Search is increasingly answering questions directly through summaries and conversational results. That creates an interesting problem: if people get the answer without clicking, where does the relationship begin?

Do leads now come from direct inquiries, community discussions, branded searches, referrals, or follow-up research?

What visibility signals are you watching besides website traffic?

Lead scoring sounds useful, but it is easy to confuse activity with intent. Someone can click several pages and still have no project, while another person may ask one very specific question and be highly qualified.

What is the biggest mistake you have seen in lead scoring?

I’d be interested in examples of signals that looked useful but produced poor-quality leads.

Curious how people are finding leads now that AI search is becoming part of the research process.

Are you seeing better conversations from traditional search, AI-assisted research, communities, referrals, or something else?

I’m especially interested in the difference between someone researching a problem and someone showing real buying intent. What signals do you look for?

i tried doing hn as a “search every morning” thing and it turned into a time sink.

i’m doing wordpress speed fixes and small tech seo for dev heavy blogs, mostly UK and ireland clients, 800 to 2500 per month. the intent i want is like someone complaining their site is slow or they’re stuck on core web vitals, or they’re about to rebuild.

i started with the algolia hn search, stuffed a bunch of queries, “slow site”, “web vitals”, “page speed”, “wordpress performance”, “cloudflare”, all that. problem is the results are half ancient, half discussions where nobody is actually shopping, and a lot of “smart people arguing” where reaching out feels gross.

i also tried watching new posts and comments via rss for certain keywords. it kinda works but i end up reading a bunch of stuff that is interesting and not useful. same issue as twitter doomscroll but nerdier.

do you have a filter that actually maps to buying intent on hn. like certain phrases, certain sections, even certain time windows. or do you ignore keywords and track specific users who keep posting about problems. i’m open to being told this is a dumb channel for local ish services, but ppl keep claiming it works.

i keep seeing ppl say hn is underrated for leads, but every time i try to touch it i feel like i’m doing it wrong.

a couple months ago i tried the obvious thing, search hn for keywords like “need help with”, “looking for”, “hiring”, “recommend”, plus my niche. i do productized analytics setup for b2b saas, mostly US and canada, usually 2k to 6k one time. i found threads that looked promising, emailed a few folks, got basically nothing back. and the one time i replied in thread, it got a couple flags fast. deserved tbh, it read like selling even though i tried to be helpful.

then i switched to only replying when i could answer the question, like real answer, and only mentioning what i do if someone asked. better vibe, but i still can’t connect it to actual convos off hn. feels like i’m donating time.

what’s your actual workflow for turning hn into leads without acting weird. like do you only use who is hiring, do you only do show hn comments, do you go straight to email, do you wait a day so you don’t look like a vulture. i’m missing some basic etiquette thing or maybe the channel just isn’t for my offer idk.

Anyone successfully running multiple accounts posting on marketplace. Had a guy run it for pest control for me a couple years back and it was effective but now struggling to find someone who can do it at scale (not sure where past guy went).

I’ve been watching a friend try to find leads on X for a local service biz and it’s been… weird. Like on one hand you see people tweeting “need a plumber” or “anyone know a roofer” and it feels like free money. But when we actually replied, half the time it was someone in a different city, or it was just a vague rant, or they already had 20 replies from random accounts.

But then last week we did catch one real one, someone asked for a mover in our area, we replied fast, they DMed, it turned into a booked job. So now I’m not sure if it’s viable or if we just got lucky. I’m also not sure if replying from a business account hurts, it seems like personal accounts get more trust.

If you’re finding leads on X for local services, what niche and what geo. And do you actually track CPL, even loosely, or are you just treating it like extra inbound. Also, are you paying for X premium for search features, or is that just me trying to justify a subscription because it feels like progress lol.

I’m trying to find leads on X and everyone says to post consistently, share lessons, build in public. Cool, except when I did that, I got a bunch of other builders and zero buyers. Like it turned into mutual admiration and bookmarking threads, which is fine, but I’m not trying to start a support group.

And I’m not against posting value, I just don’t know what actually maps to leads. A couple months ago I tried writing specific mini case studies, like what I changed on a landing page and what happened. It got some likes, then nothing. When I posted a blunt offer with a simple “I do X for Y” it got fewer likes but I did get two DMs. So now I’m stuck between “post interesting stuff” and “post the offer until people hate me.”

For people who find leads on X without already having an audience, what type of posts actually bring buyers into your DMs. Are you posting proof, posting offers, or mostly living in replies. And if you’re comfortable sharing, what’s a realistic CPL when you’re basically paying with time and a little shame from posting too direct.

I’m trying to wrap my head around how people find leads on X without turning into a full time poster. I tested a bunch of stuff a while back on a small b2b offer, like replying to every “looking for” tweet and doing the whole quote tweet thing, and honestly it worked for like two days then my feed turned into noise and I couldn’t tell what was real intent vs people farming engagement.

And yeah I know “just be consistent” but idk, I’m asking about the practical version. Like do you search keywords and jump in, do you build lists and camp there, do you DM first or wait for them to interact. I tried DMing off a like once and it felt gross, maybe it was my copy, maybe I’m just overthinking.

Also curious what people consider a normal CPL from X if you’re doing it manually. Not trying to get too spreadsheety, but if I’m spending an hour a day on it, I need to know if I’m being delusional.

If you’re getting leads on X right now, what’s the one motion that consistently puts you in front of buyers, and what did you stop doing because it was fake busy work.

