ok so this might be obvious to some of you but it took me way too long to figure this out
i was stuck at like $800/mo for 6 months. kept thinking i needed to add more features or make the product better. classic mistake right?
my buddy who does marketing was like "dude nobody knows you exist, thats your problem" and i was lowkey offended but he was right lol
so heres what i actually did – instead of dumping money into google ads (which i tried, burned through like 2k with basically nothing to show for it), i just started showing up everywhere i could think of:
- signed up for every free business directory i could find. took like 4 hours one saturday
- started emailing small newsletter people in my space. not the big ones, the ones with like 500-2000 subs. turns out they actually WANT stuff to feature
- wrote a few guest posts for blogs my customers read
- set up a basic posting schedule across like 5 social platforms. nothing crazy just consistent
the logic was pretty simple – if someone sees you mentioned in a newsletter, then sees you on linkedin, then sees a blog post about you… by the third time they actually trust you enough to click
90 days later:
– went from 340 visitors/mo to about 2100
– signups went from 12/mo to 67
– hit $4200/mo revenue
the wild part is some of this stuff keeps working months later without me doing anything. i wrote one blog post in like week 6 that still drives 15% of my traffic. try getting that from google ads lol
biggest lesson: the market doesnt care whos best. it cares whos most visible. ive seen worse products than mine outsell me just because more people knew about them
if your stuff is good but nobody's buying… its probably not the product. you just need more people to know about it
anyway happy to answer questions about what worked. not selling anything just sharing what finally moved the needle for me
stopped spending on ads, focused on being everywhere instead – heres what happened
byu/RobertrLyon inEntrepreneur
Posted by RobertrLyon
4 Comments
Great reminder that distribution often matters more than features, because even a great product can’t grow if nobody knows it exists.
That “being everywhere” effect is so true.
I’ve noticed the same thing when evaluating products. If I see something mentioned multiple times across different places (newsletter, blog, Reddit, etc.), it starts feeling legit even if I don’t click the first time.
It’s basically brand familiarity forming in the background.
Your numbers are pretty solid for 90 days too.
If you need help with distribution let me know. It’s the hardest part!
this is honestly a really underrated lesson tbh.
a lot of founders spend months polishing the product thinking growth will magically happen after that. but distribution usually matters way more than people expect. if nobody sees the product it almost doesn’t matter how good it is. the “multiple touchpoints” thing you mentioned is real too. most people don’t convert the first time they hear about something. they see it a few times in different places and then it finally clicks. ngl your approach of smaller newsletters + guest posts + directories is actually smart. those audiences are usually way more engaged than big generic channels. also the compounding effect of content is huge. one decent blog post bringing traffic months later is basically free acquisition.
feels like you just built a simple distribution engine instead of chasing quick ad wins. probably the more sustainable path long term.