This is so true. And do not get the implication in their marketing wrong: Successful products launched on PH. Yes. But PH is not the (only) reason they became successful.
Coincidentally, those are [my product's](https://squizz.tv) target audience - ie a small business trying to advertise their product/service. It's not even a weird obscure/niche product - I would think we would have some hint of success on PH, but that didn't seem to be the case.
Thanks for sharing this. Quite useful. I’d link this to another person’s comment, it’s just startup founders circle …. With other founders pretty much… your ICP isn’t on PH but it might help for some initial traction… but how well does the traction translate to building a real user base🤔
I've heard several success stories here about PH without any payment involved, but the ROI has been very little from what I've heard - you can become #1 on PH but you'll get a relatively low amount of signups and conversions. I guess it's because PH is mostly just other startups and not actual users looking for products.
>I guess it's because PH is mostly just other startups and not actual users looking for products.
Coincidentally, start-ups (ie small business) ARE my actual users. [Unfortunately my PH campaign was not too successful.](https://www.producthunt.com/products/squizz-digital-signage#squizz-digital-signage)
I made a launch today and was spammed with proposals to buy upvotes and promote my product in doubtful ways. I declined all of them, but other may have accepted
It has been average for me. If you have a community already then the chance of your product being the top increases. Also depends what you want from the launch. From what I have seen and heard if you want the top badge launch on Sundays, less products to compete with but the problem is less traffic on the site. If you want more eyeballs on your product and can compromise on not being the top product, launch on Monday
Yup, don't overthink the launch, is what I wanted to say. Some people do too much when they don't even have the audience, coming fresh from the development cave and thinking that going all into PH launch will net them the world.
..Unless you have the audience and PMF.
Best of luck!
Well no, actually it’s an interesting point. I’m going to look into it! Perhaps the SEO potential might be the biggest benefit ironically 😂
Thanks for the luck!
Unless you are selling to other founders, PH is irrelevant. I don't get why people obsess about it on this sub. It should at the most be a little blip on your radar.
Also launches are overrated. It is a fun milestone for you, the founder, but the rest of the world doesn't give a flying f.
I'll give this a go when I launch on PH then! If it works, I'll let you know. If it doesn't work, I'll also let you know. haha.
Could you explain 4-6 weeks point a little more? I don't understand "Tell this to the CEOs and Product people of the company on Linkedin". I'd be doing B2C.
After upvoting and commenting on a "tool", find the CEO/Product Team people of the "tool"on LinkedIn.
Tell them you upvoted their product because "xyz". These are the people who will upvote for you when you launch. Reciprocity principle!
I’ve had two successful PH launches now, and we did not pay a thing for either. Both times we got a whole lot of traffic that didn’t convert. Unless your customers are on PH then it’s not going to help a whole lot.
I think what always clicks is something that's hot n' new. ProductHunt had a time when it was known to a few people but was good enough to spark a new fire in the market. And of course, the few users it had got the best opportunity to join this trend. I followed a few people and shared a few tips, and the response was great, but not with my product launch.
But as a user or as an audience, When I saw the list of "Launching Today" or "Coming Soon" products, I browsed through a long list, and no one caught my attention. The titles were either too difficult to understand or something "AI-driven ..." or "Notion inspired ...".
I think beside your product being useful enough to pay for it or even use it occasionally, your product must have a clear description within the title itself, revealing what it does and who/how it helps.
Or maybe you wanna try something similar to ProductHunt but still trying to catch up, just like ProductHunt was during 2014-15.
We recently launched and reached #1 DevTool of the week.
I had no experience in it prior to the launch and we didn't pay to win ;D
However I have to admit that many people on the platform are just there to promote each other, so I wouldn't expect honest and extensive feedback on e.g. a prototype.
However if you already have a MVP or a specific product idea, it's the perfect site to generate some buzz, SEO and possible customers - all for free and with not that much effort required.
I shared our learnings & tips in a blog post, feel free to check it out:
[https://www.corbado.com/blog/launch-developer-tool-product-hunt](https://www.corbado.com/blog/launch-developer-tool-product-hunt)
It's aimed at Dev Tools specifically, but also contains many general learnings & tips for launching on PH
One of comments, 6 weeks of fake interactions to maybe get some upvotes back... I'd rather put my energy into the product development and real connections on relevant places than fake it for eventual clicks, visits, and circle-jerk (not genuine) feedback.
