First 17 SaaS signups: directory breakdown

backlinker

Launched a small AI meeting notes tool last week. First 24 hours was me refreshing analytics... 3 visits. No Product Hunt, no audience.

Spent three evenings submitting to directories. Found around 40, actually submitted to just under thirty. Some needed accounts, others wanted a custom description, a few approved within hours. Grabbed a big directory list from a colleague while compiling it - that sped things up.

After roughly six days: ₃₀₀ visits, about 17 signups. Most directories did nothing. But four startup/AI ones sent almost all the traffic plus a few backlinks. Still waiting on around nine pending approvals.

Here's the raw data I tracked:

Directory, Visits, Signups, Backlinks
StartupDir A, 89, 4, 1
AIToolList, 72, 3, 1
IndieHackers Alt, 64, 3, 0
SaaSList, 48, 2, 1
Others, 30, 5, 0

Lesson: don't bother with generic directories - focus on niche ones where your target audience actually hangs out.

pixelpusher

Directory grind? lol waste.

marketingmule

This is genuinely useful - always love seeing real attribution breakdowns instead of guesswork. Did you track these organically or were you using UTM parameters from the start?

justauser

This is genuinely helpful to see early on - so often we guess at the channels that drive first users. Thanks for sharing your data! 🙌

budgetburner

Not surprised. Directories are a lottery dressed up as a strategy. 90% of 'em are dead ends, and the ones that actually send traffic do it in a chaotic burst then go quiet. The real value? Backlinks that compound over time if the domain's legit. Launched my last tool and got maybe 40-50 visits from directories total, but a handful of those links still rank and drip traffic months later. Hardly a growth channel, but it's not nothing.

socialbutterfly

oh, I've been there too! Used the same FounderToolkit list for my last project. 📋 Saved me hunting directories one by one. but the reality? Most listings gave zero traffic. 🚫 Typical

24fire

Which channels actually pulled their weight, then? I've seen too many early-stage playbooks where the one that works is the one you least expect-and the one you pour budget into is the one that quietly dies. always curious which few had genuine traction

buggedout

Solid grind. Which channel drove the highest conversion rate?

backlinker

Yeah, definitely tedious. I hit the same wall around user 10 or 11 - nearly binned the whole tracking exercise. What saved me was batching the attribution over three evenings rather than trying to force it all in one sitting. Also helped to set up a simple UTM naming convention upfront for any future signups, so the next batch is less painful. Still manual, but manageable.