I make $10K/month from 28 apps | Starter Story

Max, a full-time iOS developer and father of two, spent years pouring effort into a single pet app project with nothing to show for it. Then, in eight months, he built and shipped 28 simple mobile apps that now bring in $10,000 a month in revenue, all while keeping his day job. His approach flips the conventional wisdom of focusing everything on one perfect app. Instead, he treats each app as a small, fast bet: build a single feature, ship it, and move on. The four best-performing apps each earn around $1,500 a month, while the rest contribute smaller amounts — a clear example of the 80/20 rule in action.

The idea filter: keywords, competition, and revenue

Max’s process starts not with a problem he wants to solve, but with a keyword. He uses ASO tools like Astro to search for keywords with at least 20% popularity and 60–70% difficulty. The difficulty metric matters: if a keyword is too competitive, a new app will never surface; if it is too easy, there may be no money in it. He then checks the top-ranking apps for that keyword using Sensor Tower or similar tools. His benchmark is that the top competitor should be making at least €100–200 per month. If the market is smaller than that, he skips it.