A simple and efficient way to find your first users 🚀

This is the kick I needed to shift gear and you are 100% right just sitting and hoping is, well, hopeless!

thx for the insight. I tend to understand the optics on this. I myself like to build but not do marketing. meanwhile, objectively we need everything to be done right

good luck

Would you use a simple recommendation API instead of building one?

Thanks for sharing this, it is a good approach.

This is exactly the push I needed today, Malte. I’ve definitely been guilty of the '(Optional 😉) do nothing for 7 months' phase before. I just launched my first iOS app, Manifest, and I've been so focused on the Cursor/Supabase side of things that I almost forgot that 5 targeted emails can beat 1,000 lines of code. Your 60% response rate from bloggers is insane, do you think the 'asking for feedback' angle was the main reason they didn't see it as spam

Hi, this is very important for me know. I appreciate your info. I'm building a plugin for the JetBrains IDE called Code Tracker AI. It is a working MVP. I need users and feedback now. I have found blogs written online about it by people and companies but I still need software engineers to try it out. Thanks for the post.

That is a great approach. Going to steal it shamelessly. Thanks for sharing!!

Learned that it's much faster to first find articles relevant to your business, then privately message the blogger for experience sharing, along with non-pushy product recommendations. This is much quicker than messaging users one by one - one of the benefits of contacting KOLs. A great approach for cold starts. Thanks for sharing your perspective.

Malte, the ROI here is absolutely insane. Sending 5 emails to get 300-400 DAU is a dream conversion rate.

I'm currently grinding through cold outreach on LinkedIn for my dev agency, and it's a sheer numbers game (hundreds of invites to get a few conversations). Your approach of targeting "Listicle Authors" ("Top 10 tools for...") seems much smarter because their audience is already looking for a solution.

I love the "Feedback Loop" hook in your email copy. Asking for advice instead of a direct sale is probably why they replied. Definitely stealing this strategy for the B2B space. Thanks for sharing the template!

This is the first post I came across after being told about IH, and after reading it I knew I need to sign up and be a part of this community. Thank you for sharing.

Found this as great inspiration to finding my first customers for my digital product!

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is that the only way..like searching and emailing..i mean for a student are there any specific sites or apps or smth like that on the internet where you can get some good traffic esp if you need testimonials and feedback on your newly built apps or web services (like me)...

Thanks for sharing this — super practical and encouraging. Sometimes a few thoughtful emails can beat weeks of silence and waiting. Very helpful reminder to take action early!

Guys, I have a question — where should I write a blog about my website? If I choose to write a blog on my own website, it feels useless because no one is visiting it, so how will they read my blog?

That's really interesting, thanks for sharing and let's apply some of these hints!

Nice write up.

You might want to look at the accessibility issues though. I suspect that just changing the gradient background might be a quick win. Google doesn't penalize but indirectly it might still help.

Wow, your sharing is so inspiring! If you want to leverage these insights into a stronger community, I recommend trying TWT Community! It's free for building communities, managing users, and monetizing content. It even supports custom domains and has zero transaction fees!

I am sailing the same boat as you were sailing. I get immense satisfaction in building products to the point that I feel marketing is like a chore. But then to get traffic one has to do it. I have an app and I am submitting it to app listing directories on and off. But this seems like an interesting and implementable idea. Thanks for sharing. To start with I will definitely look into blog posts specific to my app.

Amazing idea! I actually thought about something similar for my E-Commerce business. I havent executed it let but lets see if works out!

Thanks again!

Love this breakdown! 5 emails → 300-400 DAU is incredible ROI.

But here's what most founders miss when they try to replicate this:

The Setup Phase Matters More Than The Outreach

Malte interviewed teachers first. He built for a real problem. When he finally reached out, he had substance to offer.

I see founders skip this and go straight to "please feature my tool" emails. 99% get ignored.

The Email Psychology

"Since you know a lot about digital teaching..." = ego stroke ✅

"Would love your feedback" = low-pressure ask ✅

"If you like it, maybe add to your list" = easy yes ✅

Compare this to typical founder emails:

"Hi, I built this amazing tool that will revolutionize education. Please write about it."

The Follow-Up Gap

Malte admits he forgot to follow up with one blogger. This is where most opportunities die. I track every outreach email and follow up after 1 week, then 1 month.

Anyone else tried blogger outreach? What was your response rate?

Great! thanks for sharing.

Thank you for sharing this practical strategy! After building an MVP of AMAGO Platform - a toolkit that simplifies product research and niche analysis for beginner Amazon sellers, I’m seeking beta testers willing to provide honest feedback. Testers interested in exploring the beta version and sharing thoughts are invited to participate. Input from this group will be crucial for making AMAGO even better. Please indicate interest to join.

I love how much of a "marketing win" this is, especially the "low hanging fruit" approach to it. Very good stuff.

