onestepcloser
New member
Hey!
On 15th October 2021 me and my friend launched on ProductHunt for the first time. I decided to share an aftermath of BlogAudio’s launch. I really hope that some of you will find it helpful.
It’s a bit lengthy so feel free to skip to the part that you find most interesting. There’s also a little bonus at the end.
We wanted to launch on ProductHunt for quite some time and we always felt unprepared so we started postponing the scheduled launch. BlogAudio was also listed on AppSumo and we wanted to take it down before the launch.
We finally decided to launch on Tuesday (12th October) and I re-scheduled the launch for that day. At least I thought I did. On Friday (8th October) I got an email from a guy named Jesus (if you’re reading it, thanks again) saying he upvoted BlogAudio on ProductHunt. I was a bit shocked but I checked ProductHunt and there it was. BlogAudio launched without us knowing it, got 8 upvotes and was under the “view all products” fold. It was already 9 hours into the launch day so it was basically game over.
I used the chat available on ProductHunt’s website to contact them and they replied incredibly fast. I explained the situation and they helped by putting the product down and allowing us to launch one more time — this time intentionally. Huge thanks to ProductHunt team here! That’s the customer support we all need.
We prepared all needed assets and a to-do list for the launch day.
Assets:
Our to-do list for the launch day:
On the launch day we were sitting in front of our computers 20 minutes before the launch. We scheduled it for 12:01 a.m. PST. For us this was good because it was 9:01 a.m. in our time zone.
The goal was to be as close to the top as possible in the first hour. This first hour really seems to be crucial. We did most of the things from our to-do-list in the first 20 minutes or so and managed to stay in top 3 during that time.
Later during the day we had some ups and downs as we were as low as #5, but not lower. I was answering each comment as soon as possible. We’ve also posted in some subreddits. Again, these posts were informational (e.g. we are live on PH, we are #4 so far. Check us out if you’re interested). My co-founder stayed up until late at night to keep an eye on the launch and I got up at 7 a.m. (2 hours before the launch day ended) to answer some comments.
Eventually we ended up being #4 Product of the Day.
What worked:
What didn’t work:
We are happy with the result. Since the launch we got 97 signups and more than 1,100 visits. We also got some interesting business proposals so the launch was worth all the effort.
Our next big challange is to convert those who signed up to our paying customers.
One last thing. At the beginning of November we are launching Raport. It’s an all-in-one analytics tool that allows you to:
On 15th October 2021 me and my friend launched on ProductHunt for the first time. I decided to share an aftermath of BlogAudio’s launch. I really hope that some of you will find it helpful.
It’s a bit lengthy so feel free to skip to the part that you find most interesting. There’s also a little bonus at the end.
1. Our first launch was a total failure
We wanted to launch on ProductHunt for quite some time and we always felt unprepared so we started postponing the scheduled launch. BlogAudio was also listed on AppSumo and we wanted to take it down before the launch.
We finally decided to launch on Tuesday (12th October) and I re-scheduled the launch for that day. At least I thought I did. On Friday (8th October) I got an email from a guy named Jesus (if you’re reading it, thanks again) saying he upvoted BlogAudio on ProductHunt. I was a bit shocked but I checked ProductHunt and there it was. BlogAudio launched without us knowing it, got 8 upvotes and was under the “view all products” fold. It was already 9 hours into the launch day so it was basically game over.
I used the chat available on ProductHunt’s website to contact them and they replied incredibly fast. I explained the situation and they helped by putting the product down and allowing us to launch one more time — this time intentionally. Huge thanks to ProductHunt team here! That’s the customer support we all need.
2. Preparation for “the real” launch
We prepared all needed assets and a to-do list for the launch day.
Assets:
- Made good profile pictures and uploaded them. I think it’s important to see who stands behind the product.
- Wrote all texts recommended by ProductHunt, including the first comment. Tip: upvote that first comment so it stays on top.
- Prepared a gif for BlogAudio. We read that it’s no longer a thing but we decided to do it anyways.
- Prepared a post for IndieHackers which explained that we are live on PH and they can check us out.
- Prepared good graphics that show our product.
- Asked our closest ones for support on PH that day.
- Prepared email to our current customers to let them know we are live on PH.
Our to-do list for the launch day:
- Embed a ProductHunt launch badge
- Ask our closest ones for support
- Post on IndieHackers
- Send email to current customers
- Post on HackerNews: Show HN
- Post on Twitter
- Post on Entre
3. Launch day
On the launch day we were sitting in front of our computers 20 minutes before the launch. We scheduled it for 12:01 a.m. PST. For us this was good because it was 9:01 a.m. in our time zone.
The goal was to be as close to the top as possible in the first hour. This first hour really seems to be crucial. We did most of the things from our to-do-list in the first 20 minutes or so and managed to stay in top 3 during that time.
Later during the day we had some ups and downs as we were as low as #5, but not lower. I was answering each comment as soon as possible. We’ve also posted in some subreddits. Again, these posts were informational (e.g. we are live on PH, we are #4 so far. Check us out if you’re interested). My co-founder stayed up until late at night to keep an eye on the launch and I got up at 7 a.m. (2 hours before the launch day ended) to answer some comments.
Eventually we ended up being #4 Product of the Day.
4. What worked and what didn’t work for us
What worked:
- We were well-prepared and very quick with our actions
- We made the most out of the first hour
- My post on IndieHackers got quite popular. I don’t know how many of those who saw it actually supported the launch but even if it was 5 or 10 people, it was worth it.
- I got 2 or 3 email replies from our customers saying they supported the launch
- Friday is not as competitive as Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday so it might have helped
What didn’t work:
- Twitter. We don’t have any followers on our private accounts and official BlogAudio’s account had 17 followers when we launched. Probably that’s the reason why posting there didn’t help us.
- Post on HackerNews. Maybe it was the wrong time of the day but we didn’t get much traffic from there. We showed our main page and hoped that visitors will notice the ProductHunt badge and support the launch.
- Post on Entre. I gave it a shot but it didn’t help much.
- Having some kind of community such as IndieHackers/Twitter/ProductHunt followers can make a huge difference.
- Being well-prepared and organized is very important for the launch day.
- We should probably be more specific with our requests in posts and emails. We didn’t ask for upvotes or comments in order not to violate the rules but we should have asked for support.
- Having a famous hunter may help significantly but it is not necessary. It’s all about community again. If someone who is followed by 8,000 people on PH hunts a product, those people get email notifications. It’s quite obvious that it will positively impact that product’s performance.
- Having more upvotes, comments or even reviews doesn’t necessarily mean that your product will rank higher. It was a surprise to me to be honest but that’s the fact. There have to be many more factors than this but we didn’t figure them out yet. We suspect that the following may play a role: the pace at which a product gets upvotes, number of product views and clicks, reputation of hunters that comment and upvote a product.
We are happy with the result. Since the launch we got 97 signups and more than 1,100 visits. We also got some interesting business proposals so the launch was worth all the effort.
Our next big challange is to convert those who signed up to our paying customers.
5. Sign up for free beta of our next product
One last thing. At the beginning of November we are launching Raport. It’s an all-in-one analytics tool that allows you to:
- Connect metrics from multiple data sources. For example: revenue from Stripe and Shopify or page views from Google Analytics.
- Analyze all your data in one app. It is aggregated by metric, synchronized and displayed in one dashboard.
- Receive daily, weekly and monthly reports by email or Slack. Set up custom alerts to get notified about changes in your metrics as soon as they occur.