Product launch checklist: what to prepare before your first promotion

A product launch checklist is the set of assets you write once and reuse in every submission form. You do not need Search Console data to start. You need one filled-in product profile — name, tagline, short and long description, links, logo, screenshots, pricing, categories — and the discipline to adapt it per channel instead of rewriting it each time.

The product launch checklist: assets you write once

Every directory, launch platform, and community you submit to will ask for the same handful of things in a slightly different order. Treat those things as one profile you own, not as text you type into someone else's form. The work moves from "write a pitch for this site" to "keep one profile accurate and cut it to fit".

A product profile is a single record of the facts a stranger would need to understand what you built: what it is called, one line that says who it is for, a short and a long description, the live URL, a logo, screenshots, whether it is free or paid, and the categories it belongs to. Fill each field once, in your own file, before you open anyone's submission page.

Why one profile beats a folder of drafts

The failure mode is not a missing field, it is drift. When you rewrite the tagline inside each form, version five stops matching version one, and by the time two directories list you side by side, they describe different products. A single profile removes that risk and makes the second submission a ten-minute edit instead of a fresh writing task.

There is a second reason. Channels differ in what they let you say. A launch platform wants a hook and a screenshot. A category directory wants a neutral description and a link. A community wants a reason to care that is not an ad. If your facts live in one place, adapting is editing; if they live in five places, adapting is re-inventing, and re-inventing is where the honest details quietly disappear.

One profile, many forms. Write the facts once; cut them to fit each time.

Do it in this order

Four steps, each with a completion mark. The order matters: the profile has to be true before you start cutting it to fit, or you will be decorating a description that never matched the product.

1. Fill the profile in your own file. Write each field as plain text you can copy, not as formatting locked inside a design tool. Done when every field can be pasted into any form without cleanup.
2. Write the share image and the screenshot list. Pick one landscape image your links will preview with, and collect the three or four screens that show the product working. Done when the image is a single file you can re-upload and the screens have plain names.
3. Record the versions you will reuse. Save a 60-character tagline, a 300-character description, and a long description of one to two paragraphs. Done when the short forms are cut from the long one, not written separately.
4. Read each form's own limit before you paste. Field limits and category lists change, so the last step is never a template; it is checking the current form and trimming. Done when what you submitted fits the form's stated rules, not the rules you remembered.

Step four is the one people treat as optional, and it is the one that decides whether a submission survives a reviewer reading it.

The deliverable: fields to fill and a check before you submit

Two things to carry away: the profile fields to complete once, and a short check to run before any submission leaves your hands. Use the table first, then the list.

The share image is the one field teams underrate. On the open web its job is done by the Open Graph tags in your page head, which is how most platforms build the preview card when someone shares your link. Confirm your page declares an og:image and that the file is a landscape image, because a portrait upload gets cropped to a strip in most card layouts.

Before any submission, confirm:
- [ ] the description is your text, not an older draft
- [ ] the live URL opens without a login
- [ ] the share image is landscape and loads on its own
- [ ] screenshots show the product, not a placeholder
- [ ] pricing and status match the live site
- [ ] you filled the form, you are not handing over an account

What goes wrong

Three failures show up again and again, and none of them is caught by re-reading your own copy.

1. The description drifts between channels. Two listings end up describing two subtly different products. Fix it by cutting every version from the one long description.
2. The link does not open. A submission points at a sign-up page, a staging URL, or a page behind a login. Open the exact URL in a private window before you send it.
3. The submission claims a result. Writing "rated best in category" or "gets you traffic" turns a listing into an unsupported promise. Describe what the product does, not what it will bring.

Common questions

Do I need Search Console set up before I promote?

No. Channel submission does not depend on Search Console. What it depends on is a profile and a live page. Set up Search Console later, when you want to measure the search side; the profile is useful today either way.

How long should the tagline be?

Short enough to survive a card that truncates it, and specific enough that it is not true of a competitor. There is no single number that fits every form, so keep one short version and trim it to each form's stated limit rather than guessing.

Can I reuse the same screenshots everywhere?

Usually yes, as long as each shows the product actually running. What changes per channel is how many fit and whether the channel prefers a wide or tall crop, so keep a few screens and pick per submission.

What if I do not have a logo yet?

Use a clean temporary mark, not a screenshot of your interface. A logo that reads at small size matters more here than a perfect one, and you can replace the file later without redoing the profile.

How do I know this checklist is complete?

We cannot promise any submission gets approved, because that depends on each platform's reviewers and rules. What this checklist can do is make sure you send the same accurate facts every time. Approval, ranking, and traffic are not something a checklist controls, and we do not claim otherwise.

The point is to stop starting from zero at every form. Build the profile once, keep it accurate, and let the submissions reuse it — then the question of where to submit next is a short list to work, not a rewrite. That selection step is the part QueryWin works on; for the writing side, see finding keywords for a new site, and before you change anything, recording a baseline first.