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Before I tell you how to get to the top of Product Hunt, why donât I first share with you what MOST people do to get to the top (and fail miserably, followed by crying themselves to sleep).
What Most Suckers Do On Product Hunt
- Google âHow to get #1 on Product Huntâ
- Read 2â3 blog articles, each containing 5â10Â tips
- Implement the 5 easiest tips
- ⊠wait âŠ
- Lose (i.e. not even get on the front page)
- Cry
- Donât even realise where they went wrong
The 100% Sure-Fire Absolutely Posidutely Dead-Certain Way To Hit The Top Of Product Hunt (and earn your opportunity to do a victory dance)
Letâs face it, Product Hunt is a âzero sum gameâ, itâs binary. Either youâre on the front-page and reap the rewards, or youâre not, and get f*ck all traffic from it all. So we need to guarantee weâre on the front page (at a minimum), and hopefully in the top 3.
DISCLAIMER: This wonât work if your product absolutely sucks. Itâll probably work still if your product sucks a little bit though.
SECOND DISCLAIMER: Some of this information is like, 12â18 months old, but should be pretty accurate still. Do your own homework and double-check this, plus discover any new hacks.
- Research every single article online about ranking on Product Hunt and compile a list of âranking factorsâ in a spreadsheet
- Watch Product Hunt for 2 weeks, taking notes on every pattern you see that the winners do, while looking at losers too and seeing what they do wrong (once again, add to your spreadsheet)
- Reach out to everyone in your network that has launched on Product Hunt, asking what their strategy was (even the ones that failed, trust me on this, losses are learnings)âââadd to your spreadsheet
- Reach out to founders you donât even know that have hit the Top 3 positions, and ask their strategies, add to your spreadsheet
- Reach out to the top hunters and ask them for their tips on ranking (and build a relationship, youâll soon discover that the âhunterâ is the #1 factor in success, so one of these will be critical for you)âââadd to the spreadsheet
- Put an extra 2 columns in your spreadsheet, âPotential Impactâ and âEase To Implementâ. These will have a score of 1â10. Youâre going to multiply this score, so you know what the low hanging fruit is.
The Low Hanging Fruit Method
So you have a spreadsheet now with at least 10â20 (potentially 50) factors that impact how youâll rank on Product Hunt. And no, itâs not all about upvotes, itâs far more complex. Just head over there now and youâll notice that the order isnât based just on upvotes.
Potential Impact
Some factors matter more than others. YES, upvotes is a major one, but so is the hunter, and so are a lot of other things. Iâm in a good mood, so Iâll be giving you a list of factors to kick-start this for you, but Iâm not going to give you everything I worked out, because I want those that actually put the work in to be the ones that win, not just the ones that can read one damn article⊠(ima give you quite a bit of help still though)
(tough love, right)
We want to rank potential impact on 3 factors:1. CertaintyâââHow sure are we that this actually matters. This comes from how consistently we hear this as a factor (from articles, our network, anyone we talk to, how much we actually see it happening)
2. PowerâââHow much do we think this will move the needle? If this was the ONLY thing we need (i.e. if we legit got 10k upvotes) would it be enough to rank us alone? That would make it a 10. If itâs a basic little thing that might move the needle like 1%, then itâs a 1.
3. Impact On Other FactorsâââThis is a common one for founders to miss completelyâââsome factors impact others. Iâll give you an exampleâââone of the best hacks is to post at the right time of day (when the new day starts on Product Hunt). This gives you a head-start on the competition, and allows you to accrue more upvotes before they get online; which means you rank higher on the front page, and get more upvotes because of your ranking. So this seemingly small factor impacts other factors, so has a high over impact score.
Ease To Implement
This one is a little easier to work outâââhow much work is it going to take. If itâs going to take a full week of your time (which should be 80+ hours if youâre serious about winning in the startup world), then itâs a 1. If it takes under 10 minutes, itâs a 10.
One thing to consider is thisâââcan YOU do it, or are you relying on others. If something is going to require me managing/communicating with other people, itâs immediately getting a sh!ttier score (I donât play well with others).
Multiply For SuccessâââThe âOverall Scoreâ column
Multiply the two scores together. This gives you your Overall Score. The higher the score, the higher the priority.
Some examples so this is clearer:
Factor: Use a GIF instead of a still image (catches eyeballs better, higher click-through-rate = influences the algorithm)
Impact Score: 2It gets a 2 rather than a 1, because it actually influences the Product Hunt algorithm a bit if you get a higher CTR.
Ease To Implement Score: 7Itâs not getting a 10, because you have to make it actually look good, and then compress it and stuff. Might need to use a designer if youâre not good at this; and they have to know how to work with video/animation. Still pretty easy though.
