How far in advance do you prepare your launch on Product Hunt?
Sometimes I wish I had a clear answer to this question, but... I don't :D
A lot of people ask me in DMs what to do and when the best time to start.
I know people who prepared 6 months in advance and were not featured.
Then I know a guy who set up a page literally 3 hours before and got into the top five promoted products. 😀
Sometimes the power and usefulness of the product outweighs distribution.
However, the combination of both can do a lot.
(For example, a few years ago, we prepared for the launch of a minimalist phone app for about 5 months, including platform observation, but you probably know this story already.) :)
How long before the launch do you prepare, and what does that involve on your part?
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Replies
Clueso
@ashutosh_raj really nice to hear this perspective. We're looking at our own launch soon, so I'm glad to hear that success doesn't rely on months of planning.
Clueso
@mcval_osborne haha it does depend on planning for sure but yes, don't need it to overdo it, just needs to be right! ;)
@ashutosh_raj done is better than perfect!
Clueso
@mcval_osborne always!
It's refreshing to see the emphasis on product quality over strict timelines. Balancing preparation with the inherent value of the product can be a game-changer. 💡 It'll be interesting to see how others navigate this when launching! Can't wait to see your launch unfold! 🚀@ashutosh_raj @mcval_osborne
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@ashutosh_raj That was pretty smooth. There were times when people weren't featured, and I had a full inbox to help them (tho I didn't have any influence on that) :D But they complained to me like: we prepared for that 6 months before...
then I realised that they shouldn't solely rely on one platform as a marketing strategy, and such extensive preparation cannot always be useful :D Lesson learned.
Clueso
@ashutosh_raj Thanks for the insights! Out of interest, how did you position your video? Was it more around the founding team and your overall vision, or more focused on what the product offers?
Stellify
Clueso
@stellify_software Hey Matthew, it's always a case of being selected!
You can check out Product hunt's featuring guidelines on what leads to a featured launch : https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/9883485-product-hunt-featuring-guidelines
Goodluck with your launch!
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@stellify_software @ashutosh_raj As Ashutosh said. I think that Gabe also shared his forum about this topic: https://www.producthunt.com/p/producthunt/i-decide-what-s-featured-on-the-leaderboard-ama-w-gabe-from-product-hunt
Uxia
@ashutosh_raj @stellify_software what does it mean to be featured? What benefits it has?
Clueso
@borja_diazroig
Being featured on Product Hunt means that your product is highlighted on the platform's homepage, often in a curated "Featured" section, giving it significant visibility among a community of early adopters and tech enthusiasts. This can significantly boost your product's exposure, leading to increased traffic, user engagement, and potential for media coverage.
Would also recommend you to go through this article to learn more about how a product gets featured.
https://help.producthunt.com/en/articles/484923-how-do-things-end-up-on-the-homepage
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@ashutosh_raj @stellify_software @borja_diazroig It means that you will be more visible within the Product Hunt landing page and show up in the leaderboard. No need to press the button "Load more products" that is more hidden and visitors of this website are less likely to press that button (because it is another effort from the perspective of UX/UI) :)
@ashutosh_raj We're doing the same thing right now - our first launch on product hunt, hoping for the best :D
Clueso
@janice_coutinho great!
Wish you well for the launch! First launches are always super exciting :)
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@ashutosh_raj @janice_coutinho
🤞 Wishing good luck!
I finished the beta version for Letterly.pro about a week ago. Now I gave myself 1 month and a half for outreach and preparation.
The main objective is getting 1000 people in the "Notify me" list. Hard to do as a solopreneur. (Already got temp banned on Reddit for 3 days due to "spam" 😭😭)
If you're planning on launching anything soon, I wish you the best of luck!
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@vicente_evora I think that in the horizon of 1 – 2 months it is doable. But I recommend reaching out via Twitter or LinkedIn (with the LI be careful about the number of sent messages).
Trace
@vicente_evora @busmark_w_nika this is very insightful thanks for shareing! On Linked In, who should you reach out to? Hunters, makers on Product Hunt groups? I'm also prepping to launch and trying to figure out the best channel.
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@vicente_evora @trace__subin Guys usually use LinkedIn for DMs :) But many working people are there, so a higher chance of catching them during the weekdays to support you :)
@busmark_w_nika @trace__subin I'm targeting users in the product hunt group. Also users who appear in the linkedin search with the "newsletter" filter. This usually means that they're newsletter owners, which is my target audience. I'd suggest using a keyword that fits with your ideal user, and see who pops up!
I'm not a Maker, but I hunt. I hunt products, they magically get engagement :D
But if Makers ask me, I do suggest them to actively contribute in the PH community at least a month in advance and continue being active and useful even post launch.
Like you said, a good launch is a combination of active networking within the PH community and having a solid product! :)
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@rohanrecommends More makers with visibility have a higher chance to "win". The best combo is when everybody in the team is active (and not relying solely on Hunter) :)
Adjust your preparation based on your goal.