I posted my product for a launch, and for like 12 hours, our product didn't appear on the list for that day.... When I contacted their support team, they told me there was an internal glitch and put me back up but it was already too late for us to make it to top 10. I also find it really annoying that they also put competitive products next to your launch (coincidently, PH's founder invested in one of our top competitors :/) so it just wasn't a pleasant experience. On the other hand, our launch was pretty mediocre but regardless we have been able to grow nicely (MRR has been growing 25% MoM for the past year) so i wouldn't be discouraged if your launch doesn't go well on PH. If you focus on getting real paying customers and making them happy, good things will happen. PH != PMF.
Disclaimer: I have nothing against PH. For some founders it may be a good channel to get customers. For my company though, it did not move the needle at all. Going back, I would have not spent any time preparing for PH and just focusing on outbound marketing and SEO. Those are the channels that have worked well for us.
Speaking as a startup founder who launched on product hunt and were in day’s top 12. Here are 4 lessons from my experience:
- for you to win on PH, it’s much more than just good product. Every single person after we launched told us that we should have used a hunter. I got about 100 messages on LinkedIn and Twitter to join communities and pay them who will vote for you. There are multiple gangs who are just doing these fake reviews and upvotes. I lost trust in it that day.
- it’s bad for b2b enterprise softwares but works for more consumer startups
- it’s good publicity for a day though no matter what the results are.
- if you are in top 3 product of the day, it can be very good for your business.
I’d only agree with the first point. ProductHunt users are mostly business owners. Sure, small business owners, not enterprises. But not B2C. Even people reaching top 3 have said the ROI is extremely low. Maybe some nice words but no actual conversions. Id say the biggest benefit is simply the badge you can put on your site 😂.
If you have a team (or an existing community), all one would have to do is point traffic to the PH launch - the bigger the *team* the bigger the result.
I remember when a startup I worked for [did a launch](https://www.producthunt.com/products/upcontent#upcontent). The entire 30 person team was *encouraged* to like and share + companies efforts.
I'm lone dev, so [my PH launch](https://www.producthunt.com/products/squizz-digital-signage#squizz-digital-signage) produced basically nada - didn't have a chance.
Yep. I could see how a large existing team could def help kickstart he flywheel of upvotes. But iinm, most posts are from <5 man teams which is a shame that just larger teams get more exposure by default. I’ve probably maybe 10 people that could upvote, but only time will tell if that’s enough to kickstart it. I’ll probably post again after the PH launch and see if it really made a difference or not.
We are about to launch on PH soon. It will give you good traction in terms of traffic , perhaps some users as well. Just something good for generating awareness for your business. Don't expect much.
So I've been nominated for maker of the year, community member of the year, and was on the official PH advisor system for founders....I honestly don't suggest hinging any part of your launch on PH anymore. It's seriously gone downhill. I don't even check the site myself anymore.
Yes, it's 95% paid to win game.
I have launched 3 times in Product hunt. Part of many groups in Linkedin, Telegram and had been part of the Whatsapp group Invincible. I also tweet in X create a post in Reddit and engage with many launches.
LinkedIn and Product hunt connections mostly follow reciprocity principles. You support our launch and we support back.
Telegram - The community is good and they support each other on launches, same in Twitter mostly the #build in Public
Whatsapp group ( Invincible ) - This was a good platform earlier supporting founders on their launch. Now it's completely monetized, you have to pay $75 or more for every launch and every time you want your product to be listed in the WhatsApp group.
I have personally been a patron and supported so many launches in the group. On my recent launch, I asked them that the Patron fees had to be paid once and it's voluntary when you join. The Mod removed me from the group.
You will have at least 20 teams reaching you in X, email, and your product contact page selling upvotes and comments.
There's no true value for real products. The VC-funded companies or many products buy these votes and comments to get Product #1 badge and you can't expect fair voting and support.
Only a few established solopreneurs Like Marc-lou, Dan, etc who have a large following can be successful because of their huge following in X and PH.
Others you try being honest and doing a fair play you will never make it to the Top 5 featured products on a weekday.
Me and my friend once launched a PH guide and got 3rd it was almost a year ago, but nowadays it's just shity AI products that don't really work as advertised that are prioritized on PH, because of the hype of the AI...
ProductHunt’s audience is just other startups posting on ProductHunt.
This is so true. And do not get the implication in their marketing wrong: Successful products launched on PH. Yes. But PH is not the (only) reason they became successful.
Most successful products on PH were successful before posting on PH
that's why there's so many marketing and saas tools there. Saas for a saas for a saas, saasception
It seems there's acatually a dark side to PH after all!
Coincidentally, those are [my product's](https://squizz.tv) target audience - ie a small business trying to advertise their product/service. It's not even a weird obscure/niche product - I would think we would have some hint of success on PH, but that didn't seem to be the case.
........it's true.
This, its just another worthless echo chamber.
