1. What is Product Hunt?
Product Hunt is a community where new products can be launched, discovered, and reviewed. It has monthly traffic in the millions and attracts a large number of early adopters.
Companies like Notion, Loom, Zapier, Robinhood, and Front found their first users through Product Hunt. At the same time, product investors, tech enthusiasts, tech influencers, and product directory sites continually monitor the platform for new product updates to understand recent product trends and find product ideas.
Product Hunt has been a key platform for product launches for over a decade, and it remains an important consideration for new product launches even today.
Overall, Product Hunt is a platform followed by tech enthusiasts worldwide, making it an ideal choice for teams looking to launch their products. It not only brings initial exposure to products but also triggers a chain reaction, leveraging broader traffic resources. Moreover, achieving a good ranking on Product Hunt serves as a product endorsement recognized by investors and users alike.
2. How does Product Hunt work?
First, let's introduce the basic operation mode of the platform's product system.
Product Hunt updates a new round of products every day at 00:00 Pacific Time. Users can upvote and comment on products they find interesting. The more upvotes a product receives, and the higher the weight of the upvoting accounts, the higher the product's ranking.
After 24 hours, products that are featured by the platform and rank in the top five receive a daily ranking badge from the platform. Products ranking sixth and beyond do not receive a badge.
In addition to the daily rankings, there are also weekly, monthly, and yearly rankings. Most products that receive a badge will display it on their official website's homepage, using it as a trust endorsement for future marketing and collaborations.
3. Product Hunt Rankings
Product Hunt's homepage design subtly incorporates potential exposure spots. The homepage displays four rankings from top to bottom: Today's New Products -> Yesterday's Top 5 -> Last Week's Top 5 -> Last Month's Top 5. From the first two rankings, we can see that if a product reaches the top 5 on a given day, it can gain homepage exposure for both that day and the next.
Whether it's the daily, weekly, or monthly rankings, achieving a top 5 position yields the most exposure. Typically, on a weekday, the first place in the daily ranking requires about 600-800 upvotes, and during intense competition, it might need 1000+ upvotes to secure the top spot.
The first place in the weekly ranking needs 1500+ upvotes, while the monthly ranking's top position requires 2000+ upvotes. In some extreme cases, products can even reach 6000+ upvotes, significantly boosting their chances for the annual top ten.
For instance, Wordware, which burst onto the scene in August, started the month with a ranking that put it at least 4000 upvotes ahead of the second place, solidly positioning itself for the top spot. One of the teams we helped with ranking also made it to this year's top ten and even received an upvote from Product Hunt's CEO.
4. What benefits can you gain from ranking on PH?
a) User Growth
By achieving a high ranking on Product Hunt, your product will be seen by numerous tech enthusiasts, early adopters, and potential customers. This exposure can lead to growth in registrations, downloads, and conversions.
b) Brand Awareness
Products that win a badge on Product Hunt can gain media coverage, social media mentions, and word-of-mouth promotion.
Many directory sites, tech media outlets, and newsletters regularly follow new products on PH, especially those with high rankings. They voluntarily include and promote new products from PH, bringing secondary, tertiary, and even multiple rounds of long-tail traffic exposure. For instance, some Twitter influencers periodically publish lists of noteworthy products from PH.
c) SEO Ranking Improvement
Product Hunt rankings can indirectly improve SEO by increasing visibility and traffic, generating high-quality backlinks, enhancing social signals, encouraging user-generated content, and building brand authority and trust.
Being featured by tech media that follow PH or being included in directory sites can all contribute to improving a website's search engine performance.
d) Investment Interest
A successful Product Hunt launch may attract the attention of angel investors, venture capitalists, and other funding channels. A high ranking can serve as an endorsement, demonstrating that your product is innovative and has market potential.
e) Product Validation
Product Hunt's active community can provide invaluable feedback for your product, helping you identify its strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement.
This popularity can also prove that your product is recognized by users and industry experts, providing validation of your product's value proposition and Product-Market Fit (PMF).
f) Enhanced Trust from Potential Customers
You can add the Product Hunt badge to your official website, showcasing your ranking, thereby increasing potential users' trust in your product.
g) More Exposure on PH
Ranking high on Product Hunt can unlock more opportunities, such as being recommended in the Product Hunt Newsletter, winning a Golden Kitty award, etc.
