How to Launch on ProductHunt and Succeed

Hi there 👋 my name is Tiago and I am a developer turned bootstrapper.

After playing around with multiple projects I found product market fit with the WBE Space, a community for indie makers with the mission to help them turn their ideas into businesses.

From PH Failure to PH Success

Let me start by giving a huge THANK YOU to all my Twitter followers and members of the WBE Space, without whom this launch would never have been possible ❤️

About four months ago I had a failed attempt to launch my community on ProductHunt that only resulted in 12 upvotes and a wounded pride 😅

I have learned a lot since then and yesterday (25th May 2022) I decided to try my luck again, and this time I wanted to do things properly…

It was a huge success 🚀 I got more than 300 upvotes, 100 comments, and 13 reviews!

These results went beyond all my expectations and really showed me the power and impact that a great launch can have on your product! Bellow, I will share with you the 3 things I did differently in my second launch attempt…

What’s the Goal of a PH Launch?

The goal when you launch your product on ProductHunt is to reach the featured products of that day, which means that you need to be one of the top products. Without being featured no one will see your launch.

In my first launch, my product never reached the featured section and because of that, it got 0 new views! All my 12 upvotes came most probably from my family… 😅

In my second attempt, my goal was to reach that sweet featured page and there were 3 main factors that allowed me to get there…

3 Tips for a Successful ProductHunt Launch

Tip 1- Create an Audience

This is the most important factor ☝🏼

You might do everything else perfectly but without an audience to support you, your chances of success are really low…

In order to reach the featured page, you will need a lot of upvotes and only a supportive audience will help you reach that.

In my first attempt I had no one 😢 So, I spent the last 4 months growing my Twitter account and creating meaningful relationships: I tweeted every day, DMed all my new followers, created memes, etc…

I was able to reach 1K followers with a great engagement ratio 💪

Another huge factor was the fact that the WBE Space has now 60 highly engaged members that provided crucial support in my launch by retweeting, leaving comments, and reviews (all of this influence your PH position). Prior to the launch the community also gave me crucial tips that were paramount to my success.

On the launch day, I tweeted about it and DMed all my followers asking for support!

And of course asked for support in the WBE Slack Channel

Tip 2- Prepare the Launch

Launching on PH is not a spur of the moment decision…

The old Tiago would decide to launch and then, on the same day, quickly create a post and hit submit… 🤦🏻 That simply does not work, a good launch requires preparation!

This time I gave myself one week and really took my time to film an intro video, pick good thumbnails and warm up my audience before my launch.

During this process, I had a close feedback loop with the WBE Space members that gave me a lot of valuable tips on my images and copy… 🤗

I even created a Launch Party at Eventbrite that people could join and meet the members and myself.

Not a lot of WBE outsiders end up joining the party but it worked really well as a PR stunt.

Tip 3- Wake up Early

Or late, it really depends on your timezone… 🌎

Your product goes live at 12am San Francisco time and stays up for 24 hours.

It’s important to be next to your laptop the moment the clock hits 12 so that you can start sending messages around and getting those crucial first votes.

The sooner you get into the featured page the more attention you will have and therefore the upvotes.

In the graph bellow, you can see the upvotes growth along the day and the first 8 hours had a much steeper growth rate than the rest.

I spent hours glued to my laptop, messaging people and answering comments.

It really felt like running a marathon, and if you want to make it a little bit more fun I recommend you to have Product Wars V2 open so that you can see your evolution in comparison to the other products.

It really feels like a race 🏎️

The Business Impact

Being in the top 5 products of the day is definitely an accomplishment to be proud of, however, let’s not forget the main reason why we do this…

Money!! 🤑 🤑

We all want new users and paying customers and I want to share with you the impact that this successful launch had on my business.

Website Traffic and Conversions

As I am writing this I have received almost 400 new visits to the website, which is a huge increment from the previous days. 🚀

Of these 400 people, 16 clicked on the Join Button and 3 have converted to paying users.

This shows an immediate conversion of about 1%. Even though it might seem low, joining a community is normally not an action that people take lightly. It might take multiple weeks for users to decide to make a monthly commitment, so I do expect the conversion rate to increase.

Social Validation

It might be hard to fully appreciate the value of joining a community like the WBE Space from the outside, so social validation plays a huge role in my business.

Having that #5 badge on my landing page is much more than simple vanity. Seeing that gives my community the crucial credibility to convert new potential clients into paying members.

In addition to the upvotes we had 100 comments and 13 reviews which adds up to boost the trust people have in the WBE Space

Closing Remarks

I am curious to see the long-term impact of this launch in my business but I am extremely happy with the results so far.

This whole experience has taught me the importance of investing time and thought into our marketing strategy.

I hope you found this information valuable and feel free to DM me any questions on Twitter