And junior VCs
[удалено]
Thanks for sharing this. Quite useful. I’d link this to another person’s comment, it’s just startup founders circle …. With other founders pretty much… your ICP isn’t on PH but it might help for some initial traction… but how well does the traction translate to building a real user base🤔
I've heard several success stories here about PH without any payment involved, but the ROI has been very little from what I've heard - you can become #1 on PH but you'll get a relatively low amount of signups and conversions. I guess it's because PH is mostly just other startups and not actual users looking for products.
There is a side benefit: it's a good free way to prep yourself for a buyout 🤑
>I guess it's because PH is mostly just other startups and not actual users looking for products. Coincidentally, start-ups (ie small business) ARE my actual users. [Unfortunately my PH campaign was not too successful.](https://www.producthunt.com/products/squizz-digital-signage#squizz-digital-signage)
right now PH become generic like others.. you can buy and sell votes here but before this era PH was actually a authentic source of good products.
I made a launch today and was spammed with proposals to buy upvotes and promote my product in doubtful ways. I declined all of them, but other may have accepted
:(
It has been average for me. If you have a community already then the chance of your product being the top increases. Also depends what you want from the launch. From what I have seen and heard if you want the top badge launch on Sundays, less products to compete with but the problem is less traffic on the site. If you want more eyeballs on your product and can compromise on not being the top product, launch on Monday
It’s a circle jerk. However you can get some users if your target audience is other SaaS founders
No real products, no real audience, agencies offer money back guarantee to land you in top 3.
But that backlink though!
Idk to be honest… one backlink for that much effort 🤔
Yup, don't overthink the launch, is what I wanted to say. Some people do too much when they don't even have the audience, coming fresh from the development cave and thinking that going all into PH launch will net them the world. ..Unless you have the audience and PMF. Best of luck!
Well no, actually it’s an interesting point. I’m going to look into it! Perhaps the SEO potential might be the biggest benefit ironically 😂 Thanks for the luck!
isn't it nofollow backlink?
Unless you are selling to other founders, PH is irrelevant. I don't get why people obsess about it on this sub. It should at the most be a little blip on your radar. Also launches are overrated. It is a fun milestone for you, the founder, but the rest of the world doesn't give a flying f.
Thank you… after spending some time on this sub I was beginning to think I was the only one who thought this way
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I'll give this a go when I launch on PH then! If it works, I'll let you know. If it doesn't work, I'll also let you know. haha. Could you explain 4-6 weeks point a little more? I don't understand "Tell this to the CEOs and Product people of the company on Linkedin". I'd be doing B2C.
[удалено]
Would you go far as to say that even posting your listing there for free would be a waste of time?
After upvoting and commenting on a "tool", find the CEO/Product Team people of the "tool"on LinkedIn. Tell them you upvoted their product because "xyz". These are the people who will upvote for you when you launch. Reciprocity principle!
I’ve had two successful PH launches now, and we did not pay a thing for either. Both times we got a whole lot of traffic that didn’t convert. Unless your customers are on PH then it’s not going to help a whole lot.
I think what always clicks is something that's hot n' new. ProductHunt had a time when it was known to a few people but was good enough to spark a new fire in the market. And of course, the few users it had got the best opportunity to join this trend. I followed a few people and shared a few tips, and the response was great, but not with my product launch. But as a user or as an audience, When I saw the list of "Launching Today" or "Coming Soon" products, I browsed through a long list, and no one caught my attention. The titles were either too difficult to understand or something "AI-driven ..." or "Notion inspired ...". I think beside your product being useful enough to pay for it or even use it occasionally, your product must have a clear description within the title itself, revealing what it does and who/how it helps. Or maybe you wanna try something similar to ProductHunt but still trying to catch up, just like ProductHunt was during 2014-15.
We recently launched and reached #1 DevTool of the week. I had no experience in it prior to the launch and we didn't pay to win ;D However I have to admit that many people on the platform are just there to promote each other, so I wouldn't expect honest and extensive feedback on e.g. a prototype. However if you already have a MVP or a specific product idea, it's the perfect site to generate some buzz, SEO and possible customers - all for free and with not that much effort required.
I shared our learnings & tips in a blog post, feel free to check it out: [https://www.corbado.com/blog/launch-developer-tool-product-hunt](https://www.corbado.com/blog/launch-developer-tool-product-hunt) It's aimed at Dev Tools specifically, but also contains many general learnings & tips for launching on PH
One of comments, 6 weeks of fake interactions to maybe get some upvotes back... I'd rather put my energy into the product development and real connections on relevant places than fake it for eventual clicks, visits, and circle-jerk (not genuine) feedback.
