I have zero marketing budget. What distribution can I actually do for free?
The short answer
Free distribution is not really free, it costs your time and often your face. The honest options for a broke founder are: showing up in communities where your users already gather, writing or posting in public consistently, direct outreach to people one at a time, and partnering with someone who already has the audience you want. Pick one, do it for 90 days without switching, and treat your own time as the budget you are spending.
Go deeper, your way
3 hand-picked resources, 2 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
▶️ Video
✓ Link checkedFreeBeginner
Why we picked it
After the book and the essay, this is the tactical walkthrough: how to get your first 100 customers with no ads, no complex SEO, and no viral trick. It leans on the same do things that don't scale idea but turns it into concrete first moves you can run this week. Use it as a starting point for a plan, then adapt the specifics to where your own customers actually hang out.
Why we picked it
When you have no budget, the worst move is to pour your limited time into a channel that was never going to work for your product. Traction gives you all nineteen ways a startup can reach customers and a simple way (the Bullseye framework) to bet on two or three worth testing first. Treat it as a menu and a method, not a verdict: your free channels will come from this list, you just have to find the ones that fit you.
Why we picked it
The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few customers. The cheapest, most honest way to validate demand is to go get it one person at a time.
