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This Morning Routine App Makes Almost $1 Million a Year!

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App Masters11:19Open on YouTube
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The bottom line

Routinery reaches nearly $1M a year by pulling users straight into their first routine and monetizing them early, even those who won't subscribe. Subscription apps can copy this because payment drives engagement, not the reverse.

Key takeaways

  • Routinery ranks number one for "morning routine" and earns close to $1M a year. 0:56
    • Sensor Tower shows over 60,000, down from close to 80,000 a few months ago, so the data may fluctuate or be slightly off.
    • The top countries are the US, South Korea and Japan, so localization for non-US markets can add real revenue.
  • Onboarding sends users to their first routine as fast as possible. 6:03
    • Closing the paywall lands on a ready-made routine (wake up, meditate, brush teeth) and a play button.
    • Some users will drop off here, but engagement is the hardest metric, so the app takes that loss.
  • A win moment is the right time to ask for shares and ratings. 7:06
    • Finishing a routine shows a congratulations screen with a share option, which makes users look good.
    • One client saw a dramatic rise in Google Play ratings after moving the rating prompt to just after a win.
  • Letting users watch an ad to unlock features earns money from people who may never pay. 7:57
    • The ad unlocks the analytics summary for 24 hours, which shows what sits behind the paywall.
    • A 24-hour discount follows right after, because most users never come back for a second open.
  • The long paywall works, but a 7-day trial step would likely convert better. 3:24
    • The button redeem 7 days free reads oddly, so a Cal AI style paywall is suggested instead.
    • One client saw better results using that paywall as the main screen instead of three paywall screens.

Unlike games where engagement drives revenue, for subscription-based apps, revenue or monetization drives engagement.

TP Young

Chapter summaries

0:00 A South Korean app with Asian demand

Routinery's audience extends well beyond the US, and the Asian markets are the ones worth chasing.

  • The app was published in South Korea, and its Asian markets pay well. 1:23
    • South Korea and Japan "have money."
    • Most developers focus only on the US.
    • The advice is to find a way to get downloads from those countries.
    • Revenue from non-US countries can be significant.

1:53 Onboarding that eases users in

Onboarding asks small, low-risk questions first, so users commit before they see a paywall.

  • Sign-up is optional and questions are light. 1:56
    • Users can sign up with social or start without an account.
    • An email sign-up lets you own your users.
    • A nickname replaces a real name, and the app asks only for an age range and wake time.
    • The "What's most difficult?" question surfaces objections the app can then overcome.
    • A "design with behavioral science" screen puts social proof up front.
    • Reminders come with an explanation of why to use them, and the prompt pops up on the same screen.

2:55 Reworking the paywall flow

Routinery's paywall could ask for push notifications inside a 7-day step and show the long paywall last.

  • The long paywall builds trust as users scroll. 3:15
    • Scrolling up reveals testimonials.
    • A video like the Cal AI paywall's could be added.
    • For a routine app, the visual may be less interesting.
  • The trial step is a second chance to ask for push notifications. 4:09
    • Users already enabled notifications earlier, so the step says "we'll remind you."
    • The ask could go on the first screen, framed as "with reminders, routines feel simpler, easier."
    • Or it could go on the second screen, where users want to try the app.
    • The long paywall then appears at the very end.
    • Testing decides which screen works better for the ask.

5:40 The first routine is the product

Because the app is the routine itself, the first action a user takes already delivers its value.

  • Closing the paywall opens a ready routine to set up and run 6:03
    • The starter routine includes checking the schedule, organizing the day, walking and shrinking the to-do list.
    • The first run is just meditating and inhaling.
    • "Check your schedule" matches what the speaker already does each morning.
    • One tap on play starts it, so there is no setup wall.
  • The finished routine hands the user a win worth showing 7:06
    • The congratulations screen gives a small seed and a share button.
    • The rating prompt comes right after.
    • "Make your users look good. They're more likely to share."
    • Sharing a win doubles as free viral reach.

7:57 Monetizing users who won't pay

An ad gate earns money from non-payers and turns some of them into buyers.

  • Watching an ad lets non-payers peek behind the paywall 8:00
    • Some users never want to pay, so they watch an ad for free credits.
    • Some share of them buys later, once they have seen what was hidden.
    • The unlock lasts only 24 hours, which the speaker likes.
    • People who pay pay attention.

9:14 Community features and the growth gap

Social and celebrity content deepens the app, and a few extra keywords could lift its rank.

