u/BatsAapje

Hi fellow builders!

A while back I posted here about a problem I was having on LaunchPanda. Lots of people were making an account, but then after signup they'd just do nothing. Wanted to give an update because things have shifted a lot and it might be interesting for you guys to know what worked.

In the last couple of days, the activation of my signups (meaning they actually perform actions after signing up) is around 50%. So about half of the people who make an account actually follow through. They make their first launch on a roadmap, and then they keep going and do more launches after that.

Honestly I'm not 100% sure what did it exactly, since I've made a ton of changes. First of all, after my first post, I improved the onboarding so that some education was done and the user knows the value of the tool. Then right after the onboarding, they're immediately pointed towards their first action/win. Once that's done, they know how to use the tool.

The key here was to make the onboarding as lean as possible. My tendency is to add more and more info, but you have to see it from the perspective of the user.

One thing that also seems to help is that the quality of my leads has gone up. I ask signups how they got to me, and more and more of them mention word of mouth / from a friend, or finding me through Google. Those tend to be much better leads, and it shows.

This also ties in to the fact you dont have to listen to every feedback from every visitor. Some visitors simply aren't really your target audience and so their feedback doesn't really matter.

So it might not be purely the onboarding work. Probably is a mix of both better traffic sources and the onboarding changes on top of that.

Previous posts on this topic: 
https://www.reddit.com/r/indiehackers/comments/1uss049/lesson_not_all_user_feedback_is_worth_listening_to/ 

https://www.reddit.com/r/indiehackers/comments/1udjyci/need_feedback_lots_of_happy_users_but_good_amount/ 

https://www.reddit.com/r/indiehackers/comments/1uhtr8w/i_improved_my_onboarding_like_you_suggested_now/ 

Been improving the LaunchPanda funnel for weeks as the churn on each step (visitor → signup → active user → paying) was on the high side.

First problem I hit:, was that I had tons of signups. But a good amount never started using the tool. So I added onboarding to explain the problem and show the value.

Then came the next problem, complaints. Some users started saying it was 'too much'. As a result my instinct was to strip it back down.

But when I looked at WHO was complaining, started talking to them, and it clicked. They'd signed up without really knowing what the tool was, made a free account, and left. To them any explanation was just friction. Most were founders (my audience) but too early in their journey to need LaunchPanda yet.

Meanwhile my users who turned into recurring, active users loved the exact same onboarding. Said it helped them understand the problem and actually see the value.

Same onboarding, opposite reactions.

Takeaway:

not all signups are equal. The complaints weren't telling me the onboarding was bad, they were telling me who wasn't my customer yet.

Hi fellow builders,

For the last few weeks I've been working on improving my funnel, basically trying to increase the chance that a visitor makes an account, actually uses the app, and hopefully pays.

Earlier I posted about two problems I ran into:

I was getting plenty of signups, but nobody was actually doing anything with the tool. (link here)

Then I added more onboarding and explanation after tips from you guys, but then some people started complaining it was "too much."

See previous posts here: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/indiehackers/comments/1udjyci/need_feedback_lots_of_happy_users_but_good_amount/

https://www.reddit.com/r/indiehackers/comments/1uhtr8w/i_improved_my_onboarding_like_you_suggested_now/

After working on the app and talking with users I actually found a new valuable lesson (for myself at least): not everyone is your ideal customer, and that means you shouldn't act on all feedback equally.

When I looked closer at who was complaining, a pattern started to show up. So a lot of them signed up not really knowing what the tool was, maybe thinking it was something else, made a free account, and left. To that group, any onboarding or explanation just felt like friction in the way.

And most of these users, while technically founders (my target audience), aren't at the stage yet where they need my tool. They're either too early in their journey or they just don't care about SEO or directory launches right now (where my tool helps with).

Then I started to get into contact with users who stuck around and became recurring, active users. Those were all really positive about the exact same onboarding. Some of them said it helped them actually understand the problem, learn something, see the value, and then start using the tool. That's the onboarding I built based on my first Reddit post here, so it was cool to see it working for the right people (thx everyone 😄 ).

