While I agree with a lot of what you're saying, there are a few statements I don't 100% agree with:
Asking friends and family for upvotes - Upvotes from people that literally just signed up for PH mean nothing, and actually signal that you are trying to game the system.
Find someone high-profile to hunt you - In the olden days, having a big time hunter meant a lot more. Now, it carries much less weight. However, there are still two super small benefits: 1) It sends a notification to all the hunter's followers, but I have found that it has very little effect on actually driving traffic to the post, and 2) it can add a TINY sprinkling of social proof.
The amount of time and effort people place into finding a hunter is insane though. For anyone reading this, you can hunt your own product yourself, or if you really want a hunter, you can send me a DM on Twitter and avoid spamming tons of people: https://twitter.com/daviswbaer
Source: I am currently the 235th ranked Hunter on PH.
3
Haha thanks for the frank response Davis!
I've never Hunted myself and really do attribute the success to Hunters of value, with leverage, influence (they can also help guide strategically how best you should/could be doing things).
I agree though, you should not spend lots of time finding one!
4
Great post. I think the #1 thing to ask yourself before launching on PH is:
Is my target customer segment contained within the PH community? If not, I'd argue that it's a big waste of time.
PH is a distribution channel like any other.
If you find just 1 sustainable, repeatable customer acquisition channel.. your product thrives. And because PH is not a repeatable channel it's an even riskier place to spend your time, money and effort on.
3
I'm curious... Has anyone ever seen a B2B app that averages $500/Month for subscription ever successfully launch on PH? I haven't. Curious as to why.
1
The audience is a very narrow slice of society
1
So you are saying that PH isn't meant for B2B applications of any substance? And that to be successful on PH you need to have smaller, less expensive applications?
2
What to do if your product was hunted by someone without your knowledge? That's basically what happened to https://www.producthunt.com/posts/mailist – someone (other than me, the founder) found it and published there. And I had no chance to react. Now I'm trying to prepare for an official release, fully moderated by me, but you said: "you have one chance". Any bits of advice on that?
3
Hey Marcin, I actually saw Mailist when it was hunted a few weeks back - cool idea :) I downloaded the Chrome extension, but to be honest, have forgotten to use it :/
Regarding your question, PH typically allows you to ask for a re-launch if your product was hunted without your knowledge. I would contact PH through their chatbox and ask for a re-launch.
2
Oh, thanks! Didn't know, definitely going to contact them! :)
Hopefully you start using Mailist, let me know if there is anything I could improve :)
2
Yeah, this happened to us twice! Contacting PH is your best bet!
1
I had a similar problem. You can launch alternate URLs. In our case, our website was one, our Chrome extension URL another.
This should help.
1
Hey Nick, nice guide and congrats on this launch.
I wondered, after reading this: "For us, we offered a ‘special surprise’, if they upvoted us on Product Hunt. Tangibly, what that meant is that everyone who helped us, we planned to offer them early access to Drag Pro."
How did you know who upvoted you ?
I mean, how can you match the upvoters in product hunt, to your own users ? Did you do this manually ?
Thanks,
Kevin
1
Hey Kevin, yes it was all manual! There's a dropdown in PH that helps identify who's upvoting :)
1
I always considered PH one the first places to promote a new product but it seems you already had a small but engaged following before going on there that really helped. It’s crazy how massive PH has grown and requires a proper strategy. Thanks for sharing.
1
Thanks for sharing this level of detail about how you launched on Product Hunt. My biggest takeaway is that I need to spend time ASAP to plan out the launch for my project (www.tribefive.me) soon!
Can you share any insights about the three month period before you decided to launch on Product Hunt? You mentioned you focused that time on your early access users.
What was the turning point where you said, "okay now we want to go to Product Hunt?"
1
Haha good question. Honestly, I don't remember. I think it's important to run at least 3 months and time your PH launch well. Optimize when you're ready :)
1
How to hack being an Indiehacker, I like it.
Out of all the steps you listed, what do you think was the most crucial decision you made?
2
Build the best product you can! Traction can happen with no effort if you do this correctly. Aside from that, it's building an executable plan and following through with it.
