From Struggling Creator to Building TurboTags (Free AI Tags & Hashtags Tool)
A year ago, I was struggling as a small creator. I’d spend hours uploading shorts on YouTube and Instagram, only to see… almost no reach.
I realized one big problem: tags and hashtags.
Most of the free tools I tried were outdated or only worked for one platform. The good ones were behind a paywall.
That’s when I decided to build TurboTags.app.
👉 A free AI-powered tool that instantly generates tags, hashtags, and even SEO-friendly titles — for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook.
👉 Supports multiple languages + 30+ regions, so creators everywhere (US, UK, India, Africa, etc.) can grow faster.
👉 No signup. No limits. Just type your topic and get optimized results.
Since launching, I’ve:
Helped 1,000+ creators test the tool
Added multi-language support (EN, HI, UR, RU… more coming)
Expanded targeting to 30+ regions worldwide 🌍
Learned way more about SEO than I expected 😅
Now, I’d love to get feedback from fellow Indie Hackers:
If you’re a creator, what’s the biggest challenge you face with reach?
Which features would you love to see in a tool like this?
Would really appreciate your thoughts! 🙏
TurboTags sounds like a game changer..
Thanks so much, Parag 🙌 Really glad you think so! The whole idea with TurboTags is to make life easier for creators — instead of spending hours guessing titles and hashtags, they can get optimized ideas instantly and focus more on creating. 🚀
Well, as YouTube also said, no ai AI-generated content wil be appreciated, i think that research from such tools also will not be taken in terms of quality
But with TurboTags, the focus isn’t on creating content with AI — it’s on helping creators research smarter: finding the right tags, hashtags, and SEO-friendly titles faster. At the end of the day, quality still comes from the creator — TurboTags just gives them better visibility so their work can actually be discovered.
Really impressive, Khan!
I’m 16 and building Kaelis, an AI Ops Copilot that runs team operations on autopilot.
Seeing how you grew TurboTags to help 1,000+ creators is super inspiring.
Quick question:
How did you get your first wave of users/clients?
Was it mostly Indie Hackers & Reddit, or did you use other channels (SEO, partnerships)?
Would love to learn from your early traction playbook.
Thanks a lot 🙏 That’s awesome you’re building Kaelis at 16 — huge respect for starting this early 🚀
For TurboTags, my first wave of users mostly came from posting in communities (Indie Hackers, Reddit, Twitter/X). I shared my build-in-public journey rather than just the product, and that really helped people connect.
Then I leaned on SEO — simple blog posts + Medium articles started driving organic traffic slowly but steadily. No paid ads, just consistent sharing and backlinks.
Now I’m exploring partnership mentions (cross-linking with other AI tools) to reach adjacent audiences.
If I had to summarize my traction playbook:
Build something genuinely useful (creators test & share fast).
Share the story openly in communities.
Layer SEO so traffic compounds over time.
Curious — are you thinking of growing Kaelis through community-first channels too, or planning to test a more B2B/enterprise path?
Thanks so much for sharing all that detail 🙏
Super inspiring to see how much came from community + SEO without paid ads.
For Kaelis I’m aiming more at B2B SaaS / operations teams, so I’m still figuring out which early channels convert best.
I’m considering a mix of Indie Hackers / Reddit for the story and direct outreach on LinkedIn for early companies.
Curious: when you started leaning into SEO, how soon did you begin to see steady organic traffic? And if you were targeting a B2B audience, would you still begin with communities first or go straight to LinkedIn-style outreach?
Great question 🙌 For me, SEO started showing a steady trickle around the 3–4 month mark once a few posts ranked, then it snowballed as more pages got indexed. Definitely slower than community traction but much more compounding over time.
If I were going B2B, I’d probably do both in parallel: communities (Indie Hackers, Reddit) for story + credibility, and LinkedIn outreach for early users/feedback. Communities give you trust, but LinkedIn gives you pipeline — the combo is strong.
Super helpful, thanks for breaking that down 🙌
Love the idea of running both in parallel — community for trust + LinkedIn for pipeline.
I’ll start testing that mix right away and share how it goes. Appreciate you sharing the timeline on SEO too — 3–4 months is great to know.
Glad it helped, Ernesto 🙌 Excited to see how Kaelis grows — B2B ops has huge potential. Definitely share updates when you test that mix, I’d love to hear what works best for you. Always learning from how others approach traction 🚀