Finding 10 Paid Users in One Month: Day 1

Hello Indie Hackers,

This month I've decided to challenge myself to find my first 10 paid users in just 30 days.

I've been working on my "simple" keyword rank tracker for way too long, and although I've received excellent feedback from early users on the free plan, it's time to validate the idea with a couple of paid customers.

I'll be documenting everything I do, daily, to find those customers—so other Indie Hackers can follow my journey and, if successful, replicate my methodology.

Here's what I've done today:

Posted my app on the Shopify App Store

A while ago, I subscribed to Darko's ZeroToUsers mailing list. One of his top-of-the-list recommendations to find early users is to create an app specifically for existing marketplaces like Slack, WordPress, or Shopify.

Because I already have a small mailing list (121 subscribers and growing) consisting mainly of Shopify merchants, I decided to post my app on the Shopify App Store.

It turns out to be a fairly long review process (2 weeks), and since I have no experience with Shopify apps I'm expecting a rejection or two. Hopefully, I get approved before the end of the month!

Cold messaged 15 users through various Facebook groups

Cold e-mailing worked really well as an acquisition method for my previous business, so as a part of my daily routine for the next 30 days, I will be messaging between 15 and 30 Facebook users to get them to try out my app.

Although this tactic can be seen as a bit spammy, it just works. This is how I got most of the current (free) users for TapTimize, and some of them provided really helpful feedback that helped shape the product.

The only problem is that it is really boring to message 15 different people every day, keep up with the conversation in a timely manner, and having to endure a lot of rejection.

Started documenting the journey on Indie Hackers

With this post, my goal is to help other indie hackers who might be struggling with finding their first paid customers.

So if you're anything like me, follow along—and suggest your own ideas to find customers. I'm sure we'll learn a thing or two :)