  • The rest of the app adds reasons to stay, and its reach is still limited 9:17
    • Users can browse celebrity morning routines, such as Dwayne Johnson's.
    • A social feed, friends, stats and a profile round it out.
    • The speaker says it needs just a couple more keywords to grow.
    • Running ads is the other open opportunity.

In the growth library

TP Young, Founder of App Masters, an app marketing agency. A teardown of Routinery, a morning routine app that ranks number one for "morning routine" and, per Sensor Tower, earns roughly $60,000 to $80,000 a month with no paid ads. It shows how onboarding, an ad-unlock paywall, a timed discount and well-placed share and rating prompts drive conversion and engagement.

Lessons that draw on this:

More from App Masters · The whole library, and ask it anything

Transcript279 lines
0:00

Coming up, I'm going to share with you a simple morning routine app that is making close to a million dollar a year, and I'll share with you my morning routine. Stay tuned. What is up, app nation? It is TP Young, founder of appmasters.com, the app marketing agency that's going to help you grow your downloads faster and cheaper. We're the most affordable, most effective agency out there. And this is the YouTube channel if you want to learn some of our strategies that we use for our own apps and our clients apps as well. But today, I want to break down this really cool morning routine app, how much it's making, how it can improve, and share with you my morning routine. So, let's get to it. All right.

0:51

Here's the app. It is actually called Routinery. Routinery. It is number one. It ranks number one for morning routine. So, I was like, "Hey, let's check it out." Here's the numbers. You can see it's making over 60,000. It's gone down a little bit, I think, because at the time that I looked into this app a few months ago was at close to 80,000. So, it's probably fluctuating a little bit. Maybe sensor tower data is a little bit off. I'm not sure, but it was making close to a million dollars, if not over a million dollars at one point. You can see where it was published in South Korea and you can see the most popular countries. So the US, South Korea, and Japan, which means don't sleep on localization right here and there, right? These Asian countries, especially South Korea and Japan, have money. If you can figure out a way to get downloads from those countries, you can drive revenues, pretty significant

1:44

revenues in these non US countries. Everybody focuses on the US. I'm saying look, you can explore other countries as well. All right, here is the app. I love this. Sign up with social. So, you're giving users an opportunity to sign up for your app. You want to own your users and you do that through email. You can start without signing up as well. So, that's another opportunity for you. Design with behavioral science. This is great. This is sets the social proof right here and there, right up front and center. What's most difficult? This is great to ask too so that you can start to overcome your objections that your users may have.

2:26

Just one more thing for the best fit only use for your routine. So you can put a nickname which I love. I don't have to put my real name. I have to put my age range. And then what time is your morning? So right after waking up to boost success. I generally wake up around 6:00 a.m. with reminders telling you why you want to put reminders. And then I love how the reminders pop up right in front of that screen. Found your routine. Next. Love that. I have to agree at prompt. And then here is the payw wall. So I love this payw wall because it's a long payw wall and I have been talking about long pay walls performing pretty well. I would actually change this payw wall a bit and I'm going to share with you the better performing payw wall. But I'm gonna, if you look at this, it's going well. And you can scroll, right? Scroll up and you get to see this testimonials. I love all this stuff. And then lastly, the call to

3:21

action is redeem 7 days free, which sounds weird. Okay, it sounds weird. All right, so I would change that. Here's what I would change it to. This is what Calai has. Now, I would add video if you want, but for a routine app, maybe the visual is not as interesting. But it did work for one of our clients. He went with this exact payw wall with none of these two screens and he saw an improvement and in fact he saw an improvement by just having this as the payw wall versus having these three screens. So ultimately he just has the first screen as his main payw wall.

3:56

If you guys are just listening to this just download the Cali payw wall or go watch the video and you'll see the visual. All right this is what I would say if I was routinerary go with this payw wall 7day step. So you can still do long payw wall right here, but say we offer seven days for free. You already got their push notification enabled. So you say, "Hey, we'll remind you." And this is another opportunity where you can just ask for push notifications here as well. So they can test whether it's better to do it at this level, right?

