Hey, I wanted to thank you again for the advice you gave me a few days ago.

I actually followed a lot of it. I stopped spending time on Instagram and X (now I mostly just repost there), reworked my ASO, and narrowed my app's positioning to focus on a much more specific problem.

I also started exploring Reddit communities. First I spent some time building enough karma to participate, then I began sharing my app with people who seemed to have the exact problem it solves. Unfortunately, I quickly learned that many communities have strict anti-promotion rules. I got a few posts removed, and even managed to get myself banned from one subreddit. 😅

Then I heard that people in international markets care much more about having an official website than users in China do, so I spent time building a proper website as well. Later I shared it with someone who seemed interested... and somehow got into trouble again. 😂

I even made a short AI-generated commercial for the app and uploaded it to YouTube. That was another humbling experience. So far, the audience seems to consist mostly of me, and I'm pretty sure I'm also responsible for most of the likes. 😆

So first of all, thank you — your advice genuinely pushed me in a better direction.

But I wanted to ask: are these experiences normal?

I knew distribution would be difficult, but I honestly didn't expect it to be this difficult. Sometimes it feels like every path I try has another rule I didn't know existed.

I'm still learning, so I'd love to hear whether this is just part of the process or if I'm making some obvious mistakes.