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12 Comments

What went wrong with my PH launch today🙂.

I didn't have any high expectations on PH launch, honestly, but I could not find a spot in the trending section that did hurt me. Not even in the bottom three 🤪.

I have shared some success stories here, but this one is where things went south.

I submitted dealspodium.com, where the creators themselves posted Black Friday deals and were ready to answer what they should receive. The whole idea was cooked in the last 6-7 days, and yesterday, I reached out to a hunter, and he was enough to do it today. The original plan was Friday, but since a storm has hit my city, I didn't want to take up any chances.

12:03 PST - My post got hunted.

I did read through their guidelines and definitely didn't want to push for upvotes. This being a timely side-project, I just sat back and watched.

I emailed 10 people about the launch and tweeted about the same—no other push from my end.

After an hour, I obtained around 6 upvotes - 7 comments, the ones that I emailed. But I still couldn't find myself a spot in the trending section. Not even in the bottom. Should I have not emailed those 10 people?

ProductHunt

Yes, I was disappointed now. I didn't have any high expectations on PH launch, honestly, but I could not find a spot in the trending section that did hurt me. Not even in the bottom three 🤪.

Visitors from PH till now: 16

I did it all in a hurry. There was no planning. ( I didn't have the time either)
I didn't create a huge list of people I could email after the launch; I left it too organic.

End of the day, I should say to myself - "Find another way this time, and get better at the game next time."

It can't always rise and shine. Things go wrong; expectations don't match, disappointments come along. The courage to learn and move on is what matters. [ I guess ]

I am grateful to Sharath, who hunted the site on such short notice and that six upvotes!

My Product Hunt post link - https://www.producthunt.com/posts/deals-podium

#buildinpublic #sideproject

  1. 2

    I'm considering posting my product on product hunt. Do you guys have any advice for me?

    1. 2
      1. Who hunts your product is really important
      2. Add relevant tags to your product, not many.
      3. Have a small list of active people in PH and like what you are doing.
      4. Tell them you launched something, but not what it is. So that they explore the product like an organic user, visit the website, and then choose to upvote or not.
      5. If you make it to the trending list, then just wait and watch. Reply to any comments in detail.
      6. Take screenshots of comments and post them on Twitter.

      I wish you the best, bud!

      1. 1

        Can you elaborate on 1., please? "Who hunts your product is really important"

        1. 2

          This is basically the person who "lists" your product on PH. It's best if you have someone who is influential post it rather than posting it yourself.

  2. 2

    Product Hunt is a lot harder than it use to be.

    For Versoly 1.0 we got 3000+ visitors with no audience, with Versoly 2.0 we got less than 1000 visitors and we had a few lists as well to drive traffic to it.

    1. 1

      Yes, I feel so the same. Back in 2017, I didn't do any promotion or ask people to upvote. I hunted the product myself, and it worked. 300 upvotes and close to 14k traffic. But now 🤪

  3. 2

    I feel sorry for you, but I treid the product and it's really useful.

    1. 1

      Hey! Thanks a ton, @heyarviind that means a lot.

  4. 2

    I believe Product Hunt banned aggregators of Black Friday deals from the front page last year. Back in 2018 the whole front page was full of them, so in 2019 and this year they've taken that stance.

    And.. if you're not on the front page, then Product Hunt is kinda worthless traffic wise.

    1. 1

      Oh! I didn't know this. Wow. Learning something new.

  5. 1

    When I posted my project to PH, I knew nothing about the "proper procedure". As one would expect, I got a couple votes and that was that. So I did not get the influx of visitors from PH, oh well. But, most annoyingly, to this day my project does not show up in PH search results. I cannot suggest it as an alternative to competitor products. It's as if it doesn't exist on the platform.

    Not sure I'll bother with playing the PH game, I think my time is better spent on the actual product.

  6. 1

    We must learn from each other. And so I wrote this.

    But no matter what, don't give up.

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