Overall Score: 14 (7x2=14, quick maths, Skrrat, skidi-kat-kat)
Factor: Get a good hunter (they rank MUCH higher, this definitely matters)
Impact Score: 10Nothing matters more than this other than Upvotes, and they correlate a lot, for a lot of reasons Iâll get into later.
Ease To Implement Score: 6This is a 6 for me. Itâs not as easy as just emailing a few people, you might need to build relationships. We gave a beta test on our closed-beta plus some other perks. You also need to RESEARCH. You want a hunter that consistently gets their stuff on the front page, AND has an interest in what you do, then reach out. So itâs not that easy to be honest.
Overall Score: 60Â (BOOM!)
So obviously, if we had to pick, weâd be working on getting that hunter instead of making a fancy GIF. The thing is though, you want to hit as many factors as possible, while going through your priority list from the top.
But F*ck Jared, Thatâs a lot of work!
Right now youâre probably thinking, geez Jared, this is a f*kn lot of work isnât it? Well yes, but Product Hunt pays dividends.
Ranking at the top helped us get onto TechCrunch (where I had the #1 article for 4 days straightâââif you want the full method for that, check out my site www.newhackeveryweek.comâââitâs paid membership though), and led to an 8-figure valuation with 7-figure investment; so itâs worth it. Product Hunt is an instrumental part of many launches. So just do the damn work.
Hold On, Does This Work For Other Stuff?
Yes.
The Low Hanging Fruit Method works for everything, from manipulating the media, to Facebook, to SEO.
This is REAL âGrowth Hackingâ, getting your damn hands dirty and learning everything about the platform youâre trying to game.
If you do something better than the competition in every single way (i.e. every single factor), you canât NOT win. (intentional poor English is something I do oftenâââI hated my English teacher in High School, so now Iâm making sure Iâm a syndicated author while using dat terrible grammah nd spellinââââsuck shit Ann Rose from Callaghan College, youâre a hack)
Jared, Can You Make My Life Easy And Just Give Me The Factors?
One thing Iâve learnt (the hard way) is that I canât make someone successful. I mentor so many people, and itâs literally up to them. BUT, I can give you an awesome nudge.
Iâm literally sitting here conflicted. Because I know if I just hand it to you, 99.947% of the people that read it wonât even do it. Or theyâll half-ass it, which is worse, because you get shitty results but it still costs you time.
But f*ck it.
Top Factors On Product Hunt
Get a Good Hunter
Impact: 10, Ease: 6, Overall:Â 60
I know I touched on this before, but I wanted to explain it a bit more.
To find awesome hunters, go here: http://500hunters.com/
The right hunter does a number of things:
- They do better with the PH algorithm
- They may even email to their list for you, or post on their social mediaâââif you pick someone that is a good match (do your homework!)
- They may help you get investment (ours did, indirectlyâââhe made awesome introâs for us, and it led to our lead investorâââI know this doesnât affect PH, but still, itâs awesome)
- MAJOR ONE: ProductHunt will promote you to the followers of this hunter in their daily email.
- Product Hunt may actually tweet about you if you have the right hunter (plus other reasons, but this is a big factor we found in our research)
Donât half-ass working out the right hunter. And donât send them a dumb email. Theyâre time-poor, so be cool about it.
Your email should go a little like this, and should go out about 2 weeks before you actually want to get hunted. If theyâre a top hunter, theyâre typically quite successfully (i.e. busy), so give them time to respond, and have time to go to your backup plans if they decline. Donât be a dick if they decline, thank them for their time regardlessâââthe startup community is small, and we talk.
Hey XYZ!Just wanted to reach out, because weâre launching on ProductHunt soon, and we would love it if you would be our Hunter.I noticed you recently hunted ABC Startupâââours is actually quite similar, but different in that we <insert one-sentence pitch>.If you want, I can give you early access, and Iâll give you everything you need to hunt it.If youâre interested, just let me know. We have a day/time weâd like it hunted, happy to fill you in on details if youâre open to it.P.S. I noticed youâre an XYZ fan, are you free when they play ABC on the 1st of April? If so, Iâve got 2x tickets with your name on them ;)
Note: I didnât give any tickets away, Iâd do this if I REALLY wanted the Hunter. We had 3 potential options, and we got our first pick for free.
Launch At The Right Time
Impact: 10, Ease: 9, Overall:Â 90
You want to launch at Midnight PST so you get the jump on the USA competition, and accrue Upvotes from the EU traffic. This will let you get a top ranking, which of course means more visibility, and more upvotes. This early kickstart makes it near impossible for those that launch late to catch up.
