Projects Insight No 6. | April 2024

Released on Saturday May 18th in 2024 by Simon Braun (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Follow my journey as a digital creator: Learn more about my steady progress, the tools I use to work efficiently, my marketing methods, the business numbers and the sources of inspiration I find.

The Projects Insight Newsletter is free, enjoy reading!

Disclaimer: * an asterisk is identifying an affiliate link

TOTM – Tool of the month

(Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Nowadays our hard disks and SSDs are incredible huge compared to the capacities available 10 years ago. But still disk space is always getting scarce any now and then. This is were the unbelievable useful and insightful diskmanagement tool DaisyDisk (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)* comes into play. It shows beautifully how your disk space is used and shows huge files in places you didn’t know existed. You can easily select, collect and delete huge and unnecessary files all together. Making some headroom helps to keep your machine fast and makes saving new files or installing huge applications worry-free again.

DaisyDisk (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)* | macOS | Paid → Download (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)*

Projects Overview

ACTIVE

(Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

⬛️ Filmlog (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) – First-class private movie tracker
The best app for a personal overview of your seen and unseen movies and for looking up information on movies, actors and cast members.

📱 App | Since 2014 | iOS and iPadOS | Freemium
🔗 Website (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | AppStore (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Testflight (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

(Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

🟩 Auricula (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) – Interval ear trainer
An interval ear trainer to practice your sense of hearing and to learn the skill to identify intervals.

📱App | Since 2015 | iOS, iPadOS and macOS | Freemium
🔗 Website (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | AppStore (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Producthunt (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

(Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

🟥 Next Size (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) – Forecast for children clothing sizes
Children clothes size forecast. It's that easy: Next Size estimates the body height of your kids and tells you which clothing sizes will fit when.

📱App | Since 2024 | iOS, iPadOS and macOS | Freemium
🔗 Website (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | AppStore (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

(Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

🟪 Projects Insight (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) – Follow my journey as a digital creator
Learn more about my steady progress, the tools I use to work efficiently, my marketing methods, the business numbers and the sources of inspiration I find.

✉️ Newsletter | Since 2023 | Free + optional patreons
🔗 Subscribe (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Posts (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) | Patreons (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

PROTOTYPES

🌐 Puinte.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
A community financed effort to create better software for the general public: privacy-friendly, open-source, fully reusable and financed in solidarity.

🌐Infolge.org (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
A comprehensive format for following current events, comparing points of view and forming a differentiated opinion

ARCHIVED

📱skunkit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (2012 – 2015)
The ethical messenger service: an iOS app

Updates

NEW

🟪 Projects Insight | Edition April 2024 | May 16th 2024

Introducing charts Just adding current numbers to this newsletter is nice, but seeing the improvements over the last months is way more interesting!

TOFTM – Tool of the month I do not feel the urge to introduce a new tool to you every month, the section will be renamed from “Finding of the month” to “Tool of the month”. Explaining an essential tool and how I use it, will add some useful context information to my “Tools and Services” section.

RECENT

🟪 Projects Insight | Edition March 2024 | April 22nd 2024

New business model and improved sections I decided to make the newsletter itself free. Why? Because I wouldn’t have paid for it myself. You can still support me, if you want to: as a patreon. You will get access to the monthly AMA – ask me anything – sessions as a thank you. Additionally I started to focusing more on how I keep making progress and try to give insight into all the little things that are part of the creative journey of a digital creator.

⬛️ Filmlog | Testflight Version 3.0.0 (11543) | April 20th 2024

Release notes Please make sure to read the following points:
- supported languages for now: English and German

Please test the following new features, fixes and improvements:
- new feature: follow people to see their upcoming movies in releases
- all new native and standard iOS navigation
- links opened from filmlog.cc (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) appear in your inbox
- filmographies are now split into filmography and appearances

Fixes:
- fixed "Rose" search crash // Thanks Jens
- drastically reduced poster file sizes
- added loading indicator and improved loading for releases
- fixed typo in German localization: iCloud Backup
- fixed scroll inset after returning to search results
- fixed button layout issues in settings
- added optical separators between content and navigation
- faulty display of tmdb logo in settings view // Thanks Rodrigo
- improved brazilian string length in settings view // Thanks Rodrigo
- improved english local // Thanks Ben and Geffrey
- added missing english local // Thanks Jenni
- searching on the following tab opens search for crew and cast
- crashed when selecting a cast & crew search entry blocked by Filmlog Plus banner
- improved text for empty releases, but following more than one person

Thank you for your support.

