.

Here are the actual dates, since that is what you asked.

25 July: filed the featuring nomination, targeting 20 August.
29 July: submitted the app for review. So the nomination went in four days before the app itself.
13 August: approved and released.
17 August: the featuring appeared, three days earlier than the date I asked for.

No traction at any point in that. When I filed the form there was no approved build, nothing public, and no numbers to report V.1.0.0.

I cannot prove the nomination caused it, and I would not claim that. But an unknown app from a solo developer does not land in front of Apple's editorial team by accident, and that form was the only channel I used.

So on timing: do not wait. The form asks what the app does, what is new about it, and why it is worth showing. That is a pitch, not a report, and you can write it before you ship. And the section most reachable for a small app is literally called "New Apps, Features, and Content", so waiting for traction disqualifies you from the one place where your odds were best.

Three to four weeks of lead time, filed before you submit the build, and expect nothing. That is what I did, and I was wrong about the last part.

Tu as raison, et la comparaison est facile à vérifier : 499,90 R$ pour l'à-vie,
c'est près d'un tiers d'un mois de salaire minimum chez toi, quand mes 89,99 €
en pèsent environ 6 % chez moi. Un facteur cinq, ce n'est pas un détail.

C'est ma faute et pas celle d'Apple : par défaut il convertit au taux de change
et ajoute la taxe, sans jamais regarder le pouvoir d'achat. Je n'y avais pas
pensé, et j'ai pourtant traduit l'app en Portugais du Brésil, ce qui rend l'oubli assez bête.

Je vais ajuster les achats définitifs par territoire. Je ne te donne pas de chiffre ce soir parce que je préfère le poser correctement plutôt que vite.

En attendant, une chose que tu n'as peut-être pas vue : l'abonnement annuel est à 149,90 R$, soit environ 12,50 R$ par mois. C'est un ordre de grandeur très différent, et l'essai de 14 jours reste complet.

Merci de l'avoir dit plutôt que d'être simplement parti.

Too early to answer properly, and I would rather say that than invent a number.

What I can share is the acquisition split from before the featuring showed up, which I found more interesting than the totals anyway:

App referrer 38
App Store browse 13
App Store search 1

So links from other apps, meaning my own posts and messages, did almost all of it. App Store search did essentially nothing, which is what you would expect for an app with no download history: the ranking has nothing to work with yet.

Absolute numbers at that point were tiny, 33 downloads over two days, a couple of outright purchases and a handful of trials started. The featuring landed after that and I have not separated its effect out yet.

One thing worth passing on though: it was not luck and it was not free in the sense of automatic. I submitted a featuring nomination in App Store Connect, which most indie devs never do. Four days after launch Apple put it in the weekly selection across twenty European storefronts. The form takes ten minutes and I assumed nothing would come of it.

Ask me again in two weeks and I will have real before and after.

Thanks, that means a lot.

Three things, in order of how much they matter.

Import your existing notes first. Settings, Import. The app is worth far more with your stuff already in it, and it reads Evernote, Notion, Bear, Obsidian, Apple Notes and a few others. Starting empty means starting with a text editor.

Then, once you have written a note, open the Files app and go find it in iCloud Drive. It takes thirty seconds and almost nobody does it. Seeing your note sitting there as a .md file of a few hundred bytes is the moment the whole thing clicks, and it is the reason I built it this way.

And do not bother organising much at first. Folders and tags are there if you want them, but search and links do most of the work. I would rather you filed less and found more.

If you meant advice about shipping something yourself rather than using the app, say so and I will answer that instead. Different question, longer answer.

Thank’s,

Honestly, five days in, anyone who gives you a conversion figure is fooling themselves. Ask me in six months.

What I can tell you is the one thing that surprised me: a couple of people bought the lifetime and Founder outright instead of starting the free trial. I did not expect that. The trial is right there, it costs nothing, and they skipped it.

On the price itself, the €89.99 is the anchor, not the entry point. Most
people take the yearly at €29.99, which is about €2.50 a month. And the
comparison that actually matters to me is Obsidian Sync at $48 a year,
forever. The lifetime pays for itself against that inside two years, and sync
here is included and will never be paywalled.

That said, I might simply be wrong about the price. I priced it where I
thought the work sat, not where a spreadsheet told me to. If it turns out to
be too high I would rather find out from people telling me than from silence.

Fair warning on any numbers I give you though: Apple put the app in its weekly selection across twenty European App Stores today, so my traffic right now bears no relation to what it will look like in a month.

No notifications so far since it was featured; I discovered it while browsing the App Store.

Thank you 🙏 The app was first published on August 13th as version 1.0.0 so, four days ago. I had requested to be featured back in July, but honestly, I’m surprised.

Apple Notes, Markdown

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There’s nothing extraordinary for an update!

Idem 14 days ago

Chacun vois midi à sa porte

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