Takeaway:

So the takeaway I'm sitting with right now, is that not all numbers are the same. My site gets decent traffic and a good number of free signups, but a big chunk of those people just aren't my target audience yet. So some of the complaints were telling me who wasn't my customer.
Curious if others have run into this, and hopefully it helps some of you out too.

One thing I'm still figuring out, what's a good way to tell your real target-audience users apart from the noise in your data?

Hey everyone,

I though some of you might find this interesting!

About three months ago my SaaS had a Domain Rating of 0. Today it's at 48 and still climbing. No SEO agency, no paid links. I wanted to share exactly how I did it because I see a lot of conflicting advice on directories and I think most of it is wrong.

The climb

• 0 to 28 DR: month 1
• 28 to 39 DR: month 2
• 39 to 48 DR: month 3 (and counting)

Not sure if it's ok to share a link for proof here. If it is, I'll drop it in the comments.

One thing worth understanding: the DR scale is logarithmic. Going from 39 to 48 is a much bigger jump than going from 0 to 28, because every point gets harder to earn than the last. So the early wins feel fast and then seem to slow down. They're not actually slowing down, each point is just worth more.

Why bother with DR at all?

If you're not familiar, DR (Domain Rating) is a 0 to 100 score that estimates how much authority your site has, based on your backlink profile. Google doesn't publish an authority score of its own, so the industry uses DR as the standard proxy.

When trustworthy sites keep linking to you, Google reads it as other legitimate players vouching for you. That tends to earn you better rankings when people search, and it can lead to more AI mentions too. In short, a higher DR improves your odds of ranking in search engines and pulling in organic traffic. Pair that with a good product and decent site content and it actually turns into revenue.

So how do you move your DR?

Here's what worked for me.

1. Submit to credible directories

A directory is where people go when they're hunting for a tool (think ProductHunt or Uneed). There are a ton out there. Some aren't worth your time, but a decent number are. When you launch on the good ones, Google sees your mention on a credible site and starts treating you as credible too. The more good directories link to you, the more "votes" Google gets that you're legit.

2. Don't listen to the people who say directories are a waste of time

I see a lot of founders repeat that directory launches are useless. Based on my DR growth, I think they're wrong. Directories give you two things: real traffic from people actively looking for a tool like yours, and backlinks. Most founders only think about the first one.

3. The traffic is the obvious win. The backlink is the quiet one.

Traffic can be hit or miss depending on how you do on each platform, and honestly a lot of directories are pretty dead traffic-wise. But the backlinks still add up. They compound quietly in the background, and over time that's often the bigger prize.

4. Be patient and let it compound

DR growth takes time. Google has to index your listing on each directory, and some submissions take a while just to get approved. I'd expect around 30 days before you see real movement, and it can keep growing well after that.

5. Use a system

Tracking dozens of directories and approval statuses by hand is miserable. So I made my own list of directories to launch on. Happy to share if people are interested. other thing that saved me was writing my product info once (name, tagline, short and long description, categories) and reusing it, instead of retyping everything for every single submission.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to provide a quick tip for (early) founders on how to help with the distribution of their tool. I have launched on many directories and seen great benefit from it. However, not every founder sees the use in it that I have seen, so I wanted to dedicate my first post to this topic. Let me quickly explain why you should launch on directories.

First, what are directories? In essence, they are curated lists or catalogs of products and startups, places where people go to discover new tools. They give you two things. The most obvious one is free traffic. The second one is more overlooked but arguably more valuable, they increase your domain rating.

Your domain rating (DR) matters because it is a metric used in search engine optimization (SEO) to indicate how likely Google is to trust your site. Google itself doesn't publicly share anything like this, but other tools, such as Ahrefs (which is the industry standard), have created their own indication of it. 

When you launch on many directories, especially the more reputable ones, you are essentially telling Google that you are legit, which increases your chances of ranking higher in search.

