Product builder and founder of youneedawiki.com

September 25th, 2018

How to launch: Launch tips for makers

Pat

“The most important thing when you release products is sharing it and having an audience, and having people see it”

Before starting

1. Tweet what you plan on doing (12-24 hours in advance)

Example: https://twitter.com/thepatwalls/status/1043242997050167302

2. Setup page for collecting emails for people who want to see the final result, Pat uses https://www.klaviyo.com

3. Share project on:

Group chat: Pat uses https://wip.chat

Reddit:

There is an art to posting on reddit: don’t over self promote yourself, try to keep it personalized, you don’t want to come off like you’re some company or corporation.
No emoji’s
Don’t get people to upvote too quickly as reddit will flag it
Copy original tweet, post to:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur

https://www.reddit.com/r/startups

https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong

After posting first one, open post in incognito, if it says [deleted] or [removed] it has been shadow banned.
Example of post

https://www.reddit.com/r/EntrepreneurRideAlong/comments/9hzyq2/im_launching_a_startup_in_24_hours

Be prepared for skeptical comments

4. Tweet update that you are starting

https://twitter.com/thepatwalls/status/1043504629512847366

During launch

Coming up with a name

He used first one that came naturally
If you use something that is slightly controversial it can start more of a conversation/get more press

People who use wordpress -> You do need wordpress this sucks
People who don’t -> you actually don’t need wordpress

Post on Hackernews

Example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18046188
If you hit the front page of hackernews you will get 1000 people on your site at any one time.

Post on Facebook: Copy post from twitter

Respond to people commenting on your post (Reddit, twitter, hackernews, facebook), helps with engagement. Doesn’t have to be right away, but within an hour or so.
Update your project as you go along, helps people understand where you are at.

Example: https://twitter.com/thepatwalls/status/1043599931611734021

Post to Product hunt
Share in group chat
Update twitter/reddit/facebook/hackernews
Email any sign ups

Other notes

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Ideas

He got this from Pieter Levels, whenever you have an idea write it down.

Find some small tactic to use for marketing -- then build a simple tool that could be shared for free / cheap with others. Pat did this with FindThyPeeps.com

If you keep thinking about it, move it to the “Thought about multiple times”

General notes

Niche:

Start in a niche, facebook groups for e-commerce

Focus:

Starter Story: I can code, but I probably shouldn’t spend time coding this project. It would be a better use of my time to actually just get the stories. The coding/tech is tempting but it’s not the best use of time.
Key takeaway: identify the thing that is tempting and the thing that is important to achieve your goal, focus on the thing that is important, ignore everything else.

Scale/Funnel/Sales

“I do 100’s of interviews, a lot of them don’t actually pan out, so I need to do everything possible to make sure they get it done.”
If you want 1 paying user -> you need to be doing sales for 100

Launch

Use https://previewhunt.com for preparing product hunt launch
Make a logo with canva
Write description with: http://www.hemingwayapp.com

Spreading the word

Spreading the word is 10x more important than what you build.
My code isn’t great, it’s not going to be fast, it’s going to be buggy, but the fact that I’m sharing this on twitch/twitter, that is a strategy.

Ethan

“Hype everyone, go ahead. People like hype, they don’t even see it as self-promotion.”

“Here’s where we get to use a lot of cat emoji’s”

Pre-product hunt launch

Scheduled product launch with hunter
Post link to Makerlog
Post link Twitter

Emoji’s are important 🚀

Post to Maker's Kitchen: https://makerskitchen.xyz/
Post to Telegram groups

Mailchimp, send out email to your beta testers
Check PH link is live
Post product hunt link on twitter with plenty of emoji’s
Add product hunt link to unubo for stats
Post product hunt link to makerlog/maker’s kitchen/telegram groups
Ask hunter to tweet about it, if they haven’t already
Respond to people on product hunt
Post link on Indiehackers
Set reminder to post on twitter every hour, post updates
Send out email to other sign ups

* You can also view Ethan’s checklist here:

https://www.notion.so/gkiely/Big-launch-checklist-991b2bcc42f445aebe0cd9b2057b6b7e