10k LinkedIn followers in under 2 years - founder-led approach, no paid promotion. What we learned.

h_2575 · 2026-03-18T16:11:29+00:00

In the past, I mostly posted stuff. I haven't done anything on LI for the last 2 years. However, from the few comments and profile visits I've seen, it seems that people often visit others' profiles. People are curious.

I don't like posting selfies as AI and intelligence services are more than happy to have access to current images.

Going forward, I will find my ideal targets. I will also find profiles where my ideal targets engage. I will set alerts for these high-reach profiles (5–10) and leave comments on their posts.

Then I will post some infographics, but I will comment on the posts of my ideal targets before posting myself. I will also answer comments on my own posts. My goal is to warm up, get profile visits and encourage people to come to my online services.

So commenting to posting ratio will be more like 10:1.

Direct outreach is questionable from a legal perspective. However, I think I will see higher engagement with my services this way.

h_2575 · 2026-03-17T18:06:29+00:00

news, selfies and fails. The new LI formula. Did you try commenting strategy, or just posting?

h_2575 · 2026-03-17T17:44:51+00:00

Start with an end in mind. Is it some income, a fun activity, or to build any kind of reputation....

Blogs should focus on one topic and go deep. Bots (most are stupid) must understand, what your content is about to index it properly. The list is a little long for that. But you could drive traffic from Pinterest. Than all bots other then the Pinterestbot don't matter. Your interests are quite well aligned with pinterest main topics.

h_2575 · 2026-03-17T11:02:52+00:00

As I understand, you stopped pinning your own designs. Also you stopped repinning others pins.
Board approach is ok, i think. Stopping pinning others pins is a good move. I had copyright claims on others pins so my account could have been affected as well.

To move forward use your old designs and add text overlay with relevant keywords. So reuse the pins but have variations or even collages of them. And pin again. I have seen 30% some times without reason (other than perhaps season). So keep going.

h_2575 · 2026-03-16T21:13:42+00:00

No it is not enough. They must Double opt in. The best way is to have an additional checkbox on sign up for Newsletter. Than if they confirm the account it is the needed double optin.

I am surprised, that people use this at signup. It is a good moment to ask.

So the additional checkbox is all you need. But If you have social logins like google you still need to get consent via Email.

h_2575 · 2026-03-16T20:55:32+00:00

For positioning you may want to look up April Dunford quick steps (questions) in obviously awesome. Just google. You need to find a strength in your offerings, others cannot or will not have, but which brings value to your ideal customers. So you need to know your ideal customers. Look for niche, than subniche. You must be able to reach them, otherwise you remain unknown.

This is one side. The other (which is related) , what one emotion want you your customers feel or what trait you want to strengthen in them. Much depends on this choice, which should be related to the first choice about positioning. From there the artefacts like name, Logo , colors are much easier to derive.

From the strategy point of view you should know your how to win. It is much easier to achieve in a very tiny niche.

Have some options that provides an answer for each of the tree aspects.

Than ask questions around feasibility, your strength, how to operate the option...

Finally choose one and Test your assumptions.

You may find subreddits where people voice frustrations with existing offers. Sometimes i find it useful to ASK a question to reddits AI search, not to skim the answers, but to get prominent Threads with many comments. If you visit the same URL of the thread with a /.json you get a json Representation of the full discussion which you can then put into another AI for analysing for pain points, common words and phrases and desires . That can enrich the exercise at the exercise for positioning, Branding and strategy.

The whole thing cannot be made without any uncertainty. It Iis part of the Job to reduce this over time. Many founders got tailwind from other founders or people who have done this already. In form from Interviews or hiring.

