I sold digital products before I ever wrote code. Now I've built the platform I wish existed back then.
I sold digital products before I ever wrote code. Now I've built the platform I wish existed back then.
Before dropanda, I was selling coloring books and activity books on Amazon KDP. Good products, decent quality, zero traffic. Nobody finds you on Amazon unless you already have reviews and rank, and you don't get either without traffic. Classic chicken-and-egg problem every small creator hits.
When I moved into building software, I saw the same problem everywhere — Gumroad, Payhip, Stan Store are excellent checkout tools, but they don't help anyone get discovered. List your template, ebook, or SaaS tool, and it's invisible unless you're already bringing an audience.
So I built Dropanda. Free to list, no fees, no cut of your sales. The differentiator is a pay-to-rank leaderboard — instead of an opaque algorithm deciding who gets seen, it's transparent: highest bid gets the top spot, and everyone can see exactly where they rank and what it costs to move up.
Just shipped v2 this week — added SaaS tool support, a full public leaderboard, and sponsorship tiers for people who want guaranteed placement instead of competing on the leaderboard.
Solo-built from Dhaka, Bangladesh. Still very early — 18 listings so far, real revenue in the low hundreds. Posting the honest number because that's the whole point of building in public.
If you've got a digital product or SaaS tool sitting with zero traffic somewhere, genuinely curious if this solves anything for you: https://dropanda.xyz/
I think this is a great idea starting new myself
Hey MayaT, appreciate that!
Starting fresh is honestly the hardest part because you're fighting for that very first bit of attention against people who've been building audiences for years. That's exactly why I wanted Dropanda to be 100% free to list with zero platform fees—creators shouldn't have to pay just to get a shot at being seen.
If you've got a digital product or tool up and running, feel free to drop it on there. Let me know how it goes or if you run into any friction always looking for feedback from people in the trenches right now!
Will you provide any other metrics except traffic/eyes count (on each listing) on some dashboard, like for example user clicks on elements or external redirections, and so on?
Honest answer: right now, buyer traffic is mostly people discovering Dropanda through my own build-in-public posts on X/LinkedIn/here, plus early sellers checking out other listings once they're in. It's not solved yet that's the real chicken-and-egg problem every early marketplace hits, and I won't pretend otherwise. My bet is that as more sellers list (since it's free, low friction to try), cross-browsing between sellers becomes real buyer traffic over time, but I need actual outside buyer acquisition too, not just relying on sellers browsing each other.
The chicken-and-egg framing is spot on. Transparent paid placement may solve the initial visibility problem, but I’d watch the separation between paid reach and earned proof: repeat visits, qualified clicks, and downstream activation are stronger signals than impressions alone. A small “why this is shown” label plus a simple quality floor could help buyers trust the leaderboard without turning it into another opaque feed. How are you distinguishing a placement that gets curiosity clicks from one that actually finds product-user fit?
Spot on regarding trust and downstream activation. Right now, the public leaderboard is completely transparent—anyone can see exactly what a spot costs, so there's zero illusion of an "algorithm" secretly favoring someone.
That said, you're 100% right that curiosity clicks don't equal product-user fit. Because Dropanda doesn't handle checkout (buyers click "Visit" to go straight to the creator's Gumroad, Payhip, or site), the traffic is inherently high-intent.
To keep the quality floor high, I manually review every listing before it goes live, and I'm currently working on adding verified click and conversion metrics directly into the creator dashboard so sellers aren't just guessing based on raw impressions. Appreciate the sharp feedback!
Verified click and conversion in the creator dashboard is the right next layer. Transparent spot pricing builds trust up front, and those metrics are what keep sellers from mistaking curiosity traffic for fit.
Really appreciate that, Jessie. That’s the exact balance I’m trying to hit—keeping the mechanics dead simple and transparent while giving creators actual signal instead of vanity metrics.
By the way, love the nuance you raised earlier about separating paid reach from earned proof. If you're building or shipping anything right now, drop the link or let me know what you're working on—would love to check it out!
Working on DIY GEO: helping solo sellers log whether AI named or cited them on real buyer questions, without treating a blended visibility score as proof. The free door is The 5-Prompt Citation Snapshot: https://normbrytande.gumroad.com/l/quwzbl — and The Money Prompt Lab is the 30-day clipboard if you want the fuller logging workflow. Happy to compare notes on paid reach vs earned proof anytime.
