Ranking every distribution channel i tried — from best to worst

2 weeks, 7 channels. heres how they performed.

1. indie hackers (best for engagement, worst for sales)
54 posts, 39 comments. people read, engage, follow the story. nobody buys. audience mismatch — builders dont need agency contact lists.

2. dev.to (decent reach, zero conversion)
5 articles. good SEO juice. articles rank on google. zero clicks to product pages.

3. cold email (worked until gmail killed it)
342 emails sent. 3 replies (0.82%). 1 warm lead. then google restricted the account for spam. channel is dead until appeal processes.

4. hacker news (one post, rate limited)
1 post live. 1 karma. cant submit more until karma builds. the post got zero traction.

5. gumroad (zero organic discovery)
26 products listed. zero organic views. gumroad discover requires a sale to activate. catch-22.

6. linkedin (logged in, zero connections)
account exists. agency founders are searchable. but zero connections means zero reach. needs weeks of network building before posting has value.

7. etsy (not yet launched but highest potential)
millions of buyers searching for digital downloads. organic discovery built in. listing is prepped but account not created yet.

the lesson

the best channel is the one where your buyer already searches for your product. for agency contact lists, thats etsy and linkedin — not indie hackers.

free sample: https://vemtrac.gumroad.com/l/blole
full list: https://vemtrac-outreach.pages.dev/leads