I've posted everywhere and gotten zero sales. Here's what I'm learning about why
Honest post. I built a health tool I believe in, marketed on Reddit (got banned), Twitter, etc., and have zero sales. What I'm realizing: I was broadcasting before validating, and I have no social proof. Sharing in case it helps another founder avoid the same trap. Curious for those who got their first 10 users, how did you actually do it?
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Following this thread closely, same boat in a lot of ways. What's worked best for us so far isn't one channel, it's sequencing: read a community's actual rules before posting (a lot of removals happen because people skip that step), find the sanctioned outlet if one exists (some subs have a specific megathread built for exactly this ask), and put in some real comment history before ever mentioning the product. Early days for us too, but it's the difference between getting removed and getting an actual reply. "Broadcast less, reply to specific pain more" matches what I'm seeing as well.
This matches what I'm learning the hard way. I've shipped a few apps solo this year and the thing nobody warns you about is that "posting" and "distribution" are not the same. A link dropped in a feed is an ad, and people scroll past ads. A comment that actually engages with the problem someone has is a conversation, and only the second one has ever converted for me. The bigger shift was going to the specific niche community where my users already are instead of the generic startup feeds. Were the places you posted niche to your users, or broad?
New to this startup thing myself, definitely following this post! Thanks for sharing 😊
:)
You're learning one of the hardest startup lessons: visibility doesn't equal validation. Instead of posting everywhere, focus on solving a real problem, engaging with people who already need your solution, and collecting honest user feedback. Your first customers usually come from meaningful conversations and trust—not from mass promotion.
"Visibility doesn't equal validation", just added that to my notes. It is such an obvious thing in hindsight but I was fully operating like they were the same. Appreciate you spelling it out plainly. Meaningful conversations over mass promotion, got it
Definitely interested in boosting sales, will be following 👍🏻
Appreciate you following along 👍 I'll be posting updates as I actually run this five user test, so hopefully there's something useful in it for you too.
Been living this exact week myself, so no advice from a mountaintop — just what I'm seeing from inside the same hole: "posted everywhere" usually means one post per place, and every community treats a new account's first post as spam by default (Reddit mod queues, IH posting gates — I've hit them all in the last 48 hours). What's actually moved the needle for me isn't posts at all — it's comments. Showing up in other people's threads with something useful. Slower, but it compounds and nobody's immune system attacks it. What were you selling, and where did the posts land? Curious whether yours is a channel problem or a message problem.
When you said "one post per place" is painfully accurate and that was exactly me. Also, I hit the same walls in the last week: Reddit permabanned me on day one, IH posting gates, the whole immune system response you're describing. The comments over posts thing is the lesson I'm clearly learning the hard way too.
To answer your question: I'm building a tool that explains women's hormone lab results in plain English, aimed at perimenopause. Posts landed on Reddit (women's health subs), Twitter, and a few others. And honestly your question is the exact one I can't answer yet, whether it's a channel problem or a message problem. Given zero sales AND zero real conversations, I'm starting to suspect it's not distribution at all, and that I haven't actually proven anyone urgently needs this. Which is scarier but probably more useful to face. What are you building? Sounds like we're in the identical hole this week.
I think the biggest shift happens when you stop asking "Where can I post my product?" and start asking "Where are people already talking about this problem?"
I've found that consistently answering questions in communities like Reddit, Quora, and niche forums builds much more trust than simply sharing a launch link everywhere. It takes longer, but people start recognizing your name before they ever see your product.
Another lesson I've learned is to separate attention from validation. Lots of views or likes can feel encouraging, but conversations with people who actually have the problem usually provide much better feedback. Those conversations often improve both the product and the messaging.
You're already asking the right questions, and that's a much better place to be than just posting to more platforms.
This is really well put, especially separating attention from validation, that's a distinction I've been blurring. Views felt like progress, but you're right that they're not the same thing as one real conversation with someone who has the problem. And the point about answering questions in communities so people know your name before they ever see your product, that is the slow version I kept trying to skip. Clearly the skipping is what got me banned and stuck. Saving this. Thank you for taking the time.
