UsamaR

I'm a solo developer. In August I launched a small side project here, and it was never featured, so it couldn't rank at all. It finished with 0 upvotes and 1 comment. My earlier launch, a job-search tool, got only a few upvotes back in July.

Looking back, I think I made two mistakes. I launched without checking whether it would be featured, and I didn't spend any time in the community beforehand. Since then I've been active here daily for about three months.

For makers whose launches were featured: what did you change in your listing (tagline, gallery, first comment, topics) that you think made the difference? I'm especially curious whether anything specific helps a niche or experimental product get featured.

One of the harder parts of building Hirevate hasn't been the code it's been getting real, unfiltered feedback out of early users. Most people say "looks good!" and then quietly never come back.

Specifically I'm trying to figure out the actual thing which is to get customer on my saas products with in first month

For people who've actually cracked this do you ask directly, watch behavior instead of asking, offer something in exchange for a real conversation? What worked versus what sounded good but got you nothing useful?