Launching on a newsletter (not Product Hunt): The Operator playbook

62k subscribers and I have never topped Product Hunt. My launches: one dedicated issue (story, not features), one week of in-product banners for existing users, and replies. I answer every reply for 72 hours. The replies ARE the launch.

Numbers from the last launch: 41% open, 9% click, 300 trials, 60% of annual plan uptake in week one. Total spend: zero. Total time: one week of writing plus three days of inbox.

Product Hunt is a spike. Newsletters are a slope. Spikes photograph well. Slopes pay rent. (No disrespect to hunters, spikes have their uses. But own your slope first.)

SLOPE PAYS RENT!!! This is going on the Habitloop wall. We over-invested in launch spikes and under-invested in the letter. 40k downloads, and the letter drives more trials than any spike ever did!!

Podcast parallel: episodes are spikes, the feed is the slope. Same shape. The launch episode gets the screenshot, the back catalogue gets the subscribers. Own the slope, rent the spike.

Exactly. And the slope compounds: every issue adds subscribers who see the next launch. Spikes reset to zero. Slopes remember.

Extension-launch view: our launches are Chrome Web Store features (spike) plus the changelog page (slope, thanks Colm). The slope page converts for months. The spike converts for a day. Both, but slope first.