Real Lessons for Indie Makers Who Want to Win With Content Instead of Burn Cash

Three years back, I didn’t know how to build websites. I wasn’t a developer. I wasn’t a marketer.

Just a middle-class guy trying to figure out how to make a living.

All I knew was—I could write. So I started there.

Blogging was my starting point.

No paid courses. No YouTube gurus. Just me, observing, writing, and learning by doing.

I wasn’t aiming to be perfect. I was aiming to be useful.

Fast forward to March 2024—I launched ai-q.in. A blog focused on AI tools. (It wasn’t my first blog either—there were a few failed ones before that. Each one taught me what not to do.)

And here’s how I made it work:

1. I Skipped the Fluff. I Studied Competitors.

I didn’t guess what to write. I reverse-engineered the top 10 results on Google for every keyword I picked.

I checked:

• What they were doing well
• What they were missing
• How I could write better by actually connecting with the reader

Most of those top sites were big—but they weren’t personal. They didn’t speak to real user problems.

So I did. I made sure every paragraph hit a pain point.

2. I Wrote to Solve, Not to Impress

A lot of content is written to sound smart. I didn’t care about that.

I focused on connecting with the user. I wrote how I talk. I hit pain points. I skipped the fluff.

And it worked. Google noticed. So did readers.

Because people share what makes them feel understood—not just what ranks.

3. I Delivered What Others Didn't

Most of those top 10 blogs? Big companies. Polished. Optimized.

But also—vague, robotic, and filled with filler.

I went the opposite direction:

Detailed guides, Clear breakdowns, Stuff they actually needed but couldn’t find anywhere else.

I covered what those 10 sites skipped. I didn’t just rewrite—I added depth, insights, and clarity.

That’s what ranked.

The Result?

Launched on Feb 4th, 2024 → Hit 75K+ traffic in 40 days.

No backlinks. No hacks. No ads.

Just real content, written for real people.

In the next 2 months, platforms like Viggle, FlexClip, Vidnoz, GetIMG, and many more reached out.

I reviewed their tools, made solid income from it, and grew even faster.

What Indie Makers Can Take From This

If you’ve got a product, idea, or even just a landing page—start writing content around it.

Answer what your users are Googling. Show up with real value.

Keep doing that, and traffic will come.

• You don’t need a marketing degree.
• You don’t need an ad budget.
• You need to be useful, consistent, and smarter than the platforms you’re competing with.

Here’s what you can start doing today:

• Pick one feature or tool from your product and write a real guide around it
• Research, analyze, and write better than everyone else. It’s doable.
• Focus on helping one reader, not cracking SEO.

SEO isn't dead. Bad content is.

PS: I’ve moved on to building products now (another story for another day). But content? It’s still the reason any of this was possible.