mrpr0phecy

6-week launch calendar

The full sequence, in order, with the work and the dependencies. You cannot compress this — the pre-launch work is what makes the launch day work, and the post-launch follow-up is what makes the launch compound.

Week -6 (six weeks before launch)

Goal: prep the launch assets, line up the press, set the metrics baseline.

Confirm the catalogue is the size you want it at launch (currently 562; can go higher if you want to time the launch with a milestone)
Write the Show HN post (draft is at show-hn.md); get 3-5 people to read it and tell you what's wrong
Write the 3 subreddit posts (drafts are at reddit-r-selfhosted.md); same review
Write the Product Hunt post (draft at product-hunt.md); same review
Write the X/Bluesky thread (draft at x-thread.md); same review
Write the press-pitch email (draft at press-pitch.md); same review
Identify 5-10 journalists to pitch (customise the journalist list in press-pitch.md for your actual targets)
Set up the INCOME.md measurement block — add the 5 launch metrics (HN points, PH upvotes, GitHub stars, referral traffic, AI citations) so you have a place to record the numbers
Take baseline screenshots of every page so you can spot regressions after launch

Time: ~10 hours

Week -5 (five weeks before)

Goal: soft-launch the press pitches, get early feedback, write any missing content.

Send the press-pitch email to 2-3 warm contacts (people you know or have a prior relationship with)
If any respond, do a 15-minute call and write down the questions they actually ask — these are the questions the public will ask
Use those questions to refine the Show HN body and the PH maker comment
Make sure the 12 definitive guides are linked from the home page (they are; verify)
Make sure the 12 guides have FAQ + Article JSON-LD (they do; verify with a Google Rich Results test)
Add any tools you've been meaning to add (no more than 10 in this window; the launch should not be a “we just added 50 tools” surprise)

Time: ~5 hours

Week -4 (four weeks before)

Goal: submit the Show HN post date (lock it in), get a hunter lined up for PH, prep the embeds.

Pick the Show HN launch day (Tuesday is best; avoid US holidays, product launches from bigger companies, and any day with a major tech event)
Pick the PH launch day (2-3 days after HN, so the launch energy carries over)
Ask a maker-friend with a 100+ PH follower count to hunt the PH post
Create 3-4 “embed examples” — sample pages that show how to embed a tool (a non-profit use case, a school use case, a personal-blog use case)
Set up a simple “press kit” page if you don't have one — the press page on the site (https://www.themostusefulsiteintheworld.com/press.html) is the canonical one; verify it has the factsheet, the 3 story angles, and the contact

Time: ~4 hours

Week -3 (three weeks before)

Goal: prep the social posts, write the launch blog post, plan the pre-launch engagement.

Write the launch blog post (the one that says “we just launched the marketing site”; the post is internal-facing but is also a signal to AI engines that the site has been recently updated)
Schedule 5-10 genuine community comments on HN/Reddit in the target subreddits in the 3 weeks before launch. Don't promote; just be a useful participant. This is the “warm up the audience” step.
Identify the 3-5 “first-hour supporters” — friends or colleagues who will comment, upvote, and engage in the first hour of the launch. Brief them: “comment with something substantive about the site, not just a generic +1.”
If you're going to run a small paid campaign (you said you wouldn't; the no-display-ads commitment is in AGENTS.md), this is the week to do it. Skip if you're honouring the no-paid-ads commitment.

Time: ~6 hours

Week -2 (two weeks before)

Goal: prep the embed examples, prep the press follow-ups, set the launch-day alarm.

Publish the 3-4 embed examples (in /blog/ or as separate HTML pages)
Follow up with any journalists who responded to the soft-launch pitches
Set the launch-day alarm (Tuesday, 08:00 ET, for the Show HN post at 09:00 ET)
Re-read every launch asset one final time
Have a friend who hasn't seen the site try to find the mortgage calculator without using the search bar (this is the single best test of the home page)

Time: ~4 hours

Week -1 (one week before)

Goal: soft-launch the embed examples, set the launch-day logistics.

Send the embed examples to the relevant communities (a non-profit mailing list, a school mailing list, a maker mailing list — depending on which example)
Re-test the embed snippets in a fresh browser (incognito)
Re-test the home page in 4 different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)
Re-test the home page on a phone
Pre-write the “first hour” PH maker comment (the draft in product-hunt.md is the one)
Pre-write the “first hour” Show HN first comment (the draft in show-hn.md is the one)
Pre-write the 8-tweet X thread (the draft in x-thread.md is the one)

Time: ~5 hours

Launch day (Tuesday, 09:00 ET)

Goal: ship the Show HN post, hold the thread, follow up.

