Between an idea and someone paying for it there are only three jobs: build it, get paid, and make sure people want it. Most people don't get stuck because they can't code — they get stuck because they don't know what to do next. This page breaks the three jobs apart, with concrete moves for each.
🛠️ 3 Ways to Vibe Code — Build It
You don't have to write code from scratch. These three get the app built:
- 1Design first
Generate the interface with Figma Make or Google Stitch. Screens first, features second.
- 2Code by conversation
Ask for what you want in everyday language. When it breaks, paste the error message straight back to the AI.
- 3Let MCP do it
Ship, add sign-in and take payments in a sentence, instead of clicking through every dashboard.
When something breaks, paste this to the AI:
Here is the error message. Please explain what caused it and fix it. (Paste the full error message)
💰 7 Ways to Monetise — Get Paid
Building it isn't the same as earning from it. These are the seven most common ways to charge:
- 1Onboarding
A questionnaire first, then the paywall. The questions make users feel the app was made for them.
- 2Hard paywall + 3-day free trial
No payment, no access — but they can try it for three days first.
- 3Soft paywall
Core features free, advanced features paid.
- 4Subscription or one-off purchase
Weekly, monthly or yearly plans, or a single lifetime purchase.
- 5Usage-based pricing
Charge in credits — pay for what you use.
- 6UGC ads
Short videos in a user-made style that drive downloads.
- 7SEO / AEO / GEO
Get found on Google and in AI search.
You don't need all seven. Pick one or two that fit your app and test those first.
🔎 9 Ways to Validate — Prove People Want It
Before you build, use these nine to check someone will actually pay:
- 1Read competitors' 1–3 star reviews
Bad reviews are a free feature list.
- 2Collect complaints on Reddit
Find users' real pain points and the words they use for them.
- 3Check similar apps’ public revenue on X
See what apps like yours actually earn.
- 4Three questions for picking a topic
What are you good at? Is the audience big enough? What do competitors get criticised for?
- 5SEO / AEO
How do users search for this problem?
- 6Ad libraries
Are competitors running ads consistently? Long-running ads mean the market pays.
- 7Crunchbase funding records
Are investors betting on this space?
- 8PostHog user data
Where do users drop off?
- 9Pre-sell with a Stripe payment link
Confirm people will pay before writing a line of code.
The first one is the quickest to start with. Paste this into Claude or ChatGPT:
Summarise the one- to three-star App Store reviews for [your app type] and list the ten most common complaints.
3 ways to build, 7 ways to charge, 9 ways to validate — that is the whole route from idea to income. Prove people want it, then build it, then charge for it. Get the order right and nothing you build goes to waste.
