only 3.5% of apps in the App Store make $10k/month or more that's 63,000 apps i've also lost over $100k+ in necessary mistakes in business and most of those losses were avoidable
so if you CANNOT afford to lose thousands of dollars figuring this out on your own,
you can't afford to not read this
and after spending months studying what separates them from the other 96.5%,
no other business model makes sense to do
and if you're anything like me then you probably love to learn lessons the hard way
but here's the truth, that's going to SEVERELY slow you down
by 21 years old i had bought myself my 3rd Mercedes and moved into a 3 floor townhouse in Miami
Apps are different than everything else i attempted and i thank @ernestoSOFTWARE for opening my eyes
we did most of those other attempts at escaping the permanent underclass together
Apps are all build a certain way and marketed in 5 specific ways
The Marketing Hierarchy
Tier 0 = Low views Tier 1 = Views only Tier 2 = Views + Engagement Tier 3 = Views + Engagement + Downloads Tier 4 = Views + Engagement + Downloads + Conversions Tier 5 = Views + Engagement + Downloads + Conversions + Low churn
I'll explain this further down
success entire depends on you making significant quantity of the correct inputs
and the app idea ( this is EXTREMELY important )
1. THE APP IDEA YOU CHOOSE IS CRITICAL
yet most people actually submit the app and somehow it gets approved before they even realize that It's called B2C for a reason, it's business 2 consumer
but most people rarely think about the consumer at all
the highest chance of you actually succeeding comes down to the significance of the problem you are solving
I worked for Grant Cardone for a bit had cash collected $600k+ over the phone
there i learned this CRITICAL LESSON If the pain is deep enough, they will pay any price to alleviate that pain
don't try to build any other type of apps if have limited resources
go chase your dreams after your mom is taken care of not now
here's a few great painkiller app ideas:
- Quit Vaping - Looksmaxing - Weight loss - Relationship - Gym - Screen time addiction - Quit porn - Cheater buster
Stop pivoting and changing your app ideas every single week
Once you validate your app idea using tools like sensortower.com or the far better alternative https://www.appkittie.com?atp=gPVRiK
@jacobrodri_ and @tadasgedgaudas cooked so hard with this software
Use this to confirm your app idea has at least 2-3 other competitors making $10k/mo at the very least and check what the ceiling is ( highest MRR app )
completely validating has 1 more step:
how do they mainly market their app? this directly shows how those buyers typically purchase
here's a little example of what i mean @hhpriestess was a influencer and very comfortable on camera
she build an audience of 1.1 million followers on Instagram then she build an app tailored for them
her app "Stella" is at almost $300k/month not even 2 full months since launch
habit tracker apps are far easier to market
unlike @hhpriestess manifestation app which requires users to genuinely connect with the concept and leans heavily on her personal brand
a habit tracker sells itself visually, simply film a full day, have a few people check off their lists on camera
for this app niche UGC in massive volumes thrives and as you can expect faceless doesn't work well here
Examples below:
2. BUILD IN 7 DAYS MAX - NO AI SLOP
recently AppStore approval has gotten a bit stricter MVP1 can be simple but it cannot feel incomplete
So keep it simple and make changes afterwards as updates ( way easier to get approved )
Every app is divided into 3 core pieces
A. Onboarding B. Paywall C. App Loop
But before we get into those you'll need the tools to build
I've tried almost every single app builder
And after getting rinsed by cursor for my first app, i decided to make the switch
my search led me to Rork more specifically Rork Max
it was the first native SwiftUI app builder to exist
Now you can submit your app entirely from within the chat window
you can just use the prompt below "submit to the appstore via the App Store Connect CLI" and everything is handled for you completely automatically no other alternative this easy currently exists
But obviously before you can submit an app you need to build it
Think of Rork as your co-founder ( technically is ) you both need to be on the same page to execute this correctly
I recommend you take advantage of "plan mode" since it'll save you a lot of time and tokens later on
After you've planned out what you wanted to build and the approach you wanted to go with
Generate an Icon by pressing the "generate icon"
It created me this one of my FPS survival game "Project Survival"
Here's a preview of that actually:
I've made 15+ apps in the last 3 months and this is the exact step by step I used for all of them
Last time i posted those exact 5 steps on X it went a little VIRAL ( 200k views )
It is still the same process #1 -Find examples of winning apps in the niche you want to join
#2 - Screenshot the entire app's onboarding and app loop
#3 - Create a perfected prompt for Rork using Claude and specify you'll be building in SwiftUI using Opus 4.6
#4 - Send that prompt & screenshots over to Rork and let it cook
#5 - Tweak the app entirely to have it's own unique soul and taste ( this is extremely important )
*Don't just explain the changes but actually provide a visual example by attaching an image*
https://screensdesign.com/ is a great way to easily find out what is already working, the founder @screensdesign_ is extremely helpful and actually even offered to point me towards the most relevant stuff for my niche
the Appstore review team is ruthless and it won't forgive your AI slop or clones
so if the app looks like something only a mother could love then you'll be unprofitable
if you have any doubts, just post it on X or as me no sugar coating
The best part about making apps in 2026 is that vibecoding no longer means AI SLOP
there is zero reason your app should look vibecoded you simply didn't send enough prompts
You should always send image attachments and more detailed prompts to guarantee success in getting premium UI
You cannot be lazy here, it'll show at the first glance
UI can be a distribution strategy Don't sleep on it
winning the App Store Award is basically free money
Apple features you in:
→ App Store editorial → "Award Winners" section → search placement boost
Waterllama has been collecting organic downloads from that 2022 award for now 4 years straight
just build something beautiful enough that Apple does your marketing for you
Once you got your ski-mask on it's time for a heist TheOnboarding is 80% of the App
this is the single most important part of your app in most cases it's the final chance you get to convert someone
most people once they exit your app will never reconsider second chances so it is extremely important to build them an experience
these are 5 of the top onboarding structures in the app space they generating over $184,000,000/year together
your competition already spent thousands of hours and millions in testing out different onboarding flows and their data lead them here
so instead of starting from scratch use this as the skeleton
don't copy blindly because that won't work you need to understand the purpose of each screen and breakdown the structure
S/O to @ErnestoSOFTWARE for the image below, literally nothing better exist online
the example he used was his own app that actually made $20k in the first 30 days
if you're getting into Apps you should definitely follow him nobody shares as much sauce as that guy
After the onboarding is complete and optimize to convert
you need to attach a strong hard paywall backed by data
Copy the competitors pricing and don't forget to add a retention offer incase they decline the initial offer
you have to start by removing the limiting beliefs completely
most founders feel bad for charging their clients
your job is to create a product that solves a painful problem and doesn't look like AI SLOP
then they'll happily pay,
for certain app niches a mascot can be extremely beneficial and almost critical but not for every single app niche does
@jackfriks is a great example of executing a masco with his app lovelee
$10k+ in his first 30 days with a new app
Now as mentioned earlier submitting to the AppStore is ridiculously easy now
Rork Max does it for you now almost entirely including the AppStore Screenshots required by Apple for approval
At first i struggled to get these to look correctly launched however i learned the trick on getting them done perfectly
S/O to @maubaron for the screenshot inspiration
Succesful AppStore Screenshots
Rork made every single one of those screenshots above and it was extremely simple
you answer 3 questions regarding the style and selection of the screenshots
then you either accept or deny what the AI made and keep experimenting from there, sending prompts to make changes just like building the app itself
GETTING APPROVED ON THE APPSTORE
as mentioned earlier you can just send the prompt below ""submit to the AppStore via the App Store Connect CLI""
and it'll start and finish the entire process of submission almost entirely alone
If you get denied due to any reason just send the error to Rork and ti'll get resolved, you can also dm me for whatever reason and i can help
i've been playing around with that a lot lately
DON'T WAIT TILL THE APP IS APPROVED TO START ON MARKETING
start immediately replicating viral formats that have been working for the competition
right now is not the time to become 100% creative, give the algorithm what it likes.
here are a another set examples of the 5 core ways to market an app
Scale the winners even further with the use to paid ads META & TikTok
@athcanft just dropped a banger article on TikTok ads 1.1 Million views and @maubaron has one on Meta ads at 1.6 Million views
Back to the hierarchywhen it comes to successful marketing content
Tier 0 = Low views Tier 1 = Views only Tier 2 = Views + Engagement Tier 3 = Views + Engagement + Downloads Tier 4 = Views + Engagement + Downloads + Conversions Tier 5 = Views + Engagement + Downloads + Conversions + Low churn
Tier 0is just a bad video
Tier 1is an interesting hook but low substance
Tier 2 is content with no clear CTA, poor app demo
* don't get excited just based on engagement, you need to confirm if the engagement is actually converting*
EXAMPLE: Ernesto and I hired an influencer for our looksmaxing app and while he got 500k views and a ton of engagements, everyone was just roasting him so the video only made us around $400 because of that
Tier 3 is a video with a clear CTA that drives downloads. The creator did their job but if users drop off after that, the onboarding failed
Tier 4 is when everything clicks the content and onboarding did their job Views turn into engagement, engagement turns into downloads, downloads turn into paying users
Tier 5 is Tier 4 with one addition, Low churn means the app delivered on its promise
Understanding the hierarchy helps you break past the breakpoint you might be currently stuck at
if you still need a more in-depth breakdown with videos
@rork just released the TikTok Marketing Guide15 full chapters breaking it down all in the same website you build from The only app builder that is creating a complete ecosystem
not just charging you for token usage instead actually helping you monetize the app you built https://x.com/rork/status/2039764408025362862?s=20
The only cheatcode in life is having the correct information
but only actually applying will change your life
you can literally pick one a painkiller app idea then market it a few of the proven methods
you can even scale apps almost entire with AI UGC nowadays
at least that's exactly what i'm doing for 3 apps
→ Fitness App → Looksmaxing App → No contact tracker App
along with that i've also started founder-led content which has probably the most leverage out all marketing funnels
@cormachayden_ prints $300k/month with his app Oasis like that
I wanted to attach an image but i reached the limit for this article
but incase you're curious on how the founder-led content is going for me you can see below:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DV1DGp-DtZ2/?igsh=NjE1a2pvMjFjcXNh
THE FORMULA IS LITERALLY
1. Find a proven app in a growing niche
2. Build fast, design, onboarding, core feature
3. Rip the onboarding from top competitors and tailor
4. Launch with aggressive distribution then run ads on winning creatives
5. Sell the app or scale further with more volume of ads and creatives
if you have any questions at all please feel free to dm me, i genuinely want you to win and escape the permanent underclass.
Life becomes significantly better when you are in motion getting motion and at the same time solving problems
God has blessed me with an incredible circle and reach so if i don't know the best answer to any questions. I'll just ask some of the legends i mentioned on this article
Today is April 3rd, and we are 25% done with the year
Don't just bookmark this and go another day actionless
God created you to be so much more
