- Makers: are the people who build products.
- Hunters: are the people who post products (their own or not)
- Posts: are product submissions
- Upvotes: are equivalent to the number of likes for a product.
Each day, Product Hunt features the best products.
The ranking is based on upvotes and other secret factors. It looks like the Product Hunt algorithm favors upvotes from active users over new signups.
The goal is to reach the Top 5 Products of the day.
Then, your product would be featured in the next Product Hunt newsletter issue (500k readers).
Also, you'll receive a fancy badge for your website...
Lately, the Product Hunt team seems to feature up to 10 products in their newsletter though.
Then, it's not the end of the world if you get the 6th or 8th position...
Reaching the top 5 spots seems like a vanity metric but it's not...
It's a fact that people rarely scroll on the web!
A NN Group research pointed out that 57% of people might never scroll.
Eventually, the products on the top positions attract more visitors!
You can quickly validate that by comparing the upvotes gathered by the top 5 products versus all the other products.
It's obvious that more upvotes equal more product visits too.
But why should you care about Product Hunt?
The reason is simple! You bring your product in front of thousands of pairs of eyes.
More specifically, you can achieve multiple goals...
A good Product Hunt launch has several benefits:
- Get Early Beta Users
- Get Your First Customers
- Increase Personal/Company Brand Visibility
- Boost SEO
- Increase Sales
- Shape Up Partnerships
It's wise to set your goal before launching. Then, you can plan better and prioritize your activities.
For example:
For sales, you need an exclusive tempting offer.
For SEO, you need to pick your keywords wisely.
For early users, you need an invite system, not a payment flow
Until now, you have a product & an end goal for your launch
But how will you actually launch?
There're two ways to launch on Product Hunt:
1. You launch your own product 2. Find a hunter who will launch your product
Both of them have pros & cons.
1. Launch your own product
PROS:
- It's easier, cheaper & saves you time
- You don't rely upon anyone else
- You take all the credits
- You learn the process
CONS:
- Your PH audience might not be enough
- You'll have to compete with people/organizations with larger audiences
2. Find a hunter
PROS:
- You leverage the hunter's audience
- You have more chances to be featured
- You engage with a person who's an expert on PH
CONS:
- You need to spend a lot of time to find an experienced one
- You might need to pay a fee to book a call with them
A rule of thumb is to get a hunter for your first launches to boost your reach and learn from them.
Then, you'll have the experience & the audience to launch your own products.
But when is the best day to launch your product?
Here is the typical traffic for a Product Hunt week:
- Monday → Medium
- Tuesday → High
- Wednesday → High
- Thursday → High
- Friday → Medium
- Saturday → Low
- Sunday → Low
A simple framework to pick the right day is:
- Choose weekend for your first launches to be comfortable with the platform and be featured easier
- Choose Monday/Friday for the next one
- Choose mid-week to get the most exposure when you have an audience & experience
Always be careful to not choose a public US holiday (or other country's ofc) for your launch
Here is an interesting case study by @AntoineMilkoff about his latest launch and how it affected by thanksgiving holiday
That's why you need to test many things, and quickly.
But how do you "test things" for your product?
// Thread //
You need to run concrete experiments with a specific goal, in a specific time period
Having one goal will help you measure the result without distractions
The time limit will stop you from losing time on things that don't add value
A practical framework 👇
How to run (product) experiments:
1. Set a goal (eg. increase conversion rate) 2. Come up with an idea (eg. add more CTAs) 3. Build the solution (eg. deploy new website) 4. Measure the impact of your experiment after X weeks/days (eg. analytics)
@CopyPalette solved a fundamental problem that I was facing daily. Many apps used to help you create a palette but there were overwhelming or confusing. I solved the problem with simplicity in mind and a great UX.