I'm George, a solo developer. A month ago I had 10 actor starts across a handful of Apify actors. Today I have 520 users across 45 tools and a 4,310% increase in actor starts.
No ads. No budget. Just a laptop and stubbornness.
Phase 1: Build Volume (Week 1-2)
I built 45 actors instead of perfecting one. Every actor is a landing page indexed by Google. 45 actors = 45 chances to rank for a long-tail keyword.
I grouped them:
- Standby APIs (instant): Email Validator, AI Content Detector, Domain WHOIS
- Scrapers (batch): LinkedIn Employee Scraper, Google Scholar, YouTube Transcript
- Niche tools: OFAC Sanctions, US Tariff Lookup
Phase 2: SEO the Store Listings
Every actor got:
- Title = exact search term. Not "Data Extraction Tool v2" but "LinkedIn Company Employees Scraper"
- README with Mermaid architecture diagram. Signals quality to first-time visitors
- Real JSON output examples. People want to see what they're getting before clicking Run
- Pay-per-event pricing. Users pay per result, not per minute
await Actor.charge({
eventName: 'linkedin-employee',
count: employees.length
});
Phase 3: Distribute Everywhere
What worked:
- Reddit (carefully) — posted in r/scrapingtools as a mod, not as a promoter. "Here's my 27-tool collection, roast them" got more engagement than any link drop
- Twitter/X — 3-4 tweets/day, only 30% link to actors. The observation tweets (no links) performed best
- dev.to + Hashnode + Medium — technical tutorials targeting specific search terms, not "10 Reasons to Use My API"
- GitHub repos — every actor has a companion repo. GitHub ranks well on Google
What flopped:
- Discord cold DMs — posted in 10+ servers, response rate: zero
- Hacker News — account too new for Show HN, slow karma grind
- RapidAPI cross-listing — 16 subscribers, $0 revenue, too crowded
The Numbers
| Metric | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Actor starts | ~100 | 4,410+ | +4,310% |
| Total users | ~30 | 520 | +1,633% |
| Actors deployed | 3 | 45 | +1,400% |
Top performers: LinkedIn Scraper (130 users), YouTube Transcript (104 users), Google Scholar (1,305 runs/month from 13 power users).
What I'd Do Differently
- Start with 5 actors, not 45. Maintaining 45 is a nightmare. Every library update breaks something.
- Invest in one hero actor early. LinkedIn got 130 users organically. Should have doubled down sooner.
- Build in public from day one. "Here's what I'm building today" posts outperformed everything.
Browse my full portfolio: george.the.developer on Apify
Find me on X: @ai_in_it
Top comments (0)