Road to $1k/Month App • Released a new app..

I spent the last week building and launching a new app called Expensif. Since I already have a production-grade habit tracker (Ritualz) up and running, building an expense tracker wasn't too much work.

I've also started using Claude Code and it's boosted my productivity tenfold at least. Now when I say it took a week, that's how long it took to build and release the app, but it's important to not overlook the fact that I've been coding apps for 5-10 years so at this point I have a lot of areas nailed down. For example, the app store submission process for iOS and Android can be an annoying process but I've experienced it many times so it's fine now.

RELEASING AN APP IN 1 WEEK

Here's how I went from idea to live app in 7 days:

Day 0 - Design & Plan

Before I even code, I get a good old pen and paper out and draw out the basic idea. You can always add more features in the future but this is version 1 of the app so I actually try to remove as much as possible while leaving the core idea in place. I spend a good amount of time thinking and planning what to build and then I write it down because it's much easier to build something when you're clear about what it is exactly that you're building.

Day 1 - Build the app

I used Flutter to code up the app so that I can release on both iOS and Android. I've also started using Claude Code properly and it's pretty insane. I'm currently using just the base $20 plan but I might even upgrade to the $100 max plan which sounds crazy expensive but when you compare it to how much a human developer costs, the $100 max plan doesn't sound so bad suddenly. I try to finish building out version 1 of the app with basic functionality before I sleep.

Day 2 - Test & Fix

I put the app on my phone and then I use it for a day. There's always going to be some problem to fix or a slight redesign that I feel is needed. So I fix the issues and improve it. Make sure the UI looks good and just try to complete the app in its basic form. We need to do everything we can tonight to prepare it for app store submission tomorrow.

Day 3 - Submit to App Store

Once you finalise building the app, submitting it to the app store is a process of its own. So I give myself a good day to prepare it for both iOS App Store and Google Play Store. You need to do a bunch of random stuff like prepare screenshots, icons, pick a name, etc.

Day 4 - Landing Page

I then go and buy the domain name that I like and set up a simple landing page which I make with basic HTML CSS code. Keep it minimal for now and just set up two buttons for each app store. Once I have the landing page ready to go, I can now share the link around to people.

Day 5 - Monetise

Once the app is live on both app stores no problem and working well, now it's time to monetise the app. Monetisation looks different depending on the app but my basic monetisation model is to include ads and subscriptions for premium features and make the app ad-free. I use RevenueCat for subscriptions and Google AdMob for ads.

Day 6 - Analytics Dashboard

You can release the app into the wild and have no idea what your users are doing. So I use Supabase to save some basic information and set up an analytics dashboard so that I can see a bird's eye view of the users and what they are doing. Data points such as how many expenses they added, last active time, iOS or Android, etc.

Day 7 - Release! Market!

Double check everything is working smoothly as expected. It'll never be perfect, but when you feel you are at some baseline level of functionality that users can use, then you should share it and get feedback as you continuously improve the app.

CURRENT PROGRESS

$13/month total (up from $8/month in Episode 0)

Revenue is slowly growing. The new Expensif app is still too fresh to have subscriptions, but Ritualz is picking up a few more paying users. Small progress, but it's moving in the right direction. The ads for free users are also growing.

FINAL THOUGHTS

👁️ As Building Gets Easier, Marketing Becomes More Important

As building gets easier, I think areas like marketing are starting to matter a lot more (It always mattered). Since anyone can build and ship apps quickly now, getting users to discover and download them is the real challenge. I created a social media account for each of my apps so that they are their own entity and can post content on X, Instagram, TikTok etc. Marketing is an area where I need to improve in general.

📱 Focusing on One App vs Multiple Apps

I've been thinking about the question of focusing all my energy on Ritualz vs releasing another app like Expensif. I do believe that devoting everything to one app will maximise its growth but at the same time releasing Expensif took only a week. Also it's already making more ad revenue than Ritualz. Especially with AI getting better, the execution of idea to product is getting quicker. If I'm being honest I'm actually also really dying to make a workout gym tracker. I'll stop there though haha I won't go further. I want the 3 apps to be my main for now: Habit Tracker, Expense Tracker, Workout Tracker. So hopefully by the next episode my workout tracker app is also live.

👨🏽‍💻 I Love Claude Code

I started using Claude Code properly in the terminal and dayumn.. It's mind blowing. If you actually understand code and use AI it's incredibly powerful. I don't know where this is all heading but in the meantime I'm going to leverage AI to build these apps and make money.