Real numbers from launch week: Product Hunt (quiet), TikTok (unexpected), Play Store (in progress)
Following up on my post from a few days ago about building UluP Life in a week after a quiet Product Hunt launch for my first product.
Today's the actual PH launch day for Life. As of this afternoon: 0 votes. Same story as last time. I'm not going to pretend that stings less the second time, but at least I'm not surprised by it anymore.
What's actually been working this week, with real numbers:
TikTok, unexpectedly. Last 28 days: 3.7K views (+136% vs previous period), but only 18 profile visits and zero comments/shares from that. So: reach without depth, people watch but don't engage further, yet. One useful signal though — 71% of my search traffic is people searching "ulup" by name, not discovering it cold. That's cross-channel effect from Reddit/LinkedIn/PH showing up somewhere else.
The video that's getting traction has zero editing: raw screen recording, a direct hook in the first 2 seconds ("most memory apps force you to pick a fake date"), text overlay, done. No trailer-style production. Simpler outperformed polished, at least this time.
Google Play testing is live now (closed testing phase, need real testers before it can go public there — app's already live on web and Microsoft Store).
Genuinely not sure what the lesson here is yet beyond "keep shipping and see what sticks." If anyone's got thoughts on why reach isn't converting to engagement on short-form video, I'd take the feedback.
The contrast between 0 PH votes and traction from an unedited screen recording is a useful reminder that “launch channel” and “content format” are separate variables. I’d keep the raw version as the control, then change only the first few seconds or the hook in follow-ups. The key next step seems to be tracking activation and a 7-day return rate from TikTok—not just views—so you can tell whether the attention is finding the right users.
I’ve been wanting to try TikTok for my AI video product, but as a solo developer, I struggle to decide where to spend my time between development, support, and all the possible marketing channels.
Your raw screen recording doing better than the polished video makes it feel more approachable. Roughly how much time are you spending on TikTok each week? Are you focusing on it now, or still testing several channels at once?
Here is the link, in case anyone wants to give me some feedback: https://www.uluplife.com