A Product Hunt launch can bring hundreds or thousands of early users, backlinks, and a badge you can show for years. It's also a single day, so preparation decides most of the outcome. Here's a practical checklist.

3–4 weeks before

  • Create or warm up your account. Comment helpfully on other launches and follow makers in your space. An account with real activity looks credible.
  • Decide on a hunter. You can hunt your own product. Most successful launches today are self-hunted. A well-known hunter can help, but isn't required.
  • Build a list of supporters. Friends, customers, newsletter subscribers, and your building-in-public audience. Tell them the date in advance.
  • Prepare an offer. A discount or extended trial for the Product Hunt community gives people a reason to act today.

Assets to prepare

  • Name and tagline (60 characters): say what it does, not how it feels. "Turn your Stripe data into investor updates" beats "The future of reporting."
  • Description (260 characters): the problem, who it's for, and what makes it different.
  • Gallery: 4–6 images at 1270×760. Lead with the product in action, not a logo. Show results.
  • A short video or GIF (optional but effective): under 60 seconds, showing the core flow.
  • Maker comment: the story of why you built it, written personally. This is often the most-read text on the page.
  • Landing page: make sure it loads fast, works on mobile, and has a clear signup button.

Launch day

  • Launch at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time. The daily leaderboard resets then, giving you the full 24 hours.
  • Post your maker comment immediately.
  • Notify your supporters with a link to the launch page. Ask them to check it out and leave honest feedback, not to upvote. Asking for upvotes breaks Product Hunt's rules, and coordinated voting can get you penalized.
  • Reply to every comment quickly and thoughtfully all day. Engagement matters and it's your best chance to talk with early users.
  • Share across your channels throughout the day as different time zones wake up.

What not to do

  • Don't buy upvotes or use upvote groups. They're detected and the launch gets penalized.
  • Don't direct people to the upvote button with "please upvote". Point them to the page.
  • Don't launch on a holiday or alongside a big tech announcement.

After the launch

  • Thank everyone publicly and personally.
  • Follow up with every signup. Launch traffic is curious, not committed, and onboarding emails turn curiosity into usage.
  • Add the badge to your site if you placed in the top 5.
  • Share the results with a launch-day milestone card: signups, upvotes, ranking, and what you learned. A launch recap often gets more engagement than the launch itself.
  • Keep shipping. You can launch again on Product Hunt for major new versions.

Realistic expectations

Most launches won't reach #1, and that's fine. A top-10 finish with 100 engaged signups and 10 real conversations is a great result. Treat the launch as one step in getting your first 100 customers, not the whole plan.