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0 to 10k organic clicks/month in 5months, indie game, no ads, what would you do next?
Posted by on May 11, 2026 at 10:18 amBuilt a multiplayer drawing game as a side project. No marketing budget, no existing users, just SEO and grind from my shed at the end of my garden. Learnt a lot from just reading posts on this sub, but here's my question.
If you were me, with 10k clicks/month and a growing 2k+ email list, what would be your next move here? Try to grow to 20k? Monetise now, or maybe something completely different.
Genuinely curious what this sub would do in this position.
The numbers: 2,200+ signups, 10,000+ drawings, pos 6-8 for main keywords, DA 11, currently growing ~60 signups/day
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1 Reply
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Freemium. Don’t go full paid, will affect your bounce rate and reduce traffic stream. Aim to get 1-2 conversions daily in that 60 and it adds up.
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What kind of searches are you being found for? Is it just the name of the game people are looking for? If that is the case, I would keep using whatever other marketing channels you are using to grow the awareness of the game and get people to search for it.
As far as monetization… Is it something people would actually pay for? Or is it better suited for display ads? You can signup for AdSense now. Don’t expect much with only 10,000 clicks a month though.
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cosmetics is an interesting way to monetize those games, see shell shockers as an example
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i’d monetise now, not later. not aggressively, but enough to test what people actually pay for. a small premium feature, a creator mode, something. you want to know if this converts before you spend another 5 months growing traffic
for growth, i’d stop thinking about 20k clicks and start thinking about virality loops inside the game itself. multiplayer drawing is inherently shareable, someone finishes a round and wants to send it. if that sharing doesn’t have a natural hook back to signup you’re leaving the biggest growth lever on the table.
what does retention look like? how many of those 2200 are coming back?
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I’d probably avoid rushing monetization until you know what behavior is strongest. 10k clicks and 60 signups/day is enough to start learning from users, not just SEO metrics.
My next move would be improving activation and retention before chasing 20k clicks. Find out how many people come back, invite friends, finish a game, share drawings, etc. If that loop is weak, more traffic just leaks out.
For monetization, maybe test something light that does not hurt the core fun. Cosmetic upgrades, private rooms, or supporter perks feel less risky than ads right away. Also, if you’re sitting at positions 6-8 for main keywords, tightening those pages could be a big win without changing the whole strategy.
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I’d try to get that DA up. See if you can get some backlinks on high authority sites
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ngl id focus more on retention and monetization now instead of just chasing more traffic. 10k organic + 2k emails with no ads is already pretty solid for an indie project. id probably add small monetization first like cosmetics, private rooms, supporter perks, or party features while the growth is still climbing
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Analyse and focus on recurring players. You can also simply put out an quick questionary what improvements they would like in game, or even ask for what features they would pay for.
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