"Broadcasting before validating" is a sharp way to put it, and the Reddit ban point in the comments is worth sitting with, that's usually the platform telling you the post read as promo, not bad luck. Answering questions in threads before having anything to link to is probably the least glamorous advice in this whole thread and also the most correct. What does the health tool actually solve, curious if the problem itself is one people openly complain about anywhere yet.
You're right about the ban, I've made peace with the fact that it wasn't bad luck, it was the post reading as promo even though my intent was genuine. The platform was telling me something true.
To your question, the tool explains women's hormone lab results in plain English, aimed at Perimenopause. And here's the honest answer to "do people openly complain about it": yes, constantly, but I've been observing it rather than engaging it. Women in Perimenopause communities regularly post some version of "my labs came back 'normal' but I feel awful and nobody will explain what my FSH/estradiol actually mean." That specific frustration, being handed numbers with no translation and feeling dismissed, comes up over and over.
Which, now that I say it out loud, points exactly where this whole thread has been pushing me: stop broadcasting near those complaints and start replying to the specific people making them, being genuinely useful before I have anything to sell. That's my next two weeks.
"broadcasting before validating" is a great way to put it. posting into a feed is you talking at people. answering someone who's actively describing the problem is you talking with one person who already raised their hand - completely different starting trust.
the reframe that helped me: a post is a bet that the right person happens to scroll by at the right moment. a reply to someone who has the problem right now removes all that luck. slower and less scalable, but the first handful of customers basically never come from reach, they come from being genuinely useful to a specific person before you had anything to sell them
A post is a bet that the right person happens to scroll by at the right moment. I was treating reach as the goal when reach is actually the expensive, luck dependent version of what I want. Replying to someone actively describing the problem skips the lottery entirely they've already raised their hand. It's slower and doesn't scale, and I think I was avoiding it precisely because it doesn't scale, which is backwards this early. The first handful of users coming from being useful to one specific person before I have anything to sell, that's the part I needed to hear. Thank you.
Living this exact lesson right now. Posted a genuine story to Reddit from a new-ish account and it got auto-removed within minutes — not because it was bad, but because a new account + a link just reads as promo to the filter. What's working instead: being useful in threads where someone's already describing the problem, no link, for a while first — slower, but by the time they check you out they already half-trust you. Any channel that's surprised you on conversion?
Yeah, that "new account + link = auto-promo flag" thing bit me hard, permanent ban on day one. What you're describing (being useful in threads where someone's already naming the problem, no link, for a while) is exactly the correction I'm making. On conversion surprising me: honestly nothing has yet, because I now think I was measuring the wrong thing, I was watching for sales when I shouldve been watching for whether anyone even resonated with the problem. What was the channel that surprised YOU most?
The first 10 for me didn't come from posting into feeds at all — they came from answering questions in threads where someone was already describing the exact problem, days or weeks before I had anything to link to. By the time I mentioned what I'd built, they already knew me from a few genuinely useful replies.
Reddit banning you is a strong signal worth sitting with, not just bad luck — it usually means the post read as promo to mods even if it didn't feel that way to you. The fix isn't a better post, it's showing up as a person answering questions in that community for a while before you ever mention what you built.
"Broadcasting before validating" is the right diagnosis. The slower fix: find where people already complain about this exact problem, and be useful there first.
This reframe is very useful I've gotten "the fix isn't a better post, it's showing up as a person for a while first." And you're right that the ban is signal, not bad luck; it read as promo to the mods even though my intent was genuine, which means it probably read that way to real users too. Sitting with that. Question: how long did you typically lurk and help in a community before you ever mentioned what you built? Trying to calibrate the patience.
Broadcasting to empty rooms is the #1 trap. What shifted for me: instead of posting about my product, I started replying to existing conversations where people already described the problem. Each reply put me in front of an audience that was already engaged with the topic — no cold start.
"Broadcasting to empty rooms" is going straight into my notes as the phrase for my whole first month. The shift you're describing replying to existing conversations where the problem's already named, instead of posting about the product is so much lower friction than what I was doing. Did you find those conversations mostly through search (keywords for the pain point), or by just living in a few specific communities daily?
"Posted everywhere" with zero sales usually means you showed up in launch channels, not where buyers already describe the pain in their own words.
