Most new projects I've seen on coinmarketcap always get listed on pancakeswap and they use BSC network instead of ETH, I think Dex listing is easier you just need to make liquidity available
The better way is to maintain good trading volume through uniswap, Pancakeswap, and other similar platforms. As said these days most are using the BSC network than ETH network. Then from here one can try for tier 3 exchanges, tier 2 exchanges and further to the tier 1 exchanges. Without money to make this possible won't happen overnight, the project needs to travel long.