5. How to Rank Higher on Product Hunt?
Product Hunt updates with over 100 new products on average every day, but only a small fraction of these products can stand out and truly benefit from PH's advantages. The vast majority of products simply get lost in the sea of submissions.
Achieving a high ranking among numerous products requires careful planning and execution. Teams need to prepare based on their goals, manage the ranking process, monitor voting trends, and adjust strategies as needed. This process requires significant effort and time, as well as a bit of luck.
Our team has launched products on PH three times in total, achieving two #1 daily rankings and one #5 daily ranking. We also have experience helping other teams achieve multiple top-three daily rankings, including several #1 positions. Therefore, all the insights in this article are based on our observations and experiences during execution. We welcome everyone to join the discussion!
A successful Product Hunt launch involves numerous aspects and factors. To ensure everything goes smoothly, a comprehensive checklist is crucial for preparing all the necessary elements. We've compiled a clear checklist, which you can obtain by replying to our email. This article elaborates on the issues you might encounter before launching on Product Hunt.
1. What types of products are suitable for launching on Product Hunt?
Generally, Product Hunt is best suited for products with the following characteristics:
a) By product type
Software, SaaS tools, and AI products, especially innovative tech products, are very suitable for launching on Product Hunt.
Software products are typically more suitable than hardware products, as they have a shorter conversion path on Product Hunt.
However, some innovative hardware products also choose to launch on Product Hunt, especially those with cutting-edge tech elements like smart features or wearable devices. For instance, a wearable device called Rabbit once ranked fourth on the Product Hunt daily chart.
For hardware products, launching on Product Hunt serves more as a brand promotion tool.
The traffic peak for both of these products in their early stages occurred on the day of their Product Hunt launch. In addition to the high ranking bringing a large number of unique visitors, we also received many suggestions for product feature iterations from the comment section.
Products that have proven successful in one country can benefit greatly from launching on Product Hunt.
As Product Hunt's user base is diverse and spans many countries, it provides an excellent platform to test international market reactions. This global exposure can help validate your product's appeal beyond its original market and provide valuable insights for feature optimization and localization.
For example, our product, Effie, initially gained traction with hundreds of thousands of users in its home market. Now, we're looking to expand globally. By launching on Product Hunt, we aim to gather feedback from users across different countries, understand varied preferences, and use these insights to guide our product's feature roadmap and international growth strategy.
This approach allows us to build brand awareness, acquire international users, and refine our product for a global audience simultaneously.
Products can launch on Product Hunt multiple times when they have major feature updates. This approach allows you to collect user feedback on different features and validate market responses to various product directions. Product Hunt's CEO has even expressed support for products launching multiple times on the platform via Twitter.
b) By Product Stage:
As mentioned earlier, Product Hunt attracts a large number of early adopters. These users have a high tolerance for products and are willing to try even immature ones. Moreover, most of them are tech enthusiasts, providing high-quality feedback that can be valuable for future product iterations. Let me share some data from our own product:
Product Hunt's audience primarily consists of developers, early adopters, startup founders, investors, and tech media. If your product's target user aligns well with Product Hunt's user base, it can be an excellent platform for your launch.
For example, our product, PH Deck, once reached the top spot on Product Hunt's daily ranking and even received praise from Product Hunt's CEO. PH Deck analyzes products launched on Product Hunt using five classic dimensions, allowing Product Hunt enthusiasts to browse new daily releases more efficiently. This product perfectly aligns with Product Hunt's audience profile.
If your product doesn't match Product Hunt's audience - for instance, if it's aimed at language learners - launching on Product Hunt might not lead to high direct conversions. However, it could still attract tech media attention, potentially leading to secondary exposure and increased conversions through wider distribution.
2. Crafting Your Product Hunt Launch Strategy
For different teams and products, the goal isn't always to clinch the No.1 spot. We can tailor our Product Hunt launch strategy based on our specific objectives and needs. Generally, we can consider our budget, time, and energy, alongside the traffic exposure and competition intensity on different dates, to choose the most suitable launch time and target ranking.
a) Aiming for a good ranking to showcase to investors or needing a badge for product credibility
If you're not too concerned about traffic and conversions but need a high ranking, consider launching on weekends.