If you’re only after a backlink and rankings aren’t important, go ahead and launch without any preparation.
If you want real results, start preparing at least a month in advance. Create quality assets: video, images, a teaser page.
Begin outreach and build social media buzz early.
There’s always a risk you might not get featured. But if ranking really matters to you, you’ll need to take that risk and invest those few weeks into proper preparation.
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@byalexai Well said. The backlink reason as well – if people want to increase their domain authority, there's no reason to wait.
Nomadful
I often prepare for launch about a month or two months before, but I've done it as close as one week before launching and got featured on the newsletter. I definitely agree, the product's utility will sometimes make distribution timing relatively less essential.
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@manuelzarroca Congrats on featuring – have you mentioned this fact on social media? I think it is a good milestone to share also on LinkedIn :D
Nomadful
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@manuelzarroca Which company do you mean now? Nomadful?
Nomadful
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@manuelzarroca I noticed and supported :)
Very useful topic with lots of good info in the comments, thanks for posting this @busmark_w_nika.
This question has been on my mind, as I hear that "there's no point unless you've already got a private list of people ready to upvote you", and I don't have this.
Reading the comments, I'm encouraged it might be worth it for me too. 👏
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@martin_rue TBH, I think it is always good to have some folks who will support you (I would go for this option or at least some system too).
@busmark_w_nika Good to know, thank you!
SyncSignature
There's no one right answer to that :)
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@neelptl2602 Maybe not, but certainly you feel comfortable (or at least without guilt) that you spend some time over the launch. Do you have any preferred time-frame? :)
SyncSignature
@busmark_w_nika I'd say a month or so
Hey Nika! 👋 I’ve been wondering about this too while working on Escape Velocity AI’s launch page.
I ended up giving myself about a week: enough time to spark a bit of engagement, share some early teasers, and get the process moving without overthinking it.
My main goal with this first launch isn’t just visibility, but getting those first users who’ll actually try the MVP and share feedback. Thanks for this topic, it's interesting to see different approaches on planning the launch!
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@andreitudor14 Wow, one week is a bold time-frame! :D Have you been able to complete everything in such a short period of time? (creative assets, engagement, etc?)
@busmark_w_nika might have been a bit bold, as I'm launching today 😆
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@andreitudor14 guy has balls! :D
@busmark_w_nika you live and you learn! Would love to hear your feedback on Escape Velocity AI tho 👀
Real Favicon Generator
I prepared months in advance to prepare the launch of RealFaviconGenerator. It became product of the day on SoloPush and product of the week on TinyLaunch. I didn't launch it on PH yet, because I'm not ready for this.
I guess the most important question is how I prepared. I see too many popular makers with a large audience who still fail, because they can't get people to vote now. Plus, I have nearly no audience, so this warning doesn't even apply to me 😅
So I made sure I had people I could ask to vote for RealFavicon on launch day. For this, I created and ran a launch campaign on BeThere, another product of mine. With this, I slowly gathered supporters ("slowly" because of my lack of audience). When SoloPush told me out of the blue that RealFavicon was live, I was able to ask my supporters to vote for it. Even better: I was able to control the pace of votes, in order to be product of the day on SoloPush while keeping some supporters for another launch. Good move: I experienced the same story with TinyLaunch a week later.
I currently have a few hundreds of supporters I can reach anytime. This is still not enough to launch on PH with confidence. But it's enough to win the "product of the day" race on any other similar site.
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@ph_bernard On PH is more solid competition, so it is difficult to succeed. Do you have any day in mind to launch here at all? :D
Real Favicon Generator
@busmark_w_nika Hard to tell! I regularly check PH's products of the day. Yesterday, the winner received 358 votes, something I can achieve. Last week, some got more than 1000 votes and I can't compete with this yet. I still need a few more months to wait.
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@ph_bernard sometimes it is not about months to wait – guys I collabed with had sometimes really good strategy in terms of marketing, support of influencer and social media presence of theirs were soooo high.
I am a bit new here, so this is something I am also curious about!
I initially thought that it only matters if your product is great to get a decent rating in the end, but I also saw many people mentioning that you have to build an audience, do a warm-up, etc. Sharing the Product Hunt launch with LinkedIn followers probably won't help much because PH is a pretty niche thing, and not everyone has an account here. We've got a few days left until the launch, and I am not sure if I should do anything about it.
+ We've spent several months on the product, so the stakes feel high, and it gives quite a lot of anxiety tbh :D
But let's see how it goes, would love to read other people's stories here!
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@lauragenno I have my fingers crossed for you.
Yeah, some people take the launch like science: warming up people, email sequences about the platform registration (to have an account), DM-ing, social media posts, and some even ads.
Definitely advise to also read Product Hunt forums – people who shared some learnings, it can help with you launch too :)