u/Sad_Movie4153

I'm a Shopify app developer and have a plan on releasing some YouTube videos regarding each app topic — but also I'd love to hear from people who've actually done it.

1. Do you get some engagement? For those who've tried it: did YouTube drive meaningful installs, or was it more of a brand/trust play that paid off indirectly?

2. What content did work? What titles were you trying? Curious what flopped too!
   Basically I am thinking of creating an app topic that is being searched by broader community, like for example: How can I create product bundles on my product pages Shopify? (not a bundles app, haha )

3. Tools & workflow? What are you using for scripting, recording, editing, thumbnails?
   Did you create the video then add a voiceover or were you doing it simultaneously and talking on the go?

Today spent around 4 hours creating my first vid and if was the first time doing a YouTube video, so took the time to install the apps for editing, screen recording & etc.

Video length currently is 1:45 minutes and took a lot of time and still the quality is mediocore at best. YouTube is really a great skill to know so would love to hear some tips, experience and knowledge regarding this!

Thanks in advance 🙏

Been at this for 7 years now — built 3 Shopify apps and worked countless hours on other applications too. Wanted to share what actually moved the needle for me, and where I shot myself in the foot. Curious what others have learned.

What worked:

Launching with a free tier. Free installs build review velocity and App Store ranking, which then drives paid traffic later. The free users aren't customers — they're a marketing channel. Once ranking is established, paid plans take care of revenue.

Obsessive support quality. Maintaining excellent support is a top priority for me. Merchants leave 5-star reviews and recommend the app to others — good work spreads fast in the Shopify community.

Shipping fixes and small features fast. When a merchant flagged a bug or asked for a small feature, I'd often ship it within minutes or hours. Costs me sleep but builds insane loyalty.

App Store SEO is underrated. It's basically free distribution that needs to be handled gracefully and in great detail.

What didn't work (or what I regret):

Building features without validating demand. Painful one. Spent months on stuff that barely got used. Now I look at the actual problems that users encounter and do solid research regarding the problem and the fix for it.

Underestimating marketing as a solo dev. I built like a developer and marketed like a developer (badly). For years I assumed a good product would market itself in the App Store. Even modest content or community presence in year one would have compounded massively.

What about you? Especially curious from other founders: what's something you stopped doing that turned out to be a mistake? Or a "small" decision that ended up being the biggest lever?