Weekend competition is less fierce, making it easier to achieve a high position. On weekdays, reaching the top spot might require 1000+ upvotes, with 700-800 upvotes being typical. On weekends, the competition for the top spot is much less intense, with 400-600 upvotes usually being sufficient for a stable position.
b) Seeking maximum Product Hunt exposure for traffic and conversions
If you're not particularly focused on ranking or badges, but want to drive as much traffic and conversions as possible to your product, consider launching between Tuesday and Thursday.
Product Hunt traffic is best on weekdays. As seen in the graph below, the total number of comments and upvotes from users is highest from Tuesday to Thursday, indicating peak daily active users. However, these days also make it most challenging to reach the TOP rankings. The daily unique visitors for the TOP 1-3 positions on the daily chart typically range from 1000 to 3000.
c) Aiming to be featured in the Product Hunt newsletter for more opportunities and exposure
If you're looking to maximize reach on Product Hunt and believe your product can attract media attention, aim for a top ranking.
Making it to the top ten of the weekly chart can get you featured in Product Hunt's Newsletter. This can lead to inclusion in various directories, mentions by Twitter influencers who follow Product Hunt, tech media coverage, and result in long-tail exposure.
d) Striving for weekly/monthly/yearly rankings to achieve a grand slam
If you have sufficient time, energy, and budget to aim for weekly/monthly/yearly rankings, it's best to launch as early as possible. The earlier you achieve a high rank, the better.
For instance, if you're targeting the weekly chart, consider launching on Monday or Tuesday. For the monthly chart, aim for early in the month. Launching earlier gives you more time to gather upvotes. Achieving a high rank early makes your product more visible, keeping it on the homepage longer and attracting more organic traffic.
3. Product-Side Preparations
Before launching on Product Hunt, ensure your product is well-prepared. Driving traffic is just the first step; the ultimate goal is to achieve conversions and validate your product, completing the launch objective cycle.
a) Data Tracking
Before product release, make sure all necessary data tracking is in place. This facilitates monitoring conversion at various points, including website conversion rate, registration rate, and payment rate. You can use tools like Google Analytics and Plausible for data analysis.
Basic tracking typically includes:
b) Landing Page Optimization
The landing page design is crucial for converting incoming traffic. This includes elements like the tagline, call to action, product demo, and more. There are many details to consider here, which could be a topic for a separate discussion.
c) Collecting User Leads
For users who don't subscribe right away, consider offering free hooks to encourage gradual conversion over time. Guide them to share their email addresses by providing free perks or benefits.
4. Platform Preparations for Product Hunt
a) Contacting a Hunter
Hunters are users who discover and submit new products to Product Hunt. Generally, we seek out gold-badge accounts or influential Hunters on Product Hunt to launch our product. A good Hunter can increase the chances of being featured.
b) Preparing Maker Accounts
Makers are the individuals or teams behind the product, responsible for its development, design, and management.
During the Product Hunt launch process, Makers typically interact with the community, answering questions, handling feedback, and providing product updates.
Makers can use Product Hunt to connect with potential users, gather valuable feedback, and build relationships with the community.
It's best if the Maker's account has some activity before the launch, preferably with more than 5 points, and a complete profile.
c) Creating a "Coming Soon" Page
You can generate a "coming soon" page before the official product launch to gain early exposure. Your product will be visible on this page ahead of time.
You can also gather support early, encouraging potential upvoters to "stay notified". They'll receive a notification on launch day and can return to upvote, essentially securing a portion of your support in advance. Note that when creating the "coming soon" page, you'll need to determine your launch date and submit all relevant materials, though these can be modified later.
5. Materials to Prepare
For a detailed list of required materials, you can reply to our email. Here, we'll mainly highlight some excellent examples for reference.
a) Title
Use the product name. Avoid emojis or descriptive text in the title.
b) Tagline
Add a one-sentence, brief product description. A good tagline should be eye-catching while clearly stating the product's value proposition. It should address pain points and be easily memorable for users.
