How did we get on product hunt
Not so long ago, namely on July 22, we went out on Product Hunt. Looking ahead, I will say that we did not make it to the top 3 for the day, but for some time we were close enough to this. I want to share the experience of what is worth and what not to do in order to become lucky in the “Product”.
So let's start over. Product Hunt is an American (actually not) community. Within this community, a rating of startups for which they vote is opened every day. If someone is lucky to be in the top lines of the rating, he can get publications in the world press and investment proposals. If not, he will get good feedback from the market and understand what to do next. The most important thing here is the presence of a Twitter account, since it alone provides an opportunity to register and participate in the life of the community. And in order to post a project there, you will first have to get the status of "maker", which is also not so easy.
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What affects the rating of projects on Product Hunt?
Who votes. According to our personal calculations, one vote from an active participant is 2.5 votes from a novice.
From where come. A voice came in a direct link to your project? Poorly. Ideally, a person should first go to producthunt.com, and only then find your project there and vote for it.
The dynamics of the set of votes. There is no consensus. Someone thinks that it is better to immediately drive away all your friends in the first hour, and someone thinks that it is better to stretch this pleasure for the whole day.
The number of comments under the project.
Exclusivity. If the product is launched exclusively - it rises a little higher in the ranking.
Of course, this is only part of the parameters. Everything else is called secret sauce, and the devil knows what else is included.
Before going to Product Hunt
If you plan not to test the idea, but to skim the cream, it is better to make sure that the product is really needed by the audience. As Karpolan says, think: “But am I not doing bullshit?” In our case, at the time of release, we saw this picture in analytics:
The product should be checked: it is necessary to give to the bug- and user-testing, and among other things to the stress test. We were helped by the guys from QA light and GoIT. If you are sure that everything is gorgeous - let's deal!
First you need to prepare a "list of lists." What do we need to run successfully?
"Top Hunter". You can find the links here and here . If “Top Hunter” writes about you, all its subscribers will receive a notification about the new product. Important: many of his subscribers are active members of the community and their voices are valued higher.
List of groups related to startups in Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack. Also do not forget about the profiles on Twitter.
Prepare a list of collections in which you fall. On the "Product" there is such a thing as a collection. They are united by a common theme. We need to tag the owners on Twitter and ask them to add you to the collection.
Media list in case you get to the top. They can write something like: “Hey, we are in the top and we are doing a cool thing. We want to share it with your readers! ”.
Prepare a media kit. Create a folder with the name of your product in which you place screenshots of the interface, photos of the founders, a press release (or not - decide for yourself) and research on the market.
Collect all your friends in a bunch. A lot of friends. Directly incredibly much, as it is necessary to add votes.
Landing with a special offer for community members. They should be welcomed and given a promotional code.
Make a company on PublicFast.
Hang on the site the top bar, notifying that you went to Product Hunt. It can be done using Hellobar or Introbar .
Comb all your accounts in social networks. Seriously, reviews are written even where you will not wait for them.
And finally, check all your sources of advertising.
Now you need to make a small launch. Connect the referral program, post your product on the Beta List and Startup List and collect emails of those people who want your product! By the way, posting on the Beta List takes a month, and for $ 100 they can accommodate you for five days. This usually happens on the second or third day, so plan your placement so as not to be on the site on weekends.
All votes are answered with tweet. It is better to prepare in advance a few template answers with the words of thanks and the question: "How do you like our product?".
In the end, screw up the analytics and check how your support team works.
Release day
When everything is ready, you can "start debut." Choose Tuesday or Wednesday, 10:10 Kiev time (00:10). Write “Top Hunter” in advance (you have already started to communicate with him, huh?) Stating that in X number and time Y he should post you. Write about it in detail: September 10, 2015 at 00:10 GMT GMT -7. In addition, indicate that you need an exclusive launch. It takes 24 hours to approve an exclusive, consider this as well. Top Hunter will ask you for a few screenshots, a demo video of the product (if any), a twitter pitch, links to Twitter accounts, platforms for which your product is suitable. After that, you will need to write the first detailed commentary, what kind of product, what problem it solves, the better than others and all that.
Bingo! Your product on Product Hunt. It is better to go for a smoke, make tea / coffee. In the next 48 hours you will have a solid work. There will be two peak periods - the height of the working day in the US, then in the EU. As soon as you like it - just send a thank-you tweet and subscribe to this person. All comments must be answered immediately and better if it is done by one of the founders.
Next is to start an advertising campaign. The most important thing in the first couple of hours is to break into the top, so it's time to call your friends. Then send emails to those users that you have in the lists. Do not forget to ask in the collection.
