ListingLab

I'm a solo founder building ListingLab — an AI tool that scores Etsy listings across 6 ranking factors and rewrites them in one click.

The product works. Sellers paste a listing, get a score out of 100, see their top 3 fixes, and can apply AI rewrites instantly. 11 paying customers so far, all from direct traffic and community posts. No paid ads until this week (more on that below).

Here's what I've learned so far:

The gap in the market is real. eRank, Marmalead, EverBee — they're all keyword research tools. They show you data and leave you to write the listing yourself. ListingLab actually does the rewriting. That difference converts when people see it.

Content velocity matters more than content quality. I have 6 blog posts and 3 VS comparison pages. My competitors have hundreds. I'm getting zero organic search traffic despite having solid on-page SEO, JSON-LD schema, and an llms.txt file. The lesson: 6 posts isn't enough. You need volume before Google takes you seriously.

AEO is the new SEO and nobody's talking about it at this scale. I ran manual queries across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Mode for "best Etsy SEO tool 2026" and "eRank alternatives." ListingLab appears in zero third-party listicles. Not one. 85% of AI brand mentions come from third-party sources — if you're not in the listicles, AI will never recommend you. I'm now blitzing directory submissions (G2, Capterra, SaaSHub, Product Hunt, AlternativeTo, and about 15 others) to fix this.

This week I broke my own rule and launched a Meta ads campaign. I'd been strictly no-paid-ads until proven retention, but decided to test £140 over 7 days targeting Etsy sellers. Leads objective, not traffic — I've been burned before by traffic campaigns that deliver clicks from people who never convert. Will report back on results.

Stack: Next.js, Stripe, Resend for transactional email, MailerLite for broadcasts, Affonso for affiliates. Bootstrapped, UK-based, no VC.

Happy to answer questions about building for the Etsy seller niche — it's a surprisingly underserved market with millions of potential users.