Do you launch your product in other directories besides Product Hunt as well? What's the strategy?
So far, I’ve come across three types of people:
Those who focus entirely on their Product Hunt launch.
Those who spread their launches out over time – for example, launching on other platforms throughout the month.
Those who launch everywhere on the same day – which, in my opinion, would be suicide. :D
What’s your launch strategy?
If you’re launching on multiple platforms, what do you do first?
→ Smaller directories, then Product Hunt?
→ Or Product Hunt first, followed by smaller directories?
And which directories do you use?
Personally, I’d tackle the hardest one (Product Hunt) first, and then move on to other directories – just from the perspective of my mental health. :D
On the other hand, if you want to build some initial traction and get your first users, it might make more sense to start with smaller directories like BetaList, TinyLaunch, or Microlaunch.
Replies
the thing nobody mentions is that the order is mostly not yours to pick. the free queues are long enough that you are booking months out rather than sequencing anything.
numbers from the last few weeks, free tiers unless noted:
uneed, submitted in august, launch date february. six months.
microlaunch, 2-3 months, and they onboard between the 1st and 5th so it rounds up.
launching next, submitted mid july, still not live.
alternativeto, "a few months", though 5 dollars moves you to 1-2 business days.
betalist has no free tier at all any more, and the paid one is a two week window landing on a random day.
fazier was the exception, 29 dollars and a fixed date you can plan around.
so in practice you submit everywhere early and they land when they land. the only thing you really control is which one you pay to schedule.
one thing worth checking before you count on a backlink: tinylaunch needs a top 3 finish AND their badge on your site. fazier is top 3 only. the conditions are different per site and they are usually not on the page you read first.
@jernej_jan_kocica Exactly, hit the same wall. What gets me is even when you clear their conditions paid tier, top 3 finish, badge on site there's still no guarantee the backlink actually helps. A lot of these are nofollow, so you jump through the hoops and still get zero SEO value out of it. Wish that was documented as clearly as the ranking conditions are.
@busmark_w_nika I'm working this out right now, so more question than answer.
What's shaping my order is that PH is the only one I can't repeat. One launch per domain every six months.
Microlaunch, TinyLaunch and BetaList don't have that constraint as far as I can tell, so I can post, see what confuses people, adjust.
So that's the plan, those first and PH after. But I haven't done any of it yet, so it's all theory at this point.
Have you found the smaller directories send anything real, or is it mostly backlinks?
@busmark_w_nika @guillermoescobar wow i wish i knew about microlaunch, tinylaunch, and betalist before i launched on PH. Note to self. Good thing I have some other products in my pipeline.