15+ Product Hunt Launch Mistakes to Avoid
Product Hunt brings unexpected results — either 1000s of signups or nothing at all.
And, it all depends on your launch strategy (a little bit of luck too).
If you do a simple Google search about how to launch on Product Hunt, hundreds of great guides will appear but there’s not much content about the mistakes that you should strictly avoid doing.
So I decided to collect some Product Hunt launch mistakes from my personal experience and others’ experience that I have noted.
Product Hunt Launch Mistakes
1. Do not first launch on Product Hunt
Do not launch at Product Hunt until you have a few organic users who love your product.
- Get your early users’ feedback and iterate fast, and
- Focus on retention and referral
Rob explains that even if he advertised his business on one of America’s largest talk shows, it didn’t perform well. Because people liked his product but didn’t love it.
Even if only 10 people love your product, most probably it’s going to perform well on the launch day.
2. Do not wait for the results
Results don’t come automatically, you’ll have to move your hands.
The launch day is very important and you should make a detailed plan for it from earlier.
On the d-day, let your early users, social media followers and friends know that you’ve launched today and ask them to support you.
3. Do not ask anyone for upvotes
No matter what, do not make this mistake of asking for upvotes everywhere.
But… you can ask people to support you and let them decide how they want to support you – by upvoting or by leaving a nice comment.
You can find a list of people who upvoted similar products as yours and ask them for support.
Not to mention, do not spam.
4. Do not spam people
I have seen people filling their timeline with identical posts on the launch day, it becomes annoying.
Whether it’s mass emailing or sending hundreds of DMs to random people on social media, don’t do it. It can get you banned from the platform.
Instead, reach out only to the highly targeted people.
5. Do not launch late
Product Hunt works on a 24-hour cycle from 12:01 am to 11:59 pm (Pacific Timezone), and it’s not a good idea to launch late in the day.
You just have 1 day to become the product of the day, why waste?
And to help, here’s a detailed guide on the best time to post on Product Hunt. It will help you understand the importance of days and times for the PH launch.
6. Do not have no plans
Leaving everything to be done on the last day is a very bad practice for the launch.
There are so many pre-launch and post-launch strategies that you cannot keep up with if there are no plans from earlier.
For example, journalists and bloggers can contact you to feature your product and it becomes very difficult to provide content to everyone if you do not have a press kit ready.
7. Do not forget to read the guidelines
It is advisable to thoroughly read the complete Product Hunt launch guide including all the pre and post-launch strategies.
Even a small detail can make a huge difference.
8. Not researching other related products
Collecting information about other related products help you understand the factors that influence the rankings in your category.
Take a note of everything about your competitors, like:
- what worked for them
- when did they launch
- where did they share about the launch
- which hunter did they get to post their product
- why they failed, etc.
9. Do not over-promote yourself
Much like other popular communities, Product Hunt members do not like it if you self-promote all the time without adding any value to the community.
You should start engaging with the community from at least a month earlier of the launch — ask questions, provide answers, honest feedbacks and build relationships.
10. Do not sit alone
Product Hunt launch is a matter of hours and you can’t do nothing after the launch.
You need people to make your product skyrocket — friends, colleagues and influencers.
You should create a list of people that are most likely to support the launch. And, it’s a good practice to let them know from earlier that you will be launching on a particular day.
Also, ask your team members to do the same.
11. Do not be passive
Go ahead and post on social media asking to support your launch.
Some people genuinely want to support your product. You just have to let them know.
Publish at least 4-5 posts (but not too much) throughout the day on platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and where you think your audience hangs out.
12. Do not leave your early customers and newsletter subscribers
If a few customers are already using your product, they can be great advocates for your product.
Do not leave them behind, politely ask them to leave an honest review on the Product Hunt launch day.
Also, if you have a newsletter then do the same to all the subscribers — it works.
13. Do not ignore the power of a hunter
Hunters have the magic powers to make your product appear on the main page.
Create a great pitch and reach out to a few hunters with a decent amount of followers to post your product. Also, only select one if he/she has already hunted products of the same category as yours.
Here’s a detailed guide to finding the right hunter for your product.
14. Not sharing the back story
Story sells.
Do not underestimate the power of storytelling. People love stories.
In the first comment, provide a detailed explanation of what problem you faced and how you got the idea of creating the product.
15. Do not ignore comments
People never forget if you ignore them.
Make sure to reply to every comment even if it’s negative feedback. Politely answer all the questions and thank everyone for providing their honest feedback.
Comments are one of the main ranking signals. Meaning, the more comments, the more will be the chances of ranking high.
16. Do not party after the launch
No product is perfect at the time of launch. And, as people start using the product, they will have questions.
It is recommended to keep the discussion flowing by asking relevant questions in the PH community and replying to comments even after the launch day.
17. Do not ignore stats
Keep an eye on Google Analytics or other platforms for stats.
Sometimes you can get an unexpectedly high number of concurrent users and if the real-time users count suddenly becomes zero, your site has crashed. Get it up ASAP.
Also, analyzing the stats will bring better results for your next launch.
That’s it.
What are some Product Hunt launch mistakes that you found out? Kindly let me know in the comments below.
Also, do not forget to share the article with the people who are launching on PH soon.
