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Ghost Kitty

Launching on Product Hunt without preparation. Yes or No?

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I think you can launch without preparation if + You have a big audience + It's a side product/project + It's not your first launch (so you know how PH works) For everything else, you need good preparation. What do you think?

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Hannah
Never. This platform has many rules and we should all learn what are the best practices before we launch. And, especially because, you can't just keep launching your product for many times.
Claudiu Cogalniceanu
Doesn’t hurt to just launch without preparation. It gives you some insight into how launch day goes, and it can also give you validation for your product if people engage. I spent about 20 minutes on my launch, and it went great, and I also learned a lot.
Laura Patricia
@claudiu_cogalniceanu Super true! During real launch day things can get super stressful & just by knowing which button to click helps a lot!
Brenna Donoghue
Here's what I kind of like about a launch with little prep - then it truly is about the idea and the product, and not about the networking. Don't get me wrong, I love engaging with this community, but I also don't love the pre-launch flutter of discussions for the sake of network-building. Which might bite me in the ass because we launch next week and I haven't done that in the way that I have in the past.
Zed Tarar
@brenna_donoghue agree--if pre-launch prep is bad-faith community engagement hoping for more upvotes.
Brenna Donoghue
@zed_tarar That's it. I love the community engagement when it's genuine community engagement. But I know it's a hard balanace to strike.
Ariel
@brenna_donoghue You product has so many followers! Can you share with us how to do it?
Steve Liu
@zed_tarar @brenna_donoghue From the number of followers your pre-launch has, it seems that you are doing very impressive work!
Brenna Donoghue
@stevels and @gingerkidney I think this is the accumulation from having launched twice before and just being active on Product Hunt for a long time. We have found sound great feedback and engagment from this community, so it's where we spend time. I sometimes wonder how much of a game changers followers are... obviously it is a help since those people are notified of a launch. But I also get the sense (and happy to be challenged on this!) that PH has a lot of churn in active users between launches, so it'll be interesting to see how much additional exposure this brings in.
Azmat Malik
Yes, I was ready when I signed up, but then I thought, I should learn PH, and this is what I am doing now: learning how to avoid launch failure.
@azmatmalik same boat as you. And cultivating a community
Alexandr Builov
Totally agree with you, Olena! Preparation is indeed key in most cases to ace Product Hunt. Still, having a large audience and launch experience can't be underrated. Any tips on what should be included in an ideal preparation checklist? 🔍🚀
Maria Anosova 🔥
Depends on the goal. I think no.
Tornike Tsiramua
No, I guess you need to build a community, stay engaging and that will be translated to better chance to achieve success
@tornike_tsiramua1 community is key. And it take a genuine effort to build it!
Alexandr Builov
That's an excellent point, @OlenaBomko. Launching without planning can work if you already have a strong following or experience.👍 But for most, preparation minimizes risk and maximizes potential for success. 🎯 Could you share tips on how you prepare for a launch? It might benefit those new to ProductHunt. 💡🚀
Oleg Naumenko
I'm rather new here, but my general experience tells me: the (sad?) reality is that if you want to attract attention to something, you have to put extra efforts into it
Ivan Dudin
Bad idea. We one time launched a product so randomly, we collected as many as 28 upvotes!
@myprlab that’s better that 27 :) but props to you for launching. Did you relaunch?
Rohan Chaubey
Product Hunt allows multiple launches hence I would recommend one can launch with minimal preparations too. :)
Rohan Chaubey
@konrad_sx yes :) each progressive launch gets better. And even sincerely distributing the launch for a day should help make it to Top 5 😊
Niko Germish
Just do it )
Hitesh Joshi
side projects, absolutely. But still a little bit of preparation won't hurt ;)
Philipp Jackson
IMO, pre-launch preparations and networking can take up to 1 month for successful launch
Sia
More or less what I will do, reaching out to a few friends and advisors (probably you among those). I just think releasing quick is the fastest way to learn. Kind of a "Do lots of mistakes fast" approach, if that makes sense?
Rohit Joshi
Preparation is essential whether you are launching for the first time or have done it before. The level of effort required significantly depends on your familiarity with Product Hunt's working strategies and the strength of your profile. Preparation before launch definitely give you good results as expected.
Hussein Hashish
prep for everything including PH let alone any other platform.
George Burmistrov
Agreed. If you're new and have zero audience/connections, it's like crying into a void. No use.
Daxeel Soni
I completely agree with you. Launching without adequate preparation may work for established brands with a huge following, however, for startups and new brands, proper planning and strategy is key. Knowledge about the platform, thorough research about the audience's interest and well-crafted messaging can significantly improve the success rate. So, plan and prepare even if it takes time.
Maksym Astakhov
The first launch should be prepared as much as you can. But later, when you try it on yourself, gather the community, you can spend less time. I think that 24 hours makes it very hard to go viral for the product and stay Product of the Day without any preparation But as more launch experience you have the less time you can spend.