Love this, jessie_geo. Tracking whether AI actually names or cites you on real buyer queries is such a practical shift away from the old vanity metrics game.
Just grabbed The 5-Prompt Citation Snapshot—super smart way to get that baseline visibility without guessing. Appreciate you sharing notes on this, totally agree that earned proof is where the real signal is. Let's definitely keep comparing notes!
Glad the Snapshot landed. If you want the 30-day clipboard after that baseline (same buyer questions, opened or cited pages, before/after), The Money Prompt Lab is here: https://normbrytande.gumroad.com/l/wfkslz — otherwise happy to keep comparing notes on earned proof vs vanity metrics.
Selling before coding is a great signal, and the zero-fee promise is compelling. One metric layer I’d add early is listing impressions → qualified product-page visits → checkout starts → purchases, with each seller able to see their own referral/source breakdown. That separates useful discovery from leaderboard curiosity and gives you a clear product roadmap. I’m also testing a free fee checklist for digital sellers—disclosure: I made it: https://payhip.com/b/FIY1B
Appreciate the feedback, itsrobby! That kind of funnel visibility (impressions to outbound clicks) is definitely on my radar as things scale up. Right now it's just raw discovery traffic heading straight to the creator's store checkout, but attribution analytics would be a massive value-add for sure.
Also that free fee checklist sounds super helpful for creators. Dropanda is 100% free to list with zero platform fees, so if you want to throw that checklist up there for some extra visibility, feel free to add it! Would love to see it on the platform.
A practical way to separate distribution from vanity traffic is to score each channel or audience 1-5 on pain, budget, authority, and urgency. Pain means the problem is already articulated, budget means there is existing spend, authority means the person can act, and urgency means there is a deadline. Track qualified conversations, repeat visits, and a concrete next step, not raw clicks. For a marketplace, start with one narrow buyer and seller niche, interview 5 of each, and expand only when both sides have a repeatable path to a first transaction. That makes the customer signal easier to read before adding more categories.
Spot on breakdown, MathisUnlimited. That pain/budget/authority/urgency framework is gold.
The hardest part of a marketplace early on is resisting the urge to open the floodgates to everyone. I started narrow with digital products and SaaS tools because those are the creators I know best from my own background, but keeping the feedback loop tight with those first few dozen users is the only way to figure out if it's actually solving the discovery problem.
Appreciate the advice definitely keeping that scoring model in mind as I look at traffic quality over raw clicks!
I can offer the seller's side. I make a desktop app and have submitted it to a few dozen directories and marketplaces over the past year, so I have seen a lot of listing pages from the supply end. The thing that decided whether a directory was worth my time was never rank. It was whether the category matched what a buyer actually types when they have the problem. A great slot in a vague category sent me curiosity clicks that bounced. A plain slot in a narrow, intent-matched category sent a trickle that converted. So before selling placement, I would invest in category structure: narrow, job-shaped categories are what make paid ranking worth paying for, because rank inside a vague category is rank in front of the wrong people.
On the dashboard metrics already being discussed here, one detail decides whether sellers believe the numbers: let each listing pass a tracking parameter through to the seller's own destination. A platform-reported click count is something I have to take on faith at renewal time, and marketplaces have trained sellers not to. A number I can see in my own analytics is something I will happily pay against, and it costs you a query string.
Are you planning per-listing referral tracking that sellers can verify on their own side, or does that wait until the catalogue is bigger?
Spot on insights, Wrenio_Studio. That distinction between curiosity clicks from a vague category and high-intent traffic from a narrow one is so true. Rank in front of the wrong crowd is just wasted attention.
That's actually why I structured the categories around specific jobs (like UI kits, AI prompts, specific template types) rather than broad buckets. But your point about making sure the search and category intent matches what buyers are actually typing is a massive priority as the catalog grows.
On the referral tracking piece—you nailed why skepticism is so high with directories. Relying on platform-reported dashboard stats alone is a tough sell. Adding custom UTM or tracking parameter support so sellers can verify the traffic directly inside their own PostHog, Google Analytics, or Gumroad source breakdown is definitely the right move. I'm looking at how to bake that in cleanly so sellers can audit it on their end.
Really appreciate you sharing notes from the supply side—this is the exact kind of feedback that makes a marketplace actually useful.