Morning (08:00-12:00 ET)

08:00 — final checks: home page loads, embed page loads, donate page loads, /llms.txt loads, sitemap.xml loads
09:00 — submit the Show HN post (show-hn.md)
09:01 — post the first comment (the author intro in show-hn.md)
09:30 — check the first 10 comments; reply to every one
10:00 — post the X thread (x-thread.md) if the HN post is gaining traction
11:00 — check the post is still on the front page; if it is, hold the line; if it isn't, post the r/SideProject post as a backup

Afternoon (12:00-17:00 ET)

12:00 — second check of the HN post; reply to every comment
14:00 — if HN is going well, post the daily.dev post (daily-dev.md)
15:00 — follow up with the press-pitch email to 2-3 more journalists (the ones you held back from the soft-launch)
16:00 — third check of the HN post

Evening (17:00-22:00 ET)

17:00 — final HN check; if the post is at 50+ points, do a “thank you” maker comment
18:00 — start drafting the post-launch blog post (“we just launched the marketing site, here's what we learned in the first 8 hours”)
20:00 — post the post-launch blog post
21:00 — record the day-1 numbers in INCOME.md

Time on launch day: ~6 hours of active engagement (not all at once; spread it out)

Day +2 (Thursday)

Goal: launch the Product Hunt post, follow up on press, post the Reddit posts.

00:01 PT (03:01 ET, 08:01 UK) — submit the Product Hunt post (product-hunt.md)
00:02 PT — post the first PH maker comment
Post the 3 Reddit posts (r/SideProject first, then r/selfhosted, then r/programming, 4-6 hours apart)
Follow up with any journalists who haven't responded
Record the day-2 numbers in INCOME.md

Time: ~4 hours of active engagement

Day +3 (Friday)

Goal: follow up on the post-launch engagement, send the final press follow-ups.

Reply to any new PH comments (PH's algorithm weights day-2 engagement)
Reply to any new Reddit comments
Send the final press follow-up (one polite “bumping this in case it got buried” email to any journalist who hasn't responded)
Record the day-3 numbers in INCOME.md

Time: ~2 hours

Day +7 (one week after)

Goal: record the week-1 numbers, write the retro, plan week +2.

Record the full week-1 numbers in INCOME.md:
- HN points, comments, peak rank, referral traffic
- PH upvotes, comments, day-rank, follower gain, referral traffic
- r/SideProject / r/selfhosted / r/programming upvotes, comments, referral traffic
- daily.dev upvotes, comments, referral traffic
- X impressions, engagements, referral traffic
- GitHub stars gained
- Press coverage (which outlets ran the story, what they said)
- AI citations (Perplexity, ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews — search the 10 long-tail queries and record which engines cite which guides)
Write a 1-page retro: what worked, what didn't, what to do differently next time
File the retro in INCOME.md under a new “Launch 1 retro” heading
Plan the next launch (the next milestone: 600 tools, or a major feature, or a year anniversary)

Time: ~3 hours

Day +30 (one month after)

Goal: record the month-1 numbers, decide what to do next.

Record the month-1 numbers in INCOME.md:
- GitHub stars (target: 50+)
- AI citations (target: at least 1 citation on each of the 10 long-tail queries)
- Organic search impressions (target: 10,000+ from Google Search Console)
- Bing impressions (target: 1,000+)
- Referral traffic from HN + PH + Reddit + daily.dev + X (target: 10,000+ combined)
- Press coverage (which outlets ran the story)
- New tool requests from the post-launch traffic
Write a “what to do next” plan based on the numbers
Plan launch 2 (the next milestone)

Time: ~3 hours

What this calendar does NOT do

It does not buy ads.
It does not buy links.
It does not post anything on your behalf to PH/HN/Reddit/X. You post the drafts; the calendar is the sequence.
It does not invent fake testimonials or engagement.
It does not violate the no-fly list in AGENTS.md §3 (display ads, paywall, crypto-promotion, fake urgency, autoplay hidden video).

What this calendar does

It coordinates a 6-week sequence that the research says is the highest-ROI indie-launch sequence in 2026.
It uses the drafts in this folder (show-hn.md, reddit-r-selfhosted.md, product-hunt.md, x-thread.md, press-pitch.md, daily-dev.md).
It is auditable. Every action is logged in INCOME.md.
It is repeatable. Launch 2 (the next milestone) uses the same calendar.

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