Congrats. Good luck w/ the app and future apps. I think that writing, launching, (and making a few bucks off of) a simple app might be the best way to get started down the right path. If you can get even the slightest bit of success, I'm sure it will lead to more.
It's amazing how hard it is just to ship something for yourself. I've been doing website development for 15 years and have launched 100's of sites, apps, major features, etc. for clients and companies. My history of developing my own projects has not been so stellar.
To date I've launched maybe 4 projects in the past say 10 years. 2 were very simple content sites not meant to generate revenue. 2 were fun sites which I hoped might generate a few dollars in ad revenue. I never really got any of them where I wanted them and have since folded all but one (I'm still hoping to make that last 10% of improvements to the 4th).
I always include in large capital letters at the bottom of my to-do list the following words:
JUST FUCKING LAUNCH
It's there to always remind me (when I am thinking about adding ever more new features to the to-do list) about the importance of getting the product out there.
FYI, I have managed to launch three reasonably big projects in the past two and a bit years (during breaks from contact work); http://gambolio.com (create your own library of online games - pretty much dead now), http://www.casualgirlgamer.com (a blog about online games which peaked at about 250,000 uniques a month) and http://tiki-toki.com (create online timelines, which is just starting to make a bit of money)
I read it this way too, and immediately added it to my TODO list. It's important to get reminded occasionally to keep a healthy distance to yourself. Thanks for accidentally sharing a good idea :).
It's amazing how hard it is just to ship something for yourself. I've been doing website development for 15 years and have launched 100's of sites, apps, major features, etc. for clients and companies. My history of developing my own projects has not been so stellar.
To date I've launched maybe 4 projects in the past say 10 years. 2 were very simple content sites not meant to generate revenue. 2 were fun sites which I hoped might generate a few dollars in ad revenue. I never really got any of them where I wanted them and have since folded all but one (I'm still hoping to make that last 10% of improvements to the 4th).
Launching is tough. You did it. Fair play to ya.