Hey Nick, cool product :)
While I agree with a lot of what you're saying, there are a few statements I don't 100% agree with:
Asking friends and family for upvotes - Upvotes from people that literally just signed up for PH mean nothing, and actually signal that you are trying to game the system.
Find someone high-profile to hunt you - In the olden days, having a big time hunter meant a lot more. Now, it carries much less weight. However, there are still two super small benefits: 1) It sends a notification to all the hunter's followers, but I have found that it has very little effect on actually driving traffic to the post, and 2) it can add a TINY sprinkling of social proof.
The amount of time and effort people place into finding a hunter is insane though. For anyone reading this, you can hunt your own product yourself, or if you really want a hunter, you can send me a DM on Twitter and avoid spamming tons of people: https://twitter.com/daviswbaer
Source: I am currently the 235th ranked Hunter on PH.
Haha thanks for the frank response Davis!
I've never Hunted myself and really do attribute the success to Hunters of value, with leverage, influence (they can also help guide strategically how best you should/could be doing things).
I agree though, you should not spend lots of time finding one!
Great post. I think the #1 thing to ask yourself before launching on PH is:
Is my target customer segment contained within the PH community? If not, I'd argue that it's a big waste of time.
PH is a distribution channel like any other.
If you find just 1 sustainable, repeatable customer acquisition channel.. your product thrives. And because PH is not a repeatable channel it's an even riskier place to spend your time, money and effort on.
I'm curious... Has anyone ever seen a B2B app that averages $500/Month for subscription ever successfully launch on PH? I haven't. Curious as to why.
The audience is a very narrow slice of society
So you are saying that PH isn't meant for B2B applications of any substance? And that to be successful on PH you need to have smaller, less expensive applications?
What to do if your product was hunted by someone without your knowledge? That's basically what happened to https://www.producthunt.com/posts/mailist – someone (other than me, the founder) found it and published there. And I had no chance to react. Now I'm trying to prepare for an official release, fully moderated by me, but you said: "you have one chance". Any bits of advice on that?
Hey Marcin, I actually saw Mailist when it was hunted a few weeks back - cool idea :) I downloaded the Chrome extension, but to be honest, have forgotten to use it :/
Regarding your question, PH typically allows you to ask for a re-launch if your product was hunted without your knowledge. I would contact PH through their chatbox and ask for a re-launch.
Oh, thanks! Didn't know, definitely going to contact them! :)
Hopefully you start using Mailist, let me know if there is anything I could improve :)
Yeah, this happened to us twice! Contacting PH is your best bet!
I had a similar problem. You can launch alternate URLs. In our case, our website was one, our Chrome extension URL another.
This should help.
Hey Nick, nice guide and congrats on this launch.
I wondered, after reading this: "For us, we offered a ‘special surprise’, if they upvoted us on Product Hunt. Tangibly, what that meant is that everyone who helped us, we planned to offer them early access to Drag Pro."
How did you know who upvoted you ?
I mean, how can you match the upvoters in product hunt, to your own users ? Did you do this manually ?
Thanks,
Kevin
Hey Kevin, yes it was all manual! There's a dropdown in PH that helps identify who's upvoting :)
I always considered PH one the first places to promote a new product but it seems you already had a small but engaged following before going on there that really helped. It’s crazy how massive PH has grown and requires a proper strategy. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this level of detail about how you launched on Product Hunt. My biggest takeaway is that I need to spend time ASAP to plan out the launch for my project (www.tribefive.me) soon!
Can you share any insights about the three month period before you decided to launch on Product Hunt? You mentioned you focused that time on your early access users.
What was the turning point where you said, "okay now we want to go to Product Hunt?"
Haha good question. Honestly, I don't remember. I think it's important to run at least 3 months and time your PH launch well. Optimize when you're ready :)
How to hack being an Indiehacker, I like it.
Out of all the steps you listed, what do you think was the most crucial decision you made?
Build the best product you can! Traction can happen with no effort if you do this correctly. Aside from that, it's building an executable plan and following through with it.