For questions, feature requests and bug reports please write directly to: feedback@simonbraun.eu (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

🟩 Auricula | Version 2.1.3 | March 2nd 2024

9 languages | +1
German, English, French, Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Spanish, Italian as well as traditional and simplified Chinese

Release notes
Bug fixes and improvements:
- New and improved sound files
- New localization: italian
- New: explanation added to endless mode
- Changed: unlimited interval replays possible
- Changed: interval selection is not available for endless mode
- Fixed: clipped intervals on interval selection // Thanks Adrienne

Thank you very much for using Auricula - If you want to support me please consider leaving a review in the AppStore.

🟥 Next Size |Version 1.0.1 | February 22nd 2024

Release notes
- Fixed: app doesn’t update properly after Next Size Plus purchase

Thank you very much for using Next Size - If you want to support me, please consider leaving a review in the AppStore.

⬛️ Filmlog |Version 2.1.1 | November 5th 2023

Release notes
- small bugfixes

Thank you very much for using Filmlog - If you want to support me please consider leaving a review in the AppStore.

Marketing

TAGLINES

Apps
No advertising, no registration, no tracking of personal data and no investors – just an authentic person who loves making software.

Newsletter
Follow and learn from my journey as a digital creator. Subscribe to my monthly newsletter to gain insight into the day-to-day work of creating digital products.

LATEST POSTS

March 24th 2024 –A small gesture (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) – #standwithukraine
February 23rd 2024 –Being grateful (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) – Releasing my new app Next Size

SEARCH ADS

I currently use Basic and Advanced Search Ads with mixed results for now and just getting into the many configuration options of the Advanced Search Ads.

Search Ads: Basic/Advanced
🟩 Auricula 55/71 Installs | CPT 0,18€/0.36€
🟥 Next Size 6/1 Installs | CPT 0.20€/0.24€
⬛️ Filmlog – Paused

I decided to pause Search Ads for Filmlog up to the next major release. The current version is not bad, but whenever I use the latest Testflight (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) version, I feel like I do not want to pay for ads for the current Filmlog app.

Inspiration

TALKS

🎥 The Playdate Story (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) – by Cabel Sasser (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Watching Panic (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)’s Cabel Sasser and hearing their Playdate story is so entertaining and refreshing that you can feel how tight it must have been, and still is, to release a hardware product.

He also talks about his company as a “slowbiz” – I want to take this road too:

“Let me explain what that means. We're a different kind of tech company. We're playing the long game. We gradually level up year after year. We never had investors. We never had shareholders. I think when you have shareholders, they're kind of used as a scapegoat for your bad decisions. We have no one to scapegoat. Every decision falls on us. We never took any seed money. In the real world of business, this is actually pretty normal—like [if you were running] a hardware store or laundromat or whatever. But for some reason in tech, it's very unusual.”

— Cabel Sasser

PODCASTS

🎙️ Launched (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)– with Charlie Chapman (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

🎙️ Under the Radar (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)– with Marco Arment (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and David Smith (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

🎙️ Waiting for Review (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)– with David Gary Wood (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Daniel Jilg (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

🎙️ Core Intuition (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)– with Daniel Jalkut (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Manton Reece (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Publications, Appearances and Testimonials

NEW

—

LATEST

2024 March – 🟥 Next Size
“[…] I remember how quickly they grew, and having an app like Next Size is a great idea to help take the guesswork out of parents’ shopping trips.“ – John Voorhees
→ MacStories Weekly (Paywall) (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

2021 January – ⬛️ Filmlog
“Track your watched and unwatched movies with Filmlog for iPhone“
→ iMore (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

2020 December – 🟩 Auricula
„Intervalle hören & üben mit der App AURICULA // Gehörbildung Erklärung mit Merkhilfen“ (German)
→ Youtube (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Did I miss something? Please let me know: feedback@simonbraun.eu (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

DEDICATED READER'S CHECKLIST

I have to thank you dear reader for your interest in my newsletter. If you are interested in supporting me further please check out the following list:

• recommend this newsletter and my apps to your friends

• download and test my apps

• rate my apps and write reviews on the AppStore

• follow me on any social network you like

• upvote my apps on Product Hunt

Dedicated readers who would like to support the newsletter and take part in the monthly AMA meetings can become a patron here:

