February was intention. March was experience.

Last month, I could have said these three things with confidence: twitter is hard, App Store optimization (ASO) takes time, and I don't know shit about advertising.

There is a massive difference in intellectually knowing something and then actually experiencing it. This past month, I did all of those things. I experienced them.

I promised myself I'd do four things this month:

• Run ad campaigns for 1,000 Spanish Words
• Start to figure out App Store Optimization (ASO)
• Start tweeting regularly
• Start planning the next apps

I managed to execute on all of these things except twitter. Something in me deeply resists, even though another part of me says the distribution/reach potential is excellent.

Advertising

It didn't work out this go around. My knowledge base is still small. I ran some experiments but they were closer to a waste of money than a fruitful endeavor. There will be a day when I figure out advertising, but it hasn't happened yet. I've got a lot to learn, especially the basics and fundamental principles.

App Store Optimization

Requires a little work and a lot of patience. It's not necessarily something I can work on every day because I have to run experiments and see how they turn out over the course of weeks and months. I wouldn't call my experience a failure, more like the beginning of a longer process.

Twitter

Let's not get started on twitter. I don't like being on it. The feed sucks me in almost every time. I detest any app with a bottomless scroll.

Ok, so don't scroll, post. So what's my excuse? I don't like acting like an authority. I'd rather express curiosity and humility. The thing is, I am fairly convinced twitter has excellent potential for distribution. It's worth continuing to try to crack my own psychology to try using it productively while not totally draining myself consuming it.

FIRE Projection

I planned and built my next app called FIRE Projection. I shipped it in April so I'll have more to say in a few weeks in the April recap, but you can give it a look on the App Store or at fireprojection.io.

What's Next

I'm starting to get into a nice rhythm of ideating, designing, and building new apps. This time next month there'll be at least two more to share, maybe three. One of my goals for the year was to consolidate these separate skills into a more fluent behavior. It's starting to happen.

• Ship small apps rapidly. I've got 2 on the App Store now and will get 3 more on there no later than June 30.
• Run ASO experiments across all of them once I have a portfolio of 5.
• Diverse monetization strategy across them (freemium, pay once, subscription, etc).
• Each app will only be an MVP with future features promised. As I learn and gather user feedback, I intend to add on features to make each app more robust.
• My idea is that one or two will clearly become front runners and my time will naturally start to be spent on the more successful ones.
• I'm also banking on learning things I have no idea I need to learn. Basically identifying and covering my blind spots.

The more bets I make, the more chances I take, the greater my surface area for luck, the more I learn, and the more likely I figure out this make a living on the internet thing. That's my attitude this season.

By the Numbers

1,000 Spanish Words

• 18 downloads (+50% from Feb)
• $34.70 revenue (+107% from Feb)

I am fortunate not to need to make a living from this. I have a day job that pays me well that I enjoy. I have the luxury of taking the long view. If it takes me a year, that's amazingly fast. If it takes 2, that's still so fast. If it takes longer, so what? It'll work out exactly how it's meant to, and I'll figure it out at the pace that suits me.

Be back next month. Thanks for following along folks.