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Lessons 12 hours into a Product Hunt Launch

Hi everyone!

Today I launched my product on Product Hunt! I started the day right up at the top, but am now sitting at #6 with 417 upvotes and 134 comments.

I decided to launch on a Thursday as I wanted more traffic to my product. But oh boy, today feels like the Avengers have arrived to play. So today feels like little me (David) vs big companies (Goliaths)

Want to share 5 lessons, framed as "what I did well" & "what I could have done better"

What I did well:

  • Engaged like crazy. I have the most commented-on product of the day because my early customers have been super supportive. I have replied to every single comment on Product Hunt, and have been taking supporters on Twitter the whole day.
  • Had a nice graphic & good copy. Good visuals & words attract attention.
  • Got a good early start. My friends and supporters early comments helped me to get featured on the front page.

What I could have done better:

-Prepare more copy to seed on different platforms. I decided to wing it today as it's my first launch and I wanted to have fun, but I realized that many huge companies have launched today! I have to be at many places at the same time, so write-ups that were prepared ahead of time would have gone a long way.
-Be less shameless about self-promotion on channels outside of Twitter. For bigger reach, I need to exploit more channels.

Thankful for everyone from the Indie Hackers community who has chipped in. You inspire me every day! If you could take the time to support & comment on PH I would be so grateful.

  1. 3

    Nice - looks like you done well in my eyes!

    What other channels would you have promoted it in?

    1. 1

      Paid communities, Slack, Telegram groups!

  2. 2

    I don't know what you could have done differently. I think you did great. Maybe recruit a Janel army to help with posts? I saw you everywhere, though. Great job! Great launch! Great product!

    1. 1

      Yeah I needed copies of myself haha. Thank you Michele!

  3. 2

    Well done! Team Tally has upvoted :-)

    1. 2

      Marie, thanks! P.S. Tally is one of the resources in the toolkit :)

      1. 1

        That's so cool to hear! Thanks for including us!

  4. 2

    Congrats Janel on your successful launch in PH and thanks for sharing your lessons. Eager to hear the outcome of the launch, how many visits and orders, etc.

  5. 2

    Congrats Janel. Curious to hear your results tomorrow.

  6. 2

    Tough day to launch looking at the competition! Yes, for anyone launching in the future, it’s a good idea to prepare copy and posts ahead of time, just makes it easier a bit.

    1. 1

      Yeah maybe "winging it" isn't good enough for a heavy-hitting day like Thursday!

  7. 2

    There's still time. Valiant effort

    1. 1

      Thanks! Trying my best.

  8. 2

    I am really enjoying Newsletter OS. I will use it for my few other newsletters which I will be launching soon.
    P.S I purchased it at good price then.

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