I would say that these sites chronicle just the tip of the iceberg. I run a successful solo online business and would never agree to be profiled as I don't want to invite competition.

You also invite competition by selling/advertising your product. For any product, it's most probably one of the customers that'll go "I can make something better than this!" Also, if your income depends on absence of competition, that means that your product needs a bit of improving and that your business is fragile.

You completely misunderstood the point. What would invite competition is the realization of how much revenue can be made with that product.

So you could say that by not advertising it, for risk of competition, you're missing out on potential revenue too?

I may be wrong, but my assumption is that you are assuming putting your story on something like indie hackers is a lost marketing opportunity.

But I'd say a large percentage of successful small saas products are very niche and would not benefit in the least from talking about it in a public forum.

In my case, none of my customers would be reading anything like indie hackers so I have no reason to get the word out through those channels. It would just invite competition without returns.

If your product does not target entrepreneurs, then you're not really missing much, other than stroking your ego.

I think the main benefit for those businesses would be the seo value. Relevant, high PA links are hard to come by these days...

In my opinion, those site are just advertising for your business.

Which means it only makes sense being profiled if the readers of those sites are your potential customers.

Agreed, this is why I'm shunning an interview with IndieHackers too.

Agreed. I would only do it if I was targeting entrepreneurs

"Entrepreneur" is only one label for the people who read Indie Hackers, though. They are software developers, designers, creatives, fitness enthusiasts, etc. All the people who currently work a day job and are hoping to do their own thing. Entrepreneurship may bring them together, but it's not necessarily their only (or even their primary) identity.

Yeah, but that still is a tiny part of the overall economy. If you don't target those small niches, it makes no economic sense to get profiled on Indie Hackers et.al.

Or headhunters.

That's one of the big reasons people share for sure. Another reason that can't be underestimated is that, sometimes, it just feels good to talk about something you've been pouring your heart into in obscurity for years.

Also, the interviews are just one part of the site. Arguably the most useful part of Indie Hackers is the forum where people share what they're working on with the goal of getting feedback and advice from other founders.

I have my doubts about this. The interviews made IH take off when the forums had maybe one Post per day or less.

I bet the interviews get way more traffic than the forums.

For lurkers, it’s the interviews for sure.

The forum and the discussions there get 3x the pageviews the interviews do, and that gap is widening every day.

I sure hope so, it's literally the front page :]

I think you're doing a great job growing the community, it has a different vibe from HN and r/startups and I personally do get a lot of value from it, although I'm still mostly interested in the interviews.

Wholeheartedly agree with this. The hardest thing about being a solo founder is the loneliness. In times of joy, in times of grief, it's just you. Sharing your successes and your failures with a group of supportive entrepreneurs as you plod along is the next best thing (or maybe even better) to having a co-founder.

You're not wrong. They are a great source for inspiration.

Responses like this really show the best side of HN. I'm not the OP, but I appreciate the work in pulling together these resources.

Thanks and you're welcome :)