Two sales, 12.6k views, and the SEO problem I didn't see coming

I have been building MOSHELL solo — a browser-based Linux sandbox, free to try, no signup — nights and weekends.

Posted to r/linux a few weeks ago: 12.6k views, 7 shares, two actual sales. Small numbers, but they taught me more than the last few months combined.

The SEO problem: "moshell" is already the name of Ericsson's telecom CLI tool and I was not aware of it. Organic Google search for my product name is basically dead — I'm permanently competing with an enterprise networking tool for the keyword. Long-tail descriptive search and referral traffic are the only real paths forward.

The funnel gap: GitHub clone data showed people finding the repo but a sharp drop-off before ever reaching the Gumroad page. That told me the problem wasn't traffic — it was the handoff between "interested" and "buying." I've since set up GA4 + UTM tracking across every channel to actually see where that drop happens instead of guessing.

The pricing lesson: Got pushback on my $37 bundle price on Reddit. My read after sitting with it: it wasn't a pricing problem, it was a framing problem — I hadn't clearly shown what the free tier already covers vs. what's actually behind the paywall.

Next up: I fixed that framing, then testes it with r/linux4noobs , r/linuxadmin and r/homelab, since they're a closer match to my actual buyer than r/linux was. I got a positive review from r/linuxadmin from someone who seemed interested in it.

Happy to answer anything about the build, the GA4 setup, or the naming collision saga.

Link: https://kingmo87.github.io/moshell