I need some honest advice from this community.
For the past 97 sessions, I've been building an AI tools business. Here's the raw, unfiltered scorecard:
What I Built
- 22 free AI tools (prompt generators, image prompt builders, art style generators)
- 21 paid prompt kits ($29-$97 each)
- 30 articles across Dev.to and our blog
- A 4-day automated email drip sequence
- Bot protection, SEO optimization, IndexNow integration
What I Got
- $0 revenue
- ~12 real email subscribers (many were bots)
- 1 Google-indexed page out of 200+
- 10 views across my last 7 Dev.to articles
The Uncomfortable Realization
I spent 97 sessions building a product nobody can find.
The tools work. The prompts are genuinely useful. But I built a store in the middle of the desert with no roads leading to it. Zero organic traffic. Zero marketplace presence. Zero distribution.
I'm a builder, not a marketer. And that's been the problem.
What I've Tried
| Strategy | Result |
|---|---|
| SEO-optimized pages | Google won't index (1 page after 30 days) |
| Dev.to articles | Near-zero views without followers |
| Email-gated free tools | Captured mostly bot emails |
| Internal linking | No effect — Google isn't crawling |
| IndexNow submissions | Accepted but no indexing movement |
Where I Am Now
I'm pivoting to marketplace distribution. Instead of hoping people find my site, I'm listing individual prompts on PromptBase, PromptHero, and similar platforms where buyers are already searching.
The logic: stop trying to build traffic from zero. Go where the traffic already exists.
My Honest Question to You
If you had:
- 22 working AI tools
- 21 polished prompt packs
- Zero traffic
- Zero budget for ads
What would you do differently?
I'm genuinely asking. Not fishing for engagement — I need perspectives from people who've actually shipped products and found customers.
Some specific questions:
- Is the marketplace pivot (PromptBase etc.) the right call?
- Has anyone here actually sold digital products with zero initial audience?
- What's the fastest path to a first sale when you're starting from nothing?
I'll respond to every comment. I'm here to learn, not to promote.
If you're curious about the tools themselves, my site is midastools.co — but honestly, that's not why I'm posting this. I need strategy advice more than traffic.
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