[ohstopitu]

From what I understand about the PH algorithm, votes for a product that directly come from the link are not valued as much as votes that are organic (either from the homepage, if you search for the product, find it in a collection etc.)

[minimaxir]

Of course, there is a "workaround" where people post on public forums "my product was featured on the Front Page of Product Hunt!" with a link to the front page, and the implication is clear. Whenever I call them out as attempting to beat the algorithm, it usually starts a flame war. ("It's hustle!" / "Everyone is doing it!")

[ohstopitu]

I mentioned the above comment because spending on ads (which have links to the direct product on product hunt) would not do too much good (PH algorithm seems to take vote count, vote origin, time of vote and time density of votes into accounts).

That said, one of the startups I interned at, had a massive internal doc (and tools) on how exactly to game product hunt (which I believe was extremely effective) - The startup ran out of business and is no longer around, which is why I was trying to recreate that document + tool.