Curious: are you hunting Reddit / niche forums for that language yet, or still mostly broadcast (IH/X/PH)?
I built a scored thread digest for indie founders (discovery only, not auto-posting). If useful, I can map a sample on a 10-min call — or send a feed if you drop one-liner + 3–5 subs + pain phrases.
"You showed up in launch channels, not where buyers describe the pain in their own words" , yeah, that's exactly my mistake, called cleanly. To answer you: still mostly broadcast (IH/X/PH), not yet systematically hunting Reddit/forums for the actual language people use. That's clearly the gap. I appreciate the offer on the digest tool I'm early enough that I want to do the manual listening myself first (I think I need to feel the language before I automate finding it), but I may take you up on it once I know my pain phrases better. Genuinely thank you.
Zero sales after broad posting is enough signal to stop adding channels. I'd pick one narrow health use case, recruit five people who already spend money or time on it, and watch them attempt one task before asking them to buy. The decision gate isn't social proof yet; it's whether 3 of 5 complete the workflow and ask to keep using it.
Tbh, this is the most concrete push I've gotten and I needed it. "The decision gate isn't social proof yet; it's whether 3 of 5 complete the workflow and ask to keep using it", that's a completely different (and better) bar than "get people to post about it." So the move is: recruit 5 women who already spend time/money understanding their hormone health, watch them actually upload a lab report and try to understand it, and see if 3 finish and want to keep going. That reframes my next two weeks entirely. Thank you, I'll be saving this comment :)
That is the right five-person test. Define “want to keep using” before session one, though: a self-initiated return with a second report, or a request to keep access, not a polite yes in the interview. That stop rule will keep the result from turning into another soft social-proof metric.
I would've fumbled on this part, so thanks for closing the loop on it. You're right , "want to keep using" is meaningless if I define it after the fact, because I'll unconsciously move the goalposts to whatever result I get. So I'm locking it in now, before session one: success = the person either uploads a second report on their own without me prompting, or explicitly asks to keep access after the test ends. A polite "yeah this is cool" in the interview counts as a no. Writing that down before I recruit anyone so I can't rationalize my way around it later. Genuinely appreciate you holding the line on this, it's the difference between a real test and me fooling myself.
That definition is tight enough to survive the interview halo. One small addition: set the return window now too, say 14 days, so a second report three months later doesn't get counted as activation. Five sessions with that prewritten stop rule will teach you more than another month of broad posting.
Locking that in too. Return window = 14 days, written down before I recruit anyone. So the full stop rule is now: success = within 14 days of the test, the person either uploads a second report on their own or explicitly asks to keep access. Anything outside that window, or any polite "this is cool," counts as a no. That's the whole test defined before I touch a single user, which is exactly the point. You've literaly helped me my next two weeks. Thank you for staying in this thread and tightening every loose bolt, very rare to get this level of specific.
The interesting shift isn't from broadcasting to validating—it's from looking for channels to looking for evidence that anyone urgently needs the problem solved. I'd keep validating whether the lack of sales comes from weak distribution or from not yet finding a group of people who already know they have the problem your product solves. Those require completely different next steps.
This reframe is quite sharp and I want to make sure I actually absorb it: the real question isnt "broadcast vs validate," it's "is my lack of sales a distribution problem or a nobody urgently needs this problem" and those have completely different fixes. Honestly, I've been assuming distribution because admitting the second possibility is scarier. How did you figure out which one you were facing? Was there a specific test or signal that told you "the problem IS urgent, it's just my distribution," versus "no one actually feels this pain enough"?
That's a good question.
I do have a view on the signals that usually separate those two situations, but I don't think the answer is useful without the context of what you're building and who you're trying to reach.
I'd rather discuss it around your product than give a generic startup answer here.
If you're open to it, what's the best email to reach you on?
Yeah, I'm open to that, really appreciate you offering to dig into the specifics rather than handing me a generic answer. Best email is [email protected]. Whenever you've got a moment, no rush at all. Looking forward to it.
Thanks! I’ve just sent it over.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts whenever you have a chance.
Hey Aryan, I've replied to your email :)