Product of the Day, votes, and ranking on MakerHunt

MakerHunt ranks launches with a simple rule: upvotes during the live UTC day, then lock daily ranks when the clock rolls. Week and month views roll up from that. This post is the long version of votes and PotD.

If you only need the launch sequence (badge, submit, day-of), start with how to launch on MakerHunt. This page is about how votes become PotD / PotW / PotM, how ties break, and how to campaign without lying to yourself about what money buys.

What we do not sell

• We do not sell Product of the Day. Featured €19 and SEO €39 buy chrome and (for SEO) a queued article, not a rank.
• We do not count comments as PotD score. Comments help trust; upvotes decide the day.
• We do not guarantee week or month badges at payment time. PotW / PotM are standings that can still move until the window ends.
• We do not run a fraud product. Multi-account farming is not a supported strategy.

Pricing facts stay on pricing. Naming facts: launch types.

Who can vote

• You must be signed in.
• One upvote per user per project (toggle off by voting again).
• Self-upvote is allowed.
• Multi-account farming is not a supported strategy. We are not building a detective novel around it, and it is still a waste of your time.

Votes are for ranking and social proof. They are not a payment. One human, one account, one vote per project is the contract.

What a vote is not

A vote is not a review, not a follow, and not a Stripe event. Buying Featured does not cast votes. Completing Premium checkout does not cast votes. The Featured-on homepage badge does not cast votes.

The live day

When your project is ongoing, it appears on Today. Visitors upvote and comment. Your job is to drive people to the MakerHunt URL and keep the thread alive.

There is no mid-day “freeze.” Counts move until the day closes.

Timezone reality: the live window opens around 09:00 UTC. In much of Europe that is morning. In US Pacific it is still the previous calendar evening. Plan posts and sleep around UTC, not local “Tuesday” vibes. More in launch day UTC and UTC launch day playbook.

Day-of checklist (votes edition)

1. At open: self-upvote once if you want; pin a maker comment with the problem you solve.
2. Share MakerHunt link first, product site second.
3. Ask for one concrete action: open the hunt link and upvote if the tool helped.
4. Reply to every real comment the same day.
5. Mid-day UTC: one update (screenshot, fix, quote).
6. Near close: one honest ask if you have news. Do not spam the same empty plea hourly.

Prep detail: prepare launch day comments and upvotes.

Daily close (~09:00 UTC)

Each cron run (target ~09:00 UTC):

1. Yesterday’s (and any past) ongoing launches with a date before today become launched.
2. Among that day’s launches, the top three by upvote count get dailyRanking 1, 2, and 3.
3. Tie-break: first maker to reach the winning count keeps the rank (upvoteCountReachedAt). Only a strictly higher count overthrows.

Projects with zero votes still close as launched. They simply get no PotD number. Empty days still run; we do not cancel the clock because the board is quiet.

Tie examples (plain English)

You cannot “buy the timestamp.” You can only get real votes earlier.

What PotD unlocks

Owners with ranks 1–3 can copy PotD badge embeds from /projects/[slug]/badges (light/dark SVGs). That page is owner-or-admin. Visitors still see PotD chrome on closed-day feed rows and on winners.

PotD embeds are earned. They are not the Featured-on homepage badge and not the paid Featured pill. Mixing those names in your changelog confuses everyone. Badge taxonomy: Featured-on badge guide.

Product of the Week and Month

Both PotW and PotM are computed when you read winners / trending, not as a second write-time contest at payment. Treat them as standings that can still move until the window ends. A Tuesday lead can lose PotW by Sunday if later days outperform.

Owner week/month badge copy follows the same top-three idea when standings put you there. Do not screenshot a mid-week lead and call it final.

How to campaign without being annoying

• Ask your users for one concrete action: “Open the MakerHunt link and upvote if the tool helped you.”
• Pin a maker comment that states the problem you solve in one sentence.
• Reply in public. Silent launches look abandoned.
• Share once on your main channel, once mid-day UTC, once near close if you have news (a fix, a screenshot, a customer quote).
• Prefer warm users who already tried the product over blasting cold strangers for empty clicks.

Buying Featured does not buy PotD. Featured is feed chrome (pricing).

Failure modes

Reading the boards

Use Yesterday when you want locked daily ranks. Use winners / trending when you care about week and month rollups. Use Today when you are still live and the count is moving.

Aftercare once ranks lock

1. If you earned PotD 1–3, copy embeds from /projects/[slug]/badges and place them where press or customers look (about, footer, changelog).
2. Keep Featured-on up if you launched free (legal/badges).
3. Point product UI or changelog at the listing URL.
4. Watch week/month boards without refreshing every hour. Standings move with later launches in the window.
5. Write down what channel sent real votes vs empty profile clicks. Use that on the next campaign.

Full aftercare in the launch playbook: how to launch.

Money vs votes (one more time)

If someone sells you “guaranteed PotD on MakerHunt,” they are not describing this product.

UTC day timeline (operator view)

Use this as a mental model. Exact cron minutes can vary slightly; plan around ~09:00 UTC.

If you live in US Pacific, “launch morning” is still Tuesday evening when Wednesday’s UTC day opens. Put both on the calendar. More: launch day UTC, UTC launch day playbook.

Campaign scripts that do not waste people

Bad: “We are live! Upvote please!!!” with no URL and no reason.

Better patterns:

1. Warm users: “If the tool saved you time this month, our MakerHunt day is live until the next 09:00 UTC. One signed-in upvote helps ranking: [MakerHunt URL]. Reply on the thread if pricing or onboarding is confusing.”
2. Cold-ish audience: Lead with the problem and a screenshot. Put the hunt link second. Ask for feedback first, upvote second.
3. Maker comment on the listing: One sentence problem, who it is for, one ask. Pin it. Update mid-day with a fix or quote.

You are allowed to self-upvote. You are not entitled to other people’s accounts. One vote per user per project is the whole rule.

Week and month: how to read without coping

PotW and PotM reward consistency across a window, not a single lucky hour.

• A quiet Tuesday PotD #1 can still lose PotW to a busier Thursday cohort.
• Mid-week screenshots of “#1 this week” are standings, not trophies, until the window ends.
• Month boards on trending / winners are the same idea at calendar scale.
• If you relaunch later in the month, you are a new row in the month window with a new vote day. Treat it as a new campaign.

Owner badge copy for week/month follows top-three standings when you qualify. Do not invent a PotM SVG from a mid-month lead.

Comparison: votes vs chrome vs badge

Mixing these in marketing copy is how you train customers to distrust badges. Keep the labels straight. Featured-on guide: makerhunt-featured-on-badge-guide. Launch types: launch types.

FAQ

Can comments outrank votes?
Day rank is upvotes. Comments help conversion and trust; they are not the PotD score.

When do badge SVGs update?
When your dailyRanking is set (day) or when week/month standings put you in the top three (live computation for W/M).

Can I toggle my upvote off?
Yes. One vote per user per project; voting again removes it.

Do zero-vote launches still show on winners?
They launch and appear in history as launched. They do not get PotD 1–3.

Does an admin “Go live” change the vote rules?
Live projects still follow the same upvote and close rules. Admin tools are ops, not a second ranking system.

Where is the short version?
Votes and PotD. For the full launch sequence see how to launch on MakerHunt. For badge naming see Featured-on guide.

Next step

Ship a listing with the checklist, then watch trending on launch day. After close, grab embeds from your project badges page. Rules for newcomers: FAQ.