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Ask HN: Is ProductHunt Worth It?

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Ask HN: Is ProductHunt Worth It?

#1
I have a feeling that ProductHunt is only read by people who post to ProductHunt in a sort of pyramidal echo chamber. Is it the case, or does ProductHunt reach further than product managers in small companies?

Re: Ask HN: Is ProductHunt Worth It?

#5
Unlike HN, Product Hunt explicitly encourages posters to go out and ask their network to upvote. This one key aspect makes ProductHunt much less meritocratic IMO and just a mirror of how large the poster’s network is.

So I’ve stopped paying too much attention if a product claims they made it to #1 product of the day/week/month on ProductHunt.

Re: Ask HN: Is ProductHunt Worth It?

#7
(tl;dr: crapshoot as to whether you get featured, but worth it if you do.)

my personal experience with it was positive.

I posted my site on PH over the summer (plug: https://avant.fm, a customizable feed of new releases from the best indie music labels).

After a couple weeks it was featured for a day. Not sure how that happened, but someone with some pull "hunted" it I guess. About 30 other sites were featured that day.

I eventually made it to #4 and got 1000 hits, roughly, with a very slowly decaying tail. I still get a couple referrals a day from PH.

Now the traffic was nice, though temporary.

But I also appreciated it as a an additional reason to get out there shout about my site. I had already announced it on twitter, but this gave the opportunity to spend another day hyping. I made a couple twitter posts as I climbed up, and then a final one when I had reached my peak and the day was over.

But I also reached out individually to many people via DM or email, asking them to upvote me. This was an unique opportunity because it's a less awkward ask than "check out my website and tell me what you think."

This created some nice networking moments and opportunities where I felt like the site got on the radar of a few people in a helpful way, hopefully paving the way for something in the future.

Re: Ask HN: Is ProductHunt Worth It?

#8
I tried using it a few years ago to find new stuff to use and was turned off by the amount of meaningless, buzzword laden vaporware. I also didn’t like the weird long comment chains between the product’s founder/cofounders/CTO in an effort to make it look like the page was more active or something. It all felt shallow and like a shinier version of cork board of business cards by the Lowes bathroom

Re: Ask HN: Is ProductHunt Worth It?

#9
Echo chamber. Can still be worth it, especially if that's your target market, but don't overinvest effort into it. And don't expect people to think "#1 on product hunt" to be a signal of quality and not of "we couldn't think of anything important to tell you about our product instead". (you occasionally see people try that e.g. on HN. it doesn't work, at all)

Re: Ask HN: Is ProductHunt Worth It?

#10
I think you're asking if it's worth to get the things you make on ProductHunt?

I can't answer that, I'm not a creator, but I can answer as a consumer/user/reader of ProductHunt. I get the weekly digest thing and I always read it, and often try things, and share things I see there with other people I know that might find that "new" thing useful. It's really the only thing I follow to find new stuff like that.

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