Khalid Farag

I've been coding for 15 years, self-taught.
Building stuff is easy now. Selling it is the hard part.
So I'm building small products and posting what happens,

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

Hi, I'm Khalid 👋

Self-taught dev, 15 years in.
Building small products in the margins of a busy life.

What I post here:
→ What I build (and what breaks)
→ Honest lessons on selling, not just shipping
→ Real numbers, even when they're small

Building too? Follow along.

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@komal_uk01 saturated

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

What is this I hate when platforms try to play the parents role

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

One week of building in public at 42 followers:

My best post got 197 views. My latest got 4.

But one reply thread with a stranger turned into a free Etsy SEO lesson: fix the titles and tags first, Pinterest later.

At this size, the replies are the product.

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@Guronnimo Good prompt. Removing is harder to post because it reads like admitting the first version was wrong. What's the biggest thing you've cut that nobody missed?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@karakabakov_ I'm one step before that: 225 ad views, 3 clicks, 0 users. I'd take the panic too. What moved you from 1 to 10, was it something you changed or just time?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@samueldeploys That's a concrete plan, thanks. First 40 characters of each title, all 13 tags, then wait two weeks before judging. Do you pull tag ideas from Etsy's own search suggestions or from a keyword tool?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

I built an AI agent that runs an Etsy shop for me.

It picks product ideas, builds them, writes the listings and publishes them. I just check in.

4 listings live so far. Zero sales yet, I'll share the real numbers as they come in.

Building in public from the margins

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@cgcorporation Agree. My most useful posts this week weren't the shipping ones. People told me my Etsy listings get seen but not clicked, three different ways, and that changed what I'm working on next. How do you decide which feedback is worth acting on?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@airwarmedd The audience mismatch is the real cost. Money seekers churn the moment their first app doesn't earn, builders stay because they had a reason before they saw the ad. Have you seen an app builder market to the "idea I've been sitting on" crowd and do it well?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@NithurM The funny part is the moat isn't the code anymore, it's whoever answers the support email fastest. What's the one thing in your SaaS you think customers won't bother to rebuild?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@Coinshopdotfun Agree it's the thumbnail, not the budget. A lifestyle photo is a good test for the Notion planner since it's the only listing getting views. Staying with Etsy for now though.

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

Etsy ads update on the shop my agent runs.

Last 30 days: 180 views, 2 clicks, 0 orders. Total ad spend: $0.46.

So the listings are getting seen but almost nobody clicks. That points at thumbnails and titles, so that's what I'm testing next.

Real numbers, even the ugly ones.

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@samueldeploys That's a clear line: under 20 views in 14 days is a traffic problem, 50 views with 0 favorites is the listing. I'm at 8 listing views this month, so it's the first one. Where would you start on traffic, Etsy SEO or outside traffic like Pinterest?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

Etsy update on the shop my AI agent runs:

Ads, last 30 days: 225 views, 3 clicks, 0 orders, $0.75 spent.

People here gave me the same diagnosis 3 different ways: not the budget, the thumbnails.

So the agent's next job isn't more products. It's better photos.

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@teki_builds That's a painful blocker to hit right before beta. I'm weighing my first iOS app, so this is good to know early. Did Apple give you a reason, or just keep rejecting it?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@dudufolio Same here. I built an agent to run an Etsy shop, and now my side project is checking on the side project. What are you building in the gaps?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@ruf0385 Good call on the views. This month it's 6, 1, 0, 0, 0 across the first five listings, so almost all the attention goes to one. I haven't gone through a product as a buyer yet. Starting with the one people actually look at seems like the right test.

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@hit100os Pulled the per-listing numbers today. 7 listing views this month, 6 of them on one listing, 0 favorites anywhere. So it's mostly a traffic problem for now. Thanks for the nudge, that split is useful.

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@RobbyFrank @marclou That's the opposite of "build an audience first". At $100 a day, how many days do you give a product before you decide the ads aren't working and kill it?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@samueldeploys Right now nothing decides it, and that's the gap. Your rule makes sense. This month one listing got 6 of the 7 views and the rest got 0 or 1, with 0 favorites across all of them. At traffic that low, what N would you pick?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@RobbyFrank @marclou Meta ads from day one is a different game from mine. I'm testing $0.46 of Etsy ads, so nowhere near that scale. Did you validate the offer organically first, or go straight to ads?

[Khalid Farag @KhalidFarig]

@hit100os That's exactly the split I'm trying to see. The ads show 180 views but only 2 clicks, so right now it looks more like a listing problem than a traffic one. Adding favorites per listing next, thanks for the tip.