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Hackernoon logoGrowth Hack Your Way To The Top Of Product Hunt by@jc_70515

Growth Hack Your Way To The Top Of Product Hunt

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@jc_70515Jared Codling

Before I tell you how to get to the top of Product Hunt, why donโ€™t 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 Productย Hunt

  1. Google โ€œHow to get #1 on Product Huntโ€
  2. Read 2โ€“3 blog articles, each containing 5โ€“10 tips
  3. Implement the 5 easiest tips
  4. โ€ฆ waitย โ€ฆ
  5. Lose (i.e. not even get on the front page)
  6. Cry
  7. Donโ€™t 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 victoryย dance)

Letโ€™s face it, Product Hunt is a โ€˜zero sum gameโ€™, itโ€™s binary. Either youโ€™re on the front-page and reap the rewards, or youโ€™re not, and get f*ck all traffic from it all. So we need to guarantee weโ€™re on the front page (at a minimum), and hopefully in the top 3.

DISCLAIMER: This wonโ€™t work if your product absolutely sucks. Itโ€™ll probably work still if your product sucks a little bit though.

SECOND DISCLAIMER: Some of this information is like, 12โ€“18 months old, but should be pretty accurate still. Do your own homework and double-check this, plus discover any new hacks.

  1. Research every single article online about ranking on Product Hunt and compile a list of โ€˜ranking factorsโ€™ in a spreadsheet
  2. 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)
  3. 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)โ€Šโ€”โ€Šadd to your spreadsheet
  4. Reach out to founders you donโ€™t even know that have hit the Top 3 positions, and ask their strategies, add to your spreadsheet
  5. Reach out to the top hunters and ask them for their tips on ranking (and build a relationship, youโ€™ll soon discover that the โ€˜hunterโ€™ is the #1 factor in success, so one of these will be critical for you)โ€Šโ€”โ€Šadd to the spreadsheet
  6. Put an extra 2 columns in your spreadsheet, โ€œPotential Impactโ€ and โ€œEase To Implementโ€. These will have a score of 1โ€“10. Youโ€™re going to multiply this score, so you know what the low hanging fruit is.

The Low Hanging Fruitย Method

So you have a spreadsheet now with at least 10โ€“20 (potentially 50) factors that impact how youโ€™ll rank on Product Hunt. And no, itโ€™s not all about upvotes, itโ€™s far more complex. Just head over there now and youโ€™ll notice that the order isnโ€™t 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. Iโ€™m in a good mood, so Iโ€™ll be giving you a list of factors to kick-start this for you, but Iโ€™m 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 articleโ€ฆ (ima give you quite a bit of help still though)

(tough love, right)

We want to rank potential impact on 3 factors:
1. Certaintyโ€Šโ€”โ€ŠHow 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. Powerโ€Šโ€”โ€ŠHow 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 itโ€™s a basic little thing that might move the needle like 1%, then itโ€™s a 1.

3. Impact On Other Factorsโ€Šโ€”โ€ŠThis is a common one for founders to miss completelyโ€Šโ€”โ€Šsome factors impact others. Iโ€™ll give you an exampleโ€Šโ€”โ€Šone 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 outโ€Šโ€”โ€Šhow much work is it going to take. If itโ€™s going to take a full week of your time (which should be 80+ hours if youโ€™re serious about winning in the startup world), then itโ€™s a 1. If it takes under 10 minutes, itโ€™s a 10.

One thing to consider is thisโ€Šโ€”โ€Šcan YOU do it, or are you relying on others. If something is going to require me managing/communicating with other people, itโ€™s immediately getting a sh!ttier score (I donโ€™t play well with others).

Multiply For Successโ€Šโ€”โ€ŠThe โ€œOverall Scoreโ€ย 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: 2
It 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: 7
Itโ€™s 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 youโ€™re 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: 10
Nothing matters more than this other than Upvotes, and they correlate a lot, for a lot of reasons Iโ€™ll get into later.

Ease To Implement Score: 6
This is a 6 for me. Itโ€™s 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 itโ€™s not that easy to be honest.

Overall Score: 60 (BOOM!)

So obviously, if we had to pick, weโ€™d 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, Thatโ€™s a lot ofย work!

Right now youโ€™re probably thinking, geez Jared, this is a f*kn lot of work isnโ€™t 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 straightโ€Šโ€”โ€Šif you want the full method for that, check out my site www.newhackeveryweek.comโ€Šโ€”โ€Šitโ€™s paid membership though), and led to an 8-figure valuation with 7-figure investment; so itโ€™s worth it. Product Hunt is an instrumental part of many launches. So just do the damn work.

Hold On, Does This Work For Otherย Stuff?

Yes.

The Low Hanging Fruit Method works for everything, from manipulating the media, to Facebook, to SEO.

This is REAL โ€˜Growth Hackingโ€™, getting your damn hands dirty and learning everything about the platform youโ€™re trying to game.

If you do something better than the competition in every single way (i.e. every single factor), you canโ€™t NOT win. (intentional poor English is something I do oftenโ€Šโ€”โ€ŠI hated my English teacher in High School, so now Iโ€™m making sure Iโ€™m a syndicated author while using dat terrible grammah nd spellinโ€™โ€Šโ€”โ€Šsuck shit Ann Rose from Callaghan College, youโ€™re a hack)

Jared, Can You Make My Life Easy And Just Give Me Theย Factors?

