Two things you'll regret badly: not launching on Product Hunt, and launching there with poor preparation.
I speak from experience, sadly.
My MRR trajectory would have been so much higher had I been prepared when someone hunted my app on Product Hunt.
Launching on Product Hunt is so good that these wildly successful entrepreneurs do it. Repeatedly!
The checklist
You may find the long list of tasks below daunting.
But don't worry. Read all the way to the end.
I'll give some you tips to keep things manageable.
1. A few months before launch, start building your followers on Product Hunt
a. Comment on other people's launches
b. Respond to community discussions
c. Submit your own community discussion
I keep saying this: If people can't see you, they can't follow you.
You need to be active and visible.
Personally, I started building my Product Hunt followers from day one, before I even started coding, with minimal time commitment.
Often I only submit fewer than 10 comments per day, taking only a few minutes in total.
By consistently committing a few minutes per day I managed to organically grow my Product Hunt followers.
If you're unsure how to get noticed and gain followers, sign up to Upperhunt and use its Product Hunt analytics to help you.
2. At the same, start building your fanbase outside of Product Hunt
Are you on š¯•¸/Twitter? The thriving #buildinpublic community on š¯•¸ is very supportive.
Indie Hackers is another founder-friendly community.
LinkedIn could be a good one too.
The Reddit crowd can be very tough. They really dislike self-promoting posts. But its huge community makes it worthwhile.
You can get a lot of views if you know how to post genuinely interesting content on Reddit.
3. Pre-launch
a. Submit your product to Product Hunt and give it a future launch date
Product Hunt allows you to set a future launch date of up to 30 days later.
Future launching is very powerful, as you get special features (see below) for increasing your Product Hunt followers during the pre-launch period.
b. Prepare really good product tagline, description, thumbnail, images, and video
Honestly, the vast majority of people are too busy to try your product.
They'll vote based on video/images/etc.
So, don't skip this step.
Making decent images is easy enough these days. I use Figma and sometimes Canva.
A succinct product demo video can generate a lot more engagement.
c. Write your "maker's comment"
Write a maker's comment on your product submission. Explain why you wanted to solve this particular problem. Use colorful emojis here to help with formatting and break up the wall of text.
d. During the pre-launch period, ramp up your activities on Product Hunt
Whenever you write a comment on Product Hunt, a 'Launching soon!' badge will appear next to your name, making people notice you more.
e. Share your 'Coming soon' Product Hunt page (aka teaser page) with your fanbase everywhere
This page lets your fanbase "subscribe" to your launch, and receive notification on the actual launch day.
f. Occasionaly submit a Product Hunt community discussion about your upcoming launch, and politely ask people to support you
Of course, you don't want to only take from the community. Offer to help and support other makers too.
4. Launch day (Product Hunt)
Submit a community discussion informing others about your launch. Share your launch link here.
If your launch is not featured on Product Hunt's homepage, reach out to support via email ([email protected]) or š¯•¸/Twitter.
5. Launch day (outside of Product Hunt)
a. Link to your Product Hunt launch from your website and social media profiles
b. Inform everyone everywhere about your launch. Share your Product Hunt launch link to Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Indie Hackers, Hacker News, etc.
Rules
a. Never ask for votes anywhere at any stage. You can ask for feedback, but not votes explicitly.
b. Don't gather votes illegally through spamming strangers on social media, or buying votes. If Product Hunt discovers this, they will manually drop your vote count significantly or even ban you outright.
"This is all too much. I'm stressed."
Firstly, relax.
The Product Hunt (PH) community is incredibly supportive. It's full of founders in the same boat as you.
You're surrounded by very accepting people. There's nothing to stress about.
Secondly, this is all worth it.
Your first few sign ups from Product Hunt, may well be the difference between your startup's failure and success.
Finally, at the risk of sounding self-serving, Upperhunt is here to help you.
The app will enhance your usage of Product Hunt.
Plus, this blog is an invaluable resource for you to learn about the nuances of Product Hunt.