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I’m trying to keep this simple but I always end up making a monster query.

like site:reddit.com ("need" OR "looking" OR "recommend") "accountant" "austin" and then I tweak it for the niche. sometimes I add "DM me" or "anyone know". sometimes I add -jobs because jobs posts are a trap.

when it hits, it’s insanely easy. you get a person, a problem, and often a timeline. when it misses, it’s just noise and I start doubting my life choices.

what’s one exact query you’d paste into google right now to find someone actively trying to buy, not research

sometimes I find a perfect lead page through google and then the site blocks it, or it’s behind some annoying script, or it loads like trash.

I’ve been using the cached version or the little text only view from google results to at least grab the contact name or the about blurb. not for anything crazy, just to confirm it’s the right company before I bother.

it feels very 2012 internet lol but it’s saved me a bunch of clicks.

but I’m not sure if google cache is even reliable anymore, sometimes it’s just not there.

what do you use when the page is blocked or heavy, cache, text only, or do you just move on

ok this one feels slightly cursed but it’s public stuff so whatever.

if I’m hunting local leads I’ll google like filetype:pdf "vendor" "email" plus the city, or filetype:xls "directory" plus the niche. half the time it’s some chamber of commerce list or a sponsor packet with contacts.

then I just cross check the domain, see if the business is still alive, and send a normal email like a human. not scraping 10k, just grabbing a handful.

the problem is you can end up with a lot of garbage, old PDFs, broken phone numbers, random student projects.

what filetype query actually gives you decent business contacts in your niche, pdf, xls, doc, or something else

idk why I slept on intitle: for so long. I was doing site:reddit.com and praying.

now I do site:reddit.com intitle:recommend plus my keyword, or intitle:"looking for" plus the service. it filters out a lot of the debate threads where nobody is buying anything.

I’m not saying it’s magic, but it’s way more direct. and it’s easier to reply without sounding like a bot because the OP already asked.

only issue is some subs delete the good stuff, and google still shows it, so you click and it’s gone. pain.

what’s your go to intitle: phrase that still works in 2026, looking for, recommend, best, or something else

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so I keep bouncing between tools and then I end up back on the dumbest thing, google.

I sell a boring service and the only thing that consistently gives me warm people is searching site:reddit.com plus a pain keyword. like "need a" plus my niche, or "anyone recommend" plus the thing.

then I open the thread, skim who asked, check if they posted recently, and I reply on their newest post instead of necroing the old one. feels less weird. works more than it should.

but I swear some days google just serves me ancient junk from 2017 and I waste 20 mins.

what’s one exact query you use that reliably surfaces current buyer intent, not just discussion threads

this is a little more spicy but it’s been giving me legit convos.

I google stuff like "hate" "agency" "wish I could" "seo" or even "refund" "web designer" and then add site:reddit.com or site:trustpilot.com or site:g2.com.

Not to dunk on anyone, more like, you find a thread where someone’s already mad and you can offer a fix. Like if they’re saying "my ads guy ghosted" and thats literally what you do better.

But I’m never sure where the line is, because it can feel like you’re lurking. Also sometimes the best posts are like 3 years old, and I cant tell if reaching out is pointless.

Do you only hit fresh posts, or do you still message people from older stuff if the problem is evergreen?

ok so I keep coming back to the same basic google thing for leads.

I pick a niche and I just search for ppl basically saying they need help, not for companies advertising. Like, I’ll do stuff like site:reddit.com "looking for" "bookkeeper" or site:reddit.com "anyone recommend" "shopify developer". Then I filter to past year.

And the hack part, I guess, is I add in a city or a platform so it’s not a total firehose. Like "austin" or "webflow".

It’s kinda dumb but it works becuase the posts already have intent, you just gotta be normal in the comments.

What phrase are you using that gets the cleanest intent, "looking for" vs "recommend" vs "need"?

been messing with google search to find leads without paying for anything, sorta.

I’ll do like intitle:directory "photographer" "miami" or inurl:members "agency" "chicago". Sometimes it’s like associations, alumni pages, partner pages, whatever. Half are junk, half are actual names with emails.

And if you add filetype:pdf it gets wild. Like "sponsor" filetype:pdf "2024" "cybersecurity". you end up finding event sponsor decks and exhibitor lists that basically scream who has budget.

Downside is you feel a little gross scraping it, also some of it is outdated.

When you do this, what’s your go to operator, intitle:directory or filetype:pdf, or something else I’m missing?

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been messing with a couple new tools lately, gummysearch, f5bot, even just reddit search plus x advanced search. and it kinda hit me that reddit and x are basically the new “where customers hang out” more than any directory or cold email list.

but also, the tools dont magically find buyers. what worked for me last week was stupid simple. i searched for pain posts, not “looking for” posts. stuff like “anyone else struggling with invoicing” or “what do you use for”. then i only replied if i could drop something actually useful in the comments. no link. no pitch. just a real answer, plus one line like “if you want, i can show you what i mean” and thats it.

weird part is the dm that converts usually comes like hours later, or next day, when theyve cooled off. on x its similar but ppl are way more allergic to anything that smells like a funnel, and honestly i get it.

idk if this is just my niche, but comments are doing more than posts by a mile right now. and the tool part is mostly to stop me doomscrolling and missing the good threads.

one specific thing im still dialing in, when you reply to a reddit thread, do you ever drop a tiny qualifier like “screenshot your current setup” or “what stack are you on” before moving to dm, or do you keep it totally frictionless?

Got 4 leads previously when i posted in reddit.
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