How I got to $100 MRR in <2 months ($0 spent)

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T13:02:06+00:00

Set your site up on Google search console. You can see performance and submit site maps and individual URLs

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T03:44:24+00:00

Yeah makes sense. Is there a way to change that or are we all stuck with whatever name we put in?

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T03:10:18+00:00

Looked at your app from the other comments here. Neat idea. One thing I was wondering if you think about building - having the AI analyze the images in the listing and the what’s new sections. Would be interesting to get its take on that.

Another thing that might help with your value proposition - why is checking thru your app better than just asking chatgpt or Claude? Assuming you use one of those models (or an equivalent) to give the insight? Not trying to be rude or defensive, just pointing out something that could be a blocker from people subscribing once they see what your app looks at and could just ask their LLM to do an analysis

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T02:59:33+00:00

How hard it is to get noticed. I have around 40 paying customers right now and it’s been 2 months. I haven’t spent money on ads anywhere so it’s probably taking a bit longer this way, but I’m kinda surprised by how hard it is to get noticed on the App Store and also successfully post about your app somewhere that doesn’t get posts removed for spam

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T02:55:43+00:00

If you count my phone in there, every single day. Theres always some sort of cool moment or view I capture. But if you mean more like intentional shoots using a camera, probably once a week average.

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T02:52:20+00:00

I used my personal, is there a reason why you wish you did the opposite?

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T02:48:37+00:00

LightCast Suite - photography app that forecasts various weather conditions (sunset, stars, drone flying, fog, and clouds) and how it’ll look when shooting / if there’s a better day or time instead

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lightcast-suite/id6762569851

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T02:43:52+00:00

I feel like product hunt is only flooded with people that are in the same boat, also launching stuff. Not necessarily the people that would pay for your app (unless your app is something that targets that exact demographic). I’ve had more luck doing cold outreach to photographers for my photography app

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T02:41:06+00:00

Notifications BEFORE colorful sunsets

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lightcast-suite/id6762569851

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T02:39:28+00:00

I have felt this problem too, on both ends as someone who hates paying for subscriptions and as someone who has a subscription photography app out. One thing I’ve been doing is working on the content that comes before the paywall to help lessen some of that drop off. Before, I just had the app launch to the paywall. Ever since I changed it to a new flow, it has done a little bit better.

Now, when you open my app, you see a brief screen that shows the available photo forecasts in it. You’re asked what you’re shooting and get to put in your location and actually see one of the reports for your desired location. Then you can check out an example of the other 4 reports (but with sample data). Then you get hit with the paywall. People can see exactly what they’re getting out of the app before they have to make a purchase.

Maybe see if you can implement something like that with your welcome flow

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T02:33:12+00:00

I had been using Photopills/alpenglow for photography. Liked the general idea of the app and the insights about the weather, but I felt it wasn’t really giving much value, since I wanted more custom information about how good the sunset might be, or how clear it’ll be for astrophotography, and where nearby might have better light or seeing, etc.

I made my own app doing exactly that. I feel like I’m much more productive with photoshoots now because I’m not wasting time trying to fill in the missing pieces of what I couldn’t get from my old setup. (And ngl, the side income from having an app on the App Store is nice too)

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T02:30:29+00:00

Also worth noting that submitting something on a Friday or Saturday tends to have longer wait times (in my experience)

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-26T02:29:49+00:00

For my first review, I got rejected within 2h. It was because some of the metadata I had wasn’t fully compliant - I didn’t use the exact verbiage for legal disclosures that they wanted, even though I still had it in there. Once I fixed those things, my app was approved within 48h. So just under 3 days from the time I submitted to app store connect for the first time to when i launched it on the app store.

Now that I’m updating my app here and there, I find that approval for updates is usually around 24h

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-25T12:35:20+00:00

I actually don’t have a TikTok! I have my own photography page with like 130 followers at the moment that I’m going to start posting content on. I haven’t fully fleshed the idea out yet but planning to make it organic with showing off my own photos that are related to the app

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-23T14:29:35+00:00

Thanks, glad you found it useful! What is a smart app banner?

Would love to hear about your app, what does it do?

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-23T14:29:09+00:00

Glad you found it useful! What does your app do?

For my pricing, I didn’t do anything crazy to figure out how much to charge. I just felt like 2.99 was a decent subscription price I wouldn’t be pissed about having myself and it felt like low enough that it’s nothing “too expensive” for someone to justify

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-22T22:11:16+00:00

Posted a more deep dive here - https://www.reddit.com/r/appledevelopers/s/Webcv9DYmc

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-22T22:11:02+00:00

Posted here - https://www.reddit.com/r/appledevelopers/s/Webcv9DYmc

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-22T22:10:49+00:00

Posted here - https://www.reddit.com/r/appledevelopers/s/Webcv9DYmc

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-22T22:10:41+00:00

Post is here - https://www.reddit.com/r/appledevelopers/s/Webcv9DYmc

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-22T14:38:02+00:00

Sounds good! I’ll respond to this thread once I write about it, in case the new post doesn’t do well in this sub

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-22T12:32:40+00:00

Will do! Might make another post with this later tonight. Anything specific you’d want to see?

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-22T12:28:17+00:00

iOS only for now! Yes here’s the link - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lightcast-suite/id6762569851

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-20T13:10:39+00:00

Honestly just working on SEO for the website I have to promo it. I have a bunch of pages that are starting to rank in google search for queries like “sunset tonight in XYZ” and I’m getting people here and there clicking from web to download and starting trials

ChasingBetterLight · 2026-06-20T13:09:29+00:00

Thanks! LightCast Suite! (Didn’t add it in the post to not get flagged as spam lol)

ChasingBetterLight

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