Building in Public Got Me 900 Followers and 3 Customers. Here Is What I Changed.
Posting daily progress felt productive until I compared followers to revenue. A few changes made the audience actually useful.
For four months I posted every single day about the tools I was building. Screenshots, commit counts, little wins, the occasional frustration. My follower count went from about 150 to just over 1,050. It felt like momentum.
Then I checked where my paying customers had come from. Out of 41 at the time, exactly 3 had found me through those posts.
That stung. But it also forced me to figure out what building in public is actually good for.
Who was actually following
When I looked at the profiles of people engaging with my posts, the pattern was obvious. Almost all of them were other indie builders. Smart, supportive, generous with feedback, and not my customers. My product helps small support teams. Support leads were not reading my posts about database migrations.
I had built an audience of peers and expected it to behave like a market.
What I changed
1. I started writing for the buyer, not the builder
Instead of shipped a new caching layer today, I started writing about the problem my tool solves. Posts like a breakdown of what makes a support reply feel rushed, or the five questions customers ask most after a delayed delivery. Fewer likes from builders. More replies from people who actually run support teams.
2. I kept peer posts, but with a different goal
Building in public among other builders is still valuable. I just stopped pretending it was marketing. Now those posts are for feedback, accountability and the occasional collaboration. One builder I met this way later recommended me to a client, which is worth more than a hundred likes.
3. I moved where I post
My most useful posts now go to two small communities where support leads hang out. I share helpful things there first and mention the product only when it is directly relevant. Those two communities have produced 14 customers in the last two months.
4. I share numbers less often, but more fully
Daily metric posts became noise, even to me. Now I do one detailed monthly update with revenue, churn and what I learned. Those get far more thoughtful replies than daily screenshots ever did.
The honest scorecard
Since the change, my follower growth has slowed to about 40 a month. My customer count went from 41 to 67. I will take that trade every time.
An audience of builders will cheer for you. An audience of customers will pay you. Know which one you are building.
Building in public is not a growth hack. It is a way of thinking out loud. That is worth doing for its own sake, as long as you do not confuse applause with demand.
Cover: Photo by Julian on Unsplash.