Here are some examples:
Notion: One workspace. Every team.
Slack: One platform for your team and your work.
Figma: The collaborative interface design tool.
c) Description
Here you can explain in detail the purpose and function of your product. Ensure it's concise while highlighting your product's unique selling points and features.
Here are some examples:
Notion
Notion is an all-in-one workspace where you can write, plan, collaborate and get organized - it allows you to take notes, add tasks, manage projects & more. Imagine a lego structure. Notion provides the building blocks and you can create your own layouts and toolkit to get work done.
Slack
Make work life simpler, more pleasant and more productive. Slack is the collaboration hub that brings the right people, information, and tools together to get work done. From Fortune 100 companies to corner markets, millions of people around the world use Slack to connect their teams, unify their systems, and drive their business forward.
Figma
Figma is a collaborative design tool for creating user interfaces, mobile apps, and websites. It offers a wide range of features, including vector editing tools, prototyping, and version control, all in a cloud-based platform.
d) Thumbnail
Generally, you can use your product logo. Some products opt for animated GIFs to enhance visual appeal and attract attention.
e) Images/Video
Product Hunt allows uploading images and videos on the product showcase page. If budget and resources allow, it's best to create a product demo video. A good video can be much more engaging than images, clearly showcasing the product's use cases and features. Quality video editing can also enhance the product's perceived value.
Ensure all images and videos have clear, concise visuals that quickly convey your product's value proposition. Avoid cluttered designs.
One suggestion is to showcase your product's benefits rather than just its features.
Also, note that many Product Hunt users view on mobile devices, so make sure your images are clear on smaller screens too.
e) First Comment
70% of projects that win "Product of the Day, Week, or Month" have their first comment posted by the Maker. Developers can use this first comment to further describe the product journey, the creator's original intention, target audience, etc. You can also use this opportunity to request feedback or ask potential users for their thoughts or questions.
6. Other Advance Preparations
a) Supporting Channels
Join relevant startup and Product Hunt communities to warm up and gather support beforehand. You can also reach out for additional support on launch day.
We've identified a series of relevant communities. From our tests, LinkedIn groups are the most active, followed by Twitter (X). Some subreddits and Facebook groups can also be good for gathering supports.
b) Influencer Outreach
If you have a budget for influencer marketing, you can coordinate it with your Product Hunt launch to build off-platform influence using the influencer's reputation. However, since not all of an influencer's followers necessarily have Product Hunt accounts, the conversion to Product Hunt upvotes may not be direct. This can be considered an additional channel for product exposure.
From our experience, some influencers may not deliver as expected. Vetting and communicating with influencers also takes time. If your budget is limited, this step is not essential.
During the actual launch process, we might encounter various issues. Many of these problems don't have standard solutions, so we can only summarize best practices from experience. Here, we'll share some of the most high-profile and controversial points to be aware of.
1. Regarding Featured Products
"Featured" can be understood as "selected". Only products featured by the Product Hunt team appear on the homepage's recommended list and have a chance to earn a badge. Even if a product reaches the top five, it won't receive a badge if it's not featured.
a) What to do if your product isn't featured?
Based on our observations and calculations, the probability of being featured is about 15-20%. Every day, approximately 130+ products are uploaded to Product Hunt, but only about 20 are featured. If you can't see your product on the daily rankings on launch day, you can assume it hasn't been featured.
In this case, there are two things you need to do:
Immediately contact customer support to inquire about why your product wasn't featured. Try to get a manual review from customer support. If the review is successful, you can continue your launch. If not, you'll have to ask customer support to take down your product, optimize based on their suggestions, and choose another day to launch.
Even if you're not featured in the first hour, you can still quickly gather supports, preferably high-weighted ones. If you can get a lot of support in a short time, there's still a chance of being featured.
Product Hunt's customer service can be quite casual, with slow response times, especially on weekends when it might be hard to reach anyone. We've tried many methods, and the fastest is sending an email. The official Product Hunt email is: sumanchoudhary@product-hunt.intercom-mail.com
b) Why might a product not get featured?
