[How to] Hack your Product Hunt Launch

Recently we at EMERGE App launched our product on Product Hunt.

It was quite a success, we made it to the “Top 10 Products of the day”.

Here’s the email we received from PH.

So, here is the step by step process for having a great Product Hunt launch.

1. Don’t post yourself. It’s against the rules of PH and you won’t get much of traction as well, so better not to post yourself.
2. Find a veteran: You have to find someone who has a great reputation over PH. Better if he/she has 5000+ followers on PH.
   (Pro tip: Reach out to them over twitter and ask subtly, they will be happy to help you.)
3. Best time to post: 2AM — 8AM PST.
   PH’s day starts based on PST timings, so it’s always better if you start early.
   Also, by the time Asian market wakes up, you will be on top. So it will be easy to get more traction as well.
   Once your product is on the top list, its most likely to be on top for the day.
   “Launch timing is very important”
4. Introduce yourself: Once your product is added on PH, go a head and introduce yourself to the PH community. Give a brief introduction about yourself and your product.
5. Give special offer to PH community: Come up with extended trial plan for PH community or something similar which is specific to PH community.
   This really helps for more traction, although at EMERGE App we did not have any special offer.
6. Comments have more points: Gaining more comments on the post page helps you to gain better position. Just like votes have weightage, even comments will be counted.
7. Add product videos & screenshots: Hunter can’t add videos or screenshots. So, once your product is posted, you should go ahead and add videos/ screenshots/ images.
8. A gif thumbnail: A good gif can attract more eye balls. Although we didnt try, but always gifs will have more traction.
9. Ask your customers to support: I’m saying again, asking for upvotes is against PH rules. But you can ask your users to support you. Send a newsletter saying they can get extended free trial, if they support you on PH launch.
10. Make the best use of twitter: Tweet every two hour about your PH launch. Asking for upvotes is against PH rules, but you can always ask for support.

11. Leveraging slack groups: Join some startup groups like http://startupstudygroup.com/slack/. You can ask favour to support you, communities are really helpful.

12. Obviously share on all social networks: Share on your Facebook profiles/ google plus/ LinkedIn. Share among your friends/ WhatsApp group.

13. Last but not the least, engage. Yeah, reply for all the questions / doubts / critics.

If you plan your Product Hunt well, you end up getting 10k+ traffic to your website.

Go ahead, now you are ready for your launch. Good Luck for the launch!

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