Want to know the most frustrating thing about launching a SAAS?

It's not the code. It's not the technical problems.

It's the fact that nobody knows your product exists.

You've spent hundreds of hours polishing your application. You've fixed all the bugs. The UI looks clean (which is quite an achievement for me). Your Stripe payment works perfectly.

And then... absolute crickets. Nobody.

Now, imagine doing this with zero marketing budget.

Because that's my reality, and perhaps yours too if you're reading this article. I'm developing Blogtally entirely on my own, and every dollar invested comes straight out of my pocket.

I don't have €5,000 a month for Google Ads. I can't afford a €3,000 SEO agency.

And, I'm not going to lie, I'm not the biggest fan of outbound marketing (sending emails to people I don't know to pitch my product). I'm just not good at it.

So what's the solution?

That's what I'd like to share with you. What techniques have I implemented?

My Overall Strategy

Let's recap my starting situation:

• A functioning product
• Technical skills
• Time (limited, but it's my main resource)
• Almost non-existent marketing budget

And so, by process of elimination, what's left is... SEO.

SEO is slow, it's frustrating, but it's also what deters most people. And that's good news - it leaves space for those with patience.

SEO has another advantage: it's sustainable. Unlike a Google Ads campaign that stops the moment you cut the budget, good SEO content continues to bring you traffic for years.

I've organized my strategy around several pillars:

• My SAAS blog
• My personal blog
• Activity on forums and social networks
• App directories
• A blog starter pack (?, yes, you'll see ^^)

My SAAS Blog: A Question-Answering Machine

But who's going to read your blog?

That's the question you might ask when starting a blog for a SAAS, or any type of product really.

My answer is: Google, first. Humans, second.

What you need to understand is that the blog isn't there to entertain people. It's there to attract new prospects through search.

I need to write content that addresses specific search intents.

For this, I categorized keywords into two types:

Transactional Keywords

These are searches from people ready to buy. For example: How to Add a Newsletter to Your Static Blog: The RSS-First Approach or Fathom vs Plausible vs Pulse: Privacy-First Analytics Compared.

These pages are the most important for me because they attract hot prospects.

A hot prospect is someone actively looking for a product—someone who can convert immediately.

Informational Keywords

These are searches to obtain information. For example: Privacy in Web Analytics: A Guide for Blog Owners or Measuring Real Content Engagement: Beyond Traditional Metrics.

These pages attract colder prospects, but in larger numbers. People who aren't currently looking for a product but might remember me later when they are.

TIP

A simple method for finding article ideas: type your keywords into Google and look at the "Related searches" section. It's a goldmine for understanding what questions your prospects are asking.

My Personal Blog

Besides my product blog, I have my own blog where I've been sharing my journey for over 20 years.

You might be thinking, so what?

Well, it actually generates regular traffic to Blogtally. This strategy has a name: Build In Public.

It involves transparently describing how you create your applications, your thought processes, your failures, business decisions, etc.

It's funny because I've been doing this for 20 years—it wasn't calculated, but now it's become a Brand Marketing technique.

I guess I might have been a pioneer without knowing it :)

On my humble scale, over the last 7 days, my blog and YouTube channel account for the vast majority of current traffic:

Note: I'm excluding direct and unknown traffic from my calculation. Direct traffic comes from people typing the address directly, so they're already users. Unknown is, by definition, unknown.

However, this isn't actually good news. My traffic is very low, and people coming from my personal articles aren't prospects, but mostly just curious visitors.

The advantage, though, is that I do it naturally, so there's zero specific effort required.

Answering on Forums: Be Helpful First, Commercial Second

In 2025, forums remain goldmines for SEO. Reddit, Quora, specialized Facebook groups...

But beware: the goal isn't to just drop a link.

The method is simple:

1. I subscribe to forums and subreddits relevant to my SAAS
2. I provide DETAILED answers to questions, offering real added value
3. I mention my tool ONLY when relevant, and never as the first thing

In the screenshot above, Reddit represents about 10x less traffic than what comes from my YouTube channel.

But the reason is simple—I don't enjoy doing it, so I rarely do it, and the results reflect that investment...

Backlinks: The Directory Hunt

There are many application directories where it's worthwhile to be listed.

First, because it creates a backlink, which can increase your "domain rating," the strength of your domain for search engines.

And also because these directories, if used, can bring you visitors.

For example, I'm sure you know alternativeto, which lists alternatives to existing applications.

Well, I have my page there and I'm listed as alternatives to Matomo, Plausible, etc.

Directories come in many categories—specialized directories for video games, AI assistants, cooking recipe apps, etc.

There's definitely a place to list your application.

Here are some directories I can recommend:

• Product Hunt (obviously)
• AlternativeTo
• Uneed
• SaaSHub
• Capterra (free version)
• G2 (free version)

This work is tedious and doesn't always pay off. You'll notice I don't have any traffic coming from these sites yet.

But it remains important for backlinks. Backlinks that are a real ingredient for long-term success.

However, since it's tedious, I understand being willing to pay once for a SAAS that does the job for you across hundreds of places. As soon as you have a bit of cash, it's worth buying that to focus on your product.

Creating a Reference Resource: The Blog Starter Kit

One of the recent strategies I've implemented was creating a blog starter kit - an open source site that lists more than 100 resources for starting a blog.

It's not just an article, it's a complete mini-site with:

• Hosting comparisons
• CMS comparisons
• Quizzes to find the tool that best suits you
• Tool reviews with strengths, weaknesses, pricing, etc.

I think I could enrich it with:

• Essential plugins
• Monetization strategies
• Step-by-step guides

Why is this powerful?

1. It attracts highly qualified niche traffic (exactly my target for Blogtally)
2. Free resources should naturally generate backlinks
3. It positions my expertise in the field
4. And of course, I've subtly integrated my own products

Subtly means I don't come in with big boots saying my product is the best. It's listed with its advantages and disadvantages and not highlighted with misleading arguments.

I released it this week, so I don't have perspective on it yet, but I already find it very useful personally, so I think it can serve others. And I see plenty of possibilities for improving it.

The next time you wonder how to start a blog, think about it ;)

Conclusion

After 2 months of effort, here are the mistakes I've made that you should avoid:

1. Doing nothing: We always tell ourselves that SEO is slow, and we'll see later. It's true that it's slow, but precisely because of that, you need to start early.
2. Impatience: It's easy to get discouraged after 2 months without visible results. SEO takes time. A lot of time.
3. It's not always fun: For example, I haven't managed to motivate myself to constantly answer on Reddit. You need to find the right formats that interest you. But at some point, you have to accept that not everything is fun ^^
4. Generic content: The first articles on the Blogtally blog weren't great. It's not easy to find your angle, your voice. I know I don't like pure promotional content. It needs to be useful, to address a topic, otherwise, it feels very generic.
5. Not following your metrics: Without analytics, you don't know what works or doesn't. Fortunately, there's Blogtally Pulse for that ;) (oh, how subtle ^^)

How do I see the future? Good question. I think I'll continue to invest in the starter pack to make it a reference resource.

But I also need to explore other marketing strategies, not necessarily related to SEO, such as referrals or affiliates.

We'll see that later.

What about you?

• What strategies do you use, what works best for you?
• Do you use other free or almost free methods that I haven't mentioned?
• How much time do you dedicate to marketing compared to developing your product?