How to get and what is the impact of launching on Product Hunt — 7 years update
Nearly 7 years ago I wrote an article on Medium about How to get and what is the impact of 1000+ upvotes on Product Hunt. A lot has changed since then, and I feel compelled to share an updated perspective on this topic.
Product Hunt has always operated with a lack of transparency, which is why people like you often turn to blog posts like this for guidance. After a nearly 7 years break from launching products and engaging with Product Hunt, today I am back with the launch of FinancialAha.
Little did I know that Product Hunt today is not what it was 6–7 years ago.
What’s changed?
- Increased Competition: The platform is much more crowded than before.
- Bigger Marketing Budgets: Large sums of money are now being invested into launches.
- Less Transparency: The algorithm is even less transparent than it used to be.
- Lack of Fairness: You can’t have a fair fight with your competition.
Product Hunt is a business focused on ad revenue, optimising for profit rather than improving or refining the hunting and upvoting process.
The biggest bummer: Unfairness
Product Hunt now has created 2 separate tabs for products: Featured and All. The platform solely decides which products are placed under the Featured tab, and this lack of transparency creates an unfair competition. If your product isn’t featured, your visibility is severely limited, and organic reach is almost nonexistent.
- Not listed on mobile: only Featured launches appear in the mobile app.
- Not listed on the homepage: only featured launches appear on the Product Hunt homepage. Products in the “All” tab require extra effort to find, and most visitors don’t bother clicking over.
- Upvotes don’t matter if you’re not featured. No matter how many you get, your product will not be ranked.
In other words, if your product isn’t featured right from the start, bringing traffic to Product Hunt’s site only benefits them. They profit from ads, while you get little to nothing in return.
I decided to give it another shot, hoping to turn this into an opportunity for growth by asking for feedback. I’m a firm believer that constructive criticism is key to improvement, and this felt like the perfect chance to receive it. However, as you might guess, there wasn’t much openness to providing feedback.
It also made me question whether they actually review all the submissions they receive each day. Some launches are scheduled days in advance, which is a smart strategy, as it allows time to build a following before launch day. But what about those that aren’t scheduled ahead of time? Do they really get the same level of attention and review?
The Spam Problem
Let’s be honest — how many people actually browse Product Hunt daily to discover new products, upvote, and provide real feedback? In my opinion, Product Hunt upvotes are not genuine. They come from the traffic you drive to their website or from spammers, not potential customers.
You get spammed
The traffic that you do get is often from people seeking inspiration for their next project or trying to find leads. After launching, you’ll likely receive tons of unsolicited messages from people attempting to sell you services.
Few hours into the launch day and spam messages started pouring in, although we were not on the Featured page:
And the list can go on, but I just wanted to give you some examples.
You spam others
I never liked launch days on PH. Launching on Product Hunt also means you’ll have to send DMs to everyone — friends, family, customers, even strangers — asking for upvotes. It’s a necessary evil if you want to succeed on the platform, but it’s a practice I’ve never enjoyed.
The Upside
I have to admit that there are some advantages about launching on Product Hunt that might help your product.
Traffic Increase
To gather upvotes, you’ll promote your product everywhere. This naturally increases traffic to your site. While you could drive traffic without a Product Hunt launch, the extra motivation to market your product aggressively stems from the launch process.
The increase in traffic that you see and associate with a Product Hunt launch is largely due to all the activities that you do in order to get upvotes and comments on your product page.
Backlinks
A Product Hunt launch also provides valuable backlinks. Not only does Product Hunt itself create one, but several other websites often repost products launched on the platform, generating additional backlinks for your site.
Let’s start seeing Product Hunt for what it truly is: a business that generates revenue through ads. This revenue grows as makers drive more traffic to promote their own product launches. It’s a smart system when you consider it, but I’d prefer to focus that effort on driving traffic directly to my own product website.
