IndiesReadIt Development Diary - ProductHunt Launch

IndiesReadIt Development Diary - ProductHunt Launch

29/01 - Launch Day on ProductHunt

• Like I said in the previous post, I followed Luca Restagno's guide that you can get here
• Everything is well-detailled there, I couldn't make a better guide without copying it entirely. Go get it!

1. Get a maximum of people getting notified before launch, even if it means postponing the launch.

   It's vital as it helps you get out of what I can The Unfeatured Hell. basically, getting on the main page of ProductHunt that day means you need to be featured, and for that... you need to reach a certain threshhold of upvote (I'd say 10 in the first 20-30min).

   Many makers said it to me: wait until 50 or 100+ people notified, I should have listened to them but I had set myself a deadline and I wanted to stick to it (launch before end of January) + I needed to keep the momentum going.

2. Start talking about it days before the actual launch.

   I posted how I was kinda stressed about the launch the night before and that tweet got more attention than the actual launch post, but it definitively helped building a sort of momentum around the launch. It was a simple instinctive tweet, do not hesitate to write about your feelings, it's a great way to engage with people.

3. Don't be afraid to ask for help.

   I hate asking and I didn't, the result was I didng't get out the Unfeatured Hell before 3 hours after launch. I'm not saying it's the only reason, but it's definitively one of them.

   Understand that your friends/followers have a life, that they don't always sees your content and that they are not always available to help you. But if you don't ask, you don't get.

   Don't count on the providential retweet from a big account to carry you, consider you're the only captain on board!

4. Make updates on your launch post.

   Do it every hour, it will bump your post and get you more visibility.

   Add visuals (charts, screenshots, etc...) to make it more appealing. Keep the same color schema, it will help people recognize your posts. I'll recommend one again Shots

5. Reply to every comment.

   Engage with people, it's good for your self-esteem to see people interested in your product, and it's good for your post to get more visibility. It's a win-win. It also encourage people to give you what's the real deal: feedbacks.

6. Don't be disapointed if you don't get the results you expected.

   I was disappointed at first as I was at the penultimate position for hours.

   But with time I realized that I was getting a lot of feedbacks, and something else I didn't expect that it would a great source a recomfort for me: seeing I was part of a community of makers, that I was not alone in this journey, that I was not the only one struggling with the same issues. It was a great feeling.

7. Don't forget to thank people.

   I'll make it here again: thank you all for your support, it means a lot to me.

• Luca Restagno
• Dan
• Dima
• Gwendal Brossard
• Sergiu
• Marvin
• Saad Bencherif
• Just
• Stefan Wirth
• Anton Lebedev
• Eli Richmond
• Gurtej
• Marek Sotak
• Nico
• Serhii Yelbaiev
• Ivan Breet
• gamifyKaran
• Matthias
• Luthando
• Jorge Medina
• Jocelyn To
• Joao Aguiam
• Szymon Rączka
• Verdi K.
• David Gutiérrez
• Pierro
• Nauman Tariq
• Raymel
• Aj Picard

And to the one I missed, sorry!

Enjoy the list of brilliant makers btw, they are all worth a follow!

Some stats

• 18th position on ProductHunt

• 55 upvotes

• 25+ unique comments

• 390 page views

• 116 unique visitors from all around the world

• +20 new followers on Twitter that day alone

• A good good backlink :)

  

Conclusion

This ends the dev diary of IndiesReadIt. I hope you enjoyed it and that it helped you in some way. I'll definitively make more post for important updates, features or everything that I think is worth sharing.

On the ProductHunt launch subject: don't be discouraged if you don't get the results you expected, enjoy the ride, it's a great experience and you'll learn a lot from it. And more importantly you'll see you're not alone in this journey.

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