Are you getting real votes ?

I honestly care about the actual bottom line results like product sign ups

@artashes_baghdasaryan I agree with your perspective here. Having thousands of upvotes and traction on platforms is of little use if a good amount of this doesn't flow to your product/website/app at the end of the day.

I've received almost a dozen messages on Linkedin trying to sell services for guarenteed upvotes to boost product launch to top 3-5.. Wonder how many of these products with thousands of upvotes might be doing something like this...

It's such a tricky situation. Becoming #1 certainly doesn't mean that you have a #1 product. It simply means that you had a lot of support on your launch day. I personally want to judge my product launch success based on the number of sign ups and genuine feedback received. Sometimes I upvote products that I would never use because I am not their ICP. But I support their launch because I think that it's a great product and I'd recommend it to others.

Artashes, you make a compelling point about the authenticity of engagement; true success is better reflected in actual user registrations and downloads than just the visible vote count. I think this perspective is crucial for startups to consider when evaluating their Product Hunt performance.

Mmmh wouldn't take that perspective. Depending on your TLDR you might count visits (can upvote and not visit), leads (can visit but not fill in a single input). So I guess for us it's contacting sales...

Coming at this from a marketing perspective (that's my background). There's a benefit to simply receiving a high placement in terms of product hunt rankings, even if you have a low product conversion rate. The main reason is brand awareness. If you receive a ton of votes now, that means a higher number of people will have had an interaction with your brand. Regardless of whether they've checked out your product or are even in your ICP, there's an actual dollar amount that you could assign to that interaction. They may add value to your actual conversion/revenue metrics down the line if a) they remember something positive about you from the PH launch and become a future customer and/or b) they speak with another prospective customer and recommend you.

Alright, so here's the deal: Product Hunt is a platform where you can introduce your product and gain visibility for it. PH made no such promises to us or indicated in the guidelines that this would result in an increase in sign-ups or anything like. With my product Zixflow, I've had a nice number of registrations and we came in second place—a win-win situation—and I've recently noticed that we're starting to receive PH referrals for our product. They do admit to me on a demo call that they learned about us from a PH member. In my opinion, this is reasonable.

PH has changed the game (the streaks etc), I now look at being a product of the day/week as a prelaunch tactic with a lot of reciprocation play at the beginning, unless you are building a product they can also use. The result is to have that badge for credibility it makes sense. I can remember a few years ago it was different, it had more significance. Saying that I saw Veed the other day with a new feature/product, they had 11m visits to their site in December, so why bother if it wasn't worth it? On the other side if you want actual early user feedback perhaps AppSumo is a good choice. The terms are terrible for long-term growth, but if you have more than one product in the pipeline then you can upsell to them later. Outside of that its typical growth hacking/marketing.

Very valid point. Tbh I had this on my mind for a few weeks already. What would you rather have? #1 product but no signups/just a few OR be below the top #3 and get actual signups and early adopters? I would choose the second option. What would I do with #1 product with so little real feedback? Perhaps just a good PR?👀

Yes :)

Hi! interesting definition of "real votes"! Answering in those terms we hadn't have any on our launch as we made it without much preparation But I think it's overly strict! People may really like the product promise and looks and wish to support/follow to look where it goes, or they may not have time to test it right away - I would still count thous votes as real. The system here isn't perfect as it seems to turn into influence competition within the product hunt community, but I don't yet have any constructive suggestions on how we can improve that and I like the platform as it is so far! Although, you are right! it would be interesting to see filtration of products based on the amount of downloads or even site visits on their launch day.

Artashes, I agree that the true measure of a product's success goes beyond just the number of votes—it's in the real-world usage and registrations. It's essential to look at the engagement metrics post-launch to truly gauge interest and value to users.

Good point! @artashes_baghdasaryan A large number of votes with minimal conversions suggests a lack of compelling value. Prioritizing registrations or downloads over sheer vote numbers ensures a more accurate gauge of a product's impact and potential for long-term success. One idea, you need to focus on improving the conversion rate of votes to registrations or downloads. This involves refining your marketing message to clearly communicate the product's value, offering incentives for users to take action, streamlining the registration or download process, and implementing targeted follow-up campaigns. By prioritizing user feedback and continuously refining your approach, you can increase the likelihood of converting interest into tangible engagement.