Writing code was easy. Getting the first 100 users? Not so much. (Here is my 2026 launch guide)

As a self-taught developer, I spent months building my MVP. I tested every feature, fixed every bug, and deployed it. I expected traffic. Instead, I got complete silence.

I quickly realized that for solo founders, building the product is only 20% of the battle. The other 80% is distribution. If you don't have a massive marketing budget, you have to rely on high-authority platforms to get those crucial foundational backlinks and initial eyeballs.

I spent the last few weeks researching exactly where bootstrapped founders should be submitting their projects to actually move the SEO needle.

Instead of keeping it to myself, I compiled it into a Guide. Here are 3 of the highest-impact spaces that actually work right now:

• Product Hunt: Still the gold standard, but you need a clean video demo and a community discount code to really gain traction.
• f5Bot: Incredible for capturing the leads on Reddit, Hacker News and more platfroms, enable it ASAP to get the leads faster.

• Targeted Subreddits: (Specifically /r/sideproject and /r/alphaandbetausers). Don't spam; offer your tool as a free solution to existing problems to get early beta testers.

The reality is, finding all these links, formatting descriptions, and doing the manual submission grind takes days. Every hour spent filling out forms is an hour away from writing code.

If you want to see the complete, ultimate guide on where to promote your startup (and why manual link building is a necessary evil), I published the full list here:
https://listmy.site/blog/where-to-promote-your-startup-in-2026

If you'd rather skip the manual grunt work entirely, my project, List My Site, handles the submission process to 100+ high-DR directories for you.