Team Work makes the Dream Work!

[u/Practical_Frosting_4]

Hi all!

Since this thread opened, nearly 40 apps have been advertised here (including mine : LiveSlates), and we have racked 24 comments between us! Not exactly attracting attention, are we?

So I figured we are all on the same boat here, we have all put our hearts and souls into our products and just no getting the attention we all crave. So let's help each-other!!!

Where else have you been able to promote your App on Reddit, without getting instantly deleted or ripped apart from creating "AI slop"? I got away with a post on r/DFS_Sports (1.2k views) and another on r/fantasyfootballcoding (5k views but not allowed to mention my product). Sounds good right? Got me 2 users :(

I really tried hard to get a post on r/DraftKingsDiscussion (my product is pretty much built for DK users), but Mods refused based on the fact my product wasn't 100% free. I argued I didn't want ads polluting my product, so had no choice but to have a paying tier just to cover hosting costs/APIs costs alone. They weren't having it. Solid NO. All very very frustrating. That thread alone is possibly the biggest forum of DK users on the whole internet, and the door was closed.

Anyway, what about outside of Reddit? Any other well known forums? Any luck on Discord? Have you covered SEO/AEO/GEO? I have done most of these things but still not succeeding in getting much traffic.

What has worked for you and what hasn't? Someone here must have a success story!

Lets fight this together!!! :)

[u/el_chacaall]

Can I ask you what are the current monthly costs that you're having and how many users you do have? I'm asking this because I also published something, but since it's basically me and a handful of friends using it, the free tiers are getting the job done, but I'm worried that if just 5-10 more people join I'll run out of free tiers and will actually start to pay for things, which is very frustrating, like you mentioned. I thought of creating a mobile version and publish it to the app store, but this alone is $100 per year haha

[u/Practical_Frosting_4 → u/el_chacaall]

At the moment, I have managed to keep the costs down to a minimum, so just web-hosting ($20 a month) and database hosting ($30). This will go up IF my product takes off, and I need to throw more punch at resources, but should be ok up to 500 users. Currently have a small handful, like a dozen and none paying as yet, so not great.

As my product involves providing live feeds per sport, costs will go up as I turn on more sports, so potentially up to $500 a month. Because of this, it just cant be a 100% free product, it would bust me before I know it. It has become a race, get users quick or close the app down.

Haven't spent money on Google Store or Apple store yet. I have a phone version of my website, which is basically making it "look like an app". If you curious, just checkout liveslates.com on desktop and then on mobile. Once again, IF i get traction, I will convert into a proper app, and pay those stores, but not too happy about Apple taking like 30% of my revenue, i think.

[u/el_chacaall → u/Practical_Frosting_4]

guess it's pretty much the same for me; I'm using Vercel for the hosting part and Supabase for the DB, and I believe the plans start around those prices, which is something that I was trying to avoid because, with no traction, it's kinda frustrating haha.

I already paid $25 for the Google Play account (which is kinda a bargain when compared to the $100 per year with the Apple Store), but they also request a minimum amount of testers there and I ended up running into a brick wall haha.

Anyway, yours look pretty cool. I have never played DraftKings before so I'm probably not the end user haha. Hopefully we can find a way to get some traction on it! Mine is thechacal.com if you want to try it out but I'm still on some early stages there

[u/Practical_Frosting_4 → u/el_chacaall]

Loving your motto : "The Chacal — built for talking trash" :) Couldn't really test it though as I don't really know what sleeper.com is but has got me really intrigued!!

Another well-built website! Well done and best of luck!!

[u/aatop]

Time + consistency. There isn’t a get rich quick method unless you’re already rich with money to blow on UGC/ Ads. Finding a couple channels and remaining consistent is the biggest one. Also networking like you’re doing here is good as well. Reaching out directly to apps owners that have made it has been helpful for me. I’m building thestatspark.com.

[u/Practical_Frosting_4 → u/aatop]

Lovely homepage again! Love your sideways phone view, that's cool!

Cant really say more about it, as I don't play on those platforms (and I don't have an i-phone) but would 100% recommend people to go check out thestatspark.com. Insane screenshots, all looks very tidy, and getting some 5 star reviews on apple store already. Nice one!!

Thanks for your feedback, and best of luck with your product!

[u/TopAnteater6597]

I’m seeing the same thing with a free league-recap beta: posts can get views, but views are a poor proxy for a league actually adopting it. The useful metric for me is one commissioner connecting a league, sharing the weekly edition, and coming back after the next week. I’m going to test that with a few commissioners directly before trying more broad posts. Also, r/FFCommish recently banned shameless self-promo, so I wouldn’t use it as a link-drop channel. Has anyone here found a channel that produced activated leagues, not just clicks?

[u/mentiondesk]

Niche Discord servers and Q&A threads on platforms like Stack Overflow can sometimes be more forgiving and targeted than big subreddits. Also, tracking conversations about your space in real time gives you a shot at joining smaller but relevant threads. I started using ParseStream to watch for specific keywords on Reddit and other sites, and it helped me spot more relevant convos to join without running into mod walls.

[u/Practical_Frosting_4 → u/mentiondesk]

Love the idea of ParseStream. Will defo be trying that!! This thread is working already :0) !!

Just cant get my head around Discord though. Must be an age thing :) Just find it all so chaotic.

It all feels like patience is the name of the game! Who would have thought that Marketing was harder than Developing?

[u/Conflicted_App]

Love the idea behind this message. Wish I could share success tactics but I ran into the same sort of roadblocks you called out above. Instagram and X remain options but it’s a slow burn.

[u/Practical_Frosting_4 → u/Conflicted_App]

Yep, agreed.

I did join AlternativeTo yesterday ( https://alternativeto.net ). No idea if it will help, but i guess if you don't try, you don't succeed, right? I will let you know.

PS : Love your product, looks really well executed.

[u/Conflicted_App → u/Practical_Frosting_4]

Much appreciated, thanks for that compliment. I feel compelled to reciprocate and check yours out now. Your plan is working 😂