u/Trickologygk

Everyone online talks about SaaS growth wins 😅

“Just do SEO”
“Post on X daily”
“Launch on Product Hunt”
“Cold email 100 people”
“Build in public”

…but I’m honestly more curious about the stuff that completely flopped for people.

Like:

• channels that wasted months
• growth advice that sounded smart but did nothing
• tactics that got traffic but zero paying users
• “hacks” that only worked on Twitter screenshots 😭

For me it feels like a lot of growth advice only works:

• for certain niches
• certain audiences
• or founders who already have distribution

So now I’m curious…

What SaaS growth advice completely failed for you?

And why do you think it failed?
Wrong audience?
Bad timing?
Too saturated?
Low intent traffic?
Or just fake internet advice? 👀

Feels like building the product is becoming easier every month…

But growing it? brutal 😭

So I’m curious what everyone here is struggling with MOST right now when it comes to SaaS growth.

For me it feels like:

• getting traffic is easier than getting trust
• installs/signups don’t mean much anymore
• users test products for 2 mins then disappear
• every channel feels overcrowded now

Some days it honestly feels like distribution is the real product now 💀

What’s your biggest SaaS growth bottleneck right now?

Traffic?
Conversion?
Retention?
Churn?
Positioning?
Content?
SEO?
Paid ads?
Finding the right audience?
Something else?

Feels like building SaaS got easier…

but growing one got 10x harder 😅

You can build an MVP in weeks now.
AI can code.
Templates exist for everything.
Distribution channels are overcrowded.

But getting actual users?
Keeping them?
Making them pay monthly?

That’s the brutal part now.

So I’m curious…

What’s your biggest SaaS growth bottleneck right now?

• getting traffic?
• converting users?
• retention/churn?
• distribution?
• positioning?
• onboarding?
• trust?
• content?
• SEO?
• ads not working?
• users testing then disappearing after 2 mins 😭

Feels like every founder is stuck on a different “final boss” now.

Would genuinely love to hear what’s slowing growth the most for people here.

Everywhere online people talk about “growth hacks” 😅

But honestly… most channels seem saturated now.

So I’m curious:

What growth channel ACTUALLY worked for your SaaS in 2026?

Not vanity metrics.
Not “went viral for one day”.

I mean:

• real signups
• paying users
• retained customers

Was it:

• SEO?
• Reddit?
• TikTok?
• X/Twitter?
• YouTube?
• cold emails?
• affiliates?
• communities?
• partnerships?
• paid ads?

And what surprisingly didn’t work at all?

Feels like distribution is becoming harder than building the product itself now 💀

Would love to hear real experiences from founders shipping right now.

Most local businesses still do SEO like it’s 2018… that’s the opportunity

A lot of small businesses still think SEO means:

• stuffing keywords
• buying backlinks
• writing generic blog posts nobody reads
• waiting 8 months for traffic 😭

Meanwhile most of them still:

• don’t answer customer questions properly
• don’t optimize for local intent
• don’t repurpose reviews/testimonials
• don’t build programmatic pages
• don’t automate content updates
• barely track conversions

Feels like “agentic SEO” is becoming less about ranking articles… and more about building systems that continuously discover intent, generate useful pages, update content automatically, and capture demand faster than humans manually can.

Especially for:

• dentists
• law firms
• clinics
• real estate
• home services
• local agencies

Most of these markets are still weirdly behind.

Lowkey feels like boring SMB SEO could become a massive opportunity again because everyone else is chasing AI wrappers 😅

Curious though…

what traditional business niche still feels completely under-optimized online?

Traditional businesses are sleeping on Agentic SEO 😭

Most local businesses still:

• manually write blogs
• ignore long tail search
• never update pages
• don’t track intent properly

Meanwhile AI agents can now:

• find low competition keywords
• generate localized pages
• refresh outdated content
• monitor rankings
• optimize internal linking automatically

Feels like small businesses are about to get outranked by 2-person AI-first agencies running everything on autopilot 👀

Especially niches like:

• dentists
• lawyers
• roofing
• gyms
• clinics
• accountants

The crazy part?

Most of them still think “SEO” just means adding keywords to homepage titles 😭

Feels like agentic SEO for traditional businesses might become a huge SaaS category.

What niche do you think is most behind right now?

Agentic SEO might be the biggest opportunity for boring local businesses right now

Most plumbers
dentists
law firms
roofing companies
local agencies
still barely understand normal SEO…

Meanwhile people are building the 47th AI wrapper for founders 😭

Feels like there’s a massive opportunity in using AI agents to automate:

• local SEO pages
• review responses
• citation updates
• blog generation
• lead followups
• ranking monitoring
• competitor tracking
• internal linking
• location page optimization

especially for industries where owners hate tech but desperately need leads.

