Hey Reader,

Apple featured Super Easy Timer on the front page of the Mac App Store.

3,158 downloads. $0 revenue.

That's on purpose.

What got me here?

Fixing all the papercuts in the original timer app and creating a better onboarding experience caught Apple's attention. That made them feature my app on the front Discover page and on the Work tab in the Mac App Store.

Over the past two months, I made huge improvements to the UI and unlocked the ability to use a timer on top of every single app, including full-screen apps (and Keynote presentations).

After I finished writing code, I still spent a ton of time working on keywords, app description, screenshot copy, screenshots, customer personas, and an App Preview video.

All of that packaging helps users discover and learn about my app. Let's dig into my onboarding and reviews because that's been the goal of this free series of updates. I want app reviews, not revenue, right now.

Onboarding

If you've been following along, you know I revamped my onboarding experience in my timer app. I teach people interactively how to use the app as they go through my onboarding.

In that first session, a user learns how to start and stop a timer.

At the end of onboarding, I ask users what features they're interested in and use that for the next learning phase.

Try This

A checklist pops up after the onboarding window closes and helps guide the users towards some of the features.

The titles and the subtext help guide the users to try a new feature.

Reviews

Since last month, I've gained almost 100 ratings, and my rating jumped up from 4.7 to 4.8 out of 5 stars. I highly recommend you copy this approach because it works.

I ask for a rating after users go through both the onboarding flow and the Try This checklist. I show a personalized message, which has been very effective.

The app prompts for a rating (1-5 stars) using Apple's built-in rating dialog.

On Mac, there is no way to leave a written Review this way. So in the menu bar, I have another option that takes users to the App Store to write a review using this URL format (use it in your app too).

For Mac apps, swap in your app ID, and it'll work for you too. Apple prefers that you use the Rating prompt, since it will show only a maximum of 3 times per user. Using this URL review is better in a menu or settings pages.

I'm not making money, and I probably could be at this point. But ratings boost the app in every market, and the app sales pages are translated into 46 languages.

This is an eight-year-old app.

I wanted this new UI for years. I could never pull together all the prototypes or get past the deprecated code. AI changed that — fast prototyping made it so much easier to figure out what the shape of this app should be.

What's next is monetization. I plan to charge for this. Everyone who bought the app for $5 or grabbed it during this free period is grandfathered in. New users will pay.

​Download it for free here.​

Crafting the pricing is next week's email.

Talk soon,
Paul Solt
Paul@SuperEasyApps.com

P.S. Working on an iOS/macOS app? I do 1:1 App Strategy Sessions.
​​​Book a time and let's talk about your app.​​

I had a great session this week about app marketing. How can you reach more customers? (Especially if you're already making money)

If you've ever wanted to grow your app but hit a plateau, this session might be the direction you need.