30 days ago I posted here with $0 revenue. Here's what actually happened next.
I posted on Indie Hackers 14 days ago. $0 revenue. 2,400 scans. A tool nobody knew about.
I almost quit three times since then.
Here is everything that happened.
The shadowban nobody told me about
For months I had been writing YouTube comments promoting TruthScore on make money online videos. Hundreds of comments. Zero clicks. Zero engagement.
I finally figured out why.
YouTube was shadowbanning every single comment containing my link. The comments were visible to me but invisible to everyone else. Months of work. Seen by nobody.
The fix? Stop including the link. Let curiosity do the work instead. Within days comments started getting replies.
The creator who called me out
I scanned a video from a creator called Marshall Malaba and posted the TruthScore result in his comments. He replied publicly:
"There's no affiliate marketing here stop lying"
He was right. TruthScore had misclassified his personal business links as a high pressure affiliate funnel. A genuine false positive.
I replied, owned the mistake, explained the algorithm, and apologised. He saw it. That interaction led me to fix a real flaw in the scoring system that was unfairly penalising legitimate creators.
A public callout became a product improvement. I'll take that.
The SaaS creator who noticed
I scanned a video from Nick Saraev — a well known SaaS builder — and posted the results in his comments without a link, just the data.
He replied:
"I have no idea what this is, but thanks."
That's the most encouraging thing anyone has said about TruthScore in six months.
Where I am today:
Revenue: still $0
Email subscribers: 13 real humans
YouTube subscribers: 10
Videos scanned total: 2,400+
Comments that were actually seen by humans: probably 20% of what I posted
Times I almost quit: 3
Times I actually quit: 0
What I've learned:
Distribution is harder than building. Everyone says this. Nobody tells you what it actually feels like to write 200 comments that nobody sees, make videos that get 17 views, and watch your PayPal sit at $0.00 for six months while you keep going anyway.
But here is the thing. The tool works. The gate converts. The popup works. The scoring is getting more accurate with every false positive someone calls out.
I'm not waiting for a viral moment anymore. I'm building the kind of consistency that makes a viral moment possible when it comes.
TruthScore is free. It scans any YouTube video in 10 seconds and tells you whether it's trying to help you or profit from you.
If you've made it this far — try it. And if you're building something with zero traction right now, reply below. I want to hear from you.
truthscore.online
This is really inspiring me bruh since i am facing this right now tnx for sharing journey
The shadowban point is really interesting because a lot of platforms seem to treat "new account + outbound link" as spam automatically now, even if the comment itself is good. I've started noticing the same thing in smaller communities too.
Honestly I think removing the links was the right move. If the idea is strong enough, curiosity usually performs better than forcing the click anyway.
Also the way you handled the false positive probably helped the product more than getting defensive would have. Most people understand mistakes, they just want to see that the builder responds intelligently when they happen.
This is a stronger signal than it may look from the outside.
The important part is not just that TruthScore scans YouTube videos. It is that you are finding a real wedge in creator trust: people want to know whether a video is genuinely helpful, quietly funneling them into an offer, or using pressure tactics they did not notice.
That is a bigger trust/intelligence problem than one YouTube scanner.
The naming is worth pressure-testing now. TruthScore explains the current function, but it also feels very literal and slightly browser-tool-like. If this grows into broader creator trust scoring, affiliate funnel detection, video risk signals, or consumer protection around online advice, the name may start feeling smaller than the system you are building.
A name like Exirra .com would fit that bigger direction better because it feels more like a signal intelligence product, not just a score label. The product is already about reading hidden incentives and surfacing risk. The brand should make that feel serious before users even scan their first video.
I’d think about this before more YouTube comments, subscribers, and search traffic start locking people into TruthScore as the final frame.
One more thing —
My name is Kelon. I'm a recent graduate from Kenya, currently building small SaaS tools with barely enough to keep the lights on. In December last year I got scammed by a YouTube video promising easy online income. Instead of just being angry about it I built TruthScore to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else.
I'm not a serial founder. I don't have investors. I don't have a team. Just me, a laptop, and a tool I genuinely believe can help people.
If you have 60 seconds I'd love for you to try TruthScore on any YouTube video you've been meaning to watch — truthscore.online — and tell me honestly:
Did the score make sense to you?
What would make you trust it more?
What would make you pay $9/month for unlimited access?
What's missing that you'd actually want?
Every single reply comes directly to me. No team, no support desk, no AI autoresponder. Just me reading your feedback and taking notes.
Thank you for reading this far. It means more than you know."