What's better for showing off your SaaS products: Hacker News or ProductHunt?

[yelmahallawy]

I know 9/10 people will come into this discussion and tell me it's better to use both. But I feel like the HN and PH communities are polar opposites. PH seems to be the warm, comfortable and nice community that usually says positive things about your launch whereas on the flip-side, the HN community (especially Show HN) seems like hungry piranhas who are always ready to criticize your life-work. I can see how it's better to launch on both platforms (since you'll probably get more views), but then which community gives better feedback? One can be demotivating and harsh, the other can be 'nicer' but also possibly delaying for a pivot.

I need answers!!

[verdverm]

Always be launching and sharing, it is not a one time event or limited to these 2 platforms. Twitter is a place where people discover new tools as well. Reddit, slack, discord, and many other places are valuable too.

You're always going to have haters whatever you build. What is key is to not become emotionally attached to your idea that you feel personally slighted when someone says something you don't like

[yelmahallawy]

How does one get their projects from 0 to 1 (or even get beta users) if all of their socials have <10 karma. All of my previous HN threads were basically me trying to shill my projects, but no one viewed it or commented (along with my posts on twitter, reddit, and discord). How can someone like myself properly market on social media without paying to market?

[jschveibinz]

In addition to the other good comment, you could try some A/B testing on your posts, your value prop or marketing message, and/or your landing page designs. Like the other commenter said, it can be a combination of many things so you need to try lots of things and adapt. Like most challenges, you need to try and try again. Good luck.

[yelmahallawy]

Thank you! I will definitely test and iterate.

[verdverm]

A single user in synchronous communication (video is best) is way better than a dozen or a hundred anonymous passerbys. I just learned how much recently, from an early adopter in the truest sense.

[verdverm]

It could be less about what you did on the socials and more tied to the project. Maybe it was the messaging, maybe it's the project not solving a top 3 pain.

Hard to say without context from both. There's so much that can impact it, and more often than not, a little bit of everything. Luck and timing also play a role

[yelmahallawy]

How do I position myself to get luckier?

[verdverm]

Luck is about preparation and practice, just do things and don't worry about it.

[yelmahallawy]

They also sometimes say opposite things, so in case you were going to say "just listen to them all", it's a little bit harder than that.