Letterstack

Last Friday I launched Letterstack on Product Hunt. My first ever Product Hunt launch.

Somehow, I ended the day with #1 Product of the Day. By a healthy margin having led from start to finish.

I didn’t really plan the launch - Late Thursday night, I was going through the submission process on Product Hunt to get the image asset sizes and copy length. I had a draft ready so thought why not go ahead schedule the launch for Friday. It was an ideal day for two reasons - I was available and my main newsletter was due out later in the day.

I didn’t have huge expectations and would’ve been happy with 50-100 upvotes.

How did I get #1...?

• Letterstack is serving a growing trend - newsletters. And I don’t think there’s any other site that’s specifically curating content that is useful to building a newsletter business.
• Twitter - I totally underestimated how much reach I would have. I don’t have a huge following (around 850 at launch) and I’m not consistent with posting. But I try. Regardless tweets about the launch seemed to travel.
• Twitter updates through the day - I gave a few updates of where I was (ie first place) and hoe genuinely surprised I was. These also got attention and probably helped get more people visiting the post.
• Communities - being active in a few newsletter communities definitely helped. It meant it was ok to post a link and people knew who I was.
• My newsletter - linking to the post in the issue sent on launch day. The audience isn’t specific to building newsletters but there’s a good relationship with the subscribers and the link got clicked.
• Lots of comments - I’m not sure if this helps people decide to check out a product and upvote or not. But a post with no comments or unanswered comments never looks good. I was getting lots and took the time to answer everyone - even if just a thanks (because I was genuinely thankful).

So, I’m 1 for 1 on Product Launches 😄

What can I learn from this (because, obviously I’m an expert now)

• Having a product that’s in a trending market is going to make things easier
• Work on your social media “presence” long before you need to launch. It can be an effective way to spread the launch further than your 1st degree connections
• Be active in relevant communities long before you launch. Offer help, ask questions. Then when the time comes to show your product, people will take notice
• Leverage existing parallel newsletter audiences. But don’t be spammy about it.
• Thank people who take the time to comment on the post and thank people on twitter (or other social) who share.
• Don’t be shy about talking about the launch on launch day. Try to make it interesting (although not sure my posts were)

Absolutely zero rocket science, no tricks or hacks. Just fundamentals.

Was the launch a success?

To me, it was.

It didn’t result in a ton of subscribers but that’s ok - I don’t expect people want to get another newsletter when it’s one that talks about newsletters. It’s not a newsletter first product.

What I hope for is that people bookmark the site and use it as a resource. Share it to others starting out, or when stuck on something.

I increased twitter followers.

Importantly, I’ve got personal exposure.

This wasn’t a do or die launch. It was something I pulled together that I thought would be helpful. And was an opportunity to experience a Product Hunt launch.

Oh, and I get some kind of low level bragging rights for a Product of the Day 😄

I launched Letterstack - a directory of resources for building, growing and monetizing newsletters 😀

For a long time, I’ve been saving links to helpful articles, podcasts, videos - focused on building newsletter businesses. Been thinking to build a small site so I could share with other newsletter creators but never had the time to work on it.

A week or two ago, I carved out a window and built a simple site (thanks Webflow) and uploaded everything I had. I’m pleased with the way it’s turned out and has had some positive feedback on twitter and other newsletter communities.

Check it out and see what you think https://letterstack.co

Still adding resources and will share via the newsletter. Might also expand into tools such as ESPs, referral tools, designers etc.

Next step is to plan a Product Hunt launch - never done one before so got some research and prep to do.

Feedback from fellow newsletter creators or anyone who wants to is welcome!