What we learned from PH launch: our mistakes, tips and best advice.

Lidia Vijga
31 replies
Last month we launched DeckLinks (Video Sales Decks) on PH πŸ˜»πŸš€ and it was a crazy but amazing experience! I want to thank the PH community for such a great support 🧑 and I would love to share what we learned from our launch. β›° Explore the most upvoted products to learn from the best (enter * into the search bar) πŸ„β€β™€οΈ Engage with Product Hunt community to build your following ahead of time πŸ“­ Start a mailing list via Ship (we collected emails on our own website - BIG MISTAKE) ✈️ Make lots of friends from the other side of the planet 🍿 Create a video with text or subtitles 😴 Get lots of sleep before the launch 🦊🐰 Comment on your launch page under each feedback, it's a great opportunity for conversation and to make more friends βœ… Get Product Hunt Launch Checklist by @falak_sher www.producthunt.com/posts/produc... 🍊 Nurture Your Product Hunt Leads Full article with screenshots and examples here: www.decklinks.com/blog/how-to-la... 🏳️ If you can take any one tip, best practice, or piece of feedback away from this guide, it should be this: start earlier than you think. If you are launching soon, please share it here, my team and I would be happy to support!!

Replies

Dylan Merideth
Why was collecting emails on your own website a mistake?
Lidia Vijga
@dylan_merideth Most of the emails we collected were from people that were not active of Product Hunt, and some subscribers had never heard of Product Hunt before. I get into details here: www.decklinks.com/blog/how-to-la...
Patricia Tao
Completely agreed, Lidia, and so grateful you shared this with us for our launch. One thing I will add is that posting in Product Hunt's Upcoming Products is a great way to prepare your community for launch. That said, a lot of folks will mistake the UP page for the actual launch. It's helpful to be extra clear to your subscribers and help them understand that the launch is still forthcoming!
Tarun Karthikeyan
Thanks for this! I'm planning to launch our product on PH soon and I'm always grateful to people who share their experiences to help other people. This one caught my eye: "That was a MISTAKE on our part – most of the emails we collected were from people that were not active members of Product Hunt, and some subscribers had never heard of Product Hunt before." Oof, I'm doing exactly that right now. I'm pretty sure most of my community aren't even on PH, so I was worried how very few people would be willing to sign up to a new site just to upvote my app. One question tho - would you recommend displaying the Ship landing page instead of using a standard landing page? Currently, mine is built with Webflow and I manage collected IDs with their CRM + Mailmodo. (also hey, both our products have Deck in their name! Hello, deck buddy :D)
Lidia Vijga
@tarun_karthikeyan I'd recommend to create an upcoming page on Ship additionally, but I'd keep the existing page on Webflow since you already have that set up, and you started collecting emails.
Kazimieras Melaika
Hey, nice tips! Will be of use for our launch! ; ) Btw, we’re launching in late May. Check out our upcoming PH page: www.producthunt.com/upcoming/eff... Our project is called: Effecto. It’s an app for detailed habit, health, symptoms, and meds tracking. Pretty much for everything that is related to your physical or mental health and every daily factor that can affect you.
Goutham
Thanks for sharing these tips, Lidia. Just launched my product today 🀩
Lidia Vijga
@gouthamj Upvoted!! It looks great. 🧑 I saw the wall of fame on some sites, and I was wondering how they were doing it. I need to get this for our DeckLinks site.
Goutham
@londonvi Awesome to hear that Lidia. Let me know if you have any questions or need assistance in setting up your wall of fame :)
Paul VanZandt
Thanks for the list, Lidia! We're launching our simple online whiteboard software next week and will definitely be taking note of these items. Here's our ship page if you want to learn more: https://www.producthunt.com/upco...
Lidia Vijga
@paul_vanzandt Already subscribed! Good luck on your launch!
Maya Ben Zid
Thanks for the tips. I'll definitely keep them in mind for my upcoming launch in June!
Lidia Vijga
@maya_ovice let me know when you launch, happy to support you! 🧑
Justine Hanna
Great tips, thanks for sharing Lidia!
Ilona Kazakova
Thanks a lot for a useful guide, Lidia! We will definitely keep it in mind before launching our product next week!
Lidia Vijga
@ilona_kazakova When are you launching? Happy to support. 🧑
Susie
Glad to hear your launch went well! Really appreciate you sharing these tips.
Vanshika Chaturvedi
Thank you so much for this detailed note. It would really help everyone launching their products because first launches are truly filled with nervousness!
Lidia Vijga
@vanshika_chaturvedi Agree, I hope this helps anyone who is launching first time.
Martina Hackbartt
Hey Lidia! Thank you very much for sharing. We'll be definitely following your advice (and Falak's checklist seems excellent, thanks!). We're launching ReSkript on the 11th of MayπŸŽ‰: https://www.producthunt.com/upco... We offer an all-in-one collaborative workspace with an integrated task manager and communication channels.
Cameron Graham
Great tips Lidia! We're launching Storii on PH this Thursday!
killian Fjellbakk
Awesome guide Lidia, my team and I are launching on the 12th with Chris Messina. It will be our first time
Jennifer Guerra
Thanks for the tips Lidia! We are launching in early June and this info is very useful
Ben Bohbot
Thank you! it's really informative and helpful! We launch today and we trying to learn from your mistakes Jika.io