I just built my first app. How do I get signups?

Written by Dante, who built Prep66, PrepAMT and Ancestorii

Make your page say what the product does, who it is for and what it costs, in the words your buyers type. Then go where people with the problem already talk and tell them your real story. Speak as one of them only if you really are one. Ask for honest feedback, not money. Put the link where that community wants it: on Reddit, that means in the comments, when someone asks. Prep66's first real users came from one post in r/AircraftMechanics on 14 August 2026, written by someone who had sat the exams the product was about. It got about 3,200 views and 18 comments, and it cost nothing.

Fix the page before anyone arrives

A Prep66 candidate could tell within thirty seconds that the site was built by someone who had sat the exams. That is why the landing page alone was enough to win the first customer. Your page has to be as clear. It has to say what the product does, who it is for and what it costs.

Put the price on the page. Two months after launch, Ancestorii's founder asked Reddit why only four people had signed up. One of the answers was that the site showed no price. Nobody signs up just to find out what something costs. It is better to put some people off with a price than to put everyone off with no price. That holds wherever the buyer decides alone. Where the price really depends on the customer, the page should still say where it starts.

Use the words your buyers type, not the words you use. PrepAMT was written around "AMT", the term the trade uses. But people search for "FAA A&P". When ChatGPT was asked for A&P prep sites, it listed 29 of them, small ones included, and PrepAMT was not there. Every page had to be rewritten around A&P.

Find the one place your buyers already gather

Prep66's buyers are aircraft engineers studying for their licence exams. They gather in a few subreddits, asking things like "how do I study for M8". The founder knew exactly where they were, because he had been one of them.

Your buyers gather somewhere too: a community, a forum, a job title, a search term. Pick the one place where they already ask about the problem you solve, and start there alone. Choosing where to advertise covers how to pick it.

Post a story, not a pitch

The Prep66 launch post was not an advert. It said what the founder had studied, what annoyed everyone about the existing prep sites (expensive, question banks untouched for years, scanned handouts), and that he had built something about it. It offered 25 free Pro accounts in return for honest feedback. There was no link in the post. The link went in the comments, only when someone asked for it. Within about 48 hours, well over 40 free accounts had been given away.

It worked because the founder was one of the people the post was written for. If you have never been your own buyer, do not pretend to be one. Tell the story you really have, and say plainly who you are. Posting on Reddit has the full rules.

Do not pay for your first signups

Ancestorii launched with ads and spent about £210 in its first seven days of ads. That brought about 15,000 visitors and not one paying customer. Paid traffic only tells you faster whether strangers want the product. A free post answers the same question for nothing. Prep66's whole marketing spend was about £25, on one Reddit ad that ran from 27 August to 1 September 2026.

Shops and phone games are the exception. They are sold through paid ads from day one, and there the test is whether each sale pays back what the ad cost.

Count where every signup came from

From the day you launch, record where each signup came from: the site that sent them, or the campaign tag in the link they clicked. Prep66 started doing this on 27 August 2026. By 1 September 2026, 5 of its 9 recorded signups had come from ChatGPT and 2 from Google search. Getting named by ChatGPT explains how an assistant starts sending people to you.

Then remember that a signup is not a customer. It only shows that someone clicked a free button. Signups that never pay is the next thing to watch.

Questions people ask

Where should I post my app first?

In the one community where people who have the problem already ask about it, and where you can honestly say you are one of them or have worked with them. For Prep66 that was r/AircraftMechanics, because its founder had sat those exams.

Should I give away free accounts to get my first users?

Yes, as a launch offer to the people the post is written for, in return for honest feedback rather than money. Prep66 offered 25 free Pro accounts that way and ended up giving away well over 40. When the free places ran out, the founder said so plainly in the thread and offered the early crowd half price instead.

How many signups should I expect after launch?

There is no honest general number. By 18 September 2026, Prep66 had 78 users and 8 paying subscribers. The only answer that counts is your own numbers, broken down by where each signup came from.

Should I use ChatGPT to write my launch post?

Whoever types it, the story and the voice have to be yours, the way you would say it out loud. People told Ancestorii's founder that his posts and replies sounded like ChatGPT wrote them. On a product about family memories, that alone cost him trust.