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 Is it worth paying for any of these for better ranking or sooner upload? In terms of results, backlinks and visibility?
@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?
@guillermoescobar I think that backlinks are the main reason, but if I were to top on Uneed + Micro Launch, I would use the badge as social proof as well :)
@busmark_w_nika the badge angle hadn't occurred to me at all. Makes more sense than the traffic, especially since my App Store listing is going to be short on reviews either way. Something on the landing page saying other people looked at this and rated it is worth more than a handful of clicks.
Uneed wasn't on my list either. Adding it.
Three days late replying, sorry, weekend got away from me.
@guillermoescobar it is okay, I always come back (okay, not always, but mostly) :D
@busmark_w_nika haha, fair. Thanks Nika.
Trying to figure this out. Anyone tired UNeed or Peerlist?
@faysal_fateh Maybe contact @daria_ofitserova :)
I'm in the spread-it-out camp, cramming everything into one day nearly broke me last time haha. Product Hunt first, then Hacker News a couple of days later, then Reddit, so each one gets its own day of attention. Do the later platforms actually send you traffic, or is it mostly the first one that matters?
@yelyzaveta_kibets How do you approach HackerNews? I didn't understand that one website :D
Hey! We tried Uneed and Peerlist, got a bit of coverage, but PH is just bigger.
@daria_ofitserova How many visitors came from other directories? :)
@busmark_w_nika Close to zero, honestly. No spike in website visitors that we've noticed.
@busmark_w_nika Same))
@busmark_w_nika Haha HN confused me for ages too. The thing that finally clicked for me: it's the one place where marketing language actively hurts you. Posts that do well are just "Show HN: what the thing is" with no adjectives, no video, no emoji. Then you sit in the comments all day answering technical questions like a support engineer. And you never ask anyone to upvote, they spot voting rings and the post just sinks.
So it's less of a launch and more of a public code review of your product haha.
Have you tried posting there yet, or does the anti-promo thing put you off? I'm curious whether a minimalist phone would land really well with that crowd or get torn apart.