Post:
Two weeks ago I wrote about getting 3,200+ calculations with $0 ad spend.
Here's what happened since.
The numbers
Calculations: still showing 3,200+
Twitter followers: 9
Reddit karma: 20
Lemon Squeezy: still in review, 3 emails sent, 0 replies
Revenue: $0
What's working
Twitter reply strategy is the only thing generating real conversations right now. Not follower growth — conversations. A comment under @StevBuilds asking "if AI is gone, would your business survive?" turned into a genuine back and forth. Someone asked what I built. That's how distribution actually works — one real conversation at a time.
Reddit is slow. New account, 20 karma, building carefully this time. No shortcuts.
What's blocked
The Pro plan has been live for 7 days. Nobody can pay for it because Lemon Squeezy hasn't approved the account. Three emails. Zero replies. The product is ready. The payment processor isn't.
This is the part of building in public nobody really talks about — you can ship everything and still be blocked by a third party you have no leverage over.
What I'm doing while waiting
Pinterest: 3 pins/day, slow but evergreen Dev.to: you're reading it
Twitter: 20-30 replies/day, genuine ones only Reddit: karma building, no links yet
The honest part
Day 18 feels different than day 12. The excitement of shipping is gone. What's left is just showing up anyway.
$0 revenue with a live product and a payment processor that won't respond is a specific kind of frustration. But the calculator is still getting used. People still have the problem. That part hasn't changed.
The product works. Distribution is slow. Payment is blocked.
Still here.
ratecalc.fyi — free, no signup, 23 countries.