What would make you actually submit your product to a new launch site?

For me, proof that real people are actually watching would matter most. A free listing is easy to offer, but if makers can see some real traffic or engagement, it immediately makes the listing feel worth their time. I’d also keep the submission form as close to “2 minutes and done” as possible.

You named the two blockers yourself: proof someone is watching, and a submit form that asks too much. On the form: name, URL, one-line pitch, and category is enough to publish; everything else (screenshots, founder story, pricing) can be optional or asked after it's live. Showing last week's real visitor numbers next to the submit button would handle the first one.

Honest answer from someone who just went through a batch of these for Mythex (disclosure: I'm building it, an AI app builder).

What made me submit: free, and a form I could finish in under five minutes with what I already had (name, one-liner, URL, logo, three screenshots).

What made me hesitate:

• A launch date months out. One board scheduled our free launch for late January, with a paid fast-track right next to it. Fair as a business, but it makes the free tier feel like a waiting room.
• Rules I can't control, like needing a set number of upvotes on launch day to stay listed. That turns a listing into a campaign.
• No sign anyone is reading. Before submitting I look at the last few launches and check whether they got any comments.

What would get me to bother on a new site:

1. Public traffic numbers, even rough (a public analytics dashboard link is enough).
2. A permanent listing that doesn't depend on launch-day votes.
3. Category pages per use case. That's what ranks and what people browse months later. Launch day is a spike; category pages are the long tail.
4. Past makers' click counts on their own listing. That's the number I actually care about.

The dofollow link matters less to me than being findable in a category page six months from now.

for me it's two things, a form i can finish in under two minutes and a view or click count on my own listing so i know whether it's worth coming back. i'm building an ios beta so my link goes to testflight, which gives me no attribution at all, so a directory that shows clicks is basically the only data i'd get from it. picking my own launch date matters a lot less to me than knowing somebody actually saw it

Really solid approach — I'm juggling something similar myself (building Xstream4K on the side), what's been the hardest part for you so far?