Does it make sense to promote your launch page to non Product Hunt users on launch?
Nick Martin
17 replies
Hi Hunters,
How do you approach promoting your launch page to non-PH users? If you promote it and people create an account to upvote on the day of the launch, those upvotes will just be retracted.
I understand that we can do a lot of prep work using the Ship page to get people to show interest, but to get feedback and upvotes for launch, these people would still need to register for a PH account at least 1 week before launch?
Not entirely sure how much to promote our launch page on the launch day to our non-PH users? Any thoughts or suggestions?
Replies
Kevin Zepeda@kevin_zepeda
Flopert
the PH launch guide says that the traffic you push out of PH has a lot of influence, obviously in a negative way, believe me you don't want a lot of new people in PH to give you more votes
Share
Pretty mixed thoughts on this, I would say if they are users/people that have tested out your product and can provide valuable feedback/input on your page on launch day, then definitely share it with them!
While the impact on the ranking might not be that big or even 0, it will give a good impression to people checking out the comment section of your launch. :)
@nicolaas_spijker are non PH users even able to post comments on PH launch pages?
@nicholasjohnmartin Oops, was thinking of launch day here!
I think it's more effective to ask them to make an account than to sign up to the launch page, as then their Product Hunt account won't be 1 day old on the day of your launch then. :)
Substor
I personally won't promote to non-PH members. PH lunch is a community matter. Why bring people from outside? Even if someone creates an account to support you, it can actually backfire.
@gaurav_verma10 thanks for your comment Gaurav. That's also what I have read so far. We are launching for the first time using Product Hunt and just trying to understand everything as much as possible. My understanding is we would need to engage our own audiences well ahead of PH launch and get them to register for PH if we want their valid feedback and support.
Substor
@nicholasjohnmartin I think one needs at least 1 month for their account to come under the genuine category. My worry is, that if you ask your audience to create an account on such short notice, it can hurt your ranking.
I've not launched anything yet, but I've heard the community saying this same thing over and over.
Spiritory
PH detects new users and not organic upvotes and removes them. This will lose your chance to get the top spots.
Hi, if you are thinking to launch your product, I can help to promote it by reviewing it on my medium blog for free. https://medium.com/@software_guy
If you want me to review your product, ping me- at thesoftwareguy1994@gmail.com with your name and product's name as the subject.
/@software_guy @software_guy [url=https://www.dworkz.com/]https://...]
Hi,
I don't think it would make sense to promote your launch page to non- Product Hunt users on launch. You are just gonna lose so much momentum. I believe there is a better way.
My plan for my future launch page for non-PH users will come down to offering Free access to my MVP. For that matter, if it doesn't go against the TOS, I would simply give access to the Free trial within a link into my PH product page.
Or, just invite your early user's/adopters to get on PH for any feedback, etc. Just send a promo code for any kind of discount if they do so. Just don't ask for upvotes. You would want people to be active first in your platform, upvotes would come naturally. Then, only launch when you get the following behind it!
The number of followers necessary would depend on how many "paid clients" is required to run your app. That's why it's more important to get to know how many are really into your product, rather than upvotes that would not translate into future paid customers.
I am not sure yet of all the technicalities, but as mentioned, there are organic ways to grow your audience with those who are truly interested in your product.
I am still waiting to contact the PH techs to know what's possible or not but that's the idea!
I hope it helps! Cheers :D
@jack95 Thanks Assin, very helpful indeed! I agree it's a fine balance between getting hardcore PH users to review, try and vote on your Launch and then getting your existing user base into PH to review, try and vote on your product. Luckily for us and our first launch we are not targeting getting #1 of the day, but definitely looking for early testers for feedback.
@nicolechaplin check out this thread. Very interesting and super helpful if we decide to do a second launch
Follow-up question: Do you know if this rule also applies to product makers? I asked PH support if it was okay for makers to comment and vote and they replied:
"Maker, co-maker/s can upvote and comment on the post and engage with the community on the launch day and otherwise too".
I know most of my team did not have Product Hunt accounts until a week ago, so was wondering if they would also be "flagged" if/when they vote/comment on launch day?
I just got the following replies/answers from PH support:
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Hey Nick,
Thanks for reaching out. It's completely fine to have new accounts. ALL accounts are treated equally :)
We've tried to address this myth in our Launch Guide - https://www.producthunt.com/launch :)
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Hi Nick, new accounts are not treated, every account whether old or new goes through the same checks to make sure it's a valid accounts.
Regarding penalising if you link directly to the page, this is false, we encourage makers to link their page, there's a myth that we penalise for linking directly to your product, this is false and we encourage it
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Thoughts?