By launching on directories myself, I  got my own tool to a DR of 47 at the time of writing. For context, the rating goes from 0 to 100 and gets exponentially harder to climb the higher you go, so 47 is a solid spot to be in.

One thing there are a lot of directories out there an many have entered the scene to be quick cashgrabs (by asking you to pay for more money). However if you look good there are good amount still free and that give you the traffic and DR boost you want.

I used to grind to find the best directories, and over time I curated my own list of the ones actually worth your time. I don't want to shamelessly plug here, but I'm happy to share it if people are interested.

Hi everyone,

A little while back I posted here about a big conversion problem with my app. The pattern was as following: users would create an account and fill in the necessary info, then never actually use the app. 

Meanwhile, the people who do use the product give us really good feedback. Recently got the following very motivating message: “Literally, this is single-handedly the most helpful tool I've seen for brand visibility for small startups. “

So something tells me I'm genuinely solving a real pain😃, however not every user realizes it.

For more context, my tool helps people launch their product on startup directories. It does this by giving them a vetted, step-by-step roadmap to follow. Users just have to copy and paste and get the results from launching on directories, organic traffic and Domain Rating improvements (good for SEO).

Although It's hard to verify with a relatively small user sample, I am starting to see people make their first real launch through the tool. So there are some early results.

But, new problem. I got one very big complaint. A user quit because it was ‘too much’. And when one person says that out loud, there are probably a few more who felt the same and just left without telling me anything.

So now I'm a bit in a struggle, giving people enough info to truly understand the value they're getting and doing there first action/win, versus just making it quick and easy. Too little and they don't get it, too much and they leave as well.

Would love any feedback on how you'd handle this. And if anyone wants to try the onboarding out, that'd be awesome too.

For context, previous Reddit post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/indiehackers/comments/1udjyci/need_feedback_lots_of_happy_users_but_good_amount/

Hey everyone, 

I've built LaunchPanda. It basically makes launching on directories (and the benefits that come with those) a lot easier. It does this by providing a vetted roadmap with a different strategies and thought out order.

The good news, the users who actually use the product seem to love it. We have strong reviews, repeat users, and positive feedback.

The challenge however, a surprisingly large percentage of people sign up, create an account, and then never take a single action. They don't start a launch, explore the dashboard, or use any of the features.

This makes me think one (or more) of these things is happening:

• The onboarding flow is confusing
• People don't understand the first step they should take
• There's too much friction before they experience any value?

I've started setting up email sequences for users who sign up but never get started, as well as re-engagement emails after periods of inactivity.

For those of you who have dealt with similar onboarding issues, what are generally good areas to look at? What have you done in the past that helped?

Appreciate any feedback!🙏

EDIT: made a mistake in the titel 🙈 meant ofcourse:  Lots of happy users, but good amount DON'T even try the product.

Hey all,

Just wanted to share a new milestone. I'm currently at 380 users who've tried out my tool. Keep in mind, not all of them are sticky users. But it still feels like a big deal, and quite a decent amount of them turned into paying customers, which is awesome.

I only started building 2 months ago, right after I lost a really important client in my freelance work. As painful as that was, it freed up a ton of time, and that time has paid some dividends. After trying out a bunch of different apps and failing my way through, I decided to just build something I found useful myself.

I have a SEO background, so I know how important that is for getting a tool seen (especially as a long-term strategy). Product directories were a big part of how I got my own tool more visibility and a higher Domain Rating. But the process was painful. As a result, I started keeping my own curated Excel list of everything. But then I realized, this could just be an app! So I built it, and now here I am.

One takeaway I learned from this process. if you're building in public, I think it's really powerful to make tools for that crowd (and for yourself as well). They're your content consumers and your target audience at the same time.

Don't want to shamelessly plug here, but if anyone wants to know more about the tool, let me know.

Mostly I just wanted to show what's possible when you put your mind to it. Ofcourse this isn't big money yet, but for 2 months in, I think it's a solid start.

