Don't shoot at random

This is the July monthly update about my Build In Public journey with Drinklytics.

I think that at the beginning of a project, you must do things that don’t scale.

You can’t just shoot at random and hope to find people eager to install your app. I say that to reinforce it for myself.

Of course I also tried to shoot at random. 🙃

🚧 Progress

I worked a lot on this project during the last month, just to list it out:

• completely refreshed the app page on Google Play
• made new screenshots made with preview.app
• refreshed content with some keywords
• UI/UX redesign. Now the design of the screens is aligned to each other, some elements have been moved to create a better (I think, I hope) experience
• I asked for feedback on a UI/UX subreddit 🫣 and they demolished the design.
  They are right, now it's just a boring and simple one, I am going to rethink everything. As a non-designer I don't know how good I'll be at this, but I'll try
• I did ASO (App Store Optimization)
• added schreenshots (better if with keywords inside them)
• got some good reviews from the testers
• made sure there were no crashes
• I am working on my social presence. These are the socials where I am actively sharing the project, one way or another:
• Linkedin
• BlueSky (because Twitter sucks now)
• Reddit

I am not receiving waves of traffic or installs due to my social activity, but I am creating real connections with people and that's still a success.

Also, having never been a social media person, I'm studying the best ways to use them without losing my tone.

📅 Next

• The app is still not ranking on the Store; I have seen it rank for unimportant keys for a day or two and then disappear. I think I need to optimize the content of the listing more.
  I could give it a boost using ads, but mine is a zero-budget project, so, I pass
• I am trying to build some backlinks for the app page, because it seems they have a weight for ranking, even inside the Store 🤔
• I must do 1-to-1, cold DMs to people who might be interested, to find my niche.

📈 Numbers and goals

I have set a goal: to reach 1000 active installations in six months, or to round up, by the end of 2025.

From Google: an active device is defined as one that has been turned on at least once in the past 30 days.

This means that every month I should reach 167 new active installations.

Currently, after one month of activity, I have reached 20 active devices, so:

• monthly goal met: 12%
• H2 goal met: 2%

I have work to do.