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Edwin Klesman

How niche is too niche?

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In bootstrap territory, nearby maker city and indiehackers pond, it is often told that if you want to create a succesful micro SaaS solution, you need to find a niche. I've found a niche when creating a tool that saves me - and others - much time , with my upcoming SaaS called Linq Me Up (www.linqmeup.com). It helps .Net developers to convert SQL queries into C# LINQ code using AI. There are only a few alternatives, using syntax based or rule based conversion, which aren't nearly as good in generating good LINQ as to what AI can do, but this also solves a very niche problem. Subscriber feedback gave me the insights that this is something .Net developers will probable use on a monthly basis, to save them a lot of time while migrating projects. What do you think? Could this be one of those tools that have a slow start but that gains users over time? And what is most important now (pre release)? Reaching out to communities of .Net developers that might run into this? I'd love to hear your take on this.

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Rex Kumaran
Wow - I thought us targeting wealthy individuals was niche! I think niche can work. I remember this company called Charity Checkout which essentially was a payment widget for charities. There was no technical difference to being able to use the Paypal widget but these guys branded themselves as just for charities and made the checkout process white-labelled so that it looked like the charities own checkout widget. I seem to recall them charging £30pm and having a few thousand users back in 2014. Since then, they raised £7m in funding and seem to be going strong still (started 2009) albeit with a rebrand. The key I guess for you is execution - how do you get to your niche audience. SEO is unlikely to generate the traffic as it used to - much harder nowadays - and as @fabian_maume posted, there doesn't seem to be much search traffic. So perhaps think of ways to engage that specific audience in the forums they are in. Sounds like a clever solution though - well done.
Matt Harbord
A technique I've sent used a lot is to write a top quality guide about how to do it the *hard* way. So for you, it would comprise all the steps involved in an article titled "How to convert SQL queries into C# LINQ code" - which is literally the first thing I'd Google as a dev faced with that challenge. Assuming you write a good article you should get listed pretty highly on Google (eventually) As much as the temptation might be to just say "use our cool AI tool" you actually have to walk them through how to do it manually, but just point out the existence of your tool and how it can save them time. This type of article shows you know what you're talking about, and establishes trust that your tool will actually work. As to the original question - it depends on what you want to achieve and in what sort of timeframe. Serving a very niche community is great for product validation, but only if 1) that niche actually exists 2) you know how to reach them, or 3) the niche has a strong network effect (i.e. they'll tell each other). If you don't know where the niche hangs out then the best you can do to reach them is long form content that might get organic traffic; coupled with hanging around in Stack Overflow where you can answer users directly (though you should answer the question they ask, not just spam them)
Edwin Klesman
@matt_harbord This is solid, actionable advice! Thanks for taking the time to write up this comprehensive answer. I agree, and think that this kind of detailed "manual/hard way" can be my guiding flag that gets me noticed by other developers. The only current validations I have, are me (I needed this type of solution a couple of time) and (although it being a weaker indication), 40+ subscribers that are interested in the product. I've already started to search stack overflow and other developer communities and provide value and nonchalantly mentioning LINQ Me Up. I will work on a detailed post like you mentioned to get that out there also. Thanks again, really appreciate it.
Edwin Klesman
@matt_harbord By now, I've created an article on Medium and dev.to that tells people the steps how to do conversion. Dev.To even featured it in their Twitter, gaining me a lot of visitors. Also, by now, I've gained about 10 people who created an account, but didn't convert. So I decided to add one-time usable credits as an alternative to a subscription and give each registered account (also everyone registering after) a couple of credits to testdrive my solution.I'm hoping to see some people try it out and convert within the next couple of days. Thanks for your feedback and hope it will convert well :)
Matt Harbord
@eekayonline Great steps - and I read the article - nice work! Good idea on the free credits front! Next step would be a drip campaign to email them on signup telling them about the credit, showing them how to use it, and telling them to reply with any questions. For anyone who hasn't used the credit you might email them on day 3, or day 7 to remind them / ask about why they haven't used it. Everyone expects a sign up email, so you shouldn't get flagged as spam for that - but the second email is a *bit* spammy, so probably limit yourself to just that, and make sure to tell them you won't email them again. I use postmarkapp.com for that - but that assumes you can fire the emails yourself from a cloud function or similar. Other mail senders will let you set up a drip campaign more easily that manages itself.
Edwin Klesman
@matt_harbord thanks again. I’ll send a manual email campaign using sendinblue for now, because the number of members is stil small. I’ll send a one-time outreach to the ones that didn’t use their credits yet for sure
Fabian Maume
There was a question on the topic on stack overflow: https://stackoverflow.com/questi... It was posted 1 month ago and collected 121k views. So it seems that you can get volume. Next is to check what subscription rate you can expect to see if the project can generate enought MRR.
Edwin Klesman
@fabian_maume Hey thanks for your input. I checked out the post, but it was from a year ago, and edited last month. There is interest for sure. I have the MVP ready, and only Paddle's domain approval is needed before i can schedule a release. Are there ways to validate or check if this is googled often etc? I'm just really new at SEO stuff and finding that out.
Fabian Maume
@eekayonline there doesn't look to be search volume: https://trends.google.com/trends...
Edwin Klesman
@fabian_maume thanks didn’t know about trends. When I search for “sql LINQ” and “c# LINQ” I see searches, I think I’ll check stack overflow and other developer platforms for questions regarding LINQ to interact with developer prospects