How I Get Consistent Traffic to My SaaS Without Running a Single Ad

I've spent $0 on ads in the last 12 months.

My SaaS tools still get a combined ~8,000 visitors/month from search and content.

Not viral. Not lucky. Just boring, repeatable, compound work.

Here's the exact stack and process.

First: Why Ads Don't Work for Early-Stage SaaS

I tried Google Ads early on. Burned $300 in two weeks, got 4 signups, none converted to paid.

The problem isn't the platform — it's that ads work when you already know your ICP, your messaging, and your conversion funnel. When you're figuring those things out, ads just accelerate your mistakes.

Content is the opposite. It's slow at first, but it compounds. An article you write today can still bring in signups 2 years from now. An ad stops the moment you stop paying.

For a solo founder with no marketing budget, the math is obvious.

The Stack (Simple, Unglamorous)

1. SEO-First Content — Outrank

I used to guess what to write about. That was a waste of time.

Now I use Outrank to find the exact keywords my target buyers are searching, see what the top-ranking articles are doing, and get a brief for what to write.

The key shift: I stopped writing what I thought was interesting and started writing what people are actively searching for. That one change probably 3x'd my organic traffic.

Outrank also shows you the "content gap" — topics your competitors rank for that you don't. For a solo founder, that's a gift. You're not guessing; you're filling proven demand.

My rule: before writing any article, I check if there's search intent behind it. No intent = no point.

2. Blog on a Custom Domain — Feather

For a while I was publishing on Medium and Hashnode with no canonical URL control. Backlinking chaos.

Now I use Feather to run my blog on my own domain (powered by Notion as the CMS). Write in Notion → auto-publishes to myblog.com/blog.

Why does this matter? Every piece of SEO juice goes to your domain, not Medium's. Backlinks, Google trust, domain authority — all builds up on your own site.

For non-technical founders especially, this is the fastest way to get a professional blog that actually moves the SEO needle.

3. Social Distribution — PostSyncer

Writing the article is step one. Distribution is step two, and most people skip it.

I batch-schedule social posts with PostSyncer. Once an article goes live, I schedule 3-4 posts across platforms — different angles, different hooks — over the next week.

The same article can be:

• A thread breaking down the key insight
• A single-line hot take
• A "story" post about what I learned building it
• A listicle version of the main points

PostSyncer lets me write all four at once and drip them out over 7 days. Zero manual work after the initial setup.

4. Twitter/X Analytics — SuperX

I track what actually resonates with SuperX.

Not vanity metrics. The stuff that matters: which posts drove clicks, which hooks get engagement, which topics pull followers vs. which just get impressions.

The insight I got from 30 days of SuperX data: my "framework" posts ("here's the system I use for X") consistently outperform my opinion posts by 3-4x. That changed my whole content strategy.

Data > vibes. SuperX makes it easy to stop guessing what content works.

5. Free Platforms for Distribution

I still publish to Hashnode (with my blog's URL as canonical) and Dev.to for developer audiences.

These aren't where I build my primary SEO — the canonical points to my own domain. But they bring in readers who'd never find my blog otherwise. Hashnode especially has a strong indie hacker and developer community.

It costs nothing extra. I'm writing the article anyway — syndication is just copy-paste with a canonical tag.

The Process (Repeatable, 2x/Week)

Here's what the actual workflow looks like:

Monday:

1. Open Outrank, find 1-2 search terms with clear buyer intent
2. Pick the one with less competition / higher relevance to my product
3. Write the article (1,000–1,800 words, real opinions, real experience)
4. Publish on my domain via Feather
5. Syndicate to Hashnode + Dev.to

Tuesday–Friday:

1. PostSyncer drips out 3-4 social posts from the article
2. SuperX tracks what's working
3. Repeat with the learnings

Total active time: ~3 hours/week.

The rest is compounding while I'm building product.

What Actually Moves the Needle

I want to be honest about what doesn't work, because a lot of content marketing advice is BS:

Doesn't work:

• Generic "10 tips" posts with no original insight
• Publishing once and hoping it ranks
• Writing for virality instead of for your specific buyer
• SEO tricks and hacks without actual valuable content

Does work:

• Writing articles where you share actual data, actual numbers, actual mistakes
• Targeting long-tail keywords where you can genuinely rank
• Consistency over intensity (2x/week for 6 months beats 20x/week for 3 weeks)
• Distribution — the same article published once vs. shared 10 ways is a 10x difference

The Compound Math

Here's what the numbers look like after 8 months of doing this:

• Month 1–2: ~200 organic visits/month (mostly direct/social)
• Month 3–4: ~800 organic visits/month (articles start ranking)
• Month 5–6: ~2,400 organic visits/month (compounding)
• Month 7–8: ~4,500 organic visits/month (several articles in top 10)

I'm not going to pretend those are huge numbers. For an early-stage SaaS product, 4,500 targeted monthly visitors converting at even 1% free trial is 45 new users. That's real.

And the cost? $0 in ads. ~3 hours/week of writing.

One More Thing: Form-Based Lead Capture

I use Tally for embedded forms and waitlists across my content. Free, no-code, doesn't look like a generic Google Form.

If an article ranks and brings visitors, you want to capture them. Even a simple "Join the waitlist" or "Get my exact SEO checklist" form can convert readers into leads.

Tally forms embed in any blog platform. Takes 5 minutes to set up.

The Only Real Advice

Stop looking for the content hack that changes everything. There isn't one.

The founders I see winning at content are doing two things: writing stuff that's actually useful based on real experience, and doing it consistently enough for the algorithm to notice.

Six months of boring, consistent work beats one "viral" post every time.

Start today. Write the article you wish existed when you were starting out. Publish it where your buyers actually are.

That's the whole strategy.

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What's your content stack look like? I'm always looking for tools I'm missing — drop a comment.