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Product Hunt Launch Tips
How to get my support on Product Hunt
I joined Product Hunt as Head of Growth!
ANNOUNCEMENT:
I'm the new Head of Growth @ProductHunt š¼
I'm tweeting from @ProductHunt and hosting events in NYC, SF, and more.
If you're making something cool or launching on Product Hunt soon, DM me!
Let's get that internet money together š¼
— Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin)
Mar 28, 2024
Every day 100s of new startups launch on Product Hunt ranging from indie hackers to VC-backed startups with millions in the bank.
The Product Hunt leaderboard is the most exciting place on the internet ā the world stage for startup launches. A successful Product Hunt launch can get you new customers, investors, and momentum to kickstart your company.
Want my support on your Product Hunt launch?
Hereās 12 things that make me press upvote, comment, and support a product:
Does it solve a problem in a new, innovative way? Or is it another AI writing tool? For example, I saw a really cool product launch on Friday called Living Images that A/B test photos that automatically update using Gen AI. Insane. We are officially living in the future!
A SaaS product. Notion templates, databases, PDF, etc, are allowed but the Product Hunt community is built around SaaS. When I scan the leaderboard Iām looking for new SaaS thatāll help me 10x my work, not a Notion template I can make in 10 minutes (sorry, not sorry ā¤ļø).
Clear tagline. Your tagline is the slogan that goes next to your productās name and logo. Clear > Clever. Just say what your product does, donāt try to be cute or fancy. Your tagline is super important. Itās what makes people click to view your product. Check out this tagline masterclass from our CEO Rajiv.
Low-budget clear demo > high-budget vague animation. No cheesy animations and royalty-free music in your product demos that you got from Fiverr and doesnāt actually show your product at all. Unless youāre getting a big budget custom beautifully designed animation from Pixar, just do a Loom video seriously thereās no shame in it. Iād rather just see a chill demo of the product and the founder talking than some animation with cheesy music. See how our Irish goofball Aaron OāLeary did our demo for our recent Shoutouts launch (yes, Product Hunt launches products at Product Hunt too and no, we donāt always get #1 š!)
āSoftware should be beautiful,ā says the team at Notion. Take that money you were spending on an animated fancy demo and put it on delightful design. Be imaginative, be unique, say something with your design. Jam.dev is a great example with their signature weird strawberry logo and delightful designs.
Add a well-crafted thoughtful maker comment. A maker comment is your chance to tell your story. Whyād you make your product? Whatās your background? Have you worked on cool stuff before? Why should I trust you to click on your product and press buy? Check out this one for a good example.
Fill out your Product Hunt profile. Whenever I see a product I check their Product Hunt profile to see if theyāre legit, learn more, and go follow them on Twitter to go support them. Take the extra 3 minutes to set up your profileāitāll be huge leverage down the line as you grow a following on the site as itāll make it easier to launch more products. Follow me here.
Add in Shoutouts to products you used.Ā Shoutouts is our newest feature at Product Hunt and it lets you shoutout 3 products you used to make your product. This is amazing high-signal data for the startup ecosystem because you can see what tools are the most trusted and what apps are built with what. If I see you put in Shoutouts, itās a signal that youāre playing a long term game!
No spam DMing. If we never talked and the first thing you DM me is to check out your product hunt launch, Iāll probably ignore it. Build internet friendships for the long-term, not quick and transactional. My internet friends are some of my best friends. Build a real community; the stronger your community, the stronger your launch, no amount of spam DMs will fix that. #1 Product of the Day winner Steven Tey gives more advice on that here.
Donāt buy bots. We can see that shit lol. You wonāt succeed.
Incorporate humor. I wrote a book about meme marketing and I love any product that tries to incorporate memes or silly humor. I did a breakdown on one here that got #1 of the Day using meme marketing. Another maker recently launched a product called PoopUp to send your users funny pop-ups. #Nice. Not everyone likes funny marketing but I sure do!
Play the right game. Last but not least, this is the most important thing. As Rajiv says, thereās 2 games you can play on Product Hunt. 1) do you try to extract as much value as possible for nothing in return? 2) do you try to give as much value as possible and hope for the best? Over-give on value and youāll probably get value back. Under-give on value and youāll fail. Good rule for life and internet.
If youāre making something cool or looking for help on your Product Hunt launch, let me know!
P.S. I run a community you might be interested in
I run a Slack community called The Strategists.
Imagine a room full of military generals planning out the warābut instead, itās for elite creators and marketers planning how to go viral on social media.
In our Slack channel, we message about social media hacks throughout the week. To give you an idea what this means, weāve got a #pr-hacks channel for discussing smart PR moves, a #memelord-mafia channel for sending trending meme templates, and #self-promo channel to promote your most recent content within the community.
On top of the async Slack channel, every Wednesday we meet for a live strategy group call to brainstorm marketing ideas. One community member was launching a new SaaS so we discussed marketing hacks. Another was launching a pickle brand and wanted some ideas for going viral. Every week is new ideas and challenges for us to figure out. (And even if you canāt make it on the call, you get the highlights delivered to you in Slack).
In addition to the Slack channel and calls, you get access to: my in-depth notes following each of my podcasts, my marketing case studies, and all of my new social media hacks. Access for all of the above is typically $99/month.
To celebrate my new role in the Product Hunt community, Iām lowering to $49/month for anyone who signs up using this link. š¤
Cyberpunk Hyperlinks:
Lotta cool links and tools for you this week:
š Create a free 3D bookshelf perfect for sharing on socials.
šØĀ mmm.page is the most fun web design tool ever.
āØļø Peak tech bro drippppp
Memes of the Week:
The Huberman Scheduling Protocol is amazing!
I send this to all my girlfriends.
I'm now 10x more productive and 100x more reproductive.
— Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin)
Mar 26, 2024
apparently huberman was juggling 6 baddies simultaneously at 48 years old
ny mag thought they did a hit piece
no bro
thats free advertisement for his methods
i want 10 of whatever heās selling
— gui (@GuilhermeWrites)
Mar 25, 2024
I really hope Barron Trump gets some face tattoos and wears a Moncler puffer eventually
— SHAWTY (@bronzeageshawty)
Mar 29, 2024
My new side hustle:
I help TikTokers go viral by punching them in the face for $99/punch
Itās a tough job but someoneās gotta do it šš»šŖš¼
— Jason Levin (@iamjasonlevin)
Mar 30, 2024
Letās blow up the internet together.
Thanks for reading nerds.
Jason āThe Memelordā Levin
Head of Growth @ Product Hunt, Author of Memes Make Millions