Non-BS marketing tips for indie entrepreneurs

Learn marketing!!! Cannot even emphasize that one enough.

Thanks for this list! Really good stuff!!

I'm introverted, so marking has been really hard for me.

nice one.!

Love it. Needed the reminder to focus on what matters and ruthlessly prioritize.

Awesome piece of content as always! Thank you very much for sharing Dan 🙏

Wow! I'm glad this article provided valuable advice and validation for my next steps. Thank you so much!

Oh my god. Thank you for this article. Gives me solid advice and validation for what I am supposed to do.

You can learn marketing like you can learn to code, but that doesn't mean you should. Be willing to take a smaller piece of a bigger pie and partner up with people who know what they are doing. Someone else will out market you, while you're still learning.

I wish I could super like this, or like it multiple times

I'm a major fan of the $0 investment one man startup. A lot of your points hit on how I design my startups. I actually just launched one today named Poket Dev on product hunt. It's an Unlimited Software Development Subscription. I'm getting my hands dirty with a subscription service based model.

Woow, great post!

I had/have the problem of building too much stuff at the same time, saas, extensions, etc.

Definitely have to learn to focus on one and grow.

Thanks for this!

I really like a lot of these ideas--number 4 particularly! I would love to see a follow-up post on soliciting authentic feedback, when you know most of the people you're talking with are going to want to be nice.

#11. Learn to sell
Actually picking up the phone and calling prospects is the number one fastest way to grow any business. Take the time to read some books on sales skills and put them to use.

Yeah, I stuck with my current product for the last 4 month and zero revenue. Probably it’s time to switch 😅

Great post, Dan! I agree with most of your tips, especially the ones about starting small, charging one-time payments, and building an email list. These are essential for indie entrepreneurs who want to get profitable quickly and avoid wasting time and money on things that don't work.

I would add one more tip: validate your idea before building anything. This is something that many indie makers skip or do poorly, and end up creating products that nobody wants or needs.

You can use tools like Google Forms, Typeform, or SurveyMonkey to create simple surveys and ask your target audience about their problems, needs, and preferences.

You can also use platforms like Reddit, Indie Hackers, or Product Hunt to get feedback from potential users and customers.

Validating your idea will help you avoid building something that nobody wants, and instead, focus on creating something that solves a real problem and provides value to your audience.

It will also help you refine your value proposition, positioning, and messaging, which are crucial for effective marketing.

Thanks for sharing your insights and experience, Dan. I look forward to reading more from you.

100x better info!

But, I need to tell you. It's not vital to do one-time sales. I think that's can cause a problem specially if you are paying to keep your product running. Instead of one-time, I'd think affordable, and I'd add a layer of personalized service.

These are some nice tips mate! I've done a couple of launches on Product Hunt, but I see that this site is mostly dominated by a clique that falsely raises up the engagement. Are you doing anything to get over that?

This is a great list, Dan. I especially like 7 and 8. I don't do these often enough. Thanks for the reminder.

I approve of this approach.

Dan, a humongous thank you for this!

Really helpful!

This is the slap in the face I needed to stop trying to optimize my backend's maintainability by rewriting it from random functions to OOP. Hoping back on the value proposition train. Many thanks.

Great summary!

Great Info

Great post!

@kronop This is so real. thanks for the post.

im gonna use this coding my first saas now

You've got some great ideas here, and you deliver them in very down-to-Earth way...thank you.....what would you suggest is the best way to get feedback from others.....I have a simple to use data integration tool that is going through a sluggish phase sales wise and need some independent feedback re the downturn in the economy

Thanks for sharing. Super used.

Amazing! Thanks for sharing your experience

Definitely tons of wisdom gems here. I think the biggest thing is knowing when to pivot. If you're doing the same things/trying new things + ultimately not seeing results for months, it's time to revisit the product or service.

I have a pretty niche product that has been on the market for about a month, with 4 people doing the free trila, but no paid conversions yet. Would anyone be willing to give me some feedback via DM?

This is one of the realest post shared here in a while. Doing complete justice to the title.

Thanks for the no-nonsense, get-it-done advice.

Insightful advice. Indie Entrepreneurs need to know the harsh reality and focus, focus and focus as you rightly said. Well said.

There are really great tips! Thanks for sharing.

I still find getting the first users hard, but these are really good tips. Thanks!

Thanks for the great tips!

Thanks for writing this

Dan, your are straight to the point and practical. Like no BS stuff👍

Thanks for sharing this, Dan! Would you have any suggestions on where we can get ruthless feedback from the community? I tried to make a post before but didn't really hear back from anyone.

Thanks, Dan, this piece gave me the idea to make a fake door test for my design SaaS before launching it and building an email list first.