Discover Top Spots for Your Startup
From X to the Online World
As I landed on X last month, I encountered a dynamic community of entrepreneurs sharing content, exchanging insights, narrating their experiences, and marketing their products. The sheer volume of activities made it challenging to stay abreast of everyone's endeavors and the content they shared.
Unlocking X’s Potential
Viewed through the lens of an independent entrepreneur, the platform offers the distinct advantage of a rich learning environment. Despite the varying degrees of relevance in the shared content, a noteworthy aspect is the "Give vs. Ask" ethos, expounded upon in the insightful piece titled "Promoting on Reddit (or Anywhere) By Giving Before Asking" penned by
. Here, the act of entrepreneurs sharing their learnings, data, or product statistics represents a 'Give', while the promotion of their product is an 'Ask'. The true value of time spent on X hinges on the prevalence of 'Give' content. But, the reality is that the recurrence of similar ideas dilutes the impact of the platform.The Double-Edged Sword of X
If this is the benefit of X, the downside is that you become one among many entrepreneurs. If you want people to notice your stuff, you have to do a lot of giving and always be honest. I don't mind being honest and giving, but the thing is, it takes up a lot of time.
said in one of the promotional videos that he spends 5 hours a day on X.
I’m pretty sure this can be a valid approximation and I don’t want to spend that much time on X. I decided to add Webtime tracker extension on Google Chrome and Firefox. This tool aims to provide insights into my time spent on browsers, helping me make informed decisions to maximize my productivity.
Strategic Spots for Startup Promotion
In this X journey, I stumbled upon this tweet:
Guess what? Some entrepreneurs out there are selling lists of places to promote your startup. I did some detective work on Google and found a bunch of websites sharing these lists. Check out the ones I looked into:
My goal throughout this journey was to amplify the reach of my projects without breaking the bank. While paid promotion options exist, I decided to steer clear, considering my budget constraints. These lists I found have a mix of everything—some duplicates, some websites that aren't around anymore, and some with dark patterns like making you fill out a bunch of info and then springing a surprise payment on you.
I spent quite a few hours sorting through all of this to figure out which websites let you submit your startup. I hope that I can save some time for folks who want to get their app out there. I've even included the ones that want you to pay for a speedy listing or make you wait for months before they showcase your startup. Here's the list:
https://alternativeto.net/
https://apprater.net/
https://appsumo.com/
https://awesomeindie.com/
https://betalist.com/
https://crazyaboutstartups.com/
https://ctrlalt.cc/
https://fazier.com/
https://feedmystartup.com/
https://financesonline.com/
https://launched.io/
https://lazyhunt.com/
https://microlaunch.net/
https://owwly.com/
https://peerlist.io/
https://pitchwall.co/
https://portal.10words.io/
https://sell.g2.com/create-a-profile
https://startupbase.io/
https://startupbuffer.com/
https://startupinspire.com/
https://startupstash.com/
https://wellfound.com/
https://www.affordhunt.com/
https://www.allstartups.info/
https://www.betabound.com/
https://www.betafy.co/
https://www.crunchbase.com/
https://www.f6s.com/
https://www.feedough.com/
https://www.gartner.com/en/digital-markets/basic-listing
https://www.indiehackers.com/
https://www.insanelycooltools.com/
https://www.launchingnext.com/
https://www.producthunt.com/
https://www.saasprojects.com/
https://www.sideprojectors.com/#/
https://www.slant.co/
https://www.startupranking.com/
https://www.startups.fyi/
https://www.trustpilot.com/
https://www.uneed.best/
Those lists also include Reddits, but heads up, all links posted on Reddit are "no follow" (here is a perfect article on why is this important). But since
recommends starting to promote on Reddit, I'm thinking of giving it a shot sometime soon. Here's the list of reddits:r/advancedentrepreneurr/advertising
r/alphaandbetausers
r/announcementsr/AskMarketing
r/Business_Ideas
r/Businessideasr/coupons
r/CrazyIdeasr/digitalnomad
r/Emailmarketing
r/Entrepreneur
r/EntrepreneurRideAlong
r/growinpublic
r/growmybusiness
r/GrowthHackingr/ideasr/indiebizr/indiehackers
r/InternetIsBeautiful
r/Lightbulbr/MadeThis
r/marketing
r/microsaasr/NicheWebsites
r/Plugyourproduct
r/ProductHunters
r/programming
r/projects
r/roastmystartup
r/SaaS
r/salesr/SideProjectr/smallbusinessr/socialmedia
r/startup
r/startups
r/startups_promotion
r/sweatystartupr/webmarketing
There are also Facebook groups and communities, but for now, as I decided to stay away from Facebook, there's no plan to check those out, for now.
Tracking Success with Bonetflix
Implementing this strategy, I've promoted my project Bonetflix on all these platforms. In a past issue, I shared some metrics about it, and I expect these numbers to evolve in the following weeks. Stay tuned to witness positive transformations in this journey.
Thanks for shoutout.
> Marc Louvionsaid in one of the promotional videos that he spends 5 hours a day on X.
Yeah I think the hard truth is any sort of organic promotion is time-consuming so it either needs to be something you easily do anyway or you're sure has a good ROI. I don't really "recommend Reddit" as much as I've noticed that because it's somewhere I naturally spent my time it was a platform I was doing better than on X which is an app I never naturally gravitated towards.
As far as the ROI, I don't think it's random that Marc Lou has had a ton of products that didn't perform especially great, but now his "smash hit" is a product for aspiring Indie Hackers (a SaaS boilerplate). Ultimately there has to be some sort of audience->product fit or the audience building is just a waste of time (in business sense, at least).
One thing I wonder about most of those "places to launch your X" is who is going to those sites as an end-user and trying stuff? I _think_ for most of them, its SaaS founders looking for ways to improve their SaaS, so if you're going to launch there, share those types of products. But I do feel like figuring out the answer to the question of "what audience is this" is key to using those options effectively.
Curious to see the results of those directories! I’m assuming it’s good to get the ball rolling, and you might eventually look for other avenues after that initial push. Let us know how it goes!
I only submitted an Upwork course to a Black Friday repository on GitHub. But I got around 40 sales from it. I was honestly surprised lol