𝗜 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁 𝗮 𝟮,𝟮𝟬𝟬-𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗔𝗜 𝗧𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗮 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸

I built an AI tool ranking site one week ago. It now has 2,200 pages. It updates every day with accurate data.

I built it to solve my own problem. I spent too much time switching between Product Hunt, GitHub, and Hacker News. I wanted one page to pull all that data together. I wanted a site ranked by community votes.

I followed a simple rule: ship first, fix later. If you never ship, you never finish. The first version was ugly. It had a homepage, vote counts, and links. I launched it the same day.

Building a directory requires scale. 100 pages is not enough. 1,000 pages might not be enough either. Google needs depth. I focused on making content that is useful and scalable for search engines.

I learned three lessons about growth:

  • Volume is the foundation. You need mass to show depth to search engines.
  • Traffic comes before revenue. I wasted days applying for affiliate programs. They rejected me because the site was too new. I applied for AdSense and waited.
  • Patience is a requirement. I check my numbers daily. I went from zero to 35 active users. It is a small start, but it is progress.

Small problems eat your time. I spent three days fixing a favicon. I struggled with time zones and deployment issues. These tasks are not hard coding. They are just friction.

Right now, I am waiting on three things:

  • AdSense approval.
  • Google indexing.
  • External traffic.

I cannot speed these up. I have done everything within my control.

If I started again, I would skip the affiliate search. I would also stop worrying about Google indexing in the first few weeks. It is a slow process.

The site tracks 98 tools and grows daily. I will see the results in three months.

Source: https://dev.to/mikaai/i-built-a-2200-page-ai-tools-site-in-a-week-4b4p

Optional learning community: https://t.me/GyaanSetuAi