Statistics

OVERALL

Downloads

🟩 Auricula 80,434
⬛️ Filmlog 18,875
🟥 Next Size 210

Newsletter Subscribers

🟪 Projects Insight 16 Newsletter Subscribers

Social Media Followers

🙎🏽‍♂️ Personal Mastodon 109 @techumbely@indieweb.social (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
🙎🏽‍♂️ Personal Instagram 71 @techumbely (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
⬛️ Filmlog Mastodon 8 @filmlog@indieapps.space (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Product Hunt

🟩 Auricula 2 Upvotes
🟥 Next Size 2 Upvotes

APRIL

Downloads

🟩 Auricula 412
⬛️ Filmlog 237
🟥 Next Size 32

Sessions (opt-in)

⬛️ Filmlog 4,307
🟩 Auricula 956
🟥 Next Size 21

Crashes

🟥 Next Size 0
🟩 Auricula 19
⬛️ Filmlog 136

Subscribers

🟪 Newsletter Patreons 0

Sales (net revenue)

🟩 Auricula 65.34€
⬛️ Filmlog 60.76€
🟥 Next Size 4.45€

Earnings

Apps 130.55€

Expenses

I try to keep costs very low and looking out for growth enablers. Annually recurring costs are converted into monthly expenses. And labour hours are not taken into account as the projects are still a hobby.

MARKETING

Apple Search Ads 74,14€

HOSTING & INTERNET

Hosting 9.41€ – Legacy plan (112€ yearly)
Public work phone 10€ – fraenk (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)*

APPLICATIONS & SERVICES

Apple Developer Program 8.25€ yearly (99.00€ yearly)

GitTower license still not renewed

RevenueCat Free plan – used for ‘Next Size’
TelemetryDeck Free plan – 4,552/100,000 monthly signals
appfigures 21.20€ – Monitor (50% blackfriday discount for 12 months)
Mastodon Instance Support 1.19€ (via Patreon)

OTHER COSTS

—

Margin

APRIL

Earnings 130.55€
Expenses -124.19€
Profit 6.36€

Tools and Services

In this section you will get an overview of tools and services. I use them to develop and keep my projects up and running.

NEW

—

DROPPED

—

CURRENT LIST

Hosting and E-Mail hosting Mittwald (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Domains Domain Offensive (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)*
Bank N26 Business (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)* (Germany, free tier)
Mobile Operator fraenk (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)* (Germany)

IDE Xcode (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Git Github (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) and Git Tower (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)*
Texteditor Sublime Text (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
SFTP Client FileZilla (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Local Webserver MAMP (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)/WorldWideWeb (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

IAP Framework RevenueCat (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) – used for Next Size InApp purchases
Analytics TelemetryDeck (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)*
ASO appfigures (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Business Analytics Trendly (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Browser & Bookmarks DuckDuckGo Browser (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Web Development Safari (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Calendar Fantastical (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Mail Apple Mail
Notes Standard Notes (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Todo Things (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Online Storage Tresorit (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)*
Documentation Notion (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)*
Calculator Soulver (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Diskmanagement DaisyDisk (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)*

Messenger Signal (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Passwordmanager Bitwarden (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Security Little Snitch (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Translation ICanLocalize (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)*, Deepl (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), dict.cc (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (iOS)
Design Affinity Designer (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (still use version 1), Sketch (Öffnet in neuem Fenster), Figma (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)*
Image Compression ImageOptim (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Music Doppler (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
Podcasts Airshow (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)
News NetNewsWire (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (iOS)
Mastodon Ivory (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) (iOS)
Visual Collection eagle (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)*

Do you have a tool or service suggestion for me? Let me know: feedback@simonbraun.eu (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Goals

It is important to keep in mind, why I’m doing all of this.

PERSONAL

1. Learning and growing personally

2. Focusing on quality of service

3. Steady improvement in income

4. Get to know other digital creators

5. Achieving greater personal and creative freedom

MARKETING

1. Reach potential customers

2. Find suitable users

3. Grow following

4. Incentivise great AppStore ratings and reviews

5. Rank up my website

6. Build up relationships with press and influential people

7. Getting mentioned in the press and winning awards

Thank you for reading my newsletter! Until next month and stay safe, Simon

If you want to become a testimonial for the newsletter or if you have questions, suggestions or critique, please write me: feedback@simonbraun.eu (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Simon Braun – Website (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) / Mastodon (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Want to start your own Newsletter? I recommend to give Steady a try (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)!