Some of the stuff is obscured from the write-up, so this is what I could gather from the above text (these are educated guesses, so I might be wrong):

• A Clear Product Positioning: "digital worksheets for teachers". When you have a clear positioning, it makes your marketing (therefore your life) so much easier.
• A "Defined" Target Market: "Teachers". See how it is already included in the above positioning statement. When you know who you are after, it is so much easier to acquire a part of the market. Remember, "everyone" as a target market is the enemy of marketing.
• Relevant Key Opinion Leaders: Notice how the OP did not go after "the famous Instagram influencer" and instead opted for very relevant key people who are in the "digital teaching" niche.
• Not included in the write-up, Unmistakable Benefit Statement: "Create, distribute and evaluate a digital worksheet in a few minutes". This is the highest level of message when you arrive at the website. Doesn't leave much for the imagination.
• Also not included in the write-up, A Super Simple CTA: "Create A Worksheet Now", just like that. Extremely relevant for the target market. Not "learn how can worksheet.digital help you solve the issues you are having", not "evaluate us versus other solution providers for digital worksheets" (although, depending on your situation you might need that kind of CTA too). Simple. Elegant.

So, I'd say, it is not just about reaching out to a few bloggers. There was a lot of "fundamental" work poured into this. Not everything is immediately apparent.

One of the best articles I've seen on IH. Thanks for the inspiration. Tell me, how do you keep the users coming back day after day?

I hope it will help me, as well. Because I am also building a startup -- Property Partners, you can check it out if want to.

Just came across this post — even though it’s been a few years, it’s still incredibly helpful.
The simple, honest approach of reaching out to bloggers with value and respect is a great reminder.
Thanks for sharing your journey and the copy you used. I'm working on an app for readers and writers (Newt), and this gave me ideas on how to reach niche bloggers without feeling spammy. Thanks again!

Wow, thanks so much for the detailed write-up. I have just launched my first startup https://www.ADHDgenius.club 2 days ago and will definitely try your approach (without the 7 month wait haha). I have briefly researched my keywords on google but found only competition. Will dig deeper and find someone that is more aligned and can do a review. Thinking of also introducing an affiliate system. So many thoughts and ideas, I am so happy I found this community to help me make sense of it all.
Or and I wanted to say I am like you, feel so happy and satisfied just building something that marketing is always meh. Plus there is always the NEXT BIG IDEA to work on haha. I am considering trying a mind hack of thinking of marketing as a creating and building process as well - creating a customer base, building a following. Will try to find a way to visualise and measure it. Hope it will help me get into it.
Thanks again for the great inspiration.

Nice, thanks for sharing! Marketing became a habit for me thanks to https://codingweekmarketingweek.com/ :)

Wow, great article Malte! I'm going to try it for my website!

Thanks for the great article! Especially your letter example was very useful!

Thanks for sharing. Reaching to Bloggers is an approach we haven't tried yet. Will do

I feel that this is exactly what I'm going through. I love building and it's satisfying by itself, but I'm not prone to "expose myself" so I don't market at all. For me, the exposure seems like too much personally - so I try to do it under the company's name or something.

Congrats on doing this! I'm a step behind you in this journey, hopefully you'll make a habit out of it too!

This is super cool! I just learned a lot about SEO as well (props to ahrefs youtube channel) and think this is a super underrated way of getting users, especially in the indiehacking space. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers from a fellow german indiehacker who is doing nothing for marketing atm 🍻

I hate to be that guy, but I haven't seen it mentioned ... how many of those users are paying? or are all of them paying customers?

Great post, really enjoyed reading it. Did you speak to teachers before building out the MVP or did you do anything else to validate the problem or product before you spent time building it? Would love to understand more of what your process was there too.

Thanks for sharing your insights with us and the inspiration. Your message is so simple and straightforward. Love that!

Thank you for sharing your story and tips. I am close to completing my MVP and will be looking for early adopters next. Curious if you ever considered paid online advertising and how that could supplement your cold emails?

I am building something. This is something I am definitely going to try this for my first saas . Thanks for sharing. 🔥

gold advice, thanks for sharing and congrats for the milestones. btw may I know a real example email you are using to outreach?

Good insight. Love how you have broken the ice with those five emails, and as the result, you got much more active users. I might try the same.

sir i have a website that make a resume perfect and free
please give backlink in your article
i have no money that time ,please help me to grow

thank you for sharing

This is great! Our product is AI based, so we ended up listing our product on a few free directories (and a few paid ones too). I like the idea of reaching out to bloggers! Definitely will try this approach. Thanks!

Dead simple and great approach to getting the words out to relevant customers! Thanks for sharing! I do overthink too much as well on the marketing aspect, but this should be easy to do :)

This is such a simple strategy and I feel dumb for not thinking of it in such simple terms earlier. Thanks for sharing not only your story but also a simple template to follow!

Thanks for the article! I will send out a few mails this week for a few bloggers to test out my app(s). I don't want to directly ask them to mention them somewhere, just give me feedback on the apps and then see where this leads to :)

Thanks for sharing the email template!