And away we go. Articles in the media, messages in groups, add friends, ask for help from the community in the form of likes-sheyra. The main thing - avoid the word "Upvote", otherwise fly away to the ban. As soon as you gain 100-150 votes, write immediately to friendly funds, incubators, angels, so that they support you and send information through their network of contacts. If you are typing more than 500 likes or stay in the top - take a screenshot and write to the world press. If there are more than 1,000 votes - congratulations, everyone will know about you.
All day X, all you have to do is launch advertising sources on time and communicate with people. Over the next 48 hours, you will receive interview requests and investment proposals from global funds, even if you don’t gain 500 likes.
Our results
We collected only 170 likes for the first day and then got another 22. During this time we received about 10,000 unique visitors to our site and about 600-800 registrations for the first day. $ 216 was spent on launch, which went to pay for PublicFast and BetaList.
Publicfast covered 16,471 people, 358 transitions and about 200 postings, a ton of comments and feedback to Facebook, as well as several press releases. This is the channel that we used, we use and with the help of which we will launch two or three more campaigns by the end of the year. And if they enter foreign markets, we will stay with them until the end.
BetaList - about 400 transitions and a little more than 200 registrations. Conversions differed from source to source. The average landing conversion was 31%. And we received two offers from the first echelon of Western funds.
Our mistakes
We stayed around 5-7 places all day long, and then dropped below. Why did it happen? "Hunter" posted us earlier. We deleted that post, and the next day he could not do it again, since he already had several projects. I repeat, several times and accurately specify the date and time of publication! Do not give direct references to the project and find even more friends.
Actually, if we then knew about the rules for ranking projects, we would most likely be in the first positions, because at some point startups with much fewer likes began to overtake us. Do not simultaneously go to multiple resources. That is, do not try to squeeze the maximum in one day from Product Hunt and, for example, HackerNews. Act consistently.
And the most important. We are sitting in one country, and the whole “get-together” is in another. All you can do now is to try to join this crowd, at least at the Internet level. In Ukraine, by the way, there are two excellent initiatives to support our projects on Product Hunt. The group is on Facebook and Slack (only by invite), and on this link you will find a presentation with which I spoke at the last “Product” meeting. Participate in communities, write in English, develop your social accounts and then, sitting here and putting a little more effort, you will find yourself in the ranks of the best in the West (actually not, but still). Good luck!
So let's start over. Product Hunt is an American (actually not) community. Within this community, a rating of startups for which they vote is opened every day. If someone is lucky to be in the top lines of the rating, he can get publications in the world press and investment proposals. If not, he will get good feedback from the market and understand what to do next. The most important thing here is the presence of a Twitter account, since it alone provides an opportunity to register and participate in the life of the community. And in order to post a project there, you will first have to get the status of "maker", which is also not so easy.
')
What affects the rating of projects on Product Hunt?
Who votes. According to our personal calculations, one vote from an active participant is 2.5 votes from a novice.
From where come. A voice came in a direct link to your project? Poorly. Ideally, a person should first go to producthunt.com, and only then find your project there and vote for it.
The dynamics of the set of votes. There is no consensus. Someone thinks that it is better to immediately drive away all your friends in the first hour, and someone thinks that it is better to stretch this pleasure for the whole day.
The number of comments under the project.
Exclusivity. If the product is launched exclusively - it rises a little higher in the ranking.
Of course, this is only part of the parameters. Everything else is called secret sauce, and the devil knows what else is included.
Before going to Product Hunt
If you plan not to test the idea, but to skim the cream, it is better to make sure that the product is really needed by the audience. As Karpolan says, think: “But am I not doing bullshit?” In our case, at the time of release, we saw this picture in analytics:
The product should be checked: it is necessary to give to the bug- and user-testing, and among other things to the stress test. We were helped by the guys from QA light and GoIT. If you are sure that everything is gorgeous - let's deal!
First you need to prepare a "list of lists." What do we need to run successfully?
"Top Hunter". You can find the links here and here . If “Top Hunter” writes about you, all its subscribers will receive a notification about the new product. Important: many of his subscribers are active members of the community and their voices are valued higher.
List of groups related to startups in Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack. Also do not forget about the profiles on Twitter.
Prepare a list of collections in which you fall. On the "Product" there is such a thing as a collection. They are united by a common theme. We need to tag the owners on Twitter and ask them to add you to the collection.
Media list in case you get to the top. They can write something like: “Hey, we are in the top and we are doing a cool thing. We want to share it with your readers! ”.
