# The Marketing Playbook That Grew My App to $13K/month Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adl5_lJfkEE Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/Adl5_lJfkEE Generated: 2026-01-07T18:34:24.232+00:00 --- ## Quick Overview Bhanu Teja built his first successful indie SaaS product, SiteGPT, by leveraging a "builder-first strategy" focused entirely on free SEO traffic from tools, which generated nearly 1 million website visits and $13,000 in MRR without any paid marketing, leading him to sell his second product, Feather.so, for $250,000. **Key Points:** - Bhanu Teja achieved nearly 1 million website visits and $13,000 in Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) for SiteGPT solely through free, organic traffic, spending $0 on marketing. - The core marketing strategy involved building dozens of free, low-effort SEO tools (like a Sitemap Finder & Checker and AI Chatbot Name Generator) to drive traffic to his main product, SiteGPT. - SiteGPT is an AI chatbot builder that allows users to train a chatbot on their own content (PDFs, websites) to answer visitor questions 24/7, with pricing starting at $39/month. - Bhanu's traffic breakdown shows 60-70% of traffic comes from Google, achieved by targeting relevant keywords (e.g., 'ai generator' variations) with low Keyword Difficulty (KD) scores, often less than 10. - He recommends a 'launch early and let feedback guide you' approach rather than spending months perfecting a product before launch. - Bhanu recently sold his second product, Feather.so (a Notion-to-Blog platform), to another builder for $250,000. - His overall tech stack for running his business includes paid tools for SEO analytics (Ahrefs: $29/month), AI website support (SiteGPT: $39/month), call booking (cal.com: FREE), and business analytics (datafast.com: $44/month). ![Screenshot at 0:05: Bhanu Teja, a builder from India, is introduced alongside his successful indie SaaS product, SiteGPT, which generated $13,000 MRR.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/Adl5_lJfkEE/00-00-05.jpg) **Context:** This video is an interview on the 'Starter Story' podcast featuring Bhanu Teja, an Indian software builder who achieved significant success with his AI-powered SaaS products, SiteGPT and Feather.so, by employing an engineering-focused marketing approach rather than traditional sales or paid advertising. The discussion centers on how he built and scaled his main product, SiteGPT, using free SEO tools and content generation to acquire nearly a million visitors. ## Detailed Analysis Bhanu Teja, an Indian software builder, details his strategy for achieving significant growth for his product, SiteGPT, without spending any money on marketing. SiteGPT is an AI customer support agent trained on a user's website content. He revealed that SiteGPT achieved nearly 1 million website visits in 16 months, resulting in $13,000 in MRR. This success was driven by a 'builder-first strategy' involving creating numerous free, low-effort SEO tools. The process involved four key steps: 1. Searching for all relevant keywords using Ahrefs Keywords Explorer. 2. Applying filters to include keywords related to 'AI generator' and setting the Keyword Difficulty (KD) filter to a maximum of 10. 3. Filtering by search volume, setting a minimum of 1,000 monthly searches. 4. Documenting findings in a Notion table, prioritizing keywords based on volume, low KD, low effort to build, and high relevance to his main product (SiteGPT). He noted that 60-70% of his traffic comes from Google search results, with the free tools acting as the primary lead source. He also mentioned the tech stack he uses for running his business, including Ahrefs ($29/month), SiteGPT ($39/month), Cal.com (FREE for booking), DataFast ($44/month), Posthog ($100/month), Sybill.ai ($29/month), Bentonow ($150/month), Feather.blog ($39/month), Featurebase ($99/month), Mintlify (FREE for documentation), Claude.ai ($100/month), and Chartmogul ($119/month). Finally, he shared that he recently sold his other SaaS product, Feather.so, for $250,000. ### Background and Initial Success - Bhanu Teja is a software engineer who quit his job 3 years ago to build his own products; SiteGPT reached $13,000 MRR and nearly 1 million site visits in 16 months using only free marketing - He recently sold his first SaaS, Feather.so, for $250k. ### SiteGPT Product Overview - SiteGPT is an AI expert chatbot trained on a user's specific content (PDFs, websites) to answer visitor questions 24/7, priced starting at $39/month. ### Bhanu's Traffic Process (Engineering as Marketing) - The strategy relies on creating dozens of free, low-effort tools (like an AI Chatbot Name Generator) to generate organic traffic, with 60-70% coming from Google. ### Keyword Research Steps - Step 1 involves using Ahrefs Keywords Explorer for seed keywords; Step 2 filters for keywords containing 'ai.general'; Step 3 filters by low KD (e.g., KD up to 10); Step 4 filters by minimum volume (e.g., 1,000 monthly searches). ### Prioritization and CTAs - Step 5 involves documenting findings in a table, prioritizing based on high volume, low KD, low effort to build, and high relevance to the main product (SiteGPT); Step 6 plans CTAs within the free tools (e.g., 'Start your free trial now!'). ### Tech Stack Used - Bhanu utilizes numerous tools for his business operations, including Ahrefs ($29/mo) for SEO, SiteGPT ($39/mo) for AI support, Cal.com (FREE) for booking, DataFast ($44/mo) for analytics, Posthog ($100/mo) for session recordings, and Claude.ai ($100/mo) for AI coding assistance. ![Screenshot at 0:05: Bhanu Teja, a builder from India, is introduced alongside his successful indie SaaS product, SiteGPT, which generated $13,000 MRR.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/Adl5_lJfkEE/00-00-05.jpg) ![Screenshot at 0:11: Google Search Console data showing 727K total clicks and 15.2M total impressions over 16 months, highlighting success from organic traffic.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/Adl5_lJfkEE/00-00-11.jpg) ![Screenshot at 0:47: The core marketing strategy is visualized as a 3-step process: 1. Free Traffic \(SEO\) -\> 2. 7-Step Engine \(The SEO process\) -\> 3. Builder-First Strategy.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/Adl5_lJfkEE/00-00-47.jpg) ![Screenshot at 1:14: A tweet from Bhanu Teja announcing he sold Feather.so for $250k, noting it was his first and most successful indie SaaS product.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/Adl5_lJfkEE/00-01-14.jpg) ![Screenshot at 10:27: Step 3 of the SEO process shows filtering by Keyword Difficulty \(KD\) to target keywords with low competition, such as those with KD=0.](https://ss.rapidrecap.app/screens/Adl5_lJfkEE/00-10-27.jpg)