Asked this community where my first 10 customers would come from. Here's what I got wrong that I didn't expect.
A couple days ago I posted here about having two finance spreadsheet products (a SaaS financial model and an Etsy seller profit/tax tracker) with zero sales and asked where people's first real customers actually came from. Got way more useful pushback than I expected, so here's the honest follow-up on what I got wrong.
The positioning problem: both products are "for everyone," which several people pointed out is actually "for no one" in terms of knowing where to go find buyers. I'd written the Etsy tracker's listing like a feature list instead of matching how someone frustrated at tax time would actually search. I hadn't compared my listing title or first photo to real search terms at all - I'd written them the way I'd describe the product, not the way a buyer types a query.
The messaging problem: for the SaaS model, I'd buried the one feature people actually reacted to (it auto-writes your investor update paragraph from live numbers) as bullet point three in a list, instead of leading with it.
The product problem, which was the uncomfortable one: multiple people asked whether the tax tracker is actually used past month one or just during tax panic, since it's a manual ledger, not synced to Etsy's API. I don't have an answer yet because I don't have real users, but the honest read is that's a real retention risk, not a hypothetical one. Someone else flagged that the tool has no sanity-check on materials cost input either, which is the one number in the whole P&L that isn't handed to you by the platform.
None of this is "the product is bad." It's "I hadn't pressure-tested the parts that actually matter yet." Rewriting both listings this week around the actual search behavior instead of the feature list, and going to go look at Etsy seller communities specifically instead of generic SEO.
Anyone else find that the most useful feedback you got was the thing that stung a little, not the thing that was easy to agree with?
The "for everyone" diagnosis is right, but I'd push it one layer further: "for everyone" is usually a symptom of not having decided which moment you're selling into.
You have two products and two completely different moments. The Etsy tracker sells into tax season, and into the week a seller realises they don't actually know whether a $28 sale made money. The SaaS financial model sells into raising, or into someone being asked for a forecast they don't have. Pick the moment first and the audience falls out of it, and so does the copy, because you can finally write the sentence the buyer would say out loud.
On the listing specifically: for an Etsy digital product the title and tags are the search engine. Buyers don't browse, they query. So the title should be the query, not a name. Something like "Etsy Seller Profit and Tax Tracker Spreadsheet, Schedule C Ready, 2026" will beat anything clever. And the first photo has to state the outcome in text that's readable at thumbnail size, because for most people that thumbnail is the entire product page.
The part I'd add, since it's what cost me the most time: in most communities where your buyers actually are, promotion is banned. Not discouraged, banned. I'm working through a few hundred communities for a product of mine right now and roughly a third ban self-promo outright. That sounds like a wall and it's actually the map, because in those places the only available channel is answering questions, and answering questions converts better than the post you weren't allowed to make. Someone who watched you explain a tax categorisation correctly will go and click your profile. Nobody clicks an ad.
Two tactical things from the same exercise:
"Promo friendly" labels in community directories are wrong more often than they're right. Read the rules behind the join, not the listing blurb. I've had two out of three "promo welcome" labels turn out to be permanent-ban-on-sight once I was inside.
One post per community, ever, and never the same text twice in the same community. Automated filters compare your posts to each other before they compare them to the rules.
And the channel almost nobody works: search intent. People type "how to track Etsy fees for taxes" and "QuickBooks alternative for Etsy sellers" constantly, all year. One plain, honest page that answers the first one properly will outlive every post you make, and it's the only distribution that compounds while you sleep.
Clear and practical, thanks. Did anything surprise you along the way?
Clear and practical, thanks. Did anything surprise you along the way?
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Great breakdown. What feedback have you had from early users?
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
The search terms observation is the one that'll actually move revenue. Most Etsy sellers typing frustration into Google aren't searching "profit tracker spreadsheet" — they're searching "how to track Etsy fees and taxes" or "am I actually making money on Etsy." If your listing title doesn't match the question, the product doesn't exist to that person.
We learned the same thing building UtilitySEO. Our free scan checks 100+ ranking factors, but nobody searches "multi-factor SEO analysis." They search "why is my site not ranking" or "check my website SEO." The tool is identical either way — the words on the door determine who walks in.
The retention question about manual ledger vs API sync is worth answering before rewriting listings, not after. If the answer is "tax panic only," that shapes which search terms to target and what the listing should promise.
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Great breakdown. What feedback have you had from early users?
Great breakdown. What feedback have you had from early users?
Clear and practical, thanks. Did anything surprise you along the way?
Yes to the feedback that stings. The most useful thing I heard this week was that the team picker on my site was annoying on mobile (the keyboard popped up and hid half the list). Not fun to hear after launch, but it was a 20-minute fix that probably mattered more than any marketing I did.
Your "for everyone = for no one" point hits too. Going after specific fan communities one at a time is working better for me than posting to general audiences.
Really solid approach — I'm juggling something similar myself (building Xstream4K on the side), what's been the hardest part for you so far?
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
Interesting. How are you measuring whether it is working?
Nice progress. What is the next thing you are focusing on?
Nice work shipping it. What has been the biggest challenge since launch?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Great breakdown. What feedback have you had from early users?
Makes sense. Are you planning to charge for it, or keep it free for now?
Great breakdown. What feedback have you had from early users?