My landing page was killing my sales and I didn't know it
I got 3 sales in my first 2 weeks. Then 0 in the next 2 weeks. 158 visitors, $0 revenue.
I am selling a $39 distribution framework for indie hackers. I kept tweaking things. Posting more. Sending more DMs. Nothing moved.
Then someone gave me feedback I didn't want to hear: "you're selling a product that helps people get customers... but your own page shows otherwise."
I had my exact numbers on the landing page. I thought I was being transparent. Building trust by showing real data.
Turns out when your product promises to help people get customers, showing that you've barely gotten any yourself is the worst possible social proof.
It doesn't matter that 3 sales in 2 weeks is decent for a solo founder. The visitor sees the number, compares it to the promise, and leaves.
Here's what I changed:
- Removed all specific sales counts from the page
- Rewrote the founder story to focus on the process (going from 2% reply rate to 27%) instead of the scoreboard
- Kept the pricing urgency counter (X/5 sold at current price) because that one actually drives action
- Tightened the copy overall, less about me, more about what the buyer gets
The sales I did get both came from Indie Hackers and Reddit. Not from cold DMs. Community and inbound, not outbound. That was the other thing I had wrong, I was crediting the wrong channel.
Still figuring this out. But at least now my landing page isn't actively working against itself.
Anyone else found that "being transparent" on their landing page backfired?
