How to Get Featured on Product Hunt? Launch Tips!

It takes a lot of preparation and a pinch of luck. Also, you must be sure that your product is ready to be promoted. If it still has some game legs, they could be noticed by the community. So in my opinion, it’s better to polish to features and amaze users than to burn your bridges. But, if you feel you are ready to take your chances on Product Hunt, here is my tried and tested recipe for launching a product: Create an account and become a hunter (or find one) To be able to post a product, you need to have a personal account and spend some time on the service. Browse and upvote other products, leave comments and connect with others. This will not only let you technically hunt the product but also find out what the community likes and how can you approach the users. But there is a second, easier option - to find a person who is an avid Product Hunter and would like to post your product for you. This way you can save a lot of time and get bigger chances to appear on the feed. Based on my experience, the stronger the account, the better. 2. Choose the day and time According to many sources and my observations, the best time to launch a product is 12:01 am PST. The homepage is based on a 24-hour cycle, but you should give the users time to test your app. That’s why I don’t recommend posting after 9 am PT. When it comes to choosing a day, many sources don’t recommend posting at the weekends as there are much fewer users active. On the other hand, the competition is smaller, as fewer companies post their products. Personally, I’ve never tried posting at the weekend. I usually chose the middle of the week and that worked for me. What’s more, many guides discourage from launching a new product when there are some other big launches, for example on a day of Apple conference. This is because you might be 100% sure that you’ll not be the #1 that day. 3. Prepare all the materials To attract users, you also need to add nice visuals and content. Thumbnail – It’s not necessary to make it as a GIF but I recommend that – it simply catches visitors attention. You can play with your logo for example. Screenshot from your app – you can use a static picture or a GIF. Video explainer – it’s a nice-to-have. A good, catchy headline. A short description. What's more, when posting your product, choose 3-4 categories / topics / shoutouts that match best. Don’t forget to add links to your social media profiles and the makers of the product. If you already have some publications on media explaining your product, include them as well. 4. Maker’s comment Ask the maker of the app to prepare a comprehensive post in which they will explain what motivated them to create a product and what kind of problems it solves. Ask the person to post is as a maker’s comment shortly after the launch (keep in mind that the person needs to have an account to leave a comment). Adding additional content to your post may initiate conversations around the product and work for your advantage. The more interactions your product will get, the bigger the chance it will appear on the feed. 5. Ask your community for honest comments and feedback The number of comments and upvotes has an immense impact on the success of the launch. However, do not ask your teammates to create profiles the day before the launch just to upvote your product. Spammy upvotes may have a bad influence on your position. The better way is to find a community of Product Hunt users who have strong accounts and know how the platform works. You can ask them to give you honest upvotes or reviews that will boost your chances to appear on the list of featured products. I hope my insights will help you handle a successful launch!