Solo Builders Club

A newsletter to help you build, deploy, and sell your dream projects ✨

Hey — It’s Jerrell

Next week is Thanksgiving, so this week is the pregame.

I’m cleaning out my fridge for the expected week of leftovers. I’m checking online Black Friday deals. I’m even mostly eating salad this week, because everyday next week is basically a real life version of the Great British Bakeoff, but at my house.

Can’t wait.

Estimated read time: ~2 minutes and 58 seconds.

Three SEO Tools That Won’t Make Your Head Spin

SEO can feel like trying to decode an alien language. But here are three tools that actually make sense for those of us who didn't major in search engine optimization.

1/ Google Search Console

Here's the thing about GSC - it's like having a direct line to Google, but without the anxiety of actually talking to Google. It's completely free (yes, actually free, not "free trial" free) and tells you exactly what people are typing to find your site. Last month, I discovered people were finding my newsletter by searching "solo builder therapy" - which wasn't intentional but hey, I'll take it. The interface looks intimidating at first, but trust me, focus on the "Performance" and "Coverage" tabs and ignore the rest until you're ready for your SEO black belt.

2/ Yoast SEO

If Google Search Console is your GPS, Yoast is your backseat driver - but like, a really helpful one. It's a WordPress plugin that basically gives your content a green, yellow, or red light before you publish. Last week it caught me trying to use "building solo projects" 47 times in one post (slight exaggeration, but you get it). The free version does 90% of what you need. And while the premium version is $99/year, that's still cheaper than the therapy you'd need from trying to figure out schema markup on your own.

3/ AnswerThePublic

This one's like mind reading for content ideas. Type in "no code tools" and it shows you every question people are actually asking about it. I used it to plan this newsletter's content calendar and found questions I never would have thought of. Like "are no code tools replacing developers?" (spoiler: no, but non-techies can dream). The free version gives you 3 searches a day - perfect for those of us who like to procrastinate on our content planning until the last minute.

Two Ways to Find Project Partners That Don’t Feel Sleazy

1/

The "Genuine Fan First" approach. Instead of cold pitching, I spent a month actually using another solo builder's product and sharing genuine feedback. When I finally reached out about a potential partnership, I could say "Hey, been using your form builder for my newsletter signup. Love feature X, but noticed it could work really well with my analytics tool." Got a response in 2 hours. Why? Because I was a real user with a real use case, not just another "let's collaborate!" DM.

2/

The "Shared Problem" strategy. I posted in a nontechnical builder Discord about a specific challenge: "Anyone else struggling with customer onboarding? Working on a solution but would love to chat with others tackling this." Found two other builders working on complementary tools. We ended up chatting about strategies and a future bundle deal that would solve the whole customer journey. Bonus: actually made some friends who understand the solo builder life.

One Thought on MVP

About three years ago, I spent three months building the "perfect" MVP for my first product for a startup I was working on. Added every feature I thought users would need. Custom themes? Of course! Advanced analytics? Obviously! Integration with 17 different tools? Why not!

Want to know what my first real user asked for? A simple CSV export. Which, naturally, was the one feature I hadn't built.

Here's what I've learned: MVP doesn't mean "minimum viable product." It means "most valuable problem-solver." That CSV export? It solved my user's actual problem - they just wanted their data in a spreadsheet. All those fancy features? They solved problems I imagined users might have.

Now I follow the "embarrassingly simple" rule. If I'm not slightly embarrassed by how basic my first version is, I'm probably overbuilding it. Because here's the truth - users will tell you what features to add, but only if you give them something they can actually use first.

****

And that’s it for issue #6. Thanks for reading.

If you enjoyed it please do forward it to a pal. It takes ten seconds and makes a big difference. If you don't enjoy it, you can unsubscribe here.

See you next Monday — Jerrell & Chase

P.S. — I have hundreds of tools to share with you. I’m going to put together a database (see image below) of all of them in the next few weeks. I’ll share the first and, limited time only, free link to it in this newsletter so stayed tuned…

Did a friend send you here? Join the newsletter (it’s free).