And the crazy part?

A lot of these businesses will happily pay monthly if it directly brings calls/customers.

Way less “AI fatigue” there compared to selling another productivity app to founders.

Feels like boring SMB workflows + AI agents might quietly become huge.

Anyone here actually building in this space already?

Feels like every founder online talks about growth channels that worked 😅

But honestly I’m more curious what’s ACTUALLY working right now for SaaS in 2026.

Not theory.
Real users.
Real signups.
Real paying customers.

What channel brought you the highest quality users lately?

• SEO?
• Reddit?
• X/Twitter?
• TikTok?
• YouTube?
• Cold DMs?
• Partnerships?
• Product Hunt?
• AI search?
• Communities?
• Something else?

I keep seeing products go viral and still struggle with retention/conversion…

while some boring niche SaaS quietly grow with almost no audience.

Curious what’s genuinely working for people right now and what completely stopped working too 👀

I keep hearing people say “just make a free app and monetize with AdMob” 😅

But I’m curious what the reality actually looks like now.

Are people genuinely making good money from:

• banner ads
• interstitials
• rewarded ads
• etc.

Or do you need millions of downloads for AdMob revenue to even matter anymore?

Would genuinely love to know:

• what type of app you run
• roughly how many daily users/downloads you get
• and whether AdMob alone is enough to make it sustainable

Feels like subscriptions got way harder… so I’m wondering if free + ads is quietly becoming underrated again.

Feels like every indie hacker now is building SaaS subscriptions 😅

But I’m curious about the opposite side…

Are free apps with ads (AdMob etc.) still actually profitable in 2026?

Not “millions of downloads” stories.
Real numbers.

Like:

• how many daily users do you have?
• what niche?
• and what kind of revenue does it make monthly?

I keep hearing people say:
“ads are dead”
“CPMs dropped”
“users hate ads”

But at the same time… I still see simple utility apps, wallpaper apps, quiz apps, tools etc making money quietly.

So now I’m wondering:

Is the free + ads model still underrated?
Or is subscription basically required now?

Would genuinely love hearing real experiences from people shipping mobile apps right now 👀

Feels like everyone talks about SaaS/subscriptions now… but I still keep seeing simple free apps getting millions of downloads with AdMob 😅

So I’m curious…

Is AdMob still actually worth it for indie app developers in 2026?

Like:

• what kind of RPMs are people seeing now?
• are casual/simple apps still making decent money?
• or did ads become terrible unless you have massive traffic?

I also wonder if users got more aggressive with ad blockers / uninstalling apps because of too many ads now 👀

Would genuinely love to hear real numbers or experiences from people doing free apps instead of subscriptions.

Everywhere I look people are saying ads are dead 😅

But at the same time I still see random simple apps:

• wallpaper apps
• calculators
• utility apps
• quote apps
• AI photo apps

making money from AdMob.

So now I’m curious…

Can you still realistically make good money with free apps + AdMob in 2026?

Or did the market get too saturated now?

Would genuinely love to know:

• how many daily users you need before ads become meaningful
• what niches still work
• if rewarded/video ads outperform banners now
• and whether indie devs are still building ad-based apps first

Feels like subscriptions became the default answer for everything now 😭

What niche has the biggest SaaS opportunity rn?

Feels like every founder is building:

• another AI wrapper
• another productivity app
• another “tool for founders” 😭

But the more I look around… the more it feels like the real money is in boring industries nobody on X talks about.

Stuff like:

• local business workflows
• compliance headaches
• scheduling chaos
• invoicing/accounting
• healthcare admin
• inventory messes
• internal tools
• weird spreadsheet processes
• industry-specific automation

Basically problems where businesses already waste hours every week.

Not “cool” products…
Just painful repetitive work.

Curious what niche you think still has massive SaaS opportunity rn?

And which niches are completely overcrowded now?

Everywhere I look it feels like founders are building the exact same SaaS 😭

another AI wrapper
another “all in one” productivity app
another tool for founders

Meanwhile some random boring B2B tool quietly makes $20k/mo solving spreadsheet chaos for plumbers or inventory issues for local shops 💀

So now I’m curious...

What niche SaaS would actually make money today?

Not billion dollar VC ideas.

Just realistic niches where:

• solo founders can compete
• customers actually pay
• churn isn’t brutal
• and distribution isn’t impossible

Feels like boring operational pain is still the goldmine rn:

• compliance
• scheduling
• invoicing
• local business workflows
• internal tools
• industry-specific automation

What niche would you build in today if you had to start from zero?

