How to launch Open Source project on Product Hunt?
There are already many articles describing Product Hunt launches. So we decided to write one more:)
So, here is our story, Papermark story.
Except the general tips, I am adding launch tips for Open Source projects.
In this article you will find:
- Before launch preparation
- Launch Day
- Special to Open Source launch
- Open Source companies PH launches
- Results and Stats
Plus: Happy to share my launch checklist
Before the launch
1. Draft the messaging
One liners and message for groups or social.
I like to have 2-4 versions of it, so I can select best for different places.
Because launch is a test.
So I use the opportunity to test messaging in different groups.
One-liners for us:
Direct messages
Good to have around 3-5 prepared similar messages I could easily use
2. Warm up your audience
We took part into Product Hunt discussion, wrote a bit on Twitter, Linkedin and Reddit about the launch.
Some companies also send the email in advance with your coming soon page for people to follow, but we did not.
3. Create list of your supporters
Our list was quite small like 20-30 people, and I kept in mind all my friends in twitter and linkedin who could be interested in the launch.
Quality over quantity
Which means only meaningful connections will be helpful, not random reach outs and asking for the vote:)
4. Create the list of places where to post
This is important one, as everyone has the groups they want to reach people in.
We used 3 types of groups:
- - PH support groups (Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Telegram, Reddit)
The best output was in WhatsApp and Telegram - - Building in public/indihacker places
- - Places for open source
5. Prepare visuals: video, images, gif
🤓 Of course, you need them for the PH page.
But I found it useful to send them also in the groups, that people see small video or GIF straight and decide if it is interesting to click.
We created quickly a banner in Canva for Twitter and Linkedin
6. Reach 10-20 people in advance for feedback
One more thing I kind of doing before every launch is finding test users, so send a couple of people a link to the product, mentioning you plan to launch.
Works especially well for new products which don't have any feedback.
We started preparing 1 week before launch.
During the launch day
Launch day is mostly about sharing that you launch on social and then continuously engaging.
1. Launch your tweet
20% of efforts bring 80% of result. Pareto also works here
I think the most important is a tweet. I got previous recommendations about it from Easlo. This tip I still follow. One core tweet which you share with people.
Even if you don't have a community and a big following on Twitter, I would aim to make the tweet interesting and focus on it.
2. Post on other social platforms: LinkedIn, Devto
Only recommend this if you have a following or activity on LinkedIn. Maybe if you never post there, it will not work.
First, do something which can be done quickly.
3. Engage in PH comments
The priority is to engage in comments after you shared about the launch. You will sometimes feel like a bot in these comments, but I feel like everyone deserves a response who wrote to you on PH :)
I don't know how currently PH count it, I think they are looking only at upvotes but I still find that important.
4. Send email to your users
Make it clean with one call to action.
6. Add launch branding
Your and your company profiles are styled and linked to the PH launch. Banner, link leading to launch, embeds on the website.
Here are my 10 tips from other launches
Open source projects launch tips ⭐️
If your product is open source, where to look for support?
Use the Open Source channels, I am sure if you are building something in Open Source and planning to launch, you know other popular projects, communities in the space, and people.
But let's say not, where could you start?
There are some Open Source places where you can get support.
Open Source channels:
- Reddit (Open Source, Self Hosted, Github Projects)
- Twitter Open Source lists
- COSS community on Discord
- Developer marketing group
- GitHub groups
Among other things, if your project is open source:
- Add in the description that it is Open Source
- Add tags that it is Open Source
- Add GitHub link
Go Open Source🚀🚀🚀
Top 🥇 Open Source launches in 2022-23
I listed OS companies launched recently and successfully and reached the first spot. ☄️ - the one who launched for the first time
Results from our launch 📈
- Amount of upvotes: 850
- Amount of comments: 250
- Amount of website visitors: 4k
- Unique visitors: 2k
- GitHub stars: 250
- Amount of signups: 300
Amount of impressions on other platforms:
- Twitter: 130k
- Reddit: 20k
- Dev.to: 1k
- LinkedIn: 4k
I think it is best if you connect with people in advance and build meaningful connections.
My guesses on how votes distributed:
- 5% of people from Product Hunt support groups
- 5% friends and family
- 40% open-source community
- 30% building in public community
- 20% product hunt community community
Q&A Have some questions? ❓
Some questions I kind of ask myself and maybe will be interesting to anyone who is reading this:
Can you reengineer a successful launch?
No, I think no. It is similar to re-engineering a viral post. There is always a combination of different factors.
Can someone guarantee you success?
There are people selling votes, or the first place. I received offers like that. My personal recommendation is not to engage, for 5 reasons:
- It can be easily tracked
- PH can "punish" you for that
- You will damage your company brand if people find out
- You will not see your real supporters and community around
- Fewer people will hear about your brand
Is building in public helping me launch?
I think this is the main helper. Building in public, writing about your project no matter if it's open-source or not is a long-term game.
Can my launch fail?
To me, no. I will give you an example. I missed the launch of another product I built. I scheduled it and forgot, just was doing something else, I realized it in one week, one weeeeek!
So yes, some may say it was a failure, but no, I can always relaunch it, and this one was just a PURE Product Hunt LAUNCH, like in the good old days :))
If you want to know how Papermark started, check this cool article on Dev.to, with all the coding journey:"Papermark journey from tweet to launch"
Happy to share with you Papermark checklist with all todos and places where to post.