This process is somewhat opaque, and officials are not providing specific explanations.However, based on our experience of dozens of launches, there are generally two main reasons:
Although Product Hunt encourages multiple launches, each launch should feature significant functional updates. The launch materials and copy should show clear differences, and the URL should be new. Otherwise, it may be considered a duplicate launch, which is not allowed. In our practical experience, the probability of not being featured is highest for second-time launches.
The product being launched should have a high degree of completion. In simple terms, it should be a quality product that you're proud to present. It shouldn't be just a small feature or a purely entertainment-focused interface.
c) How to increase the chances of being featured?
Submit your product at least a week in advance. Official documentation mentions that they need 7 days to review products.
Use gold-badge accounts for both the Hunter and Maker. High-weight accounts help to endorse the product.
Email the Product Hunt official team in advance to build familiarity. Featuring is done through manual review, so it helps if the Product Hunt team knows you.
For multiple launches, change all avatars, materials, and URLs to clearly differentiate from the previous launch of the product.
Aim for 100+ notifications on your "Coming Soon" page.
2. Regarding Voting
The daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rankings on Product Hunt are determined by a combination of upvote quantity and upvote weight. This is why sometimes you might see a product with more upvotes ranking lower than one with fewer upvotes. This phenomenon is generally understood to be due to lower upvote weights.
a) What is upvote removal?
Not all upvotes are counted. upvotes from new accounts, low-weight accounts, or a large number of accounts from the same IP address are likely to be considered invalid and ultimately removed.
During the launch process, we can use tools to monitor upvote growth in real-time. A downward curve similar to the one in the image can be understood as upvote removal, clearly showing how many upvotes have been removed.
b) How to reduce the chances of upvote removal?
There are many theories out there, including an official document claiming that the Product Hunt CEO manually clears upvotes at 5 AM every day 😂. But from our practical experience, four methods are effective:
Increase the weight of voting accounts by accumulating more points. A bronze badge account (100 points) generally has a very low chance of upvote removal. So having friends and family register a bunch of new accounts is useless - those upvotes will likely be removed.
Link accounts to LinkedIn, confirm the email address, and ensure the account is at least 7 days old. This can reduce the probability of being identified as a bot account.
Be mindful of engagement patterns. Product Hunt's algorithm may flag unusual activity. While it's important to gather support, especially in the early hours of your launch, remember that consistent, steady engagement throughout the day is generally viewed more favorably than sudden spikes in activity.
Diversify your outreach. When sharing your Product Hunt launch, consider reaching out to various relevant communities and networks. A wide range of supporters from different locations and backgrounds can demonstrate genuine interest in your product. However, always respect each platform's rules about self-promotion.
3. The First 4 Hours After Launch
During the first 4 hours after a product launch, the featured list ranking is randomized, and upvote counts are not displayed on the featured page.
The number of upvotes during this time period is crucial. It's important to gain as much support as possible in these first 4 hours, as this can help secure a prominent position when the rankings are revealed, which in turn can attract more organic traffic to your product.
During these initial 4 hours, engagement from well-established accounts can be particularly impactful. It's also beneficial if this early support comes from a diverse range of locations.
In essence, formal ranking and position display only begin after this initial 4-hour period ends.
4. During the Launch
The 24-hour race for the daily ranking is an intense period. Ensuring all possible preparations are completed in advance is essential to avoid wasting time once the product is launched.
a) Monitor upvote Changes
You need to continuously and closely monitor upvote count changes and ranking situations, adjusting your approach based on the dynamically changing circumstances. We recommend two Product Hunt monitoring tools: https://hunted.space/ and productwars2.akkio.com. We typically use these tools in tandem to track growth curves and voting rates.
Generally, Product Hunt clears upvotes every two hours. By observing the growth curve, you can understand the upvote clearing situation. It's important to maintain a smooth growth curve and voting rate to avoid raising suspicions about upvote authenticity. This may require flexibly adjusting your engagement strategy and timing of outreach to different communities and channels.
b) Community Engagement
As mentioned earlier, it's crucial to join relevant startup and Product Hunt communities beforehand to build relationships. On launch day, these channels can be valuable sources of support.
