Going global
An indie developer's road abroad: build, get paid, grow
From buying a domain to the first payment from abroad, then SEO and backlinks, in four steps. Each step is what I use and what went wrong; the payment part follows each platform's own pages, and every week I count what new sellers sell.
New to this? Start here
Start with these: two AMA episodes in which John (YouTube channel "英文SEO实战派") answers readers' questions, joined by a co-host in the first, a tutorial that builds and launches an AI app from zero, and a tool list. In Chinese. Channel
Key points (13; click a time to jump there)
- 04:42SEO will extend into AI search; in affiliate, do not spread thin: one site, the content you love most, and another income such as digital products or courses.
- 09:02The chain is crawl, index, rank, click, convert; read the data from big to small (month, week, day, then country and page type); 80% of conversions come from 20% of pages, so watch those.
- 15:17Updating matters, but not for its own sake: changing only the date can be flagged; tier your pages, core articles monthly against the top ten, the rest every six to twelve months.
- 19:23Hiring writers abroad: say up front that AI drafts are not accepted; AI detectors are unreliable, so judge the quality yourself.
- 24:37Multilingual sites: use hreflang, put languages in subdirectories (like /jp/), and in most cases split by language, not country.
- 29:04Store SEO: product and collection pages target buying keywords, the home page the brand; supporting content builds topical relevance and internal links; leave 'best X' roundups to review sites.
- 38:02Publishing a translation of someone else's site is plagiarism and duplicate content, which Google has targeted.
- 41:12AI drafts with human review: the risk is the business model, not AI; content sites get hit whoever writes, stores, SaaS and brand sites far less.
- 49:33SEO titles need no strict limit: 50–60 characters with the keyword; the title earns the click in search results, the H1 serves readers on the page.
- 54:44Being hit by every core update is not necessarily your fault; nobody can yet say how to recover.
- 56:51Do not put all your eggs in one basket: have your own product, service or brand; SEO is one channel among several.
- 1:00:55Beginners should not start from the channel: first the business model, what you can do that others cannot, where your users are, then the channel.
- 1:04:06An AI tools directory with 10,000 indexed but unranked pages: AI-written listings add no value; move toward G2-style user reviews and ratings; a new site pushing AI pages in bulk can lose crawl budget or get a manual action.
Key points (10; click a time to jump there)
- 01:50A new site that publishes masses of AI pages at once is at high risk: with no authority and middling content it can be deindexed, and even indexed sites lost 80–90% of traffic after the update.
- 04:22Whether a sandbox exists nobody can say; John does not believe in it.
- 07:44Scraping plus AI as a way to rank on Google stopped working after 2022–2023.
- 08:13SEO is half writing, half engineering: content is the base, so write or hire a writer; technical SEO is in demand too.
- 09:13A penalized B2B site with a brand and history should not be rebuilt at once: check content quality first; a B2B site turned blog, with no About page, founder or address, is the likeliest to be hit.
- 12:53Colour and size variants: give a variant its own page only if people search for it, with its own title, H1 and description; otherwise one page with options.
- 18:00To get good at technical SEO, pick one area (indexing, site speed) and practise on your own or a client's site (WordPress, Shopify).
- 21:10Without a link budget, competitive terms are very hard to rank for; say so to whoever holds the budget.
- 25:06The SEO formula used to be content + links + technical; now add user signals and brand.
- 26:36No coding? Do not agonize over the site: use Shopify for a store, think through the product and its edge first, hire someone to build, and do not aim for perfect.
Recorded in April and May 2024, mostly about Google's March 2024 core update; Google SEO has changed fast since, so some points may be dated.
By chapter (18)
Basics: AI coding tools · Basics and the interface · Agent plugins
Building: A plan with superpowers · Front end and back end · Supabase · API requests · Sub-agent driven development · Environment variables · GitHub · Supabase keys · Database migrations
Launch: Checking the features · Front-end design · End-to-end tests · Deployment · Buying a domain · Wrap-up
Build: domain, hosting, database
Starting costs almost nothing: all three have free tiers; upgrade once traffic comes.
What I use
- Cloudflare · Domain: renewals cost the same as the first year
- Vercel · Hosting: free for one project; move to Cloudflare once traffic grows
- Supabase · Database: free within its quota
From my post 「What I use to run a SaaS site」 2026-08-29
Another way: everything on Cloudflare
Domain, DNS and protection in one place; the front end on Pages (with a global CDN), the back end on Workers, D1 for the database, R2 for files (no egress fees), KV for cache, Images and Stream for media, and the built-in analytics. The free tier is enough for most starts.
左子祯 "AI + Cloudflare is all you need" 2026-03-10
Get paid: individual or company, which platform, passing review
No company is needed to start. Decide who holds the account, pick the platform, then check the site before you apply.
Individual or company, and opening the account
Which platforms an individual in China or a Hong Kong, US or UK company can open, what each step asks for, and what a company costs to register.
Payment platform picker
Two clicks give the ranking, what a sale leaves you and the steps to open.
Check the site first: payment-guard
Checks the site line by line against each platform's published list; open source, from the command line or Claude Code.
My pick: My first pick is Waffo: Waffo for a company abroad, Waffo Pancake for an indie developer.
From my post 「What I use to run a SaaS site」 2026-08-29
Grow: data, technical SEO, backlinks
Find new terms before others do, read your own and your competitors' data, run a technical SEO check with a skill, and keep backlinks few and good.
The SEO system: a water model, v4
Build SEO as a water system with three inflows: classic link authority (free directories get you indexed but pass no weight, so do not pile them up), citations by AI (being mentioned matters more than being linked), and listings on platforms such as Toolify and Product Hunt. Measure in layers too: clicks in GSC and GA are the tip of the iceberg. I counted nine AI citations for every AI click, and the free Bing AI Performance and Clarity citation reports show the citations that never become clicks.
From my post 「The SEO water model, v4」 2026-07-24
Data
Technical SEO skills
- marketingskills（Corey Haines） · Marketing skills: CRO, copy, SEO, analytics
- seo-audit-skill（子木） · Page SEO audits, beginner and technical
- seo-audit（Wonfull） · 92 checks from Google's guidelines and the Ahrefs checklist
From my post 「More tools I use」 2026-08-30
New terms: new-term-radar
Every day it catches the names of new models and products on X, Hugging Face, GitHub and competitors' sitemaps, before keyword tools list them, and ranks the keywords worth a page. Open source, from the command line, an Agent Skill or MCP; it needs an AIsa key.
GitHub →From my post 「Open-sourcing the new-term radar」 2026-10-12
Backlink sources: DR 0 to 15 in a month
Do not chase volume; these were enough:
- Competitors' backlinks pulled from DataForSEO
- Call-for-submission posts collected on X
- Helloleo's list
- Columbus's backlink rankings
- A shared spreadsheet from a WeChat account
From my post 「Where I find backlinks」 2026-08-21
Backlink check: backlink-guard
Check a site before you submit to it: link sellers, site networks and sites Google demoted are skipped, with the evidence. Open source, from the command line or Claude Code.
Every week: the new-seller weekly (in Chinese)
Every Monday: the sites that started taking payments on seven platforms, what they sell, what is taking off, and which demand nobody serves yet.
Beginner questions
Can I get paid from abroad without a company?
Yes. Creem, Dodo Payments, Waffo Pancake and PayPal.cn take individuals in mainland China; Stripe and Polar do not. Start as an individual and register a company once income grows.
Can an individual in mainland China open Stripe?
No. Stripe opens no accounts for individuals or companies in mainland China; a Hong Kong individual account needs an HKID and a US one an SSN or ITIN, so a mainland founder opens with a Hong Kong or US company.
Which payment platform should I open first?
Use the payment platform picker: choose who holds the account and what you sell, and it ranks the platforms by whether you can open them, whether they take the product and what a sale leaves you, with the steps to open. Many mainland sellers start with PayPal.cn or Waffo Pancake: get one running, then add channels by region.
The payment platform reviews my site: what should be ready?
A pricing page visible without logging in, terms, privacy and refund policies, a monitored support email, and the legal pages linked from the footer. Check the site against each platform's published list with the open-source payment-guard first; at Creem a rejection is final.
Where do I buy the domain and host the site?
I buy domains on Cloudflare (renewals cost the same as the first year), host on Vercel (free for one project) and use Supabase for the database (its free tier is enough to start). Or put everything on Cloudflare: Pages, Workers, D1 and R2.
Can I build a product without coding?
Yes. Muzi's tutorial goes from AI coding tools to deployment and a domain; follow its 46 minutes and your first AI app is live. John's advice: do not agonize over the site; use Shopify for a store and work out the product and its edge first.
From John's Weekly AMA 第二期 26:36 (recorded in 2024)
Can a new site publish lots of AI articles at once?
It is risky. A site with no authority and middling content that publishes masses of pages is easily deindexed, and scraping plus AI stopped ranking on Google after 2022–2023.
From John's Weekly AMA 第二期 01:50 (recorded in 2024)
My site was hit by a Google update: should I start a new one?
Not if it is a brand site with history: check content quality first. A B2B site turned into a blog with no About page, founder or address is the likeliest to be hit; a keyword domain with no brand can be let go.
From John's Weekly AMA 第二期 09:13 (recorded in 2024)
Is there a chance in SEO without a backlink budget?
Not for competitive terms. John's view: without link building the rest rarely gets you there. My advice: keep backlinks few and good, and check a site with backlink-guard before you submit to it.
From John's Weekly AMA 第二期 21:10 (recorded in 2024)
Which channel should a beginner start with: SEO, ads or social?
John's advice: do not start from the channel. Work out the business model first: what you can do that others cannot (a product, software, consulting) and where your users are, then pick the channel. Do not do SEO for its own sake.
From John's Weekly AMA 第一期 1:00:55 (recorded in 2024)
Will Google penalize AI content that a person reviews?
The risk is the business model, not AI: pure content sites get hit whoever writes; stores, SaaS and brand sites far less. Google does not penalize the use of AI as such; quality decides.
From John's Weekly AMA 第一期 41:12 (recorded in 2024)
How should a multilingual site be structured?
Use hreflang to tell Google about each language version and put the languages in subdirectories (such as /jp/); in most cases splitting by language is enough, without country versions.
From John's Weekly AMA 第一期 24:37 (recorded in 2024)
My AI tools directory is indexed: why does it not rank?
Indexed is not ranked. AI-written tool listings add nothing in Google's eyes; move toward G2 or Trustpilot-style reviews and ratings, with useful news and tutorials. A new site pushing AI pages in bulk can also lose crawl budget or get a manual action.
From John's Weekly AMA 第一期 1:04:06 (recorded in 2024)
From the community
How Gefei's community picks a payment platform, after a year of trying
This is experience from a group of builders, not platform rules: read it next to the results from the official pages. Source: @gefei55, "How does an AI SaaS get paid?", 2026-10. Original post
Only a mainland Chinese ID
PayPal.cn (as a personal seller) or Waffo (waffo.ai); with a passport and a Hong Kong bank card, a Stripe personal account too
Checked: PayPal.cn's personal seller account opens with real-name verification (China residents, 18 and over); payments from abroad cost 4.40% + US$0.30; withdraw in CNY to a Chinese bank card (0.5% cap through 2026, 1.0% standard, plus 6% VAT on the fee) or by USD wire (US$35 each). Personal accounts opened on paypal.com after 30 June 2026 cannot take payments for goods. source
Checked: Stripe Hong Kong needs an HKID number for an individual; without one, a Hong Kong Business Registration Number as a sole proprietorship, plus a Hong Kong address and a Hong Kong bank account in your name. A passport and a Hong Kong bank card are not enough. source
A company (abroad or in China) or a sole proprietorship
Stripe (one merchant per website) or PayPal.cn, or Subotiz
Checked: Stripe: websites or businesses run independently need separate Stripe accounts, and a suspended user may not open a new one without Stripe's approval. source
Checked: Subotiz describes itself as a Merchant of Record for SaaS (5% + 50¢); it connects PayPal, Checkout.com, Airwallex and others, with no Stripe in that list; one account holds up to 100 stores. source
Face swap, deepfakes, NSFW
The main channels refuse it; do not risk your main account
Hands-on guides
Registering a company and opening a bank account
- 2025 Update: Register a UK Company in 2 Hours for Just £502025-10-31
- Opening a Wise Business Account for Your UK Company: No Monthly Fees, Multi-Currency Payments2025-11-16
- Wise Account Address Verification for UK Companies: Your Proof of Address Must Include the Company Name2025-10-06
- Essential for Going Global: A Guide to Applying for and Activating a GiffGaff UK SIM Card2025-11-17
- Complete Payment Setup for Global Websites: US Company Registration, EIN Application, Bank Account Opening, and Stripe Activation2025-06-07
- Indie Developer's Guide to Going Global: US Company + EIN + Stripe + Bank for $1932025-07-21
- Getting Paid Internationally for $168: Hands-On Notes on a US LLC + Mercury + Stripe (via XuanTong)2026-10-07
- Payment Solutions for Individual Developers in China: Integrating WeChat Pay and Alipay via Zpay2025-03-18
Payment platforms and data
Annual filings, tax and compliance
- UK Company First-Year Filing, DIY: £228 All-In + Two Tax Breaks Most Founders Miss2026-05-31
- £148 for UK Company Annual Review, Taobao Charges ¥2000 Excluding Tax2026-04-26
- UK Company Annual Review + Dormant Filing: DIY for ~£100 and Save Half2026-03-24
- UK Data Protection Fee: The £40/Year Compliance Must-Pay for SaaS Businesses2024-11-20
- DIY US Company Annual Tax Filing: Total Cost — $32026-04-07
- How to Choose an E-Signature Platform? Comparing Six Major Options — We Ended Up With Tencent E-Sign and SignNow2026-03-31
Tool lists and ways in
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