I've noticed something interesting while reading posts from other indie developers. Some people seem to genuinely enjoy marketing. They publish som...
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Same problem from the other side. We built 14 small data tools in two days, then spent a day on "marketing": about 25 posts and replies, and one like in total.
What we learned so far: posting into a feed where nobody follows you does almost nothing, and the build-it part really is the easy half. What we're trying next is replying with one specific, useful number under posts that already have readers, and pages that each answer one exact search question, since search doesn't care about follower count. Too early to say if either works. Happy to compare notes in a month.
14 tools in two days and 25 posts for one like is a pretty painful result. And I understand it very well. Sometimes writing the actual software feels easier than explaining why anyone should care about it. I also like your idea about answering specific search questions instead of just posting into an empty feed. But how are you planning to measure whether it works? Views and likes are nice, but I'm more interested in whether anyone actually starts using the product. Comparing results in a month sounds interesting!
Good question, and it's the one we got wrong at first. We were counting views.
Now we track three numbers each week: people outside our own account who run one of our tools, how many of them pay, and how many come back for a second run. Likes don't enter into it. A post counts as working only if outside runs go up in the days after it.
So far it's small but real: two outside paying users this week, both on tools that answer a narrow, searchable question. That supports the "answer specific questions" idea more than anything we posted into the feed. I'll report back in a month, numbers good or bad.
Same struggle here as a solo founder. What finally worked for me was breaking marketing into tiny daily tasks instead of "launch day" — like 20–30 mins: one useful comment, one reply, one small post a few times a week.
It stops feeling like ads when you're just sharing what you're learning while building. People follow the journey first, then check out the product on their own.
Start before release — even a "here's what I'm building and why" post gets you early feedback.
I think this might be the most realistic approach for me. Spending 20-30 minutes a day sounds much less painful than suddenly remembering after release that I need to promote an entire application. My biggest problem is that whenever I have free time, I automatically open my IDE instead of a social network. I probably need to treat marketing as another regular task, even if it's not my favourite one. How do you usually decide what to write about? Do you plan your posts in advance or just share whatever happened during development?
Same here, the IDE always wins 😄 What helped me was putting marketing after coding. I spend the first 20 mins on it, then reward myself with the IDE.
On topics, it’s a mix:
Loose plan: I keep a notes file with 5–10 ideas (problems I solved, mistakes, tools I tried) so I never start from a blank page.
Dev log: anything that annoyed or surprised me that day turns into a quick post. Those usually do better than the planned ones.
A simple rule: if you’d explain it to a friend over chat, it’s worth a post. Bug fixes, “why I picked X over Y” and small wins all count.
What are you building, by the way?
The line about fixing a bug that affects three people is the one I'd build a post around. Those three already care, and a short write-up of what broke and how you found it is easier to publish than a launch post. Do you ever ask the people who hit a bug what they expected to happen before they reported it?
That's actually a good idea, I never really thought about turning small bug fixes into posts. As a QA engineer, comparing expected and actual behaviour is basically part of my everyday work. But with my own apps, the difficult part is getting people to report anything in the first place. Sometimes I discover a bug myself and wonder how many users already faced it but just closed the app without saying anything. Maybe writing about these fixes would also encourage more people to share their problems. Definitely something worth trying.
This hits hard. I used to treat marketing as a separate, scary task and just kept coding instead. What finally worked for me was reframing it: I don't "market," I just share the specific problems I'm solving while building. One short dev log per week, zero budget, feels like documentation rather than promotion. People who need the tool find it naturally. You don't have to become a salesperson—just make your build visible.
This hits hard — I’m also happier fixing a three-person bug than writing a launch thread. What’s helped a little (still not “marketing personality” level) is treating discovery like a boring checklist: submit once to a handful of free launch directories, then go back to building. I keep a curated free/freemium list for that so I don’t spiral into eighty paid queues: github.com/sherotree/free-backlink... Curious if a low-effort “ship, then list” ritual would feel less awful than daily posting.
This hit home. The line about marketing always feeling like something you'll deal with later is exactly where a lot of builders get stuck. I'm Aaron at Founderless. We're building toward a small private beta of an AI team that plans launch work and has you approve each step. I'm not selling anything. I'd love to ask you two questions about how you decide what to promote. Is it okay to message you?