Typically, in addition to posting product information in the main sections of communities and groups, you can also reach out to individual users through direct messages. People are more likely to see a personal message than a group post.
Our approach is to follow a pre-prepared list of startup and Product Hunt-related communities across various platforms on launch day. We post in these communities and send personalized messages, inviting feedback on the product.
LinkedIn usually has the positive responses. Twitter, WhatsApp, and Facebook allow for sending messages to a large number of users, but with lower response rates. On Reddit and Telegram, you can post in relevant subreddits or groups.
The main challenges with this approach are avoiding account restrictions and managing the workload. Each platform has strict limitations, so it's crucial to address account issues beforehand to ensure you can send messages on launch day. Additionally, sending numerous messages is labor-intensive, requiring dedicated personnel to execute continuously.
c) Responding to User Comments
During the launch process, it's important to actively respond to user comments and feedback. After your product is live, Product Hunt users will not only upvote but also comment on your product. Be sure to reply to comments promptly.
An active comment section with a good number of comments can increase the credibility and appeal of your product. There are rumors that the number of comments is part of the ranking algorithm, though this is unverified. Regardless, an active comment section is definitely beneficial.
d) Promoting on Social Media
It's also important to consider your product's influence beyond Product Hunt, including influencer promotions and your own personal brand (if applicable).
If you've scheduled influencer promotions for your product, you'll need to follow up on their posts after your product launches. If you have your own personal brand and are building in public, the entire launch process can provide great content. You can update your social media with your Product Hunt progress, further expanding the influence of both your personal brand and your product.
Regardless of your Product Hunt ranking, it only provides initial traffic - a successful first step. Subsequent paid conversions depend on the product itself. So, after the launch, the real challenge for your product is just beginning!
Show off your badge!
Congratulations on achieving a daily ranking! You'll receive your product badge after the daily rankings conclude. You can add the Product Hunt badge to your website and marketing materials to showcase your product's success and credibility.
Decide whether to aim for the weekly rankings
If your product was launched early in the week and successfully secured the top badge, or if it's already in the top ten of the weekly rankings after the daily launch, you might consider aiming for the weekly rankings.
Generally, achieving the top spot in the weekly rankings requires at least 1000+ upvotes, typically between 1000-2000 upvotes. Making it to the weekly rankings can bring an additional 1000-2000 unique visitors. Consider your team's situation when deciding whether to pursue a weekly ranking.
Usually, the same product isn't allowed to be relaunched within 6 months. However, if you have significant feature updates and a new product URL, you may have a chance to launch multiple times on Product Hunt and be successfully featured.
Products like Heygen, Miro, Notion, and Figma have all adopted multiple launch strategies, each time highlighting different product features. This approach also helps validate different product directions. Moreover, multiple launches can leverage more secondary promotions, gaining more exposure.
For a good product, traffic from organic media spread can potentially be twice that from Product Hunt. We've observed cases where, after a Product Hunt launch, a product gained significant traction in the Japanese market, leading to further promotion and achieving Product-Market Fit in Japan.
Observe data such as CTA click-through rates, download/registration numbers, etc., to optimize your product. This data analysis can help determine whether your landing page needs improvement, if your CTA design is effective, and so on.
Additionally, many people may contact you through social media and other channels. Some of these might be your users, while others might become long-term connections after learning about you through this launch. We've made many friends and connections through Product Hunt launches, and these are valuable resources beyond the platform itself.
Despite various criticisms of Product Hunt, it remains a valuable platform for developers and startups. Its traffic is still impressive, and early adopters, tech media, and investors continue to pay attention to featured products.
At PMFBoost (https://www.pmfboost.com/), we specialize in go-to-market services for developers and startups. Our team has extensive experience in successful Product Hunt launches, both for clients and our own products. We've distilled this knowledge into this article to help you avoid common pitfalls when launching.
We offer comprehensive support for Product Hunt launches, as well as a full suite of go-to-market strategies including SEO optimization, directory submissions, and product localization. Whether you're aiming for Product Hunt success or need broader market entry support, PMFBoost is here to guide your product towards Product-Market Fit. Explore our services and let's maximize your product's global potential together.