A quick intro about Shushant
Shushant left his job at Goldman Sachs to become a full-time indie hacker, launching 1 info product per week.
All of the info products he launched are a huge hit on Product Hunt with most ranking in the top 3 of Product Hunt.
Products Launched:
- Creator Catalyst
- 999+ Idea bank
- 1001+ Tweets Inspiration Bank
- Viral Thread Stack
- The Audience Thief
- No-Code Bank
Let’s unlock all his launch strategies and secrets
Maker Interview
Hi Shushant, tell us how you got into product building and your transition from quitting your day job?
My 9-5 day job used to be very repetitive in nature. It was like sitting on an excel sheet doing the same old stuff again and again for an entire day. So after spending a couple of months at Goldman Sachs, I gave in my resignation and started building my own products full time.
We’ve seen people complain that Product Hunt doesn’t encourage info products. Yet all your info products ranked on Top 3 multiple times, what’s the secret behind it?
My launch strategy is to launch on a Sunday, which is a less competitive day. So I think that gives me an edge to rank in the top three over other products.
When do you plan for launch? and How do you create buzz for the Launch?
I will start planning one week before.
- First I will validate the idea through Twitter polls.
- Then, I will make memes to market my idea on Social Media
On the launch day, I build a funnel with Twitter Auto DMs.
- I post a launch tweet and ask people to retweet it to get the product.
- Once they retweet, an auto DM with the product hunt link will be sent to their inbox (with a short message asking them to upvote)
- So when they visit the product hunt link, they will upvote my product and then go to my product page to purchase it.
So, this way my launch tweet will get more exposure and I will get more upvotes on PH.
Do you use a template for your product name, tagline and description on Product Hunt?
Yeah, I follow this template👇
- I will include numbers in the tagline. As my products are info products, numbers will help visitors get an idea of how huge the list is.
- I use one actionable word in the tagline.
- And I use PAS strategy for writing marketing copy (PAS stands for Problem, Attention & Solution)
What are the tools you use for Product Hunt launches?
- Jittervideo and Loom for product videos
- Canva for product images
- Tweet hunter for auto DMs & retweets.
- Gumroad for eCommerce
- Softr for landing page
You’re selling your products through Gumroad. Do you use any hacks to boost your sales?
Yeah, I use some hacks to build trust and social proof on the Gumroad page.
- After the Product Hunt launch, I will add the Product Hunt badge and launch dashboard images to the Gumroad copy.
- Also, after people buy I will reach out to them on Twitter for testimonials And add those testimonials to the Gumroad copy.
You’re launching products every week and most of them are free. What’s your goal behind that?
I launch products for free and then set a price for them after the launch day. There are few strategies behind that.
- In my experience, paid products get lesser upvotes than free products.
- You can get better ratings with free products on Gumroad. This builds a proof of trust which will help you when you switch to a paid product.
- Free products also help build your email list faster, which can help you with the next launch.
You’ve gained 1000s of followers on Twitter in such a short time! What is your content strategy and Is Twitter helping with the Product Hunt launch?
I’m doing what is going viral on Twitter. Curations and Auto DMs are working really well on Twitter right now. My aim on Twitter is to first focus on quantity in the early days.
From what I’ve seen observing others on Twitter, those who’re focusing too much on quality are not able to grow their audience fast. so I reversed the strategy right now.
And yeah, My Twitter audiences are helping with the Product Hunt launch and vice-versa too. With every product launch, I will get at least 100 new followers on Twitter.
When you were starting out on Product Hunt, what was your major traffic source for the Product Hunt launch?
Back then, It was not much from Twitter. It was just my college friends. I just posted about the product launch in the college groups, & shared my link to the launch post wherever I can.
Does community building help with Product Hunt Launches? Does it perform better than social media?
I’m a part of the Just ship it club, Build by STL, and Stoa communities. I will get good support from Just Ship it and Build by STL as they are my target audience.
I would say social media will be better than community building, no matter what.
We’ve seen that you’re also active on Product Hunt discussions. Does that help while launching products on Product Hunt?
Absolutely! Product Hunt increases your profile’s K rating every time you participate in a product hunt discussion.
And There are 3 levels of K rating: Bronze, Silver and Gold. The higher your K rating the better your product will rank.
My main aim is to get the Gold one on Product Hunt. As I have seen products launched by people who have a golden K rating (with less than 100 followers ) perform better than those with a huge following.
What are the 3 Advice you will give to the creators who are starting on Product Hunt?
- Keep all your social media copies ready. As soon as you launch, share them on all SM platforms.
- Build an audience before launching on Product Hunt. Be it on Twitter or Instagram or Linkedin or even your family. This will help you get upvotes in the first 2-3 hours of launch which is very crucial.
- Focus on Bio and Name rather than focusing on Logo and Thumbnail.
What are your Future Plans Shushanth?
- I’ve 100 info product ideas in my bank, I’m planning to build and launch them in the next 100 weeks.
- I’m running Just Ship it club (A community that helps online creators to build and launch products) with Saurav.
Thanks a lot, Shushant for sharing your Product Hunt strategies and secrets with us.
Follow Shushant on Twitter