Build a ListâââBring In Your Own Upvotes (make it rain, son)
Impact: 10, Ease: 4, Overall:Â 40
You should be doing this anyway!
But basically, if you have a pre-launch list of, lets say, 1k people, and you can get even 200 to upvote you (especially if you get them to do it early in the day), youâll have a huge headstart.
Use something like viral-loops.com (we did this but custom built ours).
PRO TIP: We discovered that CTR (Click-Through-Rate) on the home page of ProductHunt matters. You want to have your audience go to the front page, scroll to you, and click on you. THEN, upvote you from inside your page. DO NOT send directly to your page, itâll have a smaller impact.
Reply To Comments (fast)
Impact: 3, Ease: 10, Overall:Â 30
Look, if you werenât going to already do this, youâre a dick. But I feel I need to mention it, because itâs actually a factor with the Product Hunt algorithm. Replying swiftly to comments also gives good-will, and gives you a higher chance of these people sharing your hunt.
PRO TIP: Actually put some damn effort into the comments. This ISNâT the time to take a shortcut, these people are potentially evangelists for you; and some of our commenters helped immensely down the track for us.
PRO PRO TIP: Quickly do your homework on all commenters. If they have a decent following (1k+), DM them, and ask them to share it on social media for you. Once again, be cool about it. (This can work REALLYÂ well)
Post The First Comment
Impact: 2, Ease: 10, Overall:Â 20
We used this as a chance to link to our Medium article, Press Kit, and give a longer more thorough description. We did this because we found that a lot of the top guys were doing it, and it was super simple to do.
This also shows that youâre engaged, and ready to answer any questions that people have in the comments sectionâââby encouraging comments, youâre going to get more, and this is a ranking factor.
Launch on Thursday or Friday
Impact: 2, Ease: 10, Overall:Â 20
From our research, we concluded this had the biggest return (most overall upvotes), which means more competition, but also more payoff (i.e. traffic)
Approach Multiple Hunters To Comment
Impact: 5, Ease: 7, Overall:Â 45
You know who uses Product Hunt the most? Popular hunters.
DO NOT email asking them to UpVote. Instead, email them asking them to check it out and give feedback. Naturally, a lot will upvote.
The higher ranked the hunter, the more impact their comment will have on the algorithmâââso make it clear youâd like their feedback via a comment, so you can engage with it publicly.
If they really like it, they may also share it on social media.
Have Your Entire Team Hit Friends/Family
Impact: 4, Ease: 6, Overall:Â 24
Get everyone to hit up everyone they know on social media to go and upvote it. Remember, send them to the front-page, not your actual page, this really does matter.
Viral Bot Campaign (Build FB Messenger List)
Impact: 10, Ease: 6, Overall:Â 60
I invented a viral bot competition method, itâs killer. Anyway, run a competition and build a FB messenger list from it, then when you launch on PH, get the list to go to the front page, scroll to you, click on you, then upvote you (yes, all of those steps, weâve heard about direct traffic to your page counting as a zero-vote due to their anti-fraudâââdumb I know, but it is what it is)
Hereâs a video on how to do this competition:
Other Factors:
- Nail your one-line descriptionâââ(60 char limit) âUse Emojiâs in it so it stands out.
- Use GIFâs for Screenshotsâââitâs just way more engaging
- Use a Videoâââif you can, use a video
- Make Display Pic a GIFâââThis makes it stand out MUCHÂ more
- Make all images fit rightâââmake the dimensions right, and make sure theyâre retina-display friendly. Look at what the top guys are doing, copy it.
Thatâs all Iâm going to give you. There is moreâââgo and work it out. Research it yourself. If youâre not willing to do that, youâre not willing to follow my tips anyway you lazy mug.
IMPORTANT: Donât Embrace The Dark Side
As a Growth Hacker, Iâm always looking for ways to hack sh!t. So when I first saw Product Hunt, I thought âOh hell yes, Iâll just get heaps of fake upvotes and dominate thisâââsuckers!â.
But then I did my homework, and discovered a few things:
- They have vigorous anti-fraudâââyouâll probably get caught
- You donât get a second chance. You get caught, youâre DONE on Product Hunt, and just made their shitlist.
- You donât NEED to do it. If you do everything I outlined above, and your product isnât a total piece of shit, youâll do great anyway.
Want More Hacks?
Go to www.NewHackEveryWeek.com where (and this may shock you) you can get a New Hack Every Week. Plus access to my archives of awesomeness.
GIMME DEM CLAPS! (like 20â50 of those suckers)
Growth Hack Your Way To The Top Of Product Hunt was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
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