One thing Iโ€™ve learnt (the hard way) is that I canโ€™t make someone successful. I mentor so many people, and itโ€™s literally up to them. BUT, I can give you an awesome nudge.

Iโ€™m literally sitting here conflicted. Because I know if I just hand it to you, 99.947% of the people that read it wonโ€™t even do it. Or theyโ€™ll half-ass it, which is worse, because you get shitty results but it still costs you time.

But f*ck it.

Top Factors On Productย Hunt

Get a Goodย Hunter

Impact: 10, Ease: 6, Overall: 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:

  1. They do better with the PH algorithm
  2. They may even email to their list for you, or post on their social mediaโ€Šโ€”โ€Šif you pick someone that is a good match (do your homework!)
  3. They may help you get investment (ours did, indirectlyโ€Šโ€”โ€Šhe made awesome introโ€™s for us, and it led to our lead investorโ€Šโ€”โ€ŠI know this doesnโ€™t affect PH, but still, itโ€™s awesome)
  4. MAJOR ONE: ProductHunt will promote you to the followers of this hunter in their daily email.
  5. 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)

Donโ€™t half-ass working out the right hunter. And donโ€™t send them a dumb email. Theyโ€™re 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 theyโ€™re a top hunter, theyโ€™re typically quite successfully (i.e. busy), so give them time to respond, and have time to go to your backup plans if they decline. Donโ€™t be a dick if they decline, thank them for their time regardlessโ€Šโ€”โ€Šthe startup community is small, and we talk.

Hey XYZ!
Just wanted to reach out, because weโ€™re launching on ProductHunt soon, and we would love it if you would be our Hunter.
I noticed you recently hunted ABC Startupโ€Šโ€”โ€Šours is actually quite similar, but different in that we <insert one-sentence pitch>.
If you want, I can give you early access, and Iโ€™ll give you everything you need to hunt it.
If youโ€™re interested, just let me know. We have a day/time weโ€™d like it hunted, happy to fill you in on details if youโ€™re open to it.
P.S. I noticed youโ€™re an XYZ fan, are you free when they play ABC on the 1st of April? If so, Iโ€™ve got 2x tickets with your name on themย ;)

Note: I didnโ€™t give any tickets away, Iโ€™d do this if I REALLY wanted the Hunter. We had 3 potential options, and we got our first pick for free.

Launch At The Rightย Time

Impact: 10, Ease: 9, Overall: 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 Listโ€Šโ€”โ€ŠBring In Your Own Upvotes (make it rain,ย son)

Impact: 10, Ease: 4, Overall: 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), youโ€™ll 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, itโ€™ll have a smaller impact.

Reply To Commentsย (fast)

Impact: 3, Ease: 10, Overall: 30

Look, if you werenโ€™t going to already do this, youโ€™re a dick. But I feel I need to mention it, because itโ€™s 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 ISNโ€™T 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 REALLY well)

Post The Firstย Comment

Impact: 2, Ease: 10, Overall: 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 youโ€™re engaged, and ready to answer any questions that people have in the comments sectionโ€Šโ€”โ€Šby encouraging comments, youโ€™re going to get more, and this is a ranking factor.

Launch on Thursday orย Friday

Impact: 2, Ease: 10, Overall: 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 Toย Comment

Impact: 5, Ease: 7, Overall: 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 algorithmโ€Šโ€”โ€Šso make it clear youโ€™d 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: 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: 60

I invented a viral bot competition method, itโ€™s 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, weโ€™ve heard about direct traffic to your page counting as a zero-vote due to their anti-fraudโ€Šโ€”โ€Šdumb I know, but it is what it is)

Hereโ€™s a video on how to do this competition:

This works basically every time. Just do it, Nike style.

Other Factors:

  1. Nail your one-line descriptionโ€Šโ€”โ€Š(60 char limit) โ€”Use Emojiโ€™s in it so it stands out.
  2. Use GIFโ€™s for Screenshotsโ€Šโ€”โ€Šitโ€™s just way more engaging
  3. Use a Videoโ€Šโ€”โ€Šif you can, use a video
  4. Make Display Pic a GIFโ€Šโ€”โ€ŠThis makes it stand out MUCH more
  5. Make all images fit rightโ€Šโ€”โ€Šmake the dimensions right, and make sure theyโ€™re retina-display friendly. Look at what the top guys are doing, copy it.

Thatโ€™s all Iโ€™m going to give you. There is moreโ€Šโ€”โ€Šgo and work it out. Research it yourself. If youโ€™re not willing to do that, youโ€™re not willing to follow my tips anyway you lazy mug.

IMPORTANT: Donโ€™t Embrace The Darkย Side

As a Growth Hacker, Iโ€™m always looking for ways to hack sh!t. So when I first saw Product Hunt, I thought โ€œOh hell yes, Iโ€™ll just get heaps of fake upvotes and dominate thisโ€Šโ€”โ€Šsuckers!โ€.

But then I did my homework, and discovered a few things:

  1. They have vigorous anti-fraudโ€Šโ€”โ€Šyouโ€™ll probably get caught
  2. You donโ€™t get a second chance. You get caught, youโ€™re DONE on Product Hunt, and just made their shitlist.
  3. You donโ€™t NEED to do it. If you do everything I outlined above, and your product isnโ€™t a total piece of shit, youโ€™ll do great anyway.

Want Moreย 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 20โ€“50 of those suckers)

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