How to: Launch on Reddit & HN in 2022 (20K visitors, >70 sales) 🚀

Launching on platforms like Reddit and Hackernews is pretty well-known advice in the Indiehackers community. But theres a bit more nuance to it than I first thought. I launched Flowful 3 weeks ago and did not have instant success, but eventually went ‘viral’, reaching over 600k people on Reddit, #2 on HN and selling many more lifetime deals than I expected.

After numerous failed attempts on both platforms, I thought I’d let you know what worked for me to get posts to go viral on ShowHN and /r/internetisbeautiful (posts here and here).

Try and try again

The first thing to say would be; do not get disheartened if your post does not take off first time. The rest of the tips below are all reasons why the launch may not work, and trying again after changing some parameters is essential if your first post doesn't take off.

Hackernews is fine with reposting low scoring posts that do not take off. Reddit on the other hand was tricky, but as long as you make changes, you’re in with a few chances to repost. Mods can often deny posts for certain reasons - my second attempt was denied because the mod deemed there to be ‘not enough you can do without an account’. I had just removed signups… but whatever. I removed some obvious references to the premium section and the post was approved.

Timing has something to do with this for sure. But I just used this site to find the best time for each sub.

Open up the product

I think this is where most SaaS launches are not suitable for Reddit or ShowHN. These communities want things they can use immediately, and preferably without an account. This may not be viable for every SaaS out there, but accountless freemium seems like a necessity for these launches. Spending time in the new post sections will show you that forcing signups is a sure fire way to getting zero upvotes.

So I decided to remove the forced signups from Flowful before launch.

I do think there may be other, more targeted subs that would be willing to sign up to use a product. But in terms of going viral, you want as many people as possible to use your product, then upvote the post.

Titling your post

This was the only variable that I knew would certainly make a difference. You want something that is clear and enticing, but most of all fits the audience that it’s aimed at. My first /r/internetisbeautiful post was something along the lines of ‘I made a bunch of algorithms that make ambient music for you’. Looking back, it’s clear to me that this would not make sense to the average person coming across this. “Do I need to download the algorithms? Why is this cool? What’s an algorithm?” Simplify, align to the target audience, and a make obvious what is cool about the site and why they should click.

As you can see above, the post title which worked on HN seems more similar to the first attempt on Reddit. But that’s because the HN crowd is more targeted and more techie. They like the fact that it’s made in your browser. They vaguely understand and are intrigued by the term ‘ambient music generators’, whereas Reddit wouldn’t know what this is. Infact, one of the mods took down my post as they had a ‘no generators’ rule (???). So stick to what the crowd will know and try to only use jargon when you are certain that the crowd will understand it.

There also seems to be a big correlation between success and starting your post with ‘I made a …’. People love the human element I guess.

Embrace luck

Remember when I said my Reddit post was ‘approved’? Well… I don’t think it was, actually. It just so happened that on the third time of posting, and after getting denied previously, the mods seemingly took a day off and allowed any post to be approved automatically. I was very close to giving up when this happened and I just think it goes to show that you will need some luck and perserverance on your side.

Things may not go your way on the first try. But making many attempts will increase your odds of luck.

Have a way to re-contact users

I almost overlooked this, but I am glad that I didn’t. I’m not big on twitter, and I dont think my customer demographic is either, so this seemed hard. But one of my early users had good idea of making a Discord, and so I decided to make the link to it super prominent.

This Discord now has around 150 people and has been a great source of contact with users on bug and feature requests. I don’t see a ton of people using Discord like this, but it seems like a convenient way to stay in touch with users. Of course, there is always still the sign up option, which means I can email people at a later time IF they choose to make an account.

What this meant for me

It’s awesome, and has given me huge validation to keep working on Flowful. Before this, I had just 2 paying customers, but now have over 20x that amount. I think I have niched my ideal customer down even further based on talking to people that brought the lifetime sub (software engineers / techies that appreciate the craft, not just knowledge workers).

Almost all of the sales I have were from my lifetime deal offer. I actually upped the price of it after a few days, and sales didn’t stop. Indiehackers are constantly talking about MRR, of which I only have about $20 I think, but I am happy with the validation I got from running the LTD. Even though there’s no guarantuee of sales next month, I think this makes the most sense for my product, as multiple people have stated, it’s kind of like buying two albums worth of ambient music. I’d be open to opinions though on if you think running the LTD was a mistake or not.

It’s a crazy IH cliche but if you haven’t launched then just set a date and commit to it. There were 1000 more things I could have done before launch but I am glad I have this under my belt and can keep working from here.

Next stop Product Hunt!

ps. you can follow me on twitter where I sometimes (but honestly almost never) post