I built a free Etsy Fee Calculator as a lead gen strategy

Hey everyone! 👋

I'm building SellerMind — a suite of AI-powered tools for Etsy sellers (listing optimization, analytics, etc).

Instead of jumping straight to paid features, I started with a free tool strategy: build genuinely useful free tools → build trust → convert to paid.

First tool is an Etsy Fee Calculator:
🔗 https://thesellermind.com/tools/fee-calculator

Why this tool?

• Etsy sellers constantly struggle with fee calculations (listing fees, transaction fees, payment processing — it's confusing)
• High search volume for "Etsy fee calculator" (SEO opportunity)
• It's a natural entry point — sellers who care about fees also care about optimizing their listings

Tech stack:

• Next.js + shadcn/ui
• All calculations client-side (instant, works offline)
• Deployed on Vercel

Next free tools in the pipeline:

• Etsy listing title generator
• Etsy tag analyzer
• Profit margin optimizer

Each tool funnels users toward the paid SaaS features.

Curious if this "free tools first" approach has worked for other founders here? Would love to hear your experiences with product-led growth for niche SaaS.

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Full disclosure: I'm the developer of SellerMind. I built this tool because I needed it myself.