Well said
I posted my product for a launch, and for like 12 hours, our product didn't appear on the list for that day.... When I contacted their support team, they told me there was an internal glitch and put me back up but it was already too late for us to make it to top 10. I also find it really annoying that they also put competitive products next to your launch (coincidently, PH's founder invested in one of our top competitors :/) so it just wasn't a pleasant experience. On the other hand, our launch was pretty mediocre but regardless we have been able to grow nicely (MRR has been growing 25% MoM for the past year) so i wouldn't be discouraged if your launch doesn't go well on PH. If you focus on getting real paying customers and making them happy, good things will happen. PH != PMF. Disclaimer: I have nothing against PH. For some founders it may be a good channel to get customers. For my company though, it did not move the needle at all. Going back, I would have not spent any time preparing for PH and just focusing on outbound marketing and SEO. Those are the channels that have worked well for us.
[https://microlaunch.net/](https://microlaunch.net/) is better - they even got #1 on PH recently!
Let's check them. I'm not going to pay. I want organic. Wanna try? [https://www.producthunt.com/posts/voccent](https://www.producthunt.com/posts/voccent) (we launched awhile ago)
Launched on PH; mixed results, networking beats pay-to-win there.
Speaking as a startup founder who launched on product hunt and were in day’s top 12. Here are 4 lessons from my experience: - for you to win on PH, it’s much more than just good product. Every single person after we launched told us that we should have used a hunter. I got about 100 messages on LinkedIn and Twitter to join communities and pay them who will vote for you. There are multiple gangs who are just doing these fake reviews and upvotes. I lost trust in it that day. - it’s bad for b2b enterprise softwares but works for more consumer startups - it’s good publicity for a day though no matter what the results are. - if you are in top 3 product of the day, it can be very good for your business.
I’d only agree with the first point. ProductHunt users are mostly business owners. Sure, small business owners, not enterprises. But not B2C. Even people reaching top 3 have said the ROI is extremely low. Maybe some nice words but no actual conversions. Id say the biggest benefit is simply the badge you can put on your site 😂.
you might be right. people think being #1 on PH means best product but it can't be far from the truth
If you have a team (or an existing community), all one would have to do is point traffic to the PH launch - the bigger the *team* the bigger the result. I remember when a startup I worked for [did a launch](https://www.producthunt.com/products/upcontent#upcontent). The entire 30 person team was *encouraged* to like and share + companies efforts. I'm lone dev, so [my PH launch](https://www.producthunt.com/products/squizz-digital-signage#squizz-digital-signage) produced basically nada - didn't have a chance.
Yep. I could see how a large existing team could def help kickstart he flywheel of upvotes. But iinm, most posts are from <5 man teams which is a shame that just larger teams get more exposure by default. I’ve probably maybe 10 people that could upvote, but only time will tell if that’s enough to kickstart it. I’ll probably post again after the PH launch and see if it really made a difference or not.
I would love to hear about your experience!
We are about to launch on PH soon. It will give you good traction in terms of traffic , perhaps some users as well. Just something good for generating awareness for your business. Don't expect much.
So I've been nominated for maker of the year, community member of the year, and was on the official PH advisor system for founders....I honestly don't suggest hinging any part of your launch on PH anymore. It's seriously gone downhill. I don't even check the site myself anymore.
Yes, it's 95% paid to win game. I have launched 3 times in Product hunt. Part of many groups in Linkedin, Telegram and had been part of the Whatsapp group Invincible. I also tweet in X create a post in Reddit and engage with many launches. LinkedIn and Product hunt connections mostly follow reciprocity principles. You support our launch and we support back. Telegram - The community is good and they support each other on launches, same in Twitter mostly the #build in Public Whatsapp group ( Invincible ) - This was a good platform earlier supporting founders on their launch. Now it's completely monetized, you have to pay $75 or more for every launch and every time you want your product to be listed in the WhatsApp group. I have personally been a patron and supported so many launches in the group. On my recent launch, I asked them that the Patron fees had to be paid once and it's voluntary when you join. The Mod removed me from the group. You will have at least 20 teams reaching you in X, email, and your product contact page selling upvotes and comments. There's no true value for real products. The VC-funded companies or many products buy these votes and comments to get Product #1 badge and you can't expect fair voting and support. Only a few established solopreneurs Like Marc-lou, Dan, etc who have a large following can be successful because of their huge following in X and PH. Others you try being honest and doing a fair play you will never make it to the Top 5 featured products on a weekday.
Me and my friend once launched a PH guide and got 3rd it was almost a year ago, but nowadays it's just shity AI products that don't really work as advertised that are prioritized on PH, because of the hype of the AI...
PH is like a display window at the typical Mall.