This is a lil' heads up to anyone who's thinking about launching their newsletter on Product Hunt, it seems it can go well! Maybe better that you might think.
My hypothesis is, I got pretty lucky that there's nothing else "huge" that has been launched today...so far.
Stats since the launch at midnight (10 hours ago):
EDIT with updated numbers since launch (14 hours ago):
I'm guessing the numbers don't totally add up because some people block Google Analytics.
If anyone has questions, whether about the launch or the newsletter, I'm happy to answer.
It's my first time ever launching on PH so definitely not an expert at it, probably mostly lucky. But happy to share whatever might help you if you decide to try it for your newsletter!
(Here's a lazy link if you want to check it out https://www.producthunt.com/posts/blogging-for-devs)
Congrats Moncia! :) I have a theory of my own about this.
I actually think you did the right thing by waiting for a while before you launched on Product Hunt. Being a newsletter it seems advantageous to build up an audience first before launching on PH so that you can email out existing subscribers to let them know.
My guess is that you got quite a few upvotes and comments from existing subscribers and that was enough of a boost to get to the top.
That said, it only works because you're already delivering great value and you've got a number of fans willing to tell the world.
Thanks Dylan, I think you are right about the "two-phase" approach being advantageous. I didn't plan it this way though, I never thought of launching on Product Hunt -- just got some encouragement and ran with it.
You're also right that almost all the comments are from current subscribers. Most of them I recognized from personal exchanges via email :)
Thanks again for your support Dylan, I'd love to keep up with wherever you're blogging if you have a URL to share! I checked out Game Guts but no blog yet :)
My blog is here. I really should update my various profiles.
https://www.dylanwilson.net/
Game Guts was an idea I was exploring but decided not to go with it (at least for now).
Awesome, I'm totally thinking about doing a 12 startups in 12 months things too. LMK if you'd be interested in forming a small group of people who want to try it and do like, an accountability thing. Could be fun :)
Absolutely. I've only just begun this journey but I'm pretty excited about it. I'm always working on something in my spare time anyway so I figure it might as well be this :)
neat! can you email me (you can reply to any newsletter)? i can't find your contact details on your site or IH profile :)
Done.
Monica, I see you have 1200+ followers on PH. Do you feel like that was instrumental to your success? How did you get those followers, and how long did it take?
Thanks!
Hey Kirsten! I think those people just came from my product hunt account being connected to Twitter (where I have about 10.8K followers).
I think there's something where if you follow someone on Twitter, you automatically follow them on Product Hunt? So those ~1.2K PH followers are just a subset from Twitter.
No idea if PH emailed those people to tell them I launched something, honestly. Personally I do get emails when people I follow launch something, so it wouldn't surprise me if this was a nice supplement to the email list. Not sure if I have a way to find that out though...
Oh really interesting! I had no idea about the Twitter/PH thingy you describe. I might dig into that :-)
So at this moment you're not really pointing at anything in particular that you did prior that resulted in your PH success? It was in fact a matter of PH visitors on the day liking what they saw? (Which, to be honest, would be really cool and quite refreshing to know is possible!)
Yeah! I've only ever intentionally followed like 10 people on Product Hunt, but I get emails about launches all the time. Even from people I used to follow and no longer do. So I think that's how it works.
I think the reason is largely what Dylan said above. Lots of my existing subscribers showed up to support and left really nice reviews. I email with people on the newsletter a lot, so I recognized most people who left comments.
So in that sense, it was the result of building the list and community first, writing newsletters that people really like, and then after some months asked for their support with the launch -- and people were happy to help.
Of course, 800 people subscribed between yesterday and today so probably existing subscribers gave the initial traction and then people did like it. But it definitely wasn't an "out of the blue" launch -- I just wouldn't attribute it to be being active on PH. I'm not active there at all :)
Love it! Thank you for sharing that :-)
Congratulations! Thanks for sharing
This is amazing Monica, congrats! So hopeful and inspired for my launch now too. Thanks for sharing ✨
Well done Monica!
Thanks Marcin :)
Very nice work, it's really impressive the audience you reached with just one re-launch!
i'm afraid i've launched way ahead of time haha.
You've already launched on PH?
Yes, when I first launched my product, bad decision!
Congrats Monica! Very good idea...I am working on sponsorgap.com - maybe it is something for you in the future
This is great news! I'm so excited to see it :-)
Thanks! Also thanks for your comment in the thread I made a while ago (I can't find it now) about gender balance in communities. Definitely gave me something to think about when I finally move towards building it up more actively.
Congrats! Newsletter looks good, I subscribed.
Thanks ^_^
Excellent, congrats Monica! Very well done.
I see you "hunted" it yourself, any thoughts on self hunting vs getting a more established hunter?
And how did you promote to get the up-vote ball rolling? Did you notify your readers ion the list about the Product Hunt launch? Thanks!
Hey August - Yeah, I've read a lot about that!
To be honest, since this launch wasn't like the "first launch", but more like a re-launch after my Twitter launch, I felt like asking my actual subscribers to leave a comment or review would be sufficient.
The list of people who've "graduated" from the email course was about 1,800 strong when I sent out the email yesterday.
I didn't email anyone who was still in the course, which at the time was over 300 additional subscribers.
So, what I did in terms of notifying people:
The vast majority of comments are from people I recognize from emailing with via the newsletter, so I think it just speaks to just helping people however you can and building real relationships, and they'll be happy to support you down the road if it comes up :)
It surely wouldn't have gone as well if I did a "cold launch" on PH with no existing subscribers. Probably wouldn't have worked at all.
So I think the two-phase launch of Twitter in May, then Product Hunt in August, let me prove the value to enough people, not to need to rely on a "famous" hunter.
Love it! Congrats :)
Thanks Kyle :)
Wow! This is huge! Really inspiring!
Thanks! It's hugely thanks to the subscribers who showed up to leave feedback ^_^
Nice! Really interested to see the numbers after you get printed in their daily newsletter.
I'm curious about that too! I will do some kind of writeup with all the analytics afterwards (also thanks again for your comment today!)
Congrats Monica! This is really inspiring, and exactly what I needed to see today. I'm starting a newsletter and excited to learn from you and the group here. Also, signed up to the newsletter :)
Thanks Yarty (both for the congrats & subscribing :))! What's your newsletter going to be about?
It'll be about personal development, growth and challenges. More to come very soon and excited to share with this group :)
Great work!
Thanks!
I'm sure more than luck, you've created a great newsletter series and made fans and a community along the way.
I'm tempted to launch, but not expecting to do as well. I'm just thinking it's an opportunity to get seen and hopefully get a few new users.
If you were launching again would you change anything or do it differently?
I dunno Liam, I think that right now with the whole trend of creators owning independent subscription platforms (like Substack), your product could do well on Product Hunt? Just a hunch!
A few things I might do differently if I were to launch again.
I'm pretty happy with an almost 30% conversion rate, so even if I don't really understand "why", I can't complain about the results.
P.s. Thanks for the kind words :)
Some good tips there Monica, thank you. The results are great, inspirational and motivating me to just get on and launch it :D
Congrats!
Thanks :)
woo!!!
thanks kristian! will get to your email shortly :)
Congratulations! Good to know that newsletters can do well too.
Thanks Andre! Have you thought about launching Zero to Marketing there?
Based on today, I could imagine it might go over well.
I'm not a fan of launches but I might do it in the future 🙂