11 days of running a launch directory: the numbers, what's working, what isn't

Nick Launches — Fri, 15 May 2026 03:51:53 +0000

I launched Nick Launches, a launch directory, on May 3. Today is day 11. Every day since launch the numbers have moved up, and I want to show the actual curve, not just the highlight reel, because most "I launched X" posts skip the boring middle.

This is a build-in-public log, not a pitch. If something here is useful for your own launch, take it.

The growth curve, day by day

Day	Date	Submissions	Signups	Notable
2	May 5	26	43	108 upvotes, newsletter at 43
4	May 7	45	95	Second paying customer
6	May 9	65	100+	4.45K views, +2,411% vs prior period
7	May 10	~70	~120	DR jumped from 1 to 15 (Ahrefs), 71 referring domains
8	May 11	~80	~150	DR 28, then 30 same day. 332 backlinks, 122 ref domains
8	May 11	~80	~150	Started running paid ads to push traffic to listed products
9	May 12	96	~180	174 newsletter subs, 6K views, 1.4K users (+1,326%)
10	May 12	105 (88 live)	193	368 upvotes, top builders thread
11	May 13	121 (99 live)	221	422 upvotes, 197 newsletter, 7.4K views, 1.7K users
12	May 14	+25 overnight	+50	Submission tracker shipped, 100+ directories coming

A few things stand out when you line it up:

The flat day never came. I expected a launch-week spike then a long flat valley. Instead the daily floor keeps moving up.
DR went from 1 to 30 in roughly a week. That is mostly a side effect of builders linking back to their listing, plus the submission tracker feeding outbound link velocity.
Paid ads kicked in around day 8. They didn't replace the organic curve, they layered on top of it.

What's actually driving it

Honest answer: it isn't a viral loop, it isn't SEO yet, and it isn't a single big post. It's two unsexy things running in parallel.

1. Cold outreach on X, every single day. I reply to builders who just shipped, DM people who post screenshots of their MVP, and quote-tweet launches with a soft pitch to submit. Most of it is one-to-one. It does not scale, but it compounds, because the people I talk to start tagging others.

2. Paid ads pushing visibility to the listed products. This is the part most directory operators miss. The pitch to a builder is "submit your product and get traffic." If you can't deliver traffic, the supply side dries up after the launch-week novelty. So I'm running ads not to my homepage but to the products inside the directory. That keeps the offer real.

The combination is what's holding the curve up. Outreach brings supply. Paid ads keep the supply happy. Neither alone would be enough.

The free tool that pulls non-launching builders in

Not every visitor lands ready to submit a product. So I shipped a free Find Your First Users tool that generates an AI audience report for any product idea. You drop in a URL or description and it returns:

Target user segments
Pain points
Reddit communities where those users hang out
Search queries those users are actually typing

It's free with a usage limit, no signup wall on the first run. The point isn't tool revenue. It's that "I need to find users" is a problem every indie builder has, including the ones who aren't ready to launch yet. The tool brings them in, the directory keeps them.

A meaningful chunk of recent signups came in through that page, not the homepage. The lesson: in a two-sided product, a free utility that solves a problem adjacent to your core offer is a better top-of-funnel than a "here's our directory" landing.

Things I tried that didn't work

A "submit your product" tweet with no context. Flopped. Same offer reframed as a reply inside an SEO thread drove submissions in an afternoon.
Posting in r/SaaS. Removed by mods, even with the "I will not promote" disclaimer.
Waiting for SEO. DR climbing is great but it has driven roughly zero conversions so far. The traffic is still 90%+ from X and ads.

Things I'd do differently if I started today

Set up the submission tracker on day one, not day eleven. It is the single feature builders mention most.
Comp early submitters with a premium badge from the start. The first 10 builders who submit to an unproven directory are doing you a favor. Pay them in visibility.
Run a tiny ad budget from day one to anchor the "we send you traffic" promise. Even $20/day buys credibility.

The current offer

There are still a handful of free permanent backlink spots open in the launch tier. If you have an indie product, submit it here. Manual review, usually within 24h.

If you want the full series of posts behind this, I'm logging the journey on X at @nicklaunches.

A question for the dev.to crowd

If you've ever run a directory, marketplace, or any two-sided product, what was the metric that told you supply quality was holding up as the volume grew? Mine has been "rejection rate stays meaningful." Curious what others use. Drop it in the comments.

Hey dev.to community – sharing my journey with Prompt Builder, Insta Posts, and practical SEO

Nick Launches — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 22:20:59 +0000

Hi everyone on dev.to,

I'm Nick. Love building amazing tools and passionate about SEO. I focus on practical ways to help solopreneurs, creators, and early-stage developers launch products faster and get found online without wasting time.

A bit about what I build and share:

Prompt Builder: An AI prompt generator that helps you create, refine, test, and organize prompts for models like Grok, Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, and more. It's designed for real workflows like marketing copy, SEO content, coding tasks, social posts, you name it. It's grown to over 8,000 users now and 450+ organic users a day, which still surprises me every day.

Insta Posts: Recently launched an AI carousel generator built specifically for LinkedIn and Instagram. You describe your idea, pick a template, and it creates polished, on-brand multi-slide carousels in seconds. No design skills needed. It already has 150+ users generating content, and the goal is to let people turn tips, threads, or tutorials into scroll-stopping visuals fast.

I also run a small blog at nicklaunches.com where I post actionable SEO guides and AI-related tutorials. The most popular one so far is a basic SEO walkthrough for beginners (how Google actually finds and ranks content, plus a simple checklist to start growing search traffic). I share more bite-sized SEO tactics over on X (@nicklaunches) too.

I'm here because dev.to feels like the perfect spot to dive deeper into build-in-public stories, share tool breakdowns, and talk about how AI + SEO can help indie developers ship and grow. Expect posts on prompt engineering tricks that actually save time, quick SEO wins for side projects, and lessons from running these tools.
Nice to meet you all. What's one thing you're currently building or experimenting with - AI prompts, content tools, SEO tweaks? Would love to hear and swap notes.

Nick

Forem: Nick Launches