How MakerKit got its users

MakerKit sells a paid kit but leaves its entire docs tree open at makerkit.dev/docs, with a separate tree per stack: next-supabase-turbo, nextjs-drizzle, nextjs-prisma, tanstack-start, react-router. Every install, billing and config page is its own URL, matching the exact string a dev types mid-build. Publish your docs as public pages with a real sidebar, one path per stack you support, and let the crawler index the manual instead of the sales page.

done whenOpen your own docs in a private window. If a page asks for login, or if every stack shares one generic page, there is nothing for a mid-build query to land on. Count the distinct URLs a stranger could arrive on cold.

MakerKit's /blog/tutorials/ posts are titled as reference works: Next.js Route Handlers: The Complete Guide, Next.js 16 App Router Project Structure: The Definitive Guide. The pattern is taught in full, copyable, ungated. The kit appears once at the end, as the thing that already implements that structure. No bylines: the founder who maintains the code writes them. Write the guide you would want if you had never heard of your product.

done whenCut every mention of your product from your last article. If what is left no longer answers the query, you wrote an ad. If it stands alone, the single CTA at the bottom has earned its place.

MakerKit's Next.js 16 post is a release explainer: Turbopack, Cache Components, migration checklist, breaking changes, then a note that its kits ship those defaults. It carries an updated date, grows as point releases land, and its titles get stamped with the year. Pick the dependencies your buyers upgrade, framework, auth library, ORM, and claim the what's new page for each release. You do the upgrade anyway; write the notes as you go.

done whenLook at your dependency upgrades from the last month. Did any produce a public page? If the migration exists only in your commit history, you passed on a query developers were typing that same week.

makerkit.dev/saas-starter-kit is a feature matrix against SupaStarter, Achromatic, ShipFast and IndieKit Pro, and it openly sends the cheapest solo MVP case to ShipFast. The same call runs on the blog as an opinionated post on the best Next.js SaaS boilerplates. Build that page yourself: name the real alternatives, mark where they beat you, and state the one buyer profile you are the right answer for.

done whenSearch your category as a buyer would: your alternatives, best X. If page one is third-party listicles, strangers are defining your product for you and you have no page in the fight.

MakerKit publishes MakerKit Lite as an open repo under github.com/makerkit, with auth, profile, marketing pages and the monorepo, while teams, billing, RBAC and the super admin panel stay paid. So every docs page and tutorial can end in something the reader clones tonight. Carve a genuinely working slice of your product, put it on GitHub under your own org, and link it from the articles that rank.

done whenCan someone who found you through an article have your product running locally in one sitting without paying? If the only next step you offer is a pricing page, ranking just collects readers you never meet again.