Lessons Learned from My First ProductHunt Launch
Successful or not, the experience is what counts.
In March of this year, I started my first side hustle as a Notion creator. I create Notion templates, which is a form of digital product, and then offer them to the public. So far, I have one free template and one paid one.
Developing my first paid template motivated me to try a launch on a platform that is very popular in the Notion community: ProductHunt. I have seen others from the community launch their products on the platform, and I wanted to give it a try myself.
There seemed to be nothing to lose (apart from investing a bit of time into setting up the launch), and a launch could bring me some extra coverage for my template.
So, I set everything up on the platform following all their instructions, and I defined Saturday (27.04.) as the launch date. You may find different recommendations regarding on which day to launch, but considering that many organizations with regular working hours launch on weekdays, I opted for the weekend.
If you want to check out my launch, you can do so on this page.
So how did it go?
I received 14 upvotes in total, and 5 users (apart from myself) commented on the product. Another user upvoted it after the official launch day, so I am at 15 upvotes as I am writing this article.
In the last weeks, I have supported several launches from other Notion community members, and it was interesting to live the experience from the perspective of the “Maker” this time.
Regarding my stats, I wasn’t expecting much because my primary reason for the launch was to gain launching experience, but honestly, I would have been happy about a bit more support.
While the support for my launch was, say, not massive, I am super grateful to all my supporters, some of whom have been cheering on me since I started my side hustle journey a few weeks ago.
Most notably, on the day of my launch, I unlocked a new mega achievement: I made my first online dollars! These came from a sale of the template I was promoting with my launch. I was unable to track back how the buyer found my template, but the most likely option is that it was related to my launch.
My first sale was an important milestone, and I was over the moon when I saw the sales notification! So this was definitely a key moment for me and my new side hustle, and this is just the beginning.
Why did my launch attract only a small number of supporters?
There are certainly different reasons. I put great care into the launch itself, following the tips and guides to make everything perfect. Yes, my marketing skills are not the best, but I am working on them. Probably, the sales text and descriptions could still be optimized. Nevertheless, and as a side note, I am happy about my progress in creating sales text. A few weeks ago, I had no clue what the AIDA principle is, for example.
Other reasons could be:
- I have no big follower base yet (I was at 67 followers on X [Twitter] last Saturday), so my reach is limited.
- The product, a Notion template named “Conference Travel and Management Hub” is rather niche and tailored to academics, who are not very active on X anymore since the major changes that occurred during the last two years. Probably, academics also do not use ProductHunt much.
- I promoted the launch only on X, which is related to the previous two points about my audience.
- I did not send direct messages to people on X because the idea of asking them directly to support my launch made me feel uncomfortable. Maybe it would have helped. Who knows!
Will I ever do a product launch again?
I haven’t decided about this yet, and it will also depend on the product. I am working on a few Notion templates for the general public to help people use psychology principles to improve their lives. These kinds of templates might be better suited for a launch than a niche template for academics. On the other hand, I am trying to extend my reach into the academic community.
Launching is a bit of extra work, but apart from the time invested in it, there is nothing to lose, and it may give your product extra coverage. So, I believe it’s fine in general, and probably my first paid sale resulted from the launch!
During the past weeks, there have also been some concerns in the Notion community about recent changes at ProductHunt, and new alternative launch platforms are emerging. I will keep an eye on these for the future.
To conclude, I am happy I did it and that I was able to gain my first launching experience, which probably brought me my first-ever paid sale, and I am grateful to my supporters from the awesome creator community. As stated before, this is only the beginning of my journey, and much more is about to come!
Disclaimer: This article contains an affiliate link, which means that if you make a purchase through this link, I will receive a small commission, at no extra expense to you.
Hello! I am Dr. Schmidt, a psychologist, academic, and Notion creator. I enjoy sharing my thoughts about different topics here on Medium. If you like my work, follow along!
My Medium profile: https://www.medium.com/@creatorschmidt
Follow me on X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/creatorschmidt
Find my Notion templates on: https://notion.so/@creatorschmidt
