A few months ago, I launched https://pagesnap.co — a simple API service that converts websites or raw HTML into high-quality PDFs using headless Chrome. It works well, it’s polished, and technically it solves a real problem (HTML-to-PDF conversion is messy, especially with Tailwind, dark mode, or JavaScript-heavy pages).
Since launching, I’ve put quite a bit of effort into marketing:
* Wrote blog posts and documentation * Created a YouTube intro video * Answered relevant questions on Reddit, Quora, Google Ads * Built backlinks and directory listings * Created Facebook, X.com accounts to post content
But so far… results have been pretty underwhelming. I’m getting a few signups, and some free trial signups, but very few convert, and traffic is nowhere near what I hoped despite the effort.
I’m wondering if other indie hackers / solo SaaS founders have experienced something similar — and what eventually worked for you? How did you find your first 50–100 paying customers when organic and content marketing wasn’t taking off?
Would also genuinely appreciate feedback on the product or site itself: https://pagesnap.co
Thanks a ton in advance
First, make sure Google actually knows about your website. Submit it to Google search console and let it index the website. This step alone can take anywhere between 3 to 6 months before you will start to see organic traffic. In the meantime you can also try to create more content in your website. Have a proper sitemap and keep it updated with new content.
In MY experience, backlink building is not that useful. It’s a vanity metric. My SaaS ranks in top 5 in Google for specific keywords, and I have a few dozen backlinks and a DR of 4.
Try running ads. Google/Reddit ads in your case might work.
Make sure you know why people are not converting. In my experience free trials are VC backed thing, when you can burn shitload of money on acquiring customers. It’s not that helpful for solopreneurs, so I would consider dropping it off.
But I think your value proposition is not prominent on the website.
A couple of thoughts:
1. Your claim is: "From HTML to PDF, our API ensures precise and accurate conversions."
That is descriptive, but does not help to understand your two target groups why they should buy you.
1. Devs: They want ease of use, reliability and speed of integration
2. Business stakeholders: They want to know what they can generate using your tool, that it will look beautiful and that it is cost effective.
You should address these needs in the claim, not describe your product immediately I think.
This can come later.
A much better claim imo is found in your first FAQ below pricing:
"PageSnap allows converting documents to PDFs, capturing screenshots, and creating images. It's ideal for generating invoices, exporting documents, and more."
Make that the claim and spice it up, for example:
Generate pixel-perfect invoices, offers, [...] and other documents quickly, easily and cost-effectively at scale.
This should really be laser focussed on user needs in words THEY understand and think in.
Your quick step-by-step video is far too long at almost 3 minutes and, more personal taste, the AI voice does not inspire confidence or quality.
I'd much prefer a short video showing you filming yourself generating an invoice.
Also, for the first three claims I'd much prefer actual screenshots of GIFs showing how the results look like rather than the stylized comics.
They're communicating functionality, but not user need.
All that being said, with B2B and given that it is a niche product, it can be that it will just be a slow burn and take some time to build up a customer base.
Though it's an essential function, it'll not go away.
My advice would be to focus on making some few early customers really happy, engange with them.
If they feel loved, they will spread word of mouth about you and the service, helping you to scale.
For some B2B solo devs, this has taken years, so it's not necessarily you, but part of the nature of niche apps!
This might be tough to hear, but I think you fell into a common indie founder trap. It looks like you've let engineering get way ahead of market validation. You have all these features and different plans, but it sounds like they're guesses rather than things that paying customers have asked for.
I did the same thing when I was starting out. I created an API as a service because it was something I wanted, and there weren't good solutions available.[0] But then I spent a few months building it and realized I didn't have a plan for how to find customers. I thought they'd just find me and recognize me as better than the competition, but they didn't.
If I were in your position, I'd think about who would be a good customer for your service. Is there a way to find someone who's doing this now but is paying too much / getting poor results? Can you reach out to them? Even if you have to reach out to people one-by-one at first,[1] that's fine and gives you valuable feedback.
Also, my more opinionated feedback about your product (take with a grain of salt because my feedback is worth way less than someone who's a real prospective customer):
- If I try the example curl command on your landing page, I get HTTP 403
- The landing page could do a better job of showing the result of the curl command or make it easy for user to just push a button and get a result in the browser (for an allowlist of example domains)
- "Powered by AWS Serverless" is meaningless to customers and shouldn't be something you advertise, much less the first thing
- "99% uptime" also doesn't sound very good. Customers for this product likely aren't comparing vendors based on uptime.
- "Offering 30+ Customizable PDF Options" seems like a meaningless claim
I think the product page would benefit from you talking to more customers and including language that they use and lets them know you're solving the problem that they're trying to solve.
I will write about my experiences with SaaS; I hope it doesn't discourage you. Unfortunately, I didn't succeed and went back to a 9-to-5 job.
Unfortunately, the bad news is that the easiest and most enjoyable part, which is coding, is already behind you. As has been said before, marketing and distribution are what probably ends 99% of SaaS ventures (assuming your product isn't the new ChatGPT). No matter how good your product is, you now have two options:
1. Invest significant thousands of dollars in marketing and distribution. For example, a valuable backlink to your site can cost a thousand dollars. Marketing campaigns, advertisements, people – it all costs money. That's how big companies operate, but they also usually have their distribution network and many products, so it works out well for them. Besides, they have an established brand, and a brand is everything nowadays.
2. Work hard every day searching for clients. Cold DMs, cold emails. The chances of someone replying to you here are very small. After all, each of us is also a consumer. How many advertising emails do you respond to, assuming they don't go straight to spam? Choosing this option, you will initially have to convince each client one by one to choose your product. Because why, when looking for an HTML to PDF API, would I choose your product? I don't know this site; it was created recently. Your only advantage is you as the founder and salesperson. You could say you will have to become an implementation specialist for your first clients and configure client applications (at least that's my experience) because that's your only advantage over the competition – commitment.
The market you've chosen is large, which is a plus, but I quickly searched for your competition, and there's a lot of it. Currently, the number of SaaS companies is growing exponentially due to AI. Less wealthy but very populous countries like India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia are developing rapidly, and there are also more and more programmers there (probably hundreds of millions of programmers). When I was still fighting for my SaaS, a final-year IT student from India wrote to me on X.com and asked if he could work for free on my SaaS for a reference. That was the moment I ended my SaaS and went back to a 9-to-5 job. Why? Because I had barely 10 clients, and I just realized what I wrote above – that there are millions of people like him. I came to the conclusion that all the expenses I incurred and the time spent were not worth it.
But to not be so bitter, there are also many positives! You have certainly learned a lot, firstly, and secondly, having completed such a project gives you an immediate advantage over 90% of people in the IT job market. If you show this project in job interviews, I think you'll have a well-paid position in your pocket. However, if you decide to continue working on your SaaS, I sincerely wish you all the best, and I hope you succeed and that I will one day use PageSnap myself!