Lower Store Fees by Their Structure, Not Their Rate — Apple SBP and Google Play's June 2026 Pricing
A working breakdown of Apple's Small Business Program and Google Play's new fee model that started June 30, 2026, framed as fee design for indie developers, with code to compute your effective rate and a break-even table.
When Your AdMob Earnings Suddenly Get Deducted: Preventing Invalid Traffic as a Solo Developer
Invalid traffic deductions in AdMob are unsettling because the cause is rarely obvious. From the perspective of running several apps solo, here is a minimal setup that prevents the most common accidents, plus how to respond when a deduction actually happens.
Protecting Ad eCPM in Your Rork Max App: Designing ATT Pre-Permission Priming
For iOS apps built with Rork Max, ad revenue swings heavily on your ATT opt-in rate. Here is how to design a pre-permission priming screen, implement it in SwiftUI, measure the opt-in rate, and order AdMob init correctly.
Before You Reach for Tap to Pay on iPhone in a Rork Max App — Eligibility, Choosing a Payment Provider, and a Realistic Design
Implementation notes for judging, from a business angle, whether you can put Tap to Pay — accepting in-person payments on an iPhone alone — into a Rork Max app. Covers the organization-account and entitlement requirements, why you need a payment provider (PSP), the split between ProximityReader and the PSP, and a realistic path for an indie developer, told candidly.
Holding App Store Messages Until the Right Moment
Price-increase consent, billing-issue, and win-back messages from the App Store appear right at launch by default. Here is how to take control of StoreKit 2 Messages and defer them until a moment that does not interrupt onboarding or checkout, with working Swift.
Don't Pay Out a Rewarded Ad on the Client's Word Alone — SSV Verification for a Rork (Expo) App on a Worker
Trusting the client-side 'reward earned' callback alone invites double-grants and spoofing. Here is how to wire AdMob server-side verification (SSV) into a Rork-generated Expo app, verify the signed callback on a Cloudflare Worker, and make payouts idempotent with transaction_id.
Monetizing a Rork-Built App — Choosing Between Ads, Subscriptions, and Freemium
How to monetize an app built with Rork — from choosing between ads, subscriptions, freemium, and one-time purchase to the implementation details. Phased AdMob formats, treating ad-free as a single source of truth, and price anchoring, written from the indie-developer trenches.
A Wallpaper App's Real Work Starts After Launch — Content, Retention, and Revenue Notes from Running One on Rork
A wallpaper app is decided less by its launch and more by how you tend it afterward. Building on a Rork implementation, here are field notes on scheduled publishing that keeps content fresh, onboarding that survives the first week, and a revenue setup whose per-download return doesn't thin out over time.
The Users You Cut Off as Churned Were Still Willing to Pay — Implementing Grace Periods That Keep Access Alive
A failed renewal is not a cancellation. If you revoke access during the grace period, you throw away recoverable revenue. Here is how to tell grace, billing retry, account hold, and real churn apart in a Rork (Expo) app, keep access during grace, and guide users back.
The Day a Third Reason to Hide Ads Appeared — Folding Rork App Ad-Free Logic Into One Place
Ads show only on one screen for paying users, or ads never show for free users. The usual cause is that the condition for hiding ads is scattered across the code. Here is how I fold three reasons — subscription, lifetime purchase, and a timed reward unlock — into a single state and route every ad through one hook, written as an implementation note from running six apps as an indie developer.
Validating StoreKit 2 Subscriptions Server-Side: Granting Access Without Trusting the Device
To stop 'I paid but the feature won't unlock' and 'still usable after canceling,' you need a design that does not trust the device's verdict and settles entitlements on the server. Covers StoreKit 2 signed transactions, verification with the App Store Server API, and state sync via App Store Server Notifications V2, from real indie monetization.
Will Rork Max's $200 a Month Pay for Itself? Decide It With a Formula
When you are torn over committing to Rork Max at $200 a month, here is a break-even formula and a tiny copy-paste script to decide by the numbers instead of by feel, with notes from indie development.