How To Make ChatGPT Recommend Your Product

Most founders are still trying to “rank on Google”

But lowkey…
a lot of people are now discovering tools through ChatGPT itself 👀

People literally type:

“best email tool for startups”
“best CRM for small business”
“best AI app for students”

…and ChatGPT recommends products.

Which means a new game is starting:

AI Search Optimization.

From what I’m noticing, ChatGPT usually recommends products that already have:

• strong reviews/discussions online
• Reddit mentions
• blogs/tutorials
• comparison articles
• clear positioning
• lots of contextual mentions across the internet

Not just backlinks.

Feels like brand presence matters more than traditional SEO tricks now.

A random SaaS with:

• zero discussions
• no community mentions
• no real users talking about it

probably won’t get recommended much by AI.

Even if the product is good.

Honestly feels like “internet reputation” is becoming the new SEO.

Curious if anyone here is actively optimizing for ChatGPT/AI search yet…

or are we all still early? 😅

ChatGPT SEO is the New Google SEO

Feels like most people still haven’t realized what’s happening 👀

A few years ago everyone wanted to:

• rank on Google
• go viral on social media
• optimize for search traffic

Now?

People are literally asking ChatGPT:

• “best email tool”
• “best CRM”
• “best AI app”
• “best software for small business”

And ChatGPT is choosing winners.

That’s wild if you think about it 😭

Because now distribution is slowly shifting from:
“how do I rank on Google?”
to:
“how do I become the answer AI gives?”

Feels like:

• brand mentions
• Reddit discussions
• community trust
• reviews
• backlinks
• niche authority
• people talking about your product online

…matter way more now.

Almost like AI is creating its own search engine layer on top of the internet.

Lowkey feels like early Google SEO days again where nobody fully understands the algorithm yet.

Curious though…

Do you think “ChatGPT SEO” actually becomes a real thing over the next few years?

How To Rank On ChatGPT in 2026

Feels weird saying this… but “ChatGPT SEO” is slowly becoming a real thing 😅

A lot of people still think:

• SEO = Google
• ranking = backlinks
• traffic = search engines

But now people are literally asking ChatGPT:

• “best project management tool”
• “best AI app for students”
• “best CRM for small business”
• “how to start a SaaS”
• “best thumbnail maker” …and buying based on the answers it gives.

Which means the real question is no longer:
“How do I rank on Google?”

It’s:
“How do I become the brand AI keeps mentioning?”

From what I’m seeing, a few things matter way more now:

• people talking about your product online
• Reddit discussions
• niche communities
• reviews/comparisons
• consistent brand mentions
• clear positioning
• strong topical authority
• being attached to a specific use case

Feels like AI models trust “internet consensus” more than polished marketing pages.

And lowkey…
Reddit might become more important for discovery than Twitter/X for a lot of SaaS products now 👀

Most founders are still optimizing for clicks.

But AI search changes the game because users might never even visit page 2 anymore.
They’ll just trust the answer.

Curious though…

Do you think “ranking on ChatGPT” becomes an actual industry like SEO did?

Every time I open the Play Store it feels like I’m seeing the same apps again and again 😭

Another:

• AI chat app
• wallpaper app
• habit tracker
• VPN
• expense tracker
• notes app
• motivational quotes app 💀

Feels like some categories are almost impossible to stand out in now unless you already have distribution or a really unique angle.

At the same time though… people are still making money in “oversaturated” categories somehow.

So now I’m curious...

Which Android app category do you think is completely overcrowded right now?

And do you think saturation actually matters… or is distribution/branding the real problem now?

What’s the hardest part of Android app development now besides getting installs?

For me it honestly feels like this part starts after the install 😭

Like:

• making people actually open the app again
• getting good retention
• avoiding uninstall after 2 minutes
• convincing users to pay
• Play Store reviews
• ASO
• onboarding
• notification fatigue
• subscription fatigue

Getting downloads already feels hard...

But keeping users interested feels like the real final boss now 💀

Curious what other Android devs struggle with the most right now?

What part surprised you after launching your first app?

Anyone else feel like distribution became the real startup now? 😭

Lowkey feels like building the actual product is the “easy” part now compared to getting people to notice it.

AI can help people ship apps crazy fast now...

But getting:

• attention
• trust
• retention
• real paying users

still feels brutal.

Feels like a lot of founders can build now... but very few know how to consistently get distribution.

Sometimes I wonder if the real moat now is:

• audience
• community
• brand
• distribution systems
• SEO
• content
• partnerships

...more than the product itself 👀

Curious if other founders feel this too or maybe I’m just deep in startup brain rot lol