The pay-to-rank transparency is an interesting differentiator. Most platforms bury the algorithm so sellers can't see what they're competing against. Making the bid structure visible changes the game — you're not chasing a black box, you're making a real business decision about what visibility is worth to you.
Low hundreds in early revenue + 18 listings is a reasonable start for something this new. The distribution chicken-and-egg you described from KDP is the exact same one Gumroad sellers hit, so you've clearly found a real pain.
Curious what the buyer conversion looks like on the listed products so far — are purchases happening through the platform or are people mostly browsing and then buying direct?
Appreciate that, AmandaBrown! That black box algorithm frustration is exactly why I wanted to make the leaderboard completely transparent. When you can see what the top spot actually costs, it stops being a guessing game and just becomes a straightforward business decision.
To answer your question all purchases happen directly on the creator's own store. Dropanda doesn't handle checkouts or take any cut of the sales. Buyers browse the catalog, find something they like, and hit a "Visit" button that sends them straight to the creator's Gumroad, Payhip, or SaaS checkout page.
It's purely built for discovery and driving targeted traffic back to where the creator already sells. Really appreciate you checking it out!
Your revenue model and your sellers' success point in opposite directions: you get paid when someone buys rank, not when someone buys a product, so the business can grow while nothing actually sells. I would take a small cut of sales instead, because it forces you to solve buyer traffic and it hands you the one number that would make this thing spread. The story of the coloring books with zero traffic is your real asset here, so what is bringing buyers to the leaderboard this week?
Fair challenge, and worth sitting with. Right now the incentive is exactly what you're describing I get paid on placement, not outcome. I don't think a sales cut is the right fix for Dropanda specifically, since I intentionally don't touch checkout (that's the whole point buyers go straight to the creator's own store). But you're right that I need a real signal beyond "did they pay for rank" to know if this is actually working for sellers. That's part of why the referral-tracking idea from earlier in this thread matters verified clicks/conversions would let sellers (and me) see if paid placement is actually converting, not just guessing.
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This hits home. I'm a solo dev selling Windows tools on Gumroad and Whop — discovery is my biggest bottleneck too. Nobody finds you without an audience.
The transparent pay-to-rank leaderboard is a fresh take. Just checked out dropanda.xyz — will list my tools and see how it goes. Good luck with v2!
Appreciate that, Rashid. Windows tools on Gumroad and Whop have it tough because discovery is entirely on you—marketplaces like that are great at checkout, but terrible at bringing you fresh eyes.
Definitely list your tools over there—it's 100% free to get on the directory, no commissions or fees taken from your sales. The pay-to-rank and sponsorships are just optional if you ever want extra spotlight, but the core listing is completely free to help with that exact bottleneck.
Let me know how your tools do once they're up!
The low-hundreds in revenue is the strongest signal here. Are sellers who pay for ranking actually getting meaningful traffic or sales from the visibility, or are they mainly paying for the promise of being seen?
Fair question, and keeping it brutally honest: right now, they're paying for guaranteed visibility at the top of the feed, but the downstream conversion depends entirely on their own landing page (which is why I also built RoastMyLanding to help them fix leaks once they get there).
Low hundreds in revenue is tiny, but it's real dollars from real indie hackers who were tired of shouting into the void on Twitter. The goal isn't to promise overnight sales—it's to solve the zero-traffic starting line that every Gumroad and Stan Store seller hits. As the platform grows, that visibility actually compounds. Thanks for calling out the hard truth!
I’ve sent you a couple of emails about this over the past month. When you get a chance, please reply there — I’d be interested in continuing the conversation by email.
Huh, that's weird—I haven't received any emails from you, and nothing is showing up in my inbox or spam. Drop me a DM here on Indie Hackers or ping me on X (@AyeshaBuilds) with your email address so I can check my filter, and we can definitely keep the conversation going there.
IH doesn’t seem to have a DM option, and I don’t use X. You can reach me at hello@beryxa.com — please send me a quick email there so we can continue the conversation.
Selling before coding is a great reminder to validate demand first. The zero-traffic problem on marketplaces is real—distribution deserves as much attention as product quality.
Appreciate that! Distribution really is the hardest part of the indie journey. You can spend weeks crafting the perfect UI kit, ebook, or SaaS tool, but if your launch day tweet gets three likes, it feels like shouting into an empty room.
That’s why listing on Dropanda is and always will be 100% free with no commission cuts. Creators shouldn't have to pay a platform just for a chance to be seen. Thanks for reading!