Philipp Keller

Side builder who believes in vulnerability.
Kickstart your SEO →

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

✨ I've analyzed backlinks of 200 indiehackers
And curated a resource
Which helps you kickstart your SEO
With only spending 2h of effort

Twitter launching today

https://t.co/9AFs6BMtph

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

These guys went into a niche
Did 1 year of customers job
And only then started to build
Thats how to do product!
But who has the patience?

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@thekitze @10xerik You're kidding right? This is as mainstream as it gets!?

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@m_zokov @thekitze U followed 90 before tweeting this

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@sriram3720 @backl_io Hope it makes sense

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

I launched @backl_io 2 years ago
I just crossed 1000 customers
$80K revenue in total

My little story:
I didn't intend to make this a full product. The product was meant as a guide for founders for whom backlink outreach was too hard.

Still: I researched for 2 months in my free time how to build the most impactful backlinks. First I wanted to give it for free but then I thought I might just launch it as a standalone product and see if it makes some money.

On launch day I made $3.5K - after one month $18K !

I had one problem though: made a promise: If you build all the backlinks, your domain rank DR will rise over 20, if not, you can get your money back.

Problem was that I had no idea if this worked. I just built the backlinks myself and didn't know the effect yet.

I was lucky though. One backlink was so powerful I got >40 DR with my domain. I even underpromised. There was no wave of churners. 😅

I soon ran into limitations: I couldn't ship updates and didn't see which backlinks people applied, heck if they even used the product after they bought it.

So I started building a web app which solves these issues. At the same time I was building a research engine which allows me to find other backlinks with high DR impact.

The research engine turned into a monster. I could now investigate thousand of domains but building and operating it took a lot of effort and time.

I took too much on myself so February 2025 I ran into a burnout. For months I couldn't work on my product, even thinking about it triggered depressing thoughts. The product I once loved I now loathed.

10 months later I realized that enjoyment came back. I wanted to continue building. Especially since every week I got sales for my notion product.

I started to tie the loose ends and over xmas I got 3 weeks to build. I wrapped it all up and launched V2 of my app. Silently. I didn't have the energy to do a big launch.

Now 5 months later I passed 150 customers on my V2 product. The good thing? I get a lot of feedback. I see which backlinks they build, what is still unclear. I got into a loop where I can constantly improve my product.

I saw that people were overwhelmed with building 60 backlinks -> I built daily emails

I saw that it was not clear what impact a backlink has on your DR -> I built a DR impact simulator.

Some backlinks were hard to build -> I built a backlink checker which verifies that you made everything correctly

I can only build 1-2 hours a week on it, but as long as I see that my customers are happy and I see my product is improving I will continue!

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@sriram3720 @backl_io IMO from >20 DR Google starts taking you seriously and send you more traffic. Then the next stage is that your page needs to work UX wise.

So if people come and 80% bounce then you will get downranked. If they stay and find what they're looking for you'll raise even further.

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@eliana_jordan I love your italian accent!

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@MajorBaguette thanks Dany. This is in line with a friend who also told me it took him 1 year. Helps me to have patience with the process. Will need this.

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

My wife left me after 22 years of marriage.

While I cannot write how this came to be (as with all separations it's complicated), two things I wanna share:

Prioritize family & friends over business: even though I probably couldn't save my marriage I wished I would have spent more time with my wife. It sounds cringe but money can't buy friendship, that's what I'm realizing the past months.

Pain is hard: There's nothing which could have prepared me for this, and there's also no quick fix to get out of the pain. In fact every quick fix makes it worse. I guess it needs time. Lament & distraction. It helps to be with friends but then also alone on the balcony staring into the night.

And please: no pity-replies. I'm not fishing for "poor Phil" comments. Not even sure why I'm writing this, it just somehow needs to get out.

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@audiencon that makes also Twitter >> Bluesky

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@forencitrus das klingt realistisch. Das Warum ist definitiv eine der grossen Fragen. Ich glaube wir beide verstehen es noch nicht. Ja das Leben hat noch was zu bieten!

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@ImNotAV1rus @MePidesBrevedad @levelsio Don't think it.
Try it.
Only way to find out.
Was thinking I was not the type, tried it out and bam! 1000 sales

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@d4m1n Is this another of this famous ppl start to code hoaxes? Like the fifth element girl?

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@a1x45h Thanks! Someones gotta do this! And mostly kind replies

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@LandonKirbyy different here. We were talking about the problems for quite some time but couldn't fix it

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@samsalmanx yep&yep, in prayer every day

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@Cobratate Well. That's what you get when vulnerability gets viral. At least will make some $$$.

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@NotSatanSpawn @Cobratate Started to report some replies that were much harsher than this one. All reports denied. X is a wild place 🙄

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@GRespecter98067 @Cobratate Should have known :)

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@eliana_jordan Thanks Eliana. It was going well for some hours and now it starts to backlash

[Philipp Keller @philkellr]

@TheRightOutlook