One Year of The ToolNerd: From Blogging to Building AI Tools
The ToolNerd turns one—celebrating 500+ subscribers, 20,000+ readers, and the launch of HelloAryan, my first SaaS product. Global footprint, lessons learned, and a special anniversary bonus
It’s hard to believe, but The ToolNerd is officially one year old. What started as a weekly experiment to track, test, and write about AI and productivity tools has turned into a consistent practice—and a community of over 500 subscribers.
Here’s what the first year looks like by the numbers:
500+ Subscribers who read the newsletter every week.
20,000+ Readers who’ve engaged with the blog.
30,000+ Reads across all articles.
1,00,000+ Impressions on google
3 Products
This post is equal parts reflection, gratitude, and a glimpse of what’s next.
No Time to Read? Here's the Scoop
One-Year Milestone: The ToolNerd turns one with 500+ subscribers and 8,000 active users worldwide.
Tools Library: A live library of 700+ AI tools now powers the site.
HelloAryan Launch: My own AI-powered resume assistant, turning voice notes into polished, ATS-friendly resumes.
Global Footprint: Readers span the globe, with the U.S., India, and China leading the charge.
Lessons Learned: Growth hasn’t been linear—SEO and promotion are big opportunities ahead.
Next Year’s Goal: Triple the subscriber base, sharpen content, and double down on discoverability.
Anniversary Gift: A one-year free HelloAryan plan with a special coupon code.
The Journey So Far
When I began, I ambitiously wrote two posts per week before settling into a weekly rhythm. Over the year, I’ve learned that some articles unexpectedly resonated, while others didn’t land at all. That’s been part of the fun—figuring out what truly clicks with readers.
The biggest personal win has been consistency. Writing every week has given me clarity, discipline, and a deeper lens into how AI tools evolve and shape workflows.
Some of the best articles that still rank at the top on google :
Building Along the Way: The Tools Library
In parallel, I launched the Tools Library at tools.thetoolnerd.com, which now lists 700 tools.
The Tools Library (tools.thetoolnerd.com) has been one of the biggest milestones of this journey—and honestly, my first end-to-end project.
What makes it special is that it’s 90% automated. I just feed it a URL, and here’s what happens on the backend:
The system scrapes the website details.
It takes a screenshot of the homepage.
It scrapes the pricing page to give readers clarity on costs.
It searches YouTube to fetch relevant tutorials.
Everything is then stored neatly in Supabase and rendered beautifully on the frontend.
The stack itself was a big learning curve for me:
Next.js for the frontend.
Python for backend scripts.
Supabase as the database.
Hosted on Replit.
Updates using Make.com automation.
Coming from a no-code background, building something like this in a semi-automated way gave me a huge boost of confidence. It taught me how the different pieces of software engineering fit together, while still letting me keep pace with the rapid flow of new tools.
A Chrome Extension for Daily AI Discovery
This year also saw another first for me: launching my own Chrome extension for the Tools Library.
Once you install it, every time you open or refresh a new tab in Chrome, you’re greeted with a new AI tool of the day. It’s a simple but powerful way to keep up with the ever-expanding AI ecosystem—without having to actively search for updates.
You can check it out and download it here: Chrome Extension for The ToolNerd Tools Library
HelloARYAN: My first AI Product - AI Resume Assistant
This year wasn’t just about reviewing tools—I also built one of my own working on weekends over last 3 months after multiple iterations. Aryan (https://helloaryan.com) is an AI-powered resume assistant that takes the friction out of resume creation.
ARYAN - Adaptive Resume and Your Application Navigator
At its core, ARYAN, AI Resume Assistant, is designed for people who face challenges writing their resume in English but are comfortable speaking in their native language. All you need to do is record a voice note—whether in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, or other languages—and ARYAN transforms it into a polished, ATS-friendly resume.
The audience I have in mind here is very specific:
Students from tier-2 and tier-3 colleges.
Non-native English speakers who are otherwise very talented but often overlooked because their resumes don’t showcase their skills well.
Individuals who shine when you speak to them but don’t always get past the first screening because of a poorly presented resume.
ARYAN helps bridge that gap by making the resume-writing process conversational, natural, and accessible.
On a personal note, ARYAN is also my first SaaS project. It’s the first time I’ve integrated both a payment gateway and AI services into a product. That milestone alone has been a huge learning experience for me. I’ll be rolling out a separate article in the coming weeks to break down exactly how I built helloaryan.com—the tech stack, challenges, and what I learned along the way.
And this is where I’d love your help. If you’re a reader who has access to students, colleges, or institutions that cater to these audiences, please reach out—I’d love to collaborate.
Contact me at: hello@helloaryan.com
To celebrate the anniversary, I’m offering a one-year free on any plan for HelloAryan with a special coupon code (valid for a month)— Special Coupon Code at the end.
Global Footprint of The ToolNerd
The ToolNerd community is truly global.
The Big Three: The U.S. (2,779 users), India (2,115 users), and China (277 users) form the heart of the readership.
Beyond Borders: Canada, the U.K., Germany, Singapore, Australia, France, and Brazil round out the top 10.
Fun Facts: Armenia (4 users) and St. Lucia (2 users) showed up in the analytics with near-perfect engagement. Small in number, but delightful surprises.
Here’s a quick visualization of the footprint:
Lessons Learned - Things that didn’t work
SEO matters: I thought being consistent and writing would be sufficient, but I was a bit wrong. The blog has grown steadily, but I’ve realized discoverability is still underplayed. This year, I’ll get much more intentional about it.
Hits & Misses: Not every post lands, and that’s okay—it’s about experimenting and learning. Comparison articles got wonderful traction. Readers enjoyed it. Articles related to FYI kind a articles didn’t get traction.
Promotion: Beyond Substack, LinkedIn, and word of mouth, there’s room to amplify reach. I haven’t marketed properly on x.com and other platforms like Reditt etc… may be I need to start doing that.
Looking Ahead
The next year is about growth with intention:
Tripling the subscriber base to 1500
Getting sharper with SEO and distribution.
Maintaining the weekly rhythm while raising the bar for quality.
And of course, continuing to explore the frontiers of AI tools with you.
Thank You
To everyone who’s read, shared, or written back—thank you. The ToolNerd has been shaped as much by you as by me. Here’s to another year of curiosity, exploration, and building.
Here’s the Special Coupon Code for my readers - 1 year access to helloaryan.com . So start crafting your resume. Found bugs or have some feedback - share your feedback with me on hello@helloaryan.com
Special Coupon Code : H0F2FBD7LGP ( Valid for 1 month)