3 builders who never spoke to each other

Earn standing in the room before mentioning the product

Turn up in the community your buyers use and be useful for a long stretch with nothing attached: answer questions, publish what you are working out, reply in the threads where people complain about the problem. The reputation is what earns you the right to sell later, and it works without any following at all.

The method

1. 01

   Join the niche communities your customers already inhabit and contribute there for a while before you ever mention your product.

2. 02

   Earn the standing to sell by being visibly useful inside one community over a long stretch - answer questions, publish what you're figuring out - rather than by running a campaign when you have something to sell.

3. 03

   You don't need a big following to work in public - use forums, Slack groups, Reddit, Hacker News, Indie Hackers, livestreams, your blog and conference talks, and keep what you share practical and useful rather than promotional.

4. 04

   Go into the groups and threads where your buyers already discuss the problem and answer questions with no pitch attached, building a reputation as the useful person there.

5. 05

   Distribute a lead magnet by finding the threads where your buyers already complain about the problem and leaving genuinely useful replies there first.

What it returned

• Adam Wathan built his PHP reputation through forum participation, Twitter and his blog before selling anything.

• Welsh points to Reddit threads plus groups on Facebook and LinkedIn devoted to the specific topic.

• Steven pulled up ten busy Reddit threads on freelance income worry, read the comments to learn the exact tracking complaints, then replied to fresh posts on the topic.

• Wade Foster sourced Zapier's first customers from forums.

Sources

• Adam Wathan's $100k product launchJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · You have a really good reputation online. People see you as an expert in the PHP community. How did you build that? · undated
• Fear of launchJustin Jackson · justinjackson.ca · Don't fear the launch! · undated
• 0 to 100 Email Subscribers: A 28-Day Case StudyJustin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · The Simple Strategy That Worked · 2024-11-30
• So you want to start a side hustle? Do these 4 things first.Justin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · Priority 4: How can you get some attention? · 2024-06-22
• Spreading the Word: How to Do Marketing on a Shoestring Budget – The Bootstrapped FounderArvid Kahl · thebootstrappedfounder.com · The Power of Tribes · 2020-06-11
• Lead Generation: Strategies, Lead Generators, Expected ReturnsWade Foster · trends.vc · ☁️ Opportunities · 2020-08-27