Prepare a media kit. Create a folder with the name of your product in which you place screenshots of the interface, photos of the founders, a press release (or not - decide for yourself) and research on the market.
Collect all your friends in a bunch. A lot of friends. Directly incredibly much, as it is necessary to add votes.
Landing with a special offer for community members. They should be welcomed and given a promotional code.
Make a company on PublicFast.
Hang on the site the top bar, notifying that you went to Product Hunt. It can be done using Hellobar or Introbar .
Comb all your accounts in social networks. Seriously, reviews are written even where you will not wait for them.
And finally, check all your sources of advertising.
Now you need to make a small launch. Connect the referral program, post your product on the Beta List and Startup List and collect emails of those people who want your product! By the way, posting on the Beta List takes a month, and for $ 100 they can accommodate you for five days. This usually happens on the second or third day, so plan your placement so as not to be on the site on weekends.
All votes are answered with tweet. It is better to prepare in advance a few template answers with the words of thanks and the question: "How do you like our product?".
In the end, screw up the analytics and check how your support team works.
Release day
When everything is ready, you can "start debut." Choose Tuesday or Wednesday, 10:10 Kiev time (00:10). Write “Top Hunter” in advance (you have already started to communicate with him, huh?) Stating that in X number and time Y he should post you. Write about it in detail: September 10, 2015 at 00:10 GMT GMT -7. In addition, indicate that you need an exclusive launch. It takes 24 hours to approve an exclusive, consider this as well. Top Hunter will ask you for a few screenshots, a demo video of the product (if any), a twitter pitch, links to Twitter accounts, platforms for which your product is suitable. After that, you will need to write the first detailed commentary, what kind of product, what problem it solves, the better than others and all that.
Bingo! Your product on Product Hunt. It is better to go for a smoke, make tea / coffee. In the next 48 hours you will have a solid work. There will be two peak periods - the height of the working day in the US, then in the EU. As soon as you like it - just send a thank-you tweet and subscribe to this person. All comments must be answered immediately and better if it is done by one of the founders.
Next is to start an advertising campaign. The most important thing in the first couple of hours is to break into the top, so it's time to call your friends. Then send emails to those users that you have in the lists. Do not forget to ask in the collection.
And away we go. Articles in the media, messages in groups, add friends, ask for help from the community in the form of likes-sheyra. The main thing - avoid the word "Upvote", otherwise fly away to the ban. As soon as you gain 100-150 votes, write immediately to friendly funds, incubators, angels, so that they support you and send information through their network of contacts. If you are typing more than 500 likes or stay in the top - take a screenshot and write to the world press. If there are more than 1,000 votes - congratulations, everyone will know about you.
All day X, all you have to do is launch advertising sources on time and communicate with people. Over the next 48 hours, you will receive interview requests and investment proposals from global funds, even if you don’t gain 500 likes.
Our results
We collected only 170 likes for the first day and then got another 22. During this time we received about 10,000 unique visitors to our site and about 600-800 registrations for the first day. $ 216 was spent on launch, which went to pay for PublicFast and BetaList.
Publicfast covered 16,471 people, 358 transitions and about 200 postings, a ton of comments and feedback to Facebook, as well as several press releases. This is the channel that we used, we use and with the help of which we will launch two or three more campaigns by the end of the year. And if they enter foreign markets, we will stay with them until the end.
BetaList - about 400 transitions and a little more than 200 registrations. Conversions differed from source to source. The average landing conversion was 31%. And we received two offers from the first echelon of Western funds.
Our mistakes
We stayed around 5-7 places all day long, and then dropped below. Why did it happen? "Hunter" posted us earlier. We deleted that post, and the next day he could not do it again, since he already had several projects. I repeat, several times and accurately specify the date and time of publication! Do not give direct references to the project and find even more friends.
Actually, if we then knew about the rules for ranking projects, we would most likely be in the first positions, because at some point startups with much fewer likes began to overtake us. Do not simultaneously go to multiple resources. That is, do not try to squeeze the maximum in one day from Product Hunt and, for example, HackerNews. Act consistently.
And the most important. We are sitting in one country, and the whole “get-together” is in another. All you can do now is to try to join this crowd, at least at the Internet level. In Ukraine, by the way, there are two excellent initiatives to support our projects on Product Hunt. The group is on Facebook and Slack (only by invite), and on this link you will find a presentation with which I spoke at the last “Product” meeting. Participate in communities, write in English, develop your social accounts and then, sitting here and putting a little more effort, you will find yourself in the ranks of the best in the West (actually not, but still). Good luck!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/294250/
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