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Launched on ProductHunt, got #1 in 5min. That's why building an audience matters.

Hi everyone!

One week after launching my second book The Embedded Entrepreneur on Twitter, I have been hunted by Sharath (founder of Shoutout.so) on ProductHunt.

#1 on PH

The PH launch has gone very well so far. Within minutes after launching at 12:02 (two minutes after the new day began for the PH servers), I immediately got my Twitter community to engage and get the post to the #1 spot.

Quick Win

Ever since then, people have been upvoting the post and adding questions and comments for me to reply to.

I know that there is still a lot of day left, and anything can happen. But the start of this launch showcases that having an engaged following is extremely beneficial to the early acceleration of a launch effort.

If you're interested in seeing the launch happening in real-time, check out the PH product page for The Embedded Entrepreneur. Any support, all questions, suggestions, and comments are extremely appreciated.

UPDATE! We did it! The Embedded Entrepreneur is product of the day!

PotD


P.S.: Noah Bragg launched Potion.so a few days ago on PH to great success, and he made a wonderful video about it.

  1. 7

    So you built an audience on building an audience. And more I guess, but I found that funny. Nice work man. Keep it up.

      1. 2

        I try only to write about things that I did before. Even when the book in question is the result of the process introduced in the book :)

  2. 4

    How did you find your first fans?

    1. 2

      I engaged with them on Twitter, trying to add something meaningful and valuable to their ongoing conversations.

  3. 3

    Thank you for sharing. Learned this lesson the hard way. Shouldn't have ignored the Product Hunt tutorial. 😂

  4. 3

    Thanks for sharing how you launch on Product Hunt -- This helps a lot to understand how algo works. And congrats on your badge!!!

  5. 3

    Well done Arvid.
    I think the success of the book is the best endorsement for the audience-first approach.
    👏👏👏

  6. 3

    Congrats Arvid, really looking forward to reading this!

  7. 3

    Congrats on the launch and the #1 product of the day! I'm planning on re-launching my product corepo.org next month, and although I know you have to get help from your community, I wonder if there's a way to make your followers from other places than Twitter, where my engagement rate is not as high as I'd like it to be?

    1. 1

      Just let them know ahead of time. I talked to my audience a week ago, and teased the launch every day since.

  8. 2

    I congratulate you on your quick PH launch, and you do have an amazing audience, but this can be misleading in the fact that sometimes, you could be PH #1 of the day/week maybe even month and still go nowhere with that....

    I wanna highlight the fact that I am not trying to say this is your case, but I have seen many products be featured by PH throughout my years on it....featured over and over (twitter, newsletter etc) - go nowhere...and then shutdown.

    So Build Audience but build something people really want first! A blind upvote isn't really useful at the end of the journey....

    P.S. upvoted :D :D

    1. 1

      Yes, that is exactly how I would like it to happen as well. In fact, that is what the book is about: build (for/with) your audience. Embed yourself in communities and build a following while you understand their critical needs and problems. It starts with putting your future audience first in all regards.

  9. 2

    Wow. thats really cool.

  10. 2

    Congratulations on the launch.
    Is there a promo code somewhere for IndieHackers? ;-))

    1. 1

      I think I'll do one eventually!

  11. 2

    Considering the topic of the book you are really REQUIRED to be #1, aren't you!! This is inspiring me to write a book called "Under the radar" which I will launch on PH at 11:45 pm on New years eve. LOL. Okay, let me go over there and give you an upvote....

    1. 1

      It certainly helps that the book's contents predict this kind of result :D

      I'll upvote Under the Radar any day (other than launch day) :D

  12. 2

    That's really great! But... we've also launched today and are now trying to get closer to you 🤣🔥https://www.producthunt.com/posts/bergamot

    Good luck and congrats on a happy launch!

    1. 1

      Good luck to you as well!

  13. 15

    This comment was deleted a year ago.

    1. 5

      Sheer luck? Time of day? What do you think your recipe for success was?

      1. 2

        Having a great product that rings true and a website with excellent copy to show it off is a good start.

        But I've seen solid, unexciting products fail on PH, then build to become successful 3 years later.

        However, with a massive loyal audience of followers you can probably sell anything to them - just look at the shit people buy when it's promoted by celebrities.

        Not saying this is the case here though - Arvid's book is most likely high quality.

        1. 4

          I agree.

          Just look at Indie Hackers. Sure, you can upvote as many posts as you want, but just assuming that if you write an incredible post it will be a huge success is wishful thinking. I'm sure there is some absolute gold on Indie Hackers that never got traction and was thus lost in the stratosphere.

          And yeah, absolutely, if Elon Musk posted on IH that he developed a platform that lets you order IVs full of Mountain Dew it would be a hugely popular post, that doesn't mean anyone should be injecting MD. (again, not saying anything about Arvid's book, just how hype works)

          1. 3

            That definitely is a valid concern.

            I wonder if I'd call it hype. I feel. that for this product — being co-written with a few hundred people after all — it probably was a mix of appreciation and expectations.

            Or is that the exact same thing?

            1. 2

              No no, I think you did it exactly right! co-authors, a community, etc...a recipe for success.

              This thread was stemming from the comment that "correlation doesn't equal causation" and being #1 comes down to luck essentially.

      2. 2

        landing on those positions can also mean to have a good product...is not just luck or a recipie...

        I had myself landed second with wickedblocks.dev and 5th with wickedtemplates.com.....

        1. 1

          Possibly true.

          But that requires everyone looking at everyone's projects looking for legitimacy. That doesn't really happen at scale. I don't think most people look through the backlog of products posted to find hidden gems.

          The majority of people are going to look at the most popular first, and maybe a few beyond that if they're feeling adventurous.

          1. 2

            possibly? Is a fact.

            This doesn't make sense...

            But that requires everyone looking at everyone's projects looking for legitimacy. That doesn't really happen at scale.

            I understand here that you have to like another to judge another one..

            i am afraid that's not how judgement is applied...

            you can upvvote as many products as ypu want to....

            1. 2

              What I'm saying is most people aren't looking through every individual product on the site.

              But hey, I hope you're right. I'll be launching a product soon and am hoping for the best.

              1. 1

                probably beause the tagline, or the product doesn't concern them.

                I hope I am right too, because Iam launching ne week...

              2. 1

                Oh that's an interesting assumption. I had a few people comment on my product who hadn't checked out the website but felt compelled to comment.

                I can only recommend announcing the launch to your audience/community beforehand. That definitely built up some "energy" for the launch.

      3. 8

        This comment was deleted a year ago.

    2. 1

      Oh absolutely. It's still on #1 12 hours in, which is all thanks to my audience as well.

      I do agree, it's too early to really tell.

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