Two weeks of trying every free distribution channel I could find to sell a $19 digital product. Here is what actually happened.
The Product
A verified CSV of 798 marketing agency contacts across 54 countries. Built by scraping agency websites over two weekends using a custom Python pipeline.
Channel Results (ranked)
1. Indie Hackers — Best Engagement, Zero Sales
65+ posts published. 39+ comments. Real conversations, collaboration offers, landing page feedback. But the audience is indie developers — they do not need agency contact lists.
2. Dev.to — Good SEO, Zero Product Clicks
32 articles published. Several rank on Google. But dev.to readers are developers, not salespeople.
3. Cold Email — Worked Until Gmail Killed It
342 personalized emails sent to agencies across 41 countries. 3 replies (0.82% reply rate). Then Google restricted the account.
4. Gumroad — Zero Organic Discovery
26 products listed. Zero organic views. Discover only activates after your first sale.
5. Hacker News — Rate Limited
1 post submitted. Minimal traction. New accounts need karma before posting frequently.
What I Would Do Differently
- Find where buyers already search — for agency contacts, that is LinkedIn and niche Slack communities
- Validate before building — I built 26 products before talking to a customer
- One product, all attention — 26 products at zero attention each loses to 1 product with full focus
Free Sample
Want to evaluate the data? Grab a free sample of 50 agency contacts:
Building in public. Currently at $0 revenue and 73+ posts across platforms.
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