I'm glad someone is making money. I'm not. I spent 5 years writing a unified workflow for folks writing a research paper/thesis/dissertation (Epiphany Workflow, Apple's App Store).
It begins with collecting ideas from websites and files, moves the ideas into an outliner, then supports organizing relevant ideas according to a report outline, and finally, supports reviewing relevant ideas while the user writes each section of the report.
I gave away 850 free copies that were good for a year and sold a couple dozen copies. I'm trying Reddit ads now. Zero success. It's daunting. I'm struggling and depressed. It's a damn good application, but I can't find a way to reach my audience.
First off, congrats on getting your idea out into a tangible product. Many people come up with ideas, even fewer take time, or have the skills, to try to actually build them, but you put in time and effort that made it to the end goal of putting it on the App Store. Not everyone makes it that far so congratulations on doing so.
I took a look because, as a current student, I often have to write research papers and tag ideas from multiple websites and sources. I think the cost is a little steep for Mac apps in general, let alone anything a student might want to trial. The question students are asking is "How much can I spend to improve my research paper skills?" $40 is comparable to a night out with friends or several meals and might turn off any potential customers.
Looking at the promotional screenshots for the application, I don't get a gist for what the application is or does. The actual images of the application are smaller than the text describing what is in the application. It's also not clear from those descriptions what the benefits of the application are. I'm not sure what a "structured workflow" is but maybe giving a juxtaposition between the traditional way a student might try to organize a paper and Epiphany's way might help students visualize how they could use the application themselves.
Lastly, the website[1] needs more examples and demonstrations of the application in action. I still can't tell what I would gain from spending $40 on a Mac app. To use an example, none of my friends are willing to buy the Things app[2] at $9 on iOS or $49 because they can get other apps that do the same thing for free. It's a price comparison game and there needs to be more discussion around what can be gained with this app over a competitor.
I hope this helps and I wish you well with your application.
It looks like you've put 5 years of love into the software, and 5 days into promoting it. Find someone who is into sales and marketing and get them to help. As an amateur I'd say, make the website styling look more en vogue, it has to look like it's a successful bang-up-to-date piece of software supported by a bigger business, people like to feel they're getting on board a new wave of coolness and productivity. Add some good testimonials, maybe in the margin. What about some small professionally made videos of how powerful it is. Make the website work well on mobile and tablet. Make it easy to buy, I never buy software if I can't just 'click to buy' with e.g. PayPal. Try different pricing strategies, how about first 3 months free (get them hooked) then $1.99 per month, cancel any time.
What did the 850 free users say about the app? If only a dozen people bought licenses, then something must be wrong. My app didn't really sell well in the first two years either -- it took a lot of changes until it was actually something that people wanted to buy, and I had to throw out some of my favorite features because folks just didn't understand them.
Just from reading your post, I suspect the app is too specific for your workflow and not generic enough that people can use it if they have a slightly different workflow.
Just fyi, I'm in Australia and can't view your software in the App Store as it's not available in my region. Not sure if the region locking is deliberate, but perhaps that's part of the reason that sales aren't taking off.
It begins with collecting ideas from websites and files, moves the ideas into an outliner, then supports organizing relevant ideas according to a report outline, and finally, supports reviewing relevant ideas while the user writes each section of the report.
I gave away 850 free copies that were good for a year and sold a couple dozen copies. I'm trying Reddit ads now. Zero success. It's daunting. I'm struggling and depressed. It's a damn good application, but I can't find a way to reach my audience.