One year, twelve apps. Day 31 (Month 1 Review)

January Wrap-Up: My Journey in App Development

As we complete the first month of my ambitious goal of creating 52 apps in 52 weeks, it’s time to reflect on what I’ve accomplished, what I’ve learned, and where I’m heading next. This last month has been a whirlwind, and I can’t wait to share it with you!

Apps Launched So Far

This month, I successfully deployed four apps:

OneYear12Apps.com - A hub for navigating my app development journey.
BrainDumpBlog.com - An AI-powered writing assistant that helps transform your ideas into well-structured articles. I’m genuinely enjoying using this tool for my own projects.
StuartMason.co.uk - Not quite an app yet, but it’s shaping up nicely, and I can’t wait to see where it goes!
MissingYouDo.dev - A productized version of my ongoing projects, still in development.

Tools and Technologies

This month, I made some significant changes to my development process:

Transitioned from VSO to Cursa for better stats tracking and logging.
Set up Umami, a self-hosted analytics tool, in just ten terminal commands. Super straightforward!
Invested in an ESP32 microcontroller to explore hardware development alongside web apps. It’s like a blend of Arduino and Raspberry Pi, and I’m diving into C++ programming with it!

Lessons Learned

This month, I’ve come to realize that:

Perfect doesn’t need to be the goal; functionality and being user-friendly are far more important.
Being authentic and honest in my project presentations is crucial. I’ve shifted my focus from guessing what users want to creating things that genuinely represent my ideas.
Tracking progress is key to understanding growth. I’m excited to report that my app stats have turned around from zero to a respectable count!

Stats Update

Metrics	Start	End of Month
Total Page Views	0	515
Total Visitors	0	79
Total Time on Apps	0	7 hours
Average Bounce Rate	N/A	72.3%
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)	£0.00	£0.00
X.com Follower Count	0	67
YouTube Subscribers	0	80
YouTube Views	0	1,200

Moving Forward

Looking ahead, I am thrilled about the road that lies in front of me!

I'm delving deeper into hardware development with the ESP32.
Exploring AI integrations in my upcoming projects.
Continuing to build momentum and engage with my audience. The excitement is contagious!

So, here’s to another month of learning, creating, and sharing! The journey is just beginning, and I can't wait to see where it leads me.