Introduction

Getting backlinks is one of those things every indie founder knows they should probably be doing, but actually doing it is painful.

You can spend hours finding relevant websites, tracking down contact information, writing outreach emails, following up, and hoping somebody eventually replies.

And most of the time? Nothing.

That is the problem IndieChains is trying to solve.

IndieChains (https://www.indiechains.com) is a collaboration network built specifically for indie founders and website owners who want to find legitimate opportunities to mention and support each other's products.

Instead of sending hundreds of cold emails, founders inside the network can find other relevant websites and propose contextual collaborations directly.

Link Building Without the Cold Outreach Grind

Traditional backlink outreach is basically a numbers game.

  • Find 100 websites.
  • Send 100 emails.
  • Get ignored by 95 of them.
  • Maybe get a handful of replies.

IndieChains Takes a Different Approach

Sites joining the network are manually reviewed before they can participate. Once approved, founders can browse other projects and look for places where their product could genuinely make sense.

Maybe you run an AI tool and another founder has a roundup of useful AI products. Maybe you run a startup directory and another founder maintains a resource page for indie hackers. Maybe two founders have blogs covering complementary topics.

Instead of sending a generic "Dear Sir, I loved your article" email, you can send a collaboration request explaining exactly why the placement makes sense.

That feels much closer to how link building should work.

Context Matters More Than Random Backlinks

One of the things I like about the idea behind IndieChains is its focus on contextual placements.

The goal is not simply: you link to me, I link to you, done.

The platform is built around finding actual opportunities for mentions, reviews, directories, resource pages, and other editorial placements where the product belongs.

That distinction matters.

A backlink buried on a completely unrelated page is not particularly useful to readers, and building large numbers of obviously artificial links is not exactly a great long-term SEO strategy either.

If you are going to collaborate with another founder, the link should ideally be useful even if search engines did not exist. Someone reading the page should be able to see why that product was mentioned.

Every Site Is Reviewed

Another interesting part of IndieChains is that it is not just an open database where anybody can dump hundreds of domains.

Submitted websites go through manual review before they can participate in collaboration requests. The platform looks at things like whether there is a real project behind the site, whether the website has something worth recommending, contextual relevance, and general site quality.

Domain Rating can be considered as one quality signal, but it is not treated as the only thing that matters.

That should help prevent the network from turning into the exact thing most founders are trying to avoid: a giant collection of low-quality sites created purely for exchanging links.

Built for Indie Founders

This is probably the part that makes IndieChains most interesting to me. It is not trying to become another massive enterprise SEO platform.

It is aimed at the same kind of people building products we regularly feature on Vibecoded Startup:

These founders often have genuinely useful websites but do not necessarily have an SEO team spending thousands of dollars every month on link building.

What they do have is something else valuable: their own websites and audiences.

IndieChains essentially creates a structured way for those founders to collaborate.

  • Indie SaaS founders
  • AI tool builders
  • Developers with side projects
  • Startup directories
  • Bloggers
  • Newsletter creators
  • Resource sites
  • Small internet businesses

You Still Have to Create Something Worth Linking To

There is one important thing worth mentioning: IndieChains is not some magic "increase my Domain Rating" button. And that is probably a good thing.

You still need useful content. You still need a real product. You still need to find relevant collaboration opportunities. And another founder still needs to believe that mentioning your product makes sense for their readers.

The platform mainly removes one of the most annoying parts of the process: discovering relevant sites and starting the conversation.

It provides the network. What founders do with that network still matters.

A More Founder-Friendly Approach to SEO

There has been an explosion of new indie products over the last couple of years. Building software has become dramatically faster, especially with AI coding tools. Distribution has not.

You can build an entire SaaS product in a weekend and then spend the next six months figuring out how to get anyone to discover it.

SEO remains one of the few distribution channels where work you do today can continue bringing visitors months or even years later. Backlinks are part of that equation.

But paying agencies thousands of dollars or blasting strangers with automated outreach is not realistic for every indie founder. A network where real builders can discover each other and collaborate feels like a much more natural approach.

Is IndieChains Worth Checking Out?

If you are already working seriously on SEO for an indie product, I would say IndieChains is worth taking a look at.

Especially if you have reached the stage where you have published useful content and optimized your site, but you are struggling with the next part: actually getting other relevant websites to link to you.

Instead of treating link building like cold sales, IndieChains turns it into founder-to-founder collaboration.

That is a much nicer workflow than sending another 200 cold emails and praying somebody answers.

  • Find a relevant site.
  • Explain why your product fits.
  • Agree on something genuinely useful.
  • Publish it.