The indie maker launch checklist: 47 things to do before going live

This is the launch checklist we wish we'd had the first three times we shipped something. Forty-seven items, grouped by phase, ordered by how badly each one will hurt you if skipped.

Print it, copy it into a doc, fork it on your own site — the only ask is that you don't treat it as gospel. Every product is different. Half of this list will save you. The other half won't apply. Read the headings, skip what doesn't.

Pre-launch · day -30 to day -7 (the actual work)

The real launch is in the month before launch day. If this list is mostly red on day -7, push the launch.

1. One sentence pitch written, tested with three people who don't already love the product.
2. Tagline under 60 characters. Memorable beats clever. (See how to write a tagline that doesn't suck.)
3. Landing page loads in under 1.5 seconds on a cold cache. Run Lighthouse twice.
4. Mobile-perfect landing page. Roughly 60% of launch traffic is mobile.
5. Pricing visible without scrolling on desktop. Hidden pricing kills conversion.
6. Free trial or refund policy stated in plain English next to the CTA.
7. Working email capture that drops to a real list provider (Resend, ConvertKit, Beehiiv — pick one).
8. Welcome email sent within 60 seconds of signup. Brand voice, not a templated dump.
9. A "what is this?" 30-second loom linked from the landing page. No background music.
10. 3 screenshots in the gallery. Not stock photos. Not laptop mockups. The actual product.
11. OG meta tags set with a 1200×630 social card. Test in opengraph.xyz.
12. Favicon. Not the framework default.
13. Privacy policy + Terms of Service. Boring but required for app store listings, Stripe approval, and any GDPR exposure.
14. Stripe live mode tested with a real card, then refunded. The first time you launch and the payment doesn't work is a story you tell later.

Pre-launch · day -7 to day -1 (the distribution)

15. Submit to FireLaunch as Kindling (free) or Ember ($39, no badge). Approved listings index within 24h and start passing dofollow link juice before launch day.
16. Submit to 3–5 other launch boards (see the platform ranking).
17. Find a Product Hunt hunter — pick someone who's hunted ≥10 products before. DM them the page.
18. Schedule PH for 12:01am Pacific on launch day.
19. Pre-write the launch email sequence (teaser, live, last-call). Schedule the teaser.
20. Write 5 launch tweets. Different angles: the problem, the screenshot, the user story, the price, the call.
21. Write a long-form launch post for your own blog. This is the canonical version everyone else links back to.
22. Reach out to 10 specific people who'd actually use the product. Not a mailing list — personal asks.
23. Identify 2 niche subreddits where the product would be on-topic. Read their rules. Plan one ungimmicked post per sub for launch day.
24. Hacker News story prepared. Title written. Submitter account warmed (≥3 months old, ≥100 karma).
25. Founder X account has a pinned tweet that explains the product in under 280 chars.

Pre-launch · day -1 (the small stuff that bites)

26. Server load tested to roughly 20× your normal traffic. Even a small launch can hit 200 req/min.
27. Error monitoring in place (Sentry, Highlight — pick one). You will get an error you didn't predict.
28. Database backed up. Right now. Yes, even for a side project.
29. Cron jobs verified. A launch day where a billing cron silently dies is the worst-case scenario.
30. Support email monitored. Set up forwarding to a phone or a Slack channel.
31. Refund policy linked in your transactional emails. Cuts support volume by ~30%.
32. Block out launch day on your calendar. No meetings, no other commitments.
33. Eat something. Sleep. The 12:01am Pacific posting time will hit harder than you expect.

Launch day

34. 12:01am Pacific: post on Product Hunt. Use the hunter you set up in step 17.
35. 6:00am Pacific: first email goes out ("we're live"). Stagger by timezone if your list is global.
36. 7:00am Pacific: post in your two pre-identified subreddits. Be a human, not an ad.
37. 8:00am Pacific: tweet the first of your five prepared tweets.
38. 9:30am Pacific: post on Hacker News. Stay around to answer comments for the first 2 hours.
39. 10:00am Pacific: post on Indie Hackers with a "what I'm launching today" milestone.
40. All day: reply to every single comment within 60 minutes. Comments are weighted heavily by every algorithm — yours and theirs.
41. No upvote begging. "Please upvote me" tweets get caught by detection and count against you on Product Hunt now.
42. 4:00pm Pacific: second email ("last call" or "thanks").
43. End of day: screenshot your stats while they're high. You'll want them for the recap post.

Post-launch · days +1 to +7

44. Reply to every Product Hunt comment within 24h. They're weighted for an additional 48h after launch.
45. Reply to every email reply from your launch list. The conversations that start here are most of the value.
46. Send a "thank you" email on day +2. Include a screenshot of the result, a quote from a user, and one specific ask (review, share, feedback).
47. Write the launch recap post on day +7. What worked, what didn't, the numbers. Indie hackers eat these posts up — it's also when the second wave of traffic shows up.

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The thing you're allowed to skip

If you have to pick one rule from this list to break: skip Product Hunt entirely if you're not willing to do steps 17–18 well. A half-effort PH launch is worse than no PH launch — you spend the energy, get a "Top 38" finish, and burn the goodwill of anyone you asked to help.

The other 45 items? They're the boring infrastructure that makes a small launch feel like a real one. Half of them apply to your product. The other half don't. The skill is knowing which half is which.

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