I Launched 3 Projects On Product Hunt: Learnings + Tips

Hey everyone,

I just wrapped up my 3rd launch on Product Hunt for findcool.tools where we received #3 Product of the Day (just wrote a thread about this project's launch stats on twitter if you're interested)

My last product launch did not receive a Product of the Day award but did win #1 Health/Fitness Product of the Week and #2 Health/Fitness Product of the Month.

My first product launch placed 63rd and did not win any awards.

Each launch has gotten better and better.

Here are some things I've learned and some tips I have:

• Start building an audience weeks before launch. This can be a game changer.

  • Post your Product Hunt launch preview link and ask for support, show demos, engage in comments about your launch and your product.
  • Post a few times a day leading up to launch.

• You don't have to build a feature-filled MVP, but make sure whatever you're launching works well.

  • I've seen projects riddled with bugs because they're trying to include too much.
  • I've seen projects kill it that do one single thing.

• Suggest your tool to users before launch, if it's available.

  • Getting initial feedback can be super helpful before the surge in Product Hunt traffic.

• Have analytics in place

  • This can be extremely helpful in observing user behavior and to see what other sources are sending you traffic
  • I've built features that I thought would get tons of traction. Come to find out hardly anyone visits that specific page.

• If your product links out to other products/services, make sure to include a referral param in the url.

  • This helped me a lot with my latest launch because people could see firsthand the traffic we were sending.

• Pick your launch day wisely.

  • I've launched on weekdays and weekends. There are pros and cons to each.

  • Product Hunt has much more traffic during the week, but also a lot more competition.

    • If you're super confident in your product, these could be good days to launch.

  • Weekends see less traffic + less competition, so potential advantage to stand out.

• On launch day, don't stop talking about your product.

  • Post every few hours asking for support, and talk about updates/progress. Just try to keep your launch in front of your audience throughout the day.
  • I've found, on Twitter, that posting every 2 or so hours worked well.

• Reply to every comment on Product Hunt

  • This goes a long way in showing that you appreciate people's support.

I'm sure there's more, but these are some of the things I've improved on across my multiple launches, and have seen each launch have more success than the last.

Hope this was helpful 🙂

Happy to answer any questions here or on Twitter/X. I typically talk about building projects in public and other random dev stuff.

Check out findcool.tools for awesome tools built by indie hackers like myself.

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