I Launched on ProductHunt. Nobody Noticed. Here’s What I Learned.

11 upvotes, 800 visitors, and the humbling math of being a small creator.

The Launch

Last week I published my first product to ProductHunt.

I was completely prepared to be ignored.

I was not disappointed.

The product was Awesome Directories; a curated aggregator of places to submit your projects for visibility. I wrote about how I built it in one weekend if you want the technical backstory.

During the launch, I was NOT featured on the ProductHunt homepage. No special treatment from the algorithm. Anyone who opened the PH mobile app that day didn’t see my product at all.

You had to manually open the website and search for it.

Ouch.

The Numbers

Let me show you exactly what 3 weeks of pre-launch campaigning got me.

I used every channel I have: LinkedIn, X, email newsletter, all of it. Because I’m a small creator with no established audience, I couldn’t afford to be picky.

Not exactly viral.

The Humbling Math

Here’s the part that stung.

I have 15,000 followers on LinkedIn. My posts get maybe 200 impressions on a good day; unless the algorithm gods decide to smile upon me, which is rare.

That’s 1.3% organic reach.

The “audience” isn’t the audience. The followers aren’t the reach. I knew this intellectually, but seeing it in hard numbers hits different. This is exactly why I wrote about owning your audience instead of renting it on platforms.

On X, I have less than 200 followers. So I wasn’t expecting miracles there either.

Geographic breakdown showed 20% USA traffic. Somewhat targeted, but also potentially limiting for a global product.

What Actually Worked

Before I spiral into self-pity, let me acknowledge what wasn’t a complete disaster.

800 people showed up.

From nothing. From 3 weeks of grinding across every channel. That’s not zero. That’s 800 humans who saw my posts, clicked through, and landed on my page.

They explored.

2.75 pages per visitor. They weren’t bouncing; they were curious. They clicked around. They checked things out. That’s genuine interest, even if it didn’t convert to upvotes.

7 people gave me their email.

These are my most engaged users now. 0.9% conversion for a niche product with zero brand recognition. Not great, but it’s a baseline. Something concrete I can improve against.

I have data.

Before this launch, I had assumptions. Now I have numbers. Conversion rates. Traffic sources. Engagement patterns. That’s worth more than a vanity launch that teaches nothing.

Why ProductHunt Buried Me

Let’s be honest about what happened.

ProductHunt rewards existing community. People who’ve been active there for months; following others, commenting, upvoting, building relationships.

I showed up cold.

No PH followers. No community presence. No warm network to rally on launch day.

The algorithm looked at my product, saw no social proof, and quietly shuffled me to the back of the line.

This isn’t a complaint. It’s how the platform works. I just didn’t play the game.

This is the same lesson I learned with my cold outreach experiments: showing up without relationships yields brutal conversion rates.

The Lessons I’m Taking Forward

1. Build the community before the launch

ProductHunt isn’t a place to show up on launch day and hope for the best. You need to be there for weeks, ideally months. Follow people. Leave thoughtful comments. Upvote products you genuinely like.

Then, when you launch, you have people who recognize your name.

I did none of this.

2. 3 weeks isn’t enough for small creators

I ran a 3-week pre-launch campaign. Posted across all my channels. Sent two emails to subscribers.

It wasn’t enough to build momentum.

For creators without established audiences, think 2-3 months of consistent content and community building before launch day. The compounding needs time.

3. Direct asks convert better than passive browsing

The 7 email signups didn’t come from people casually browsing the site. They came from explicit CTAs; “sign up for updates,” “join the waitlist,” direct requests.

Passive content drives awareness. Direct asks drive action. This reinforces what I learned about distribution beating product.

4. Social reach ≠ traffic

15k followers. 200 impressions.

The follower count is vanity. The reach is reality. Stop optimizing for the number that doesn’t matter.

5. Now I have a baseline

0.9% email conversion. 1.4% upvote rate. 0.6% submission rate.

These aren’t good numbers. But they’re MY numbers. Something I can actually improve against instead of guessing.

What’s Next

I’m not calling this a failure. I’m calling it a first attempt.

Nurture the 7.

Those email subscribers are real humans who raised their hand. They deserve attention, value, and follow-up.

Re-engage the 21 PH followers.

Yes, I gained 21 followers on ProductHunt despite the invisible launch. They’re worth keeping warm for future launches.

Double down on what worked.

Figure out which channel drove the most of those 800 visitors. Do more of that.

Build the PH community.

Before the next launch, actually participate in the platform. Comment. Upvote. Be present. Play the long game.

The Silver Lining

I launched something.

Not a side project sitting in a GitHub repo. Not an idea in a notes app. An actual product, on an actual platform, with actual (if tiny) results.

First launch in the books. Data collected. Lessons learned.

On to the next one.

If you’re planning your first ProductHunt launch, I hope this saves you from some of my mistakes. And if you’ve already launched; how did it go? I’d genuinely love to hear.

Also this week: I wrote about how AI coding assistants are killing my joy of programming. It feels like using cheat codes in video games; exciting at first, then soul-crushing.