17
28 Comments

Here's how my side-project became the #2 product of the day on Product Hunt

I launched version 2.0 of my side-project Product Disrupt on Product Hunt this Easter Monday and with the love and support from the community, it became the #2 product of the day with 649 upvotes.

For some context, I've been running this website and the newsletter for almost 3 years now and have grown the number of subscribers to 2500 over the years.

Now, let me share some launch day numbers for Product Disrupt 2.0 with you:

๐Ÿฅˆ #2 on Product Hunt with 649 upvotes
๐Ÿ’™ 21.5k tweet impressions
๐Ÿ“ˆ 3k pageviews
๐Ÿ‘ช 248 new subscribers
โค๏ธ $20 donation

Here's how it rolled out:

Step 1
Firstly, I built the product in public by creating a thread of updates on Twitter and by telling my friends that I'm working on it. I got derailed from the project a few times but my people kept me motivated. Public accountability works.

Step 2
A day before the launch, I messaged a few close friends saying that I'm launching tomorrow and would need their support. I also scheduled an email to the audience of Product Disrupt Newsletter. I scheduled the launch for 00:05 PST, set an alarm and went to sleep.

Step 3
Immediately after launching, I announced it on my social feeds โ€“ Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram & Dribbble. Here's the announcement tweet.

Step 4
I posted about the launch in online communities for designers & makers. I've been an active member of these communities for quite some time and have found great support.

  • Designers Guild on Facebook
  • Indie Hackers & Designer News
  • Slack communities for designers

Step 5
I sent out personal messages to the friends I've been in touch with recently and those who are active online, politely asking them if they would take a look at Product Disrupt and upvote it.

Step 6
I reached out to those who've been featured on Product Disrupt asking them if they could take a look and share feedback if any. I'd no intention of generating any traction from this but just to let them know that their work has inspired me & helped me become a better designer.

Step 7
And lastly, I remained actively engaged with the Product Hunt community. Responding to their messages, collecting their feedback and appreciating their support.

Product Disrupt is on 933 upvotes as I write this. If things go well, it could even notch a decent weekly ranking.

I'm grateful for your love and support. I'm going to continue investing more time in creating content and products that help fellow creatives make a career in design.

If you find my work useful and would like to support me, you could buy me an ice-cream here ๐Ÿจ

Feel free to ask any questions in the comments. I would be happy to share any insights that I've gained.

  1. 2

    Well done!

    Building in public is really helpful to get some exposure and keep yourself motivated. When I built Resolut here on IH for the Christmas challenge it helped both keeping me motivated and on track to launch around Christmas.

    Very nice piece of work!

    1. 1

      I absolutely agree. It helped me keep on track and push myself to ship it.

  2. 2

    Well done! And thank you for documenting the steps you went through during the roll out process!

    1. 1

      I'm glad that you found it useful @JoshGayso

  3. 1

    Great post - thanks for sharing!

    I was just wondering how you decided to launch on Product Hunt - Did you reach a certain milestone or was it simply you had finished the v2 product?

    1. 1

      I'd already been hyping it up by sharing the progress openly in a Twitter thread. So when it was ready, it was kinda obvious to just launch on PH.

      1. 1

        Ah nice that makes sense! Good luck with it all!

  4. 1

    Fantastic tips! Thanks for being on top of this and helping each other.

    I'm also planning a second PH campaign, would be great to hear your advice!!! @WeirdoWizard

    1. 1

      Looks good @felix12777. Btw, why do you not have a newsletter?

      1. 1

        Thank you! Iโ€™m only spending 5% of my time for this side project. Hence Not the first priority at the moment. Definitely would love to include in the future :)

  5. 1

    Hey @WeirdoWizard I did come across Product Disrupt on PH yesterday. Didn't know you were in IH too.

    Nice work on collecting the resources. A few suggestions for you check out and see if they would be a good addition to Product Disrupt

    https://www.lapa.ninja/
    https://pageflows.com/

    (I don't own or run both. Just use it for my design works)

    1. 1

      Thanks for the suggestions @Nakkeeran. I'm aware of Lapa Ninja but haven't been using it very often. Looking into Page Flows.

  6. 1

    Great! The design is clean. It gives me an inspiration for my project!

    1. 1

      I'm glad to hear it inspired you @bennychan

  7. 1

    Has the traffic to your site been fairly consistent since launching on PH, or has there been a change?

    1. 1

      It peaked on the launch day, then dipped a little and now it's consistent.

  8. 1

    Congrats Darshan! Way to go..

  9. 1

    congratulations!!! Time to feature passportlist.co on it bro!

    1. 1

      Thanks @Eli2. Sorry, since it's not a resource directly associated with product design, it won't fit the curation.

  10. 1

    Congrats ๐Ÿ‘

  11. 1

    Congrats on the launch :)

  12. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

  13. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 47 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 27 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments