Getting to the top on Product Hunt: Detailed and Honest Guide after 4 Failures

[jnorthey]

On March 12, we launched Bluedot on Product Hunt, and won Product of the Day and Product of the Week

This generated us 120+ signups, 3 annual and 6 monthly subscriptions plus there is still traffic coming in.

I think it would be important to know about our past experiences with PH launches.

1.We launched first time a small side-project (Twiso) in 2021.

It started at 8AM, and we didn't leave our desks until 3AM. Lots of cold outreach on LI/twitter. Lots of DMs to friends begging for upvotes. All we had was Product #6 for the first half of the day. We thought - "maybe there is a chance to buy some upvotes?". I started googling and found 2 guys on Fiverr who promised product #1 for $150, and this dude had over 100 reviews.

It was a no brainer - and we paid. And guess what? - We got the 1st Place.

1. 6 months later we had a product revamp with new features, and it was time for a new launch. Having such a good experience with buying upvotes, we did it again. But this time we got banned, our upvotes got cut by half, and we went from product #2 to product #9. This is when we realised this shit won’t work anymore.
2. Fast forward to 2023, we started working on the new product called Bluedot.
   
   It was time for a launch, and this time we did some preparation. Our network became bigger so we felt confident about our first 200-300 upvotes. We thought everything else we will get from the community. But we only got product #5. Organic upvotes where not enough for the win.
3. And now it's March 2024, and we are Product of the Week.
   
   We spent 2 months preparing for this launch, and proud of our results. It brought us more traffic than we expected, and still people are signing up.

I have created a complete breakdown of my process in a blog post titled Getting to the top on Product Hunt: Personal Experience after 4 Failures.

If you are an early-stage founder, this might be helpful.

 

[iamjamieq]

@jnorthey Just curious. When buying the #1 spot on ProductHunt, did it ever cross your mind that you’re cheating people out of a fair opportunity? Seems like it’s all just about you and what gets you ahead.

 

[jnorthey]

@iamjamieq now I think it's unfair, and respect PH more.

but 3 years ago I had no idea what PH was. I just wanted to win and tried everything I could. it was for me like buying ads.

 

[jnorthey]

and honestly, I think we should talk about this more so PH is doing better job catching such behaviour.

that's why I share that it happens. write it this article how you can catch such folks and report.

so you guys should say "thank you very much for such honest and transparent blog post" and not try to blame me.

 

[nickolasss]

@jnorthey Very insightful, yeah buying votes is a violation of terms so they can ban you.

Makes sense to do it as a launch outside PH to get people who aren't in PH to go vote on PH.

On my first SaaS I tried PH long ago but we didn't ask anyone to go vote we just posted the launch on PH with no promotion and nothing happened. lol

 

[jnorthey]

@nickolasss better don't buy upvotes. this won't work anymore. that's my conclusion.