How I Went From 4 to 100+ Waitlist Signups in 30 Days by Building in Public

When I started building LinkBazaar, I wasn’t sure if the world needed another SEO product. But as a marketer, I did know one thing - where my ICP hangs out.

Instead of running ads or cold campaigns first, I decided to test my assumptions in public. I also ran ads and cold campaigns as low volume, I will share that later.

And that’s how a 30-day #buildinpublic experiment turned into a working beta with 100+ users.

The Problem

Backlink building for real businesses is still messy.

You either:

Waste time with endless outreach,
End up with irrelevant link swaps, or
Get pulled into PBNs and spammy marketplaces.

I wanted to fix that - and test if others wanted it fixed too.

Step 1: Share Before Selling

Day 1: 4 signups.

I set a simple, visible goal:

Reach 100 waitlist signups before opening the beta.

Every day, I shared a small update on X.
Some days +10, some days 0.
Still posted: “An update is an update.”

The goal wasn’t hype - it was validation through visibility.

Step 2: Build Core Modules While Engaging

While tweeting progress, I started building core modules:

User onboarding
Credit ledger
Link verification crawler (Python)
Contextual backlink requests

By Day 25, I hit the 100-signup target and began preparing for beta.

Step 3: Validate the Channel and the Idea

I didn’t just test if people wanted the product.
I tested where they wanted to talk about it.

Every day, I searched X and Reddit for discussions about backlinks, link swaps, or SEO tools.
Joined conversations, shared insights, pitched only if it fit naturally, I mentioned LinkBazaar.

Also ran small LinkedIn outreach tests - DM’d marketers, agency owners, and SaaS founders.

By the third week, it was clear:

My ICP was already active on X, Reddit, and LinkedIn.

That meant I wasn’t just validating a product idea, but a marketing channel in real time.

As a marketer, this felt like the most genuine validation - not traffic, not clicks, but real people replying, asking, and signing up.

Step 4: Hit the Goal, Then Hit the Wall

By Day 25, I reached 100 signups and opened the beta. Generated over 1300 visits and 10% signup on waitlist confirmed my assumption that the ICP is in those channels.

Then came the reality check - hosting setup, payments, and onboarding took longer than expected.
I also faced a personal emergency that slowed progress.

But I shared that too.

“It’s difficult to post when you know you’re lagging - but that’s part of building in public.”

Being honest about lag created more connection than perfect metrics ever could.

Step 5: Ship, Iterate, and Keep Showing Up

In October, I started onboarding the 100+ early users manually.
Added around 80 link opportunities to seed the marketplace.

By Day 60:

106 beta users
92 websites listed
20 backlink requests generated

All organic. No ad spend.

What I Learned

Consistency compounds. Showing up daily builds more trust than paid reach.
Manual discovery > automation (early on). Real users give real feedback.
Your ICP is already talking - just listen. Don’t invent a channel; join it.
Building in public is marketing disguised as accountability.

What’s Next

This week I already made direct exchange system and making it live soon. More users need to be acquired, we have 139 users and 125 websites now.

If you’re building in SEO, content, or marketing automation - I’d love to connect. DM me or comment here.

Traffic Snapshot

I attached what the traffic looked like from August to October- most of it came from daily X updates, Reddit engagement, and a few small ad tests I ran to understand CPA for free signups.

The spike around early September was from consistent build-in-public posts and waitlist signups. After that, traffic normalized, but organic visits continued steadily- which matched my engagement-driven hypothesis.

It’s a reminder that early traction often comes in short bursts, but sustained visibility comes from showing up every day.

Curious:
Have you ever validated both your product and your channel at the same time?

Did it change how you approach growth?

A Note on What’s Coming Next

Along the way, I also ran a few small ad experiments - mostly to understand CPA for free signups and to compare engagement between organic and paid channels.

The early insights were interesting - not so much about conversions, but about where and how people engaged with the idea.

I’m thinking of writing a follow-up post breaking that down - what worked, what didn’t, and how it might help other indie founders who are hesitant to test ads or other channels early.

Would that be something you’d want to read?

(I’ll drop a comment below with the product link for anyone curious.)