Erwin posted multiple product demo videos on Twitter every week in the run-up to launch and linked them from his newsletter.

Erwin credits Twitter, including some viral moments, as a channel that outperformed his expectations.

“Posting on Twitter has worked far better. I had some viral moments that really helped.”

Erwin relaunches on Product Hunt periodically for major updates, saying it reliably brings a traffic spike.

“I also launch consistently. You can do product launches every six months or so on Product Hunt if you have a big update.”

Growth came partly from a large set of low-traffic-individually technical documentation pages covering Tailwind CSS classes.

“Part of this comes from having lots of pages on the site with technical help like info about Tailwind classes.”

Erwin frames consistent content writing, not just one-off SEO tactics, as the differentiator between founders who gain traction and those who don't.

“I think the single biggest thing that separates successful indie hackers from the ones who aren't is writing content”

A web-dev YouTuber made an unpaid product video after Erwin's Product Hunt launch, and Erwin separately paid a Twitter Tailwind-tips creator to sponsor tweets mentioning Tailscan.

“James is a well-known content creator in the web development space.”

Erwin describes both collaborations as successful for exposure and sales.

Newsletter sponsorships in his niche drew weak click-through and even weaker conversion, roughly breaking even at best.

“I sponsored a couple of newsletters in my niche, but the click-through rate was low and the conversion even lower.”

TikTok influencer deals in particular did not translate into profit, unlike some other influencer collaborations.

“But others — especially those on Tiktok — just didn't really result in any profit.”

Organic social mentions (e.g. a TikTok creator featuring Tailscan) and inclusion in third-party developer resource lists added incremental traffic during a 4-month period where MRR grew from $580 to $1,600.

“Tailscan has been featured on social media a couple of times”