I found a way to get featured on the Product Hunt without even launching a product

I failed launching on Product Hunt twice 😢

So I found a way to get featured on the Product Hunt without even launching a product.

Here’s how I did it ⬇️

1. Go to the Forum section on PH. It's a newly relaunched feature and a great way to connect with the PH community. Visit the "Introduce Yourself" topic and introduce yourself to the community.

2. Explore the General topic. Scroll through posts that are trending to get a feel for what kind of content works well. Start participating in posts to connect with community members, you can use recent comment page to access the active conversation.

3. Write a post that’s actually helpful to the PH community. Every post needs a topic. Pick the one that fits best so others can find and join in. If you're unsure, use General.

Topics:

1. General – Tech, startups, product talk

2. AMA – Ask me anything with guests

3. Introduce Yourself – Say hi to the community

4. Self-Promotion – Show what you're building

Example: I shared a post on how to format text in PH Forum posts (bold, links, lists, etc.) in the initial days of the forum launch.

4. After posting, your submission goes into review. It may take some time to be approved. If it’s self-promotional or not useful to the community, it’ll get rejected. Don’t be discouraged if a few posts get deleted. That’s part of the game. So before posting, just go through the forum guidelines once.

5. Once your post is approved, you’ll get an email + a PH notification. That’s your cue to start engaging with people commenting your post, just like you do for your product launch.

6. If your post gets early traction (like 10+ upvotes or comments), it may hit the trending section of the Forum. Once its added in the trending section, your post will be visible on the Product Hunt homepage. That's it, you have done it ✌️

P.S. Having followers on PH helps (they’ll get notified about your post), but it’s not necessary. I had just 100+ followers and still got 2 posts featured on the homepage. Your post will stay there until another trending post performs better or a good new post comes in.

Bonus Tip: If you have recently added new feature or update that you want to share with the PH community. You can start a thread for your product in the forum as well.