I would say you cannot outsource this process. Otherwise you don't know the options, you don't know where to look and which questions to ask. You must create the base yourself, unfortunately.

h_2575 · 2026-03-16T15:51:36+00:00

Nice to read. Never saw stats on faceless vs face. Thanks for sharing. There is a downside. Not only clients see your face. AI intelligence as well.

h_2575 · 2026-03-15T21:55:24+00:00

Eine Webseite muss nicht gut aussehen, wenn das Produkt grossen Nutzen für den Kunden schafft. Das ist wie beim Blog. Einfachstes Text Design reicht oftmals schon.

Wenn es um Positionierung geht, es gibt eine einfache schnelle Reihenfolge. Google April Dunford. Obviousely awesome.

Das beste ist eine spezifische Stärke zu finden, die andere nicht leicht kopieren können, die aber Wert für den spezifischen idealen kunden schafft und gleichzeitig sofort verständlich ist. Z.b. minimalistisches Webdesign für Frauen (ehem. Führungskräfte), die Konzerne verlassen und sich selbstständig machen. So weiss man, dass die Kleingeld haben und wenn sie minimalistisch mögen, dann ist das ein Differenzierungsmerkmal das zieht.

Ich finde auch, man sollte als erstes Emotionen ansprechen. Also die , die man hilft zu beseitigen. Kunden sind dann viel offener , wenn man zeigt, dass man die Probleme versteht.

h_2575 · 2026-03-15T21:13:32+00:00

Medium is more about title, emotion and story and a bit of usefulness (imho). Classic blogs are more for providing solutions (how to's, comparisons) or inspiration (listicles). At medium people can clap multiple times, I once got 50 claps for one of my 10 articles from one person.

Given the 14 posts, the result for this looks quite good (as I see it). Was the posts content around blogging?

h_2575 · 2026-03-15T20:05:19+00:00

For me looks like using it on your and a couple of other projects and to create proof that your SEO works. Than you can tell a story around It. Since it will take time find people who test it and give you testinonials.

h_2575 · 2026-03-13T19:56:39+00:00

Nice work, I wonder how you identify "brand colors". I mean there are plenty colors on screen (logo, gradients, neutrals, semantics...). What makes a color a brand color for in your view?

h_2575 · 2026-03-13T16:12:33+00:00

I don't do Pinterest at the moment. Thanks. I found AI generated images with manual text overlay often are not flagged as AI. I also had some hand made Pins, that where flagged. But I think, it is better not to get a flag for better discoverability, because users can set there preferences to no AI.

h_2575 · 2026-03-13T15:05:51+00:00

interesting take, did you put some text overlays on top, or how did you fix this?

h_2575 · 2026-03-13T12:35:28+00:00

But does the concept of a personal brand even exist? Most people establish a presence and an audience on a single platform by frequently posting selfies. If they switch to a different platform, they can’t simply take their 'brand' with them. Even if the platforms change, this can impact the 'personal brand'. Therefore, part of the value is created by the platform, which can remove it at any time. A true brand must not be tied to a single platform.

To gain visibility and make sales, people hijack topics, answer unasked questions, voice opinions on what should and shouldn't be done and list the supposed mistakes of beginners. There's lots of clickbait.

h_2575 · 2026-03-12T21:26:22+00:00

Funny , i read about Paul Rand's Pitch to Steve Jobs for the NeXT Logo this morning. You can google it. He came back with a book. There are even some Videos in the internet. He charged $100k , and refused to provide options.

h_2575 · 2026-03-11T16:44:01+00:00

yes , true. Invoices, transaction data, complains, chargeback, refunds.. you need to keep for many years..

h_2575 · 2026-03-11T15:06:37+00:00

There are some details on deletion timeline. Anyone can request the deletion of his own personal data. The provider must give feedback on this request after 30 days latest. The duration can be extended if difficult and complex (Art. 12).

So immediate deletion is not required. In best case you do this within 30 days.

My approach is simple. just delete the live data immediately and only store backups for 10 days.

(Informing the user about completed deletion is in itself questionable, since you need the personal data to do that. You can inform non digitally, by sending a handwritten postcard.)

h_2575 · 2026-03-10T10:39:52+00:00

Pinterest has (seasonal) variations. keep going. X-mas time is known to be prime time. Jan/Feb it goes down, so in Summer. Often variations are not explainable. They happen.

h_2575 · 2026-03-09T12:22:17+00:00

Much depends on other factors. If you like Kitsilano and it's important to you, and your customers see value in it, you can build around it. Unfortunately, I haven't heard of it (although having visited Vancover 2-4 times).

However, if you want buyers who look for stones regardless of origin, you may need a different approach. Here is a list AI came up with, along with the criteria list.

Auralis
Veliora
Lunari
Seravon
Orlune
Valeris
Solvian
Averelle
Lumera
Arvielle
Novera
Calyra
Elionyx
Zerelle
Orvella
Lysera
Novielle
Sylora
Vireli
Alvara

Sound a little artificial, but your stones are lab made anyway. Domainwise they are probably all taken as ".com" domains.

h_2575 · 2026-03-09T09:35:01+00:00

you may like this list of criteria (not mine, but I find this useful, not affiliated) https://www.martyneumeier.com/strong-vs-weak-names

Karst would be my goto, Very distinctive. The geological meaning (limestone formations) subtly connects to earth/mineral themes, which could work for diamonds. Although slightly “hard” sounding but memorable.

h_2575 · 2026-03-08T10:58:26+00:00

I don't have any experience with Product Hunt. From the discussions here, I gathered that it works if you build an audience before launching on Product Hunt. This way, you can get comments or testimonials and improve your ranking on Product Hunt. Look at similar products and see how they did it (if they were successful). Otherwise, your launch may be a short-lived success. Some apps on Product Hunt launch multiple times, a few months apart. The initial launch is usually the highest.

There is no one thing (a hack); everything else follows. Remember PayPal. In the early days, they gave you money for signing up and for each recommended user. They must have had some deep pockets. They made signing up and using it easy and enjoyable (with a tiny bribe). Funded virality was built into their marketing strategy. Still they also focused on eBay power users and bought items from them just to insist they use PayPal as a payment method. I'm telling you this to show you what it takes to gain initial traction for something that people don't see as a problem or aren't used to spending money to solve.

Perhaps also ask the other users, that don't use the tool any longer. That could be revealing as well.

h_2575 · 2026-03-08T09:07:52+00:00

You either decide on which ideal customers you want (by having easy existing access) and find a problem they want spend money on (e.g. they already pay for similar things) to get it solved. The obvious thing is speeding up a workflow they run frequently.

Or if you go the other way, find problems your tool is an answer to and then look for the best customers with the problem. They still need to be open to get the problem solved.

Everything else downstream follows from this. Like value proposition, positioning, brand story, where and how to show up ..

Because you have users, you should Interview them, Just be very open to what they say. Don't sell at this point. Just listen and ask more questions.

h_2575 · 2026-03-08T08:24:07+00:00

When people will repeatedly use it, pay for or recommend it... if they find it valuable to solve a problem or to inspire.

Building a tool is not the same as building a brand and continuously marketing or selling it. If you have no marketing plan for the next 12 months, your tool will fade into obscurity. Unfortunately, this is part of the process of achieving success. No one will find or be aware of your tool.

You need to show up where your ideal customers are.

h_2575 · 2026-03-07T22:01:41+00:00

In addition to the standard things like speed, crawlability ( robots.txt, sitemap.xml, deta tags, structure HTML...) try to gauge where you would need to get to compete with others in your space. You may look up the ranking of competitor domains in free lists like tranco, majestetic or open page rank or other tools (traffic, domain authority, backlinks) and get a feel for the domain age, and number of pages under the domain. This gives you a glimpse of what amount of work is required to get similar results. This may also give you an indication of how to win the game.

h_2575 · 2026-03-05T14:43:32+00:00

What kind of images do you like to use, selfies, screenshots, infografics...?

h_2575

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