Build in Public: GoKiddo [Part 9]

Welcome back to my GoKiddo build in public journey. If you missed Part 8, you can check it out here.

Here's a quick update about where I am at with GoKiddo.

GoKiddo is live on the App Stores

I have successfully listed GoKiddo on the app stores. This is a massive milestone for me and my first-ever mobile app.

I was surprised with how thorough the app review processes are, especially on the Apple side. They really do take user privacy seriously.

If you would like to check the apps out here are the links:

• Apple App Store
• Google Play Store

Push Notifications Pending

I have not added Push Notifications (those little messages on your smartphone's screen) yet, but this is definitely in the pipeline.

I believe these messages will be crucial in the future for keeping users engaged and keeping them informed of promotions and new listings.

I added Payfast as a payment gateway

Initially, I planned on using only Lemonsqueezy as a payment gateway/merchant of record (you can read more about this here).

But after testing with South African cards, I realised that there are some issues:

• Lemonsqueezy charges the card in US Dollars, and the South African banks add on a "conversion fee", which causes confusion i.e. I signed up for R250, why am I being charged R261?
• The US/ZAR Exchange Rate fluctuates quite a bit, which makes it difficult to predict how much money you will receive.

I decided, seeing that I am going to focus on South Africa at the beginning, it would be wise to use a South African payment gateway, known and trusted by South Africans. Therefore I opted to use Payfast.

I use Payfast for all my other online businesses, and I have been very happy with their offering. Another bonus, the transaction fee is only 3.5%.

I do have to make a quick disclaimer though. The developer documentation on the Payfast side is light years behind that of Lemonsqueezy and it took way longer than expected to integrate Payfast into my app. Lemonsqueezy took me a day, Payfast took me a week.

GoKiddo = Snowball

The value GoKiddo offers the users increases as the amount of listings increases. On the other side of the coin, businesses will only start listing organically if there are a lot of people using the app. The classic chicken/egg problem. The success of GoKiddo will be slow at the beginning and then all at once.

I spent the last few months just building GoKiddo and I have not done any marketing.

In all honesty, I enjoy the building part way more than marketing, but unfortunately, nothing will ever reach any users or make any money, if you don't do marketing. I just have to get the snowball rolling down the hill.

The marketing plan

I sat down and devised a plan to market GoKiddo with a focus on the Cape Town area.

1. First I have to manually load unpaid listings in order to populate the app. I believe 60-80 should be enough for a start.
   1. This is a massive undertaking, and to make it more manageable I am setting a goal of doing 3 per day.
2. Create a general social media presence. If someone checks the socials, they need to see that something is happening.
3. Write 5 Blog Posts about GoKiddo, the benefits etc.
   1. I am currently busy coding the blog for the marketing site gokiddoapp.com
   2. The aim of these posts is for SEO (Searcg Engine Optimisation) to get started and get people who google "Fun things to do with kids in Cape Town" to download the app.
4. Join Whatsapp and Facebook groups where parents are active and try and tell them about the app.
5. Use local influencer pages to market the app.
6. And lastly maybe some paid advertising on Facebook & Google & App Stores.

I will keep you updated on the results of these marketing efforts above.

Lastly, I would like to leave you with the following: