When I started Tortoise Head Publishing, writing books along with opening online stores on platforms like Etsy, Spreadshirt, Redbubble, and Shopify, I naively thought success would mostly come down to creating good products.
Boy, was I wrong.
Anybody with half a brain understands that having a good idea is important. Good ideas lead to good products. Good customer service allows for a better experience for the customer. But I quickly learned that none of those things were going to make much of a difference if nobody ever saw what it was I had created.
After spending money on advertising and posting my heart away on social media, I started doing a little research and found out that it’s all about the algorithms. Not just on Etsy, Spreadshirt, Redbubble, and Shopify, but on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google, and just about every other online platform out there.
It’s a Catch-22. If you don’t have enough followers, people aren’t likely to see your content. If people don’t see your content, they’re not likely to become followers. A real chicken-and-egg problem. The algorithm doesn’t know whether your product is good. It only knows whether people interact with it.
It Takes a Community
Every day, thousands of small business owners create products, write books, design artwork, build websites, record videos, offer podcasts, and provide services they truly believe in. Unfortunately, the odds are stacked against many of us. Nearly half of all brick-and-mortar businesses fail within the first five years, while their online counterparts fail in half the time at a much higher rate.
Most of us are competing for attention in a very crowded online world, and we have very little control over that. The reality is that small businesses don’t have million-dollar advertising budgets. We don’t even have that used car inflatable tube guy waving people in. We rely heavily on word of mouth, community support, and online engagement. If we don’t already have a huge following, building that word of mouth can be difficult.
To make matters worse, many online platforms charge fees, advertising costs, listing fees, subscription fees, transaction fees, or payment processing fees. Those expenses continue whether a business is making sales or not. For many small businesses, the meter is running long before the profits ever arrive. That’s where all of us humans come in.
Why People Are Always Asking for Likes, Shares, and Comments
Have you ever noticed that almost every small business owner, artist, author, podcaster, blogger, YouTuber, or content creator seems to be asking for likes, shares, comments, follows, and reviews? They’re not trying to annoy you, even if they do.
An algorithm is simply a set of rules that a computer follows when deciding what to show people — and every platform sets those rules up a little differently. Think of it this way: years ago, a shop owner might have noticed that customers kept stopping to look at a particular display and decided to move it closer to the front door. Today’s online platforms do something similar, except a computer is making the decision — and instead of watching people in person, it’s watching clicks, time spent, favorites, comments, shares, saves, and purchases.
Here’s the part that matters: if those actions don’t happen, the algorithm assumes people aren’t interested, and content drops lower in visibility, shown to fewer and fewer people. You can only sell so many T-shirts of the same design to the same person. After a while they’ve seen it, bought it, or moved on. If new people never discover your products, you’re dead in the water.
That cuts both ways, though. Algorithms also favor content that’s already performing well. If thousands of people are clicking, saving, and buying, the algorithm assumes the product must be good and starts showing it to even more people. Popular products get more visibility, which makes them more popular. New products and smaller businesses have a harder time breaking in simply because they haven’t built up that activity yet — not because they’re not good.
The algorithm isn’t asking whether something is beautiful, useful, creative, or well made. It’s asking a much simpler question:
“Are people interacting with this?”
What’s frustrating is that many of these platforms play Mother May I with your goods — and you only get to play if you’re holding a credit card.
Small Actions Have a Huge Impact
If you think that because you can’t afford to purchase something you are unable to support a small business, in today’s online, internet-driven world, that’s simply not true.
Clicks are currency. If a click is a one-dollar bill, time is a twenty. The longer you linger on something, the more clearly you’re telling the algorithm you want to see more of it.
Think of it like walking through a store. Browsing the aisles is scrolling. Picking something up is a click. Saving a post for later is putting it on layaway — you haven’t bought it yet, but you’ve told the store you’re coming back for it. Leaving a comment is like chatting with the shop owner about what you think of their stuff. Following a page is like signing up for the store’s mailing list, and sharing a post is like telling a friend to check the place out. None of that costs you a cent — but walking up to the counter with real money in hand and buying something? That’s the greatest support you can give a business.
It only takes a second to click Like. Maybe a minute to leave a comment. Shares take only a few clicks. Every one of those actions tells an algorithm that real people are interested — and that increases the chances a small business, author, artist, podcaster, blogger, YouTuber, or content creator gets shown to someone new who might never have found them otherwise.
Algorithms don’t understand hard work, creativity, passion, or dreams. They don’t know how many hours someone spent writing a book, creating a design, building a website, or trying to build a business. They only understand data. Every time you interact with a small business online, you’re translating those human qualities into something the computer can recognize.
Where Did All the Small Businesses Go?
If you’re one of those people who is tired of seeing the same big companies everywhere, tired of wondering where all the small businesses went, or frustrated that everything seems to be owned by a handful of giant corporations, this is one way you can help.
Small businesses don’t disappear overnight. Many simply struggle to be discovered. The internet has given small businesses access to customers around the world, but it has also created a marketplace where visibility often determines survival.
When you like a post, leave a comment, share a product, follow a page, leave a review, recommend a business to a friend, or simply walk through the front door of a local business, you’re helping level the playing field.
You may not think that one click matters.
The algorithm does.
Looking Beyond the First Page
One way to help smaller businesses is to look beyond the first few search results. When shopping online, try clicking on a few pages instead of only looking at the items shown at the very top. Visit a seller’s shop. Read their story. Look at their other products. Search for specific terms instead of broad ones.
Sometimes the best products, the most unique ideas, and the most interesting creators aren’t on page one yet.
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, computers handle much of this process. You are the human that changes it.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned while building Tortoise Head Publishing is that good products don’t automatically get discovered. A lot of talented people are creating amazing things every day, but if nobody sees them, it doesn’t matter how good those things are.
People haven’t changed. Technology has. A modern word-of-mouth recommendation can be a like, a share, a comment, a follow, a review, or simply telling a friend.
We’re all in this together.