PayRank / Where to promote your product in 2026: a maker’s channel list
Where to promote your product in 2026: a maker’s channel list
September 2026
You built something. Now the hard part: getting the first few hundred people to look at it. There is no single button for that — distribution is a portfolio. This is a working list of the places makers actually use, grouped by how they work and what they cost.
None of these are magic. A launch platform gives you a spike; a directory gives you a trickle; paid placement gives you whatever you pay for. Pick three or four that fit your product and audience, do them properly, and repeat.
Launch platforms — a spike of attention on one day
- Product Hunt — Still the default. A strong launch can send thousands of visits and a lasting backlink; a weak one disappears by noon. Line up assets and a few early supporters before you post.
- Hacker News (Show HN) — Enormous upside if it resonates with a technical crowd, near-silent if it does not. Post the thing itself, stay in the comments, never ask for upvotes.
- Reddit — Niche subreddits (r/SideProject, r/indiehackers, r/SaaS, plus your product’s actual topic) can convert well. Read each sub’s self-promotion rules first; a value-first post beats an announcement.
- Indie Hackers — Post a story or a milestone, not an ad. The audience is other founders, so “here’s what I learned” travels further than “here’s my product”.
- dev.to / Lobsters / Hashnode — Good for developer tools if you write a genuine technical post. Lobsters is invite-only and allergic to marketing.
Directories — a long tail of low-effort listings
Submit once, get a slow trickle of traffic and a backlink for years. Low effort, low individual payoff, worth doing in bulk. A few that are still maintained:
- There’s An AI For That — The largest AI-tool directory; close to mandatory if your product is AI.
- AlternativeTo — People search it when they are unhappy with a competitor. List yourself as an alternative to the incumbent.
- SaaSHub / Slant — Comparison-style directories that rank for “{competitor} alternatives” queries.
- G2 / Capterra — Review sites, not directories. Worth it for B2B software once you can gather a handful of reviews.
- Fazier, Uneed, MicroLaunch, Peerlist, Launching Next — Smaller launch/directory hybrids. Individually minor, collectively an afternoon’s work for a dozen backlinks and some traffic.
- BetaList — Pre-launch audience of early adopters. The free queue is slow; paying skips it.
Paid placement — buy the attention directly
- Newsletter sponsorships — Sponsor a newsletter your buyers already read (developer, design, niche-industry). The most reliable paid channel when the audience matches tightly.
- Product Hunt Promoted / ads — Only after you understand your conversion rate; easy to burn money otherwise.
- PayRank — A pay-to-rank leaderboard: you bid for a ranked slot instead of hoping for votes, and the position holds until someone outbids you. Transparent pricing, no algorithm, and category boards for narrower audiences. (Full disclosure: you are reading this on PayRank; outbound links here are nofollow, like most directories.)
The slow channels — compounding, months not days
- SEO / content: write the pages your buyers actually search for. Slowest to start, best long-term cost per visit.
- Build in public on X / LinkedIn: post the process, not just the launch. Compounds an audience over months.
- Communities: the Slack / Discord / forum where your users already are. Be a regular before you mention your product.
How to choose
- Match the channel to where your buyers already are — a design tool on Product Hunt, a compliance tool in an industry newsletter.
- Do three or four properly rather than twenty badly.
- Launch platforms are one-shot; directories and paid placement you can repeat.
- Track which channel actually converted, not just which one sent traffic.
FAQ
Is Product Hunt still worth it in 2026?
Yes, but as one spike, not a growth strategy. Budget a week of prep for a day of traffic, and treat the backlink and the email sign-ups as the lasting value, not the badge.
How much should I budget?
You can do the free tier of everything here for the cost of your time. If you are paying, newsletter sponsorships and a modest PayRank bid are where a small budget goes furthest.
What’s the difference between a directory and a leaderboard?
A directory lists everyone in roughly fixed order and you wait for search traffic. A leaderboard ranks entries against each other — on PayRank, by how much they have bid — so position is competitive and visible.
Do these give me SEO backlinks?
Some do — many directory links are “follow”. But a lot of high-traffic placements (Product Hunt outbound, most “sponsored” spots, and PayRank) use nofollow. Treat backlinks as a bonus, not the reason to submit.
One big launch or lots of small posts?
Both. Do one coordinated launch day across a few platforms, then keep a steady drip of directory submissions and community posts for the months after.