What’s the Best Way for Indie Hackers to Get Their Products Discovered After Launch?

Curious what the actual discovery mechanism is here beyond the free listing — is it algorithmic surfacing based on category/tags, a curated "editor's pick" rotation, search, or mostly relying on people browsing the full directory? That's usually the difference between a launch board people visit once during their own submission and one people come back to when they're actually shopping for a tool. What's driving traffic to the browse pages themselves right now?

To get first customers after launch, don’t optimize for broad discovery yet. Pick one niche, list 20 people who already feel the problem, and send each a short note referencing their context plus a 10-minute question. Offer a manual pilot to 3; turn objections into the next page or product change. A practical prompt/workflow starter: https://promptworks-storefront.vercel.app

The hard part isn't the launch spike - it's measuring which channels keep users returning. Launch lists give 1000s on day 1 but 0 retention. A 50-person indie forum where 8 of them stick around and refer friends is worth 10x more. Measure post-launch: which discovery channel has the highest return rate and referral rate at Day 7, Day 30? That determines where to focus next. Most teams kill the channel that actually compounds.

Launch lists give a spike, but it fades in days. The compounding channel is showing up in threads where people are actively looking — answer their question, earn the click. Did this for our Chrome extension: first 10 users came from one reply in a live Threads discussion, not from launch sites.