When shall I launch on PH?

David Allworthy
9 replies
I’ve been active on PH for a few months now and I’m seeing that there’s lots of different ways to achieve a successful launch. Some people spend months gaining traction and then launch 🚀 and others just launch to see what happens. On many occasions both pulling in hundreds of upvotes and comments. I’ve been working on my product for a while now and have just built a landing page using Makerboxes fantastic guide template from @basv to do it! @basv really understands how to get your message across. So thank you 🙏. My question is shall I launch my product now on PH? Or wait to gain a larger following on here? My initial objective is to drive users (PH community and their followers) to my landing page to then gain interest in my prototype using an email capture. The proof in the pudding would be hundreds of emails from people really interested in my product which will help me gain initial investment. My product Webwizod and the landing page is https://webwizod.com. Shall I launch or wait? 🤷🏻 I hope you friendly bunch can help a newbie out on this!

Replies

Frank Sondors
I haven't launched yet, but there are a fair bit of things you need to do to launch. Unless your product is crazy good and will go viral on its own, I wouldn't just go ahead and launch.
David Allworthy
@profy17 thanks. What things will you be doing before launch? Maybe you can share these?
David Allworthy
@profy17 https://www.salesforge.ai/ looks awesome. This is something I will need once I have the list of emails. First I actually need an email list. I’ll be joining your waitlist! Thanks.
Frank Sondors
@dracreate joining Slack, Discord communities, Reddit & FB groups, contribute in the PH community, maybe also Indie Hackers. If you have a huge circle of friends, I would ask them to set up a PH account and be active for a bit prior to your launch. Once you've set the launch page, I would go and ask everybody to be notified about the launch. Also, connect on LinkedIn with all your fellow community members and ask them to upvote once you'll launch. So there is a fair bit of work.
Uma Venugopal
Following doesn't really make much sense. 1. If you have current users or beta users you can coax them to rally for you on the day of your launch by signing up to the Upcoming page. 2. Connect with active members of PH beyond this platform and help their launches out. Those relationships matter more in the long run. 3. Picking the right day of the week is equally important too. So do a background check on what day you'd best prefer for your launch. 4. Offer some form of incentive for users to give up their emails on your launch day in your website to get them excited. 5. Keep your social channels ready too(ex: Linkedin post talking about the launch, etc). 6. If possible, find a great hunter to hunt your launch too. 7. Lastly, have fun on the launch too! :)
Janine N
Product Hunt is a busy place, so I would definitely try and increase my personal following before launch. Just so you have a little bit more exposure organically. Otherwise, your product will likely not get in front of other people's eyes. Especially, if there is a big player launching on the same day. You can also consider approaching "professional" hunters, as they will obviously have a certain following already in place. With your case specifically, I would maybe share some of the prototypes with the community already, so they will know what to expect. You could create some discussions around some selective prototypes and ask for feedback or something. Hope this helps! We launched today, so don't hesitate to ask any more specific questions if you have any.
Fabian Maume
Depends on what you want to get from your launch. If you want to get some betta tester launch ASAP, you will be able to relaunch 6 monthes later. Just do not over-invest in your first launch, with only a prototype page you won't make it to top 5, so I recommend you to make a no-frill launch. You can check my launch template for more info.
Mei
Only launch if you have an existing community. Product Hunt is an amplifier and not a launchpad. You need at least 500-600 customers before you launch.