Reached 1,000+ pre-launch sign-ups

After reaching #1 of the day on ProductHunt last week with a collection of how successful companies got their first users, the number of sign-ups for Early User Growth skyrocketed in the last week.

Last night Early User Growth reached its 1,000th pre-launch sign-up, meaning that - by now - over a thousand people are interested in the free course on how to get your first 10, 100, 1,000 and 10,000 users for your startup/project.

Here's what really helped bump that number up:

• I asked my own network to check out the ProductHunt launch to get initial upvotes
• I posted in over 25 Startup-related Facebook & Slack Groups about the launch
• I emailed my existing list about the launch
• Went viral on Twitter in Saudi-Arabia and Japan
• Got a few media mentions about the collection
• Reached the #1 spot on ProductHunt so got mentioned in the daily ProductHunt newsletter
• Reached the #3 spot for the week on ProductHunt so I again got mentioned in the weekly ProductHunt newsletter
• I posted my launch to IndieHackers as a milestone

A total of 18,000 people visited the page in the past 7 days.

But traffic is worthless if you aren't turning it into something useful, which for me was sign-ups for the free course on early user growth.

So the page contained 4 different email opt-ins:

• 2 static opt-in forms (one at the start, one at the end)
• 1 opt-in pop-up after being on the page for 15 seconds
• 1 opt-in pop-up after being on the page for 45 seconds
  I had a sign-up rate of around 4.5%

I also built a small tool that registers if someone Tweets about the course after signing up so I can send them a bonus chapter in the future. They sign up, they tweet, they verify their username, and they're added to the list of "bonus" sign-ups.

This helped to further get the word out on Twitter.

Some actionable learnings:

• Launching on ProductHunt alone is not enough, you need to get the word out that you've launched. Find groups that are related to ProductHunt/Tech enthusiasts, and introduce yourself and talk about your launch.
• Thank people that share your content - I've sent dozens of emails, tweets, messages on platforms thanking people for sharing my content. They often ended up signing up for the course afterward once they went back to the site.
• Ask your network to help you. I had lots of help on launch day, this really helped to spread the word and get so much more from the launch. Huge thanks to @harrydry, Menno, @jorisderuiter, @leonpals (for hunting!), Chris, Bosko, Ralph, Paul, Mark, Alex, Timo, Jeff, Jurgen, Zach, Josh, @franklagendijk and many others that made it happen. I really appreciate it
• Prepare your launch. Probably the most important one. I ended up finishing everything around 2 am my time the night before and made sure to be back at the office at 8 am so I could launch at 9 am (which is midnight in San Francisco). Had to finish a few last things that morning, ended up launching around 930 am. If I didn't prepare, I definitely would've seen much worse results.
• Post your launch to IndieHackers. I was on the front page for a long time with my launch, which definitely helped to get more eyes on it and increased the number of upvotes.

I will do a complete write-up of the things I have learned from this launch soon (including my launch strategy) and will post it on IndieHackers as well. If you have any questions, definitely feel free to reach out to me :) Always happy to help.

If you're interested in learning more about how to get your first 10, 100, 1,000 or 10,000 users, feel free to sign up for the free 2-week email course at https://earlyusergrowth.com

The course is launching soon.