Hey everyone, I'm struggling at the moment with pricing and would love some outside perspective.

Right now my tool runs on a one-time payment model. But over time I've kept improving it, and I'm starting to question whether that's still the right model, so I'm happy to get some feedback.

For context, the tool is LaunchPanda, and its a curated list of directories where indie makers can submit and launch their products.

I originally went with a one-time payment because at its core it was just a list. But over time it got more complext. The list is actively monitored and updated (new directories added, dead ones removed, details kept fresh). Also i added community features so users comment and rate directories. As a results server costs are ramping up as more users come in (however part of this was very innefficient code).

Butt, the value now isn't really a one-time thing, it's ongoing. That's what's making me reconsider the pricing.

There are some upsides to the one-time payment too. For one, I can just raise the price as the value grows. It's $19 right now, heading to $29 probably soon.

With a subscription I could likely only charge somewhere in the $4 to $5 per month range, and then I'd need pretty long retention to make up for what I'd get from a single one-time payment.

What would you do? Appreciate any thoughts.

Been vibecoding for the last few months and got way more active on X around the same time sharing my buidling journey. The thing that hit me almost immediately, the rise in builders is insane. A lot of what's getting shipped is straight up trash though, but there's also genuinely cool stuff being made every week.

The big problem I see is that code isn't the bottleneck anymore. Anyone with Claude or Cursor can ship something working in minutes and something actually useful a week or just a few days. The real problem is that everyone is shipping. Your timeline is now thousands of people shouting "I built this" at the same time. Getting seen is now the hard part.

So I spent the last few weeks researching how indie builders are actually getting traction in 2026. I might share more results in a follow up post, but one tactic that surprised me most was launch directories.

There are multiple reasons why they are useful:

1. They give early feedback and organic traffic. Some of these platforms have an audience of other builders who'll actually try your tool and tell you what's broken. 

2. But probably more valuable is the impact on your Domain Rating. Every quality directory you get listed on is a backlink. Those backlinks raise your DR, which tells Google to rank you higher in search, and increasingly tells AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) to cite you when someone asks about your category.

But then the next issue, there are hundreds of directories and many are garbage. Some are pay-to-list sites with zero traffic and some are dead domains (and could potenitally even hurt your DR). Finding the ones that actually help your product took me a long while.

All the usefull direcoties I added to a curated list. And then I converted these into an actual tool. Happy to share with anyone who wants it, just don't want to drop a link and look spammy though. 

The result: I started to get my first few users through google and through AI chatbots. I got this info by askign new users to mention how they found me. The benefit though is that this tends to increase and compound over time. So early users might be an indication of more to come.

Hope this tip helps. Curious if anyone else here is leaning into directories, or if you've found other tactics that also help with distribution.

Hey builders,

I’m curious how people here think about launching on directories.

Some swear by it, while others say it’s a waste of time. Personally, I’ve found it useful, but the process itself can be pretty tedious.

That’s why I've built a tool to make launching on directories as easy as possible. Longer term, I’m thinking about turning it into more of a complete launch buddy for indie builders.

Before going too far in that direction, I’d love to understand what others actually struggle with.

What’s the most annoying part for you when launching a project?
And what would you want a tool like this to do?

Would really appreciate your thoughts 🙏

Hey builders,

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on my own app, which just went from beta to fully live.

As part of the launch, I submitted it to around 45 directories in the last month. As a result, the site now has a Domain Rating of 27.

Here’s a screenshot for proof:

https://preview.redd.it/hbowjopy13yg1.png?width=1930&format=png&auto=webp&s=dfff0b6f3821be10ff19fbed311f2f0ec39bf3b0

I’m also starting to see organic impressions coming in from Google. No clicks yet though (it’s a pretty competitive space). 

The debate around directory launches seems to be pretty divided sometimes 😅. But here there is proof it does work and I’m surprised by how quickly I actually got result.