I’m a solo maker, and I just changed my Product Hunt launch date for Humoropedia GPT to January 10.
Not because the product isn’t ready.
Because attention isn’t ready.
And if your goal is Day-1 upvotes + comments (mine is), attention is the whole game.
The “holiday attention fog” is real (and postponing is a strategic choice)
Between Christmas and New Year, a lot of people are physically online… but mentally in another tab.
They’re traveling. They’re with family. They’re “just checking email.” They’re half-working. Half-napping. Fully distracted.
That week can feel active because feeds are moving — but launches often get less committed engagement.
So I made a strategic choice: I’d rather launch when the same number of people are online and actually willing to click, comment, and upvote.
January 10 isn’t magic. It’s just closer to the moment when routines return and “I’ll check that later” turns into “okay, let me actually look.”
My constraint: I’m a team of one
If you’re a solo maker, a Product Hunt launch is basically a one-day festival where you are also:
- the performer
- the stage crew
- the sound engineer
- the person handing out flyers outside
Launching during holiday fog makes that harder, because you can’t rely on momentum. You have to brute-force every click.
So I moved the date to Jan 10 to give myself a better shot at the thing Product Hunt rewards most:
sustained attention across the whole day.
What I’m doing differently now (my Jan 10 checklist)
I’m using the extra time for three things:
1) I’m turning outreach into “micro-commitments”
Instead of “Can you support my launch?”, I’m aiming for:
- “Want to be one of the first 20 commenters?”
- “If you try it, can you reply with the funniest output you got?”
Small yes-es beat big vague maybes.
2) I’m preparing comment bait (in a good way)
People comment when you hand them a prompt.
So I’m pre-writing a few “steal these” prompts that are fast and fun, like:
- “Explain my job like it’s a fantasy novel.”
- “Write a video script where coffee negotiates my employment contract.”
- “Define ‘deadline’ like a haunted object.”
On launch day, I’ll paste these directly into the thread to seed interaction.
3) I’m making it painfully easy to try the product immediately
If someone clicks and has to think, you lose them.
So I’m focusing the entire launch flow around one action:
Click → try → laugh → comment.
Here’s the product link (it’s live already; the launch is just the spotlight):
https://chatgpt.com/g/g-LonJsyPin-humoropedia-gpt-story-image-generator
A note for other makers: timing is part of the product
This is the part nobody wants to admit:
A launch isn’t only “is the product good?”
It’s also:
- “Is the audience awake?”
- “Are they in decision mode?”
- “Are they clicking for fun or doomscrolling to survive?”
- “Do they have the bandwidth to leave a comment?”
That’s why big tech rarely drops major announcements in the Christmas → New Year gap.
It’s not superstition — it’s a strategic choice.
If you’re launching soon, steal this rule of thumb
If you need a lot of Day-1 engagement, avoid windows where people are:
- traveling,
- decompressing,
- or telling themselves they’ll “start fresh next week.”
(Your product may still be great — but attention is finite.)
What’s next
I’m launching on January 10.
If you’re building something too, I hope this helps you choose a date like a marketer, not like a gambler.
And if you want to play with Humoropedia GPT early (and tell me what broke, what surprised you, or what made you laugh), the link is above.
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