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Oliver Buchannon
Alexander Belyanin

Founder of tinyfound – documenting how independents found their audience and customers without a serious ad budget.

A Website Still Brings In 5-10 Clients a Month – Twenty-One Years Later

Aug 15, 2026

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5 min read

A Website Still Brings In 5-10 Clients a Month – Twenty-One Years Later

Gaynor Paynter built Typewrite Transcription into her main income through her own website and word of mouth – three brochure campaigns, in 2005, 2012, and during Covid, cost her about R3,000 combined and brought in zero clients.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
I Spent $0 on Ads. Four LinkedIn Messages Became My Best Clients.

Aug 13, 2026

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4 min read

I Spent $0 on Ads. Four LinkedIn Messages Became My Best Clients.

Suzanne Kaltbaum built a fine art photography business one relationship at a time – and found that a single well-placed LinkedIn connection with the right interior designer was worth more than a bigger following ever was.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
One Affiliate Now Brings In Half My Sales

Aug 13, 2026

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7 min read

One Affiliate Now Brings In Half My Sales

Philipp built backl.io, a curated backlink database for SaaS founders, after teaching himself SEO from scratch for his first product – today, roughly half of his sales come from a single affiliate he didn't even recruit.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
How Short-Form Video Took My Instagram From 1,463 to 19,100 Followers in 30 Days

Aug 12, 2026

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6 min read

How Short-Form Video Took My Instagram From 1,463 to 19,100 Followers in 30 Days

Tyler O'Shea built Joker Mag into a sports media brand pulling tens of thousands of monthly readers, mostly through self-taught SEO – then posted short-form videos daily for a month and watched his Instagram jump from 1,463 to 19,100 followers, with a handful of videos driving most of the growth.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
I deleted 60% of my subscribers on purpose

Aug 10, 2026

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5 min read

I deleted 60% of my subscribers on purpose

Jakob grew From Europe with Love to 2,500 subscribers fast with a Refind push – then deleted most of them back out over eight months to keep a list that actually opens. Today it sits around 1,100 engaged readers, growing through classified ads in other newsletters and a self-built map fed by a few euros a day of ads.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
Ten Years of Persistence and €6 in Ads: How a Latvian Stone Artist Built a Global Audience Through Etsy

Aug 8, 2026

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6 min read

Ten Years of Persistence and €6 in Ads: How a Latvian Stone Artist Built a Global Audience Through Etsy

Ronalds Jaunzems has sold stone-carved mortars, sculptures, and garden decor from his workshop in Latvia to buyers across the US for ten years – spending about €6 on ads the entire time.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
I stopped calling it a hobby and started charging for it

Aug 6, 2026

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5 min read

I stopped calling it a hobby and started charging for it

She showed the process on Instagram, not the finished bags. But it was the newsletter that turned a follower into a $575 buyer — and sold out her Wearable WIP launch on day one.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
Welcome to the tinyfound story. It's been a month.

Aug 1, 2026

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5 min read

Welcome to the tinyfound story. It's been a month.

Hi, my name is Alexander (just Alex). I built this site, tinyfound. Alongside the interviews with other authors, I decided to write once a month about the project’s own wins and failures.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
$10,000 on an SEO agency didn’t bring the sales. Showing up in person did.

Jul 27, 2026

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5 min read

$10,000 on an SEO agency didn’t bring the sales. Showing up in person did.

Tiffany has been selling custom watercolor pet portraits since 2021. She left Etsy for her own site, paid an agency for six months that never delivered what was projected, then learned search for herself – today about 30% of her traffic comes from Google, 30% from social, and the steadiest sales come from local events.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
Search brought the audience. Only the people who watch my videos ever buy.

Jul 24, 2026

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4 min read

Search brought the audience. Only the people who watch my videos ever buy.

Kate has been making videos for early childhood educators since July 2020. Google and YouTube search bring the traffic, and links in the descriptions carry it to her products – 7,150 subscribers and 500 buyers later, it is still a side income.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
Etsy search brought the buyers. Cold emails brought the designers.

Jul 24, 2026

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5 min read

Etsy search brought the buyers. Cold emails brought the designers.

Xenia started selling handmade mineral wall sculptures in June 2025. A year later it is her main income – around 200 buyers, with Etsy search and ads accounting for 90% of sales, and a cold-email catalog opening a second line to interior design studios.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
About 65% of my customers came from Etsy search. Fewer do now.

Jul 21, 2026

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3 min read

About 65% of my customers came from Etsy search. Fewer do now.

One small step in a new direction, teaching herself pottery after her divorce, grew into a steady 20 to 30 orders a month, most of it from Etsy's organic search. Now it is 12 to 15, as that same search fills with inexpensive imports.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
398 Substack subscribers in 14 weeks – and why that’s not the part that matters to me

Jul 20, 2026

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8 min read

398 Substack subscribers in 14 weeks – and why that’s not the part that matters to me

Rebecca Lindell spent three decades writing for other people. On what the Substack algorithm gave her and took back, the push for growth that backfired, and what she’s really building.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
About tinyfound

Jul 16, 2026

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2 min read

About tinyfound

tinyfound collects detailed stories of how independent people – writers, makers, coaches, small founders – find their audience and customers without a serious ad budget. What worked, what didn't, and the real numbers.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
The influencers brought us nothing. The right parents changed everything.

Jul 12, 2026

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6 min read

The influencers brought us nothing. The right parents changed everything.

Olga joined a Swiss children's shop with no standout product. Within its first year, one soft-play line – IGLU – took Little Homeshop to 15,000 monthly visitors and 2,000 paying customers. The growth came not from a single channel, but from making several work together – and from a hard lesson about why big-follower influencers sold nothing.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
What planning a hike, choosing a doctor, and promoting a project have in common

Jul 6, 2026

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2 min read

What planning a hike, choosing a doctor, and promoting a project have in common

Personal stories as the best way to learn – what to do and how. Or why tinyfound is a good idea.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin
How Substack and Its Tools Inspired Me – and Let Me Down

Jul 2, 2026

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4 min read

How Substack and Its Tools Inspired Me – and Let Me Down

A newsletter about the thing people build their lives around grew to 300 subscribers in just under three months – and then stalled in a single week, with no visible cause. This is the story of what the platform gave, and what it took back.

Alexander Belyanin
Alexander Belyanin

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