4:27

With reminders, routines feel simpler, easier, or on this second screen and ask them for push notifications here too because they want to try it. And then ultimately you show that long pay wall at the very end. Right? That's what I would suggest. Now I want to show you something that I've been incorporating into my morning routine. So my morning routine generally involves walking my dog and I start early calls early. So generally walking my dog and have a cup of coffee and getting on calls. One of the things I've incorporating is Magic Mind. I love this drink. Here it is. I love this drink because it not only helps me get better focus, sharper mind, stay less stressed hopefully, but I also love that I don't have to give up my coffee and I can just still drink this. And what's important for me, so it's like a mental performance shot. And within just one shot, you will get your full serving of

5:27

vitamin C and vitamin D and vitamin B12, which is extremely important for me because I'm a vegan/vearian. Mostly vegan. How about that? Mostly vegan. And so I need that B12. And it's pretty good. [Applause] And it's pretty tasty. All right, I'm going to tell you a little bit more about Magic Mind and a cool offer, but for now, let's get back into the app or you can cheat. Look at the YouTube description or podcast description. All right. Okay, back to Retinery. Here's the what I really love, too. So, I'm going to go back a little bit. Here's the payw wall. If I X out of this payw wall, I'm gonna skip ahead. I see this set up the first routine. Now, I love apps that just take me towards that first thing that I need to get done in the app because engagement is so hard.

6:23

Even if users fall off here on this screen, it's still worth it to do it because engagement is the hardest metric. And I rather take the drop off because you're probably never going to use my app anyways and get them into the app and setting up their first routine. And so what I love about routinery is it's literally routine. So I can they already have it. Here's the routine. Wake up. So I'm like check your schedule. That's generally what I do. Meditate. Organize my day. Brushing my teeth. Walking. Make your to-do list smaller. I love that.

6:56

And I can hit play and go. And so routinerary is getting me to do my first routine which is just sort of meditate and inhale. So I love that. And then afterwards here, here's the meditate. Afterwards, it gives me, hey, congratulations. Here's a little seed. Great. And I can share it. Great way of trying to get more viral content and giving me an opportunity to share a win, which is a great way to get people to share. Share. Make your users look good.

7:25

They're more likely to share. How was your routine? Great. And then bam, ask for the rating. After I did something cool within the app, that's the best opportunity. One of our clients saw a dramatic increase in his Google Play ratings after incorporating the ratings prompt at the right time generally after a win within your app. Next, here's the cool thing that I like too. So, obviously I have to start with free trial if I want to see some analytics, some summary and some analytics, right?

7:57

But they also say I can watch an ad to unlock. So, I love this strategy because it gives your users a taste of what they might be able to achieve within your app and allows you to make a little bit of money in between, right? So, they can say, "Hey, I'll watch this ad." Maybe there's some users that never want to pay you. So, they'll watch an ad just to get more free credits or see what's underneath. And then some percentage of users will eventually buy your app because they got to see what was underneath all this payw wall. Right? So here I press that. I got to watch the ad features unlocked just for 24 hours by the way. That's what I like. Okay. And I got to see the summary. And here's what they also do. Now that I see the summary, they give me a 24-hour discount, which I love, too. Look, most users, the stats say most users do not come back for that second open. So, it is your opportunity to try to get that

8:56

money as soon as possible because people who pay pay attention. So, people who pay drive engagement. Unlike games where engagement drives revenue, for subscriptionbased apps, revenue or monetization drives engagement. So, keep that in mind. That's why I like this strategy too. Lastly, you can explore. I'm going through the rest of the app. You can explore and see some of the morning routines of some of the biggest celebrities out there, including the rock Dwayne Johnson. Here's some social feed, too. So, if you want to add some friends, and then here's my stats. And then, obviously, here's my profile.

9:34

Overall, really great app. A lot of great reviews already, and doing very, very well within the app space. You can see you just need to focus on some of these few keywords. Honestly, you just need to unlock a couple of different keywords to get your app going or, you know, run some ads. That's the other opportunity as well. All right, lastly, back to Magic Mind. I'm already feeling the effects of it. Actually, I can feel more focus right now. So, if you want to check out Magic Mind, just use my code.

10:06

All right, here it is. It's app M50. App M50. The link is linked up in your favorite podcast app and YouTube description, but you can save I got to read this part. 50% off your first subscription if you want to be on the subscription plan or 20% off your one-time purchase. So, if you want to just try them out and see if you start seeing the effects that I'm starting to see already, then use that code and get 20% off that first package. And if you love it, go sign up for the subscription as well. So that code is once again appmasters 50. Okay. So A PM50 or use the link magicmind.com/appm50.

10:52

All right. Just click the link in the description. Let me know what you thought about this app routinery. If you want to see other apps in different spaces, just leave a comment below and I'll be sure to create that video for you as well. All right, until next time. I'll see you on the next video. Bye. I really like this. I feel good.