How to be featured on Product Hunt and boost your leads

There’s a Facebook group for startups (London Startups) where everybody is discussing and trying to find the way to be listed on Product Hunt.

Everyone says it’s too difficult and almost impossible. The one who made it, share his results with the group.

Being featured on Product Hunt seems to be the new goal for every startupper since it might be the best and most effective way to test and promote a product, or an app, without wasting money in ads.

The reason is simple. There are great and successful companies that launched their products on Product Hunt. Many of them got the initial boost they needed to become successful.

An example? Meerkat, the video sharing app. Or Periscope, its competitor.

->ALSO READ: THE DAY WE LAUNCHED A NEW APP ON PRODUCT HUNT AND..

What is Product Hunt

Product Hunt is a daily list of new tech products and services. It’s easy to explore and great to discover new products, thanks to the simple UI and design.

Anyone, signed in (you can simply join the community using your Twitter handle), can upvotes and comment a new product. The more votes your product gain, the higher it will rank on the daily chart.

The benefits for your startups or projects

Product Hunt is made by a vibrant and active tech-savvy community. The users are more likable to vote and comments a product, giving sincere and quality advises.

Being featured on Product Hunt will give you the opportunity to:

• Show your product/app/website/service to a large community of experts
• Have a global reach
• Advertise your product for free
• Receive valuable feedbacks
• Establish and make new connections and potential partners
• Being discovered by (hopefully) and investor
• Test your business model
• Promote your company with a side project
• Also, 15 million users visit the website each month

How to be featured on Product Hunt

So, how can you access to all this awesomeness?

1- Sign-up and request to submit a product

This is the first option but probably the less effective since everybody is doing it. If you can’t see the “+” on the top right of the screen, it means that you are not yet allowed to submit or hunt a product.

2- Reach out to a Hunter “H”

Can you see the face icons next to the products listed? Well, some of them are “hunters”. It means they are users who can hunt and submit new products.

Go to their profile and look for a contact. Most of the time the easiest way is to tweet them and ask to check out your startup. If interested, they’ll review it and list it on PH.

3- Reach out to a Maker “M”

Makers are those who already have submitted a product or are being marked as “makers” by a hunters or PH. They are also allowed to publish.

So, same thing, politely ask them to review your product and see if they are interested to post your great app or service.

Note: don’t be spammy, aggressive or to rude. Remember they are giving you a favor. Also, rules change often on PH and sometimes the product must be reviewed by Product Hunt team before being published.

As you can see, it doesn’t look so difficult to make it 🙂

Gain leads and visits with a side project

On Product Hunt you don’t necessary need to post your company, app or startup. You can also submit something valuable for the community.

You can also start a side project in oder to drive traffic to your main project or website.

Let me explain it

A side project is something related to your main business. The goal is to give something valuable, possibly for free. This project should be designed to target a specific audience and your potential clients.

A side project is used by many startups to grab the attention in a different way and create value. It is the quintessence of content marketing.

You can offer a list of free resources, ebooks, free lessons, stock images.

For example if you are a photographer you can create a website with a free list of locations you can use for photo shooting background.

If you are a developer you can create a website with free resources or a quote calculator, just like the Crew team did.

So the core points should be:

• Create value
• Create something related to your main business
• Target a specific audience and type of person

I’ve learned all these interesting things about a side project just last week, attending the course “From 0 to 1 Million Visitors”. If you are looking to organically boost your audience this is a great course to attend! 🙂

Conclusion

Product Hunt can be a good place to start promoting your business and to validate it. If you follow the tips mentioned above there are good chances your startup will be listed on the website.

If you need help to do that, I am a “maker” on PH. This is my profile. I can submit a product and hopefully you’ll see it listed.

Also, consider a side project in order to gain traction on your main business. It is something that really worth. Several freelancer and entrepreneurs such as Ali Mese and Crew are doing with great results.

See you!