Lessons from Launching on ProductHunt 🤔
Intro
A few days ago (Thursday), I launched my new product, AudiowaveAI, on Product Hunt. AudiowaveAI is a tool for converting blog posts, books, articles, or any text to high-quality audio.
A month before, I launched QuickReadAI, a Chrome extension that summarizes text content and lets users ask questions. I launched it on Product Hunt on a weekend, with the goal of becoming the #1 product of the day and because it fit my schedule well. I’ve never launched on a weekend before.
I worked hard preparing for that launch and had high expectations. On launch day, I stayed up 24 hours straight talking to over 500 people. All for a disappointing launch, with low traffic and not even being ranked or featured at all. I did get the upvotes to hit at least #5 that day but did not get any ranking without an explanation from PH.
On product hunt, being featured is key; otherwise your launch is hidden behind a tab called “all” and hardly anyone sees it. So not being featured makes launching there almost useless, you might as well just message people with direct links to your site.
This time, I decided to take it easy, starting with low expectations and a modest goal. Instead of launching on a weekday, I decided to launch on a weekend. Instead of stressing out about all the prep work, I made a list and tackled the important things. I also decided staying up 24 hours straight is not worth the negative effects on my sleep schedule and health.
Reading Amy Hoy’s Just F**cking Ship really helped as well. In the book, Amy compares launching to setting up a dinner party. You can setup a huge dinner party for the royal family or you can start small by setting up a small dinner for friends and family.
This helped put things in perspective. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain. Plus there will always be another future launch, so if it didn’t go so well it isn’t a big deal.
Prep (1 week earlier)
I didn’t overthink it this time. I simply took the work I already did in Figma for QuickReadAI and uploaded them as images to ProductHunt. I wrote a quick description and saved the page. Then I scheduled the launch in 1 week time on Thursday. I knew I had time to revisit it as needed.
This let me create a teaser page to share on social media. Again, a lot of assets were re-used from the previous launch.
On Twitter and Linkedin, I posted an upcoming launch 7 days before, 1 day before and then on the day of the launch.
As a goal a modest goal, I set 100 new users, which meant around 100 upvotes too. Seemed doable based on my other 4 launches.
Most of the time prepping was spent on improving the app onboarding experience, the landing page and payment system as well as a bunch of small bugs and tweaks.
I even did a usability test with a friend starting with the landing page and leading into the app to find the gaps. This is the first time I had time to do that in 16 weeks and 12 projects.
This revealed many issues with the landing page and app. I decided to focus all my energy on the landing page and just try to communicate instead of formatting. Improving formatting and design will be another iteration.
Finally, I decided a head of time on my next project Figma Timeline (more later), and as a reward would register the domain at the end of the launch day. This helped me have something to look forward to and not get overly attached to the outcome of the launch or product success.
Results
Let’s start with the results.
Launched on Thursday May 23, 2024.
- 🗳️ Upvotes: 138
- 🏅 Day Rank: 14
- 🚦 Traffic: 1,158
- 👥 Users: 95
- 💜 Customers: 3
- 💰 Revenue: $45
- 🐦Twitter: 3.7K views, 31 likes
- 💼 LinkedIn: 688 views, 20 likes
Comparison to other launches
This is my 5th product launched on ProductHunt 🚀🐱
In terms of upvotes, it is my worst launch as follow:
- Figma Export to Video: 🗳️ 677 upvotes, 🥈 2nd product of the day
- PictureThat: 🗳️ 332 upvotes, 🏅 11th product of the day
- Emojination: 🗳️ 260 upvotes, 🏅 12th product of the day
- QuickReadAI: 🗳️ 175 upvotes, not features, no ranking
- AudiowaveAI: 🗳️ 138 upvotes, not features, 🏅 14th product of the day
And side by side:
| QuickReadAI 📘 | Audiowave 🎧 | |
|---|---|---|
| 📅 Day of Week | Sunday | Thursday |
| ⬆️ Upvotes | 171 | 138 |
| 🏅 Day Rank | (not featured) | 14 |
| ✍️ New signups | 42 | 95 |
| 👩💼 New customers | 0 | 3 |
| 💰 Revenue | 0 | 45 |
| 🚦 Traffic | 300 uniques | 1158 uniques |
| 🥰 Warm outreach (LI + X) | 500+ | <100 |
| 12k views, 69 likes | 3.7K views, 31 likes | |
| 4K views, 60 likes | 688 views, 20 likes |
So was the launch of Audiowave a failure?
No! Quite the opposite, I exceeded the goals I had. Instead of focusing on ranking and number of upvotes, this time I wanted to get traffic. That’s all that mattered.
My goals were:
Get more than 100 upvotes
Get 100 new users
That’s it.
I exceeded my very simple goals after ~14 hours.
Setting boundaries on going to bed after 2.5 hours and waking up earlier helped me be more relaxed and avoided disrupting my sleep schedule.
I was also unable to reachout to hundreds of people again. Asking people I don’t talk to for to checkout another product after asking them a month ago, makes it seem like I’m only talking to them when I need something. That’s not cool.
Instead, I only reachout to close friend or people I thought would directly benefit from the product with a personal message.
I also just hungout on twitter, linkedin and reddit trying to create value by commenting on other posts with encouragements, advice, answers to questions or a funny comment. There was no expectation, I just wanted to give back.
At 5pm, I wrapped up the day and went to meet a few designer friends I met at a workshop for a drink as a way of rewarding myself for the launch.
One of the designers at the meetup, pulled out his phone signed up and paid for the product 🤩💜. That was incredible and totally unexpected.
This is the second time a designer has done so. During my first Black Friday Launch, I was at an event and mentioned the deal to another designer who also bought it on the spot.
This is why I love designers. They are the kindest and most incredible audience I ever worked with and want to continue to serve for a long time. 🙏
Conclusion
Launch your product already. You have nothing to lose. Treat it like hosting a dinner party, start small and don’t stress out too much. You will have other dinner parties in the future. Focus on preping simple food you know how to cook and inviting close friends. The rest will take care of itself.
For more inspiration please read Amy Hoy’s book “Just F**cking Ship”