This is definitely something I will try. Thanks!

Wow! Quite an impressive way of marketing! Thanks for sharing

Very inspiring. Love it

Now this is, a down to earth kind of advice. 🎉
Love it, very inspiring

This is cool. Thank you a very new idea for me to try

This is wonderful. We are definitely going to try it out for https://reinforz.ai
We still don't have an affiliate link yet, but seriously considering one after reading the other comments.

Great post! Eventually, you could possibly include an affiliate link to further incentivize bloggers to write about your app. Probably overkill for now, but could be worth it down the road.

To your point about avoiding the marketing piece-- I definitely struggle with that too. Part of my thinks it's cause I'd rather be building something, another part of me knows that it's just my unwillingness to put myself/product out there. Good luck!

I like the way you share and that would be Inbound Marketing using free marketing channels, of course SEM or PPC as needed. I will apply your method to my Fordeer: Invoice Order Printer product. Our product works on Shopify and it is very specific, if possible suggest me effective marketing methods on this platform.
Here is the product link: https://apps.shopify.com/fordeer-data-export?st_source=autocomplete
Try it now and give us suggestions for improvement. Thank you.

It seems like nowadays you have integrated payments into your site. Don't mind sharing how much revenue your site now generates?

I will definitely try this, for my next app release! simple and direct, thanks for sharing!

Nice informative post.. Thanks for sharing your experience. We are building a no-code platform for backend development. We are in our early alpha stage. We can do custom integrations and support based on customer requirements.
We shall definitely try out the methodologies as we re looking for early users and initial feedback of our product.

Thanks a lot @PaintedPike ! this is very insightful.
If you don't mind, could you share the email formate/copy you used to convince authors to review your tool?

Thanks for sharing! This is something I should try as well :)

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks a lot for sharing, Malte. It's quite useful.

This is an awesome post. I'm in the same boat as you were (waiting for the users to come). And some have come, but I need to do outreach so I appreciate the ideas. I'm going to reach out to 5 people like you did.

Thank you for sharing. I'm thinking of building a Simple Inventory Management Web App. This really gave me some things to think about in terms of marketing( I have no idea or experience with marketing).

Thank God for people who post actually useful marketing advice. Well done!

I did something similar but did not occur to me to try to reach people who were writing about how to solve the problems my product is solving. Gotta fix this today :D Thanks

Amazing!!! Congrats on getting the initial users

Awesome post @PaintedPike! I recently reached out to 8 blogs who wrote these types of articles for my niche (LinkTree Alternatives).

Still waiting to hear back from them but glad to know that this type of outreach leads to more traffic.

Very helpful, I'm feeling lucky that I read it. Thank you for sharing 🙏

Simple and effective, great story and advice. I'm like you and am happy just building away, but these posts help me remember the other things I have to focus on once I have a working app. Thank you!

Thanks! I'll definitely be adapting this for myself!

Very Insightful post.

This is really practical advice. Thanks

Thank you for the advice.

After reading the comments, I feel like there is a small problem/opportunity here - reaching to authors. I am sure there are some tools out there, but i wonder if there is a tool that you can paste list of URLs and cold email outreach starts.

I like worksheet.digital. Good idea, good post. Good work!

Go to a club: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMLfoGY3P/

Thanks, is very insightful!

if you are looking for a co-founder, you will find him/her.
https://www.bherebthere.com/

Really cool idea. Thanks for sharing.

thanks for sharing!

Anyone know any bloggers who talk about calendar tools?

This is exactly what I was looking for 😍❤️

Just think small to begin with. Don't overthink it. Try to think of getting from zero users to 1 user -- then from 1 user to two users. Baby steps. Go to where your users hangout and help them solve the problems that are giving them pain. That's how we are building https://fabform.io our backend forms SAAS. Think small baby steps!

Thank you for sharing your experience

Good advice. I actually tried doing this last week but the author was UNREACHABLE, lol, no Twitter, no presence, nada.

So the "approachable" part is important.

While it sounds great, unfortunately on most of the blogs that are relevant to me, I am unable to contact the author directly.

I found this post to be very inspiring and motivating. I can relate to the author's experience of feeling satisfied with building alone, but also knowing that marketing is important for reaching a wider audience and getting feedback to improve your product.

The author's example of reaching out to bloggers is a great example of how to start with marketing. It's a low-barrier-to-entry way to get your product in front of potential users and get feedback.

I also appreciate the author's honesty about his struggles with marketing consistency. It's a common challenge that many people face, and it's helpful to know that you're not alone.

Overall, I think this post is a great resource for anyone who is looking to get started with marketing their product.

Here are some additional thoughts:

It's important to set small, achievable goals for your marketing efforts. Don't try to do too much too soon.
Find a marketing method that you enjoy and that fits into your workflow.
Don't be afraid to experiment and try new things.