A couple of weeks ago I finally launched Penpal Apps, a slow penpal app I've been building as a solo developer. The idea is pretty simple: instead of instant messaging, you send actual letters to people around the world and wait for them to reply. I wasn't really sure what would happen after launch. But after around two weeks, we now have roughly 200 users, with people joining from different countries. The Philippines surprised me the most. It's currently our biggest community, with around 73 active users, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia, the US, India, and a few other countries. Seeing the map slowly fill up has honestly been one of my favorite parts of launching the app. I also recently started working on something I'm pretty excited about: a Creator Program. I want artists to be able to create and sell digital stationery inside Penypost — things like stamps, envelopes, papers, and stickers. Users can buy these collectibles and use them when sending their letters. So instead of me being the only person creating stationery for the app, I'd like Penypost to eventually become a place where independent artists can contribute their own designs and earn from them. I'm still very early in the journey, but getting ~200 people using something I built only two weeks after launch has been a really nice surprise. I'd love to hear how other people approached this stage of their own side projects. The tricky part is that I'm still at $0 revenue. And honestly, at some point I started wondering: Did I actually build something people want, or is the app failing? I haven't generated a single sale yet. At first, I thought maybe I should start pushing the shop more aggressively. But then I realized that I don't even know whether users are interested in buying anything yet. So instead, I recently added a button that lets users visit the collectible shop, where they can browse things like stamps, envelopes, papers, and other digital stationery. I'm tracking those interactions in analytics to see what actually happens. Do people notice the shop? Do they visit it? Do they browse the collectibles? And eventually, would they be willing to buy something? Right now, I'm trying to learn from the behavior instead of immediately assuming that $0 revenue means the app is failing. I think that's probably the next thing I need to figure out before making bigger decisions about monetization. I'd love to hear how other people approached this stage of their own side projects.   submitted by   /u/Vast_Journalist1415 [link]   [comments]