Ask HN: Best day in near future to launch?

[sam_in_nyc]

I'm nearing a launch of my beloved project. Pessimism aside, let's assume that it will get picked up by blogs, submitted to social media sites, etc.

What would be the ideal weekday, or just date in the near future, for this to happen? Weekday vs. Weekend?

I'm not taking it too seriously right now, and I don't believe there's any chance of the launch going completely unnoticed, but I just want to maximize every last bit of publicity I can get out of launching.

[adityakothadiya]

I had asked same question on HN before, and PG advised me that - the best launch day is when you are ready to launch.

Also, I will suggest don't focus on a single launch day. Think every day is a launch day. First launch on forums like HN, then get some feedback, then launch on few mid-size blogs, see if they cover it, see if you can handle traffic, then again launch on bigger blogs, and then keep launching to every single person you meet on each and every day. Once you are ready, every single day is a launch day.

[sam_in_nyc]

Great advice. Exactly what I was looking for, just hadn't realized it.

[patio11]

I just want to maximize every last bit of publicity I can get out of launching.

a) Approximately 99.998% of the people who will eventually hear of you will not do so on launch day.

b) In six months from now if I arrive on your site for the first time following a Google search, to all intents and purposes you just sprang into being. Am I getting your best launch experience? If not, revise plans.

[skmurphy]

Post it on HN first and ask for feedback before trying to formally launch. That may get you some early users who can also talk about it.

[aristus]

Govt agencies and others who want to bury data do so on a Friday before a long holiday... like this recent one.

So do the opposite: launch next Tuesday, 24 Feb.

But, and I say this with love, it doesn't fucking matter when you launch. We launched a beta... 12 days ago? I don't remember precisely because it doesn't matter. The people using are happy and we don't need to see our names in print.

I've worked at places that had rock star launches and promptly failed because they didn't make something people wanted. I've worked for nice, profitable businesses you've never heard of, and never will.

Anyway -- if you want publicity, it's more than just numerology. You have to build relationships with people beforehand. It's not like you're going to email [email protected] at exactly 8:13 am on the day before deadline, and boom! you're an internet legend. Give journalists a little credit.

[sam_in_nyc]

Thanks for the advice about Fridays before a long holiday.

Believe me, I'm well aware that I'm currently an insignificant force on basically all forms of media, which makes me happy to hear you sympathize.

How do I go about creating a relationship with sites like TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, etc? What I'm going to launch is something I they really would want to cover, and if they didn't, they'd be doing terrible at their job. There has to be some hope that great ideas will rise above connected people's ideas, at least in terms of coverage. This is the internet, after all.

[kirpekar]

Tuesday - Thursday