Practitioner pattern · Steve P. Young (Sells App Masters services, the App Founders paid community and Indie App Santa / Lifetime Free promos that he recommends)
Ask for ratings while giving the app away free for life
Worked from 2023, now triggers removed ratings and account suspensions
Failedaso
What they did
Starting in 2023, added a review request to Lifetime Free promos. Apple now sees a spike in $0 in-app purchases, reviews and downloads together and flags it. Asking for reviews in onboarding is still fine (Cal AI does it), just not during a Lifetime Free offer.
What happened
Worked at first; now developers report removed ratings, emails, and banned or suspended accounts
“in 2023, I was like, "Hmm, what happens if I ask for a review? What would happen?" It worked and now it doesn't.”
“Apple will start to see the a spike in in-app purchases that happen to be all zero, and a spike in reviews, and they're just wondering, and a spike in downloads, what is this fool doing?”
Related topics
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- Paraphrase AI: Run Facebook ads to grow a $2-3K/month appDidn't work; spent a lot of money and wasted it
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- Paraphrase AI: Translate the app for Germany and run Apple Ads there
- Swap the 7-day trial on yearly for a 3-day trial on weeklyBetter results than the yearly trial; no numbers
- Change when the app asks for a review, tied to a user actionAverage rating 4.5 to 4.7, and more ratings per month
- Start with Apple Ads on search results only, just keywordsHighest-ROI platform across App Masters' partners, host says
- Give the app away free for life briefly to get first usersSome apps got 100K downloads; 10K+ signals a winner
- Run a free-for-life promo and ask users for ratings60K downloads, ~600 ratings; ~100 ratings later removed by Apple
- Translate the app into Arabic with Crowdin and GeminiHalf of 60K promo downloads came from Arabic-speaking countries
- Redesign the onboarding and paywall around a personal learning planRevenue doubled, $200 to $400/month, on the same downloads
- Replace paywall graphics with a real photo, then a videoPhoto lifted conversion 3.5 to 4.7; video did best
- Use a yellow crown, not a star, for the button that opens the paywallThe yellow crown performed better; no numbers
- Label the paywall button 'Continue' on iOS and 'Start Free Trial' on AndroidHost says each wins on its platform, across all paywall screens
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- Routinery: Let people watch an ad to unlock a premium feature for a day
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- Zero: Send a weekly recap of the longest fast with a button to tweet itPeople did tweet it; the feature was later dropped
- Life Reset: Put a 'please don't delete' message in the app icon's long-press menu
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- Add animations to the onboarding screensOne founder told the host it lifted conversion 10%