Getting your dev tool noticed: a launch checklist

1. Pick the page you're actually going to submit. A GitHub README, a dedicated landing page, and a docs homepage all scrape differently — pick whichever one has the clearest og:title/og:description and gives a first-time visitor the fastest path to "what is this and why would I use it," and submit that URL specifically.
2. Check the title tag. If the page's og:title isn't set, Outbidly falls back to the plain <title> tag, and if neither exists, the listing shows your bare domain — which reads as unfinished next to a tool with a real name attached. Set it explicitly rather than relying on a framework's default.
3. Write a one-line description that states what problem it solves, not just what category it's in. "A CLI that diffs Postgres schemas across environments" tells a developer exactly what to expect; "developer productivity tool" doesn't. Whatever's in og:description (or meta name="description") becomes the listing's tagline verbatim.
4. Confirm the page has a real favicon — not the framework default. It's the small icon shown in every board row, often the first thing that registers before the title does.
5. Load-test the URL cold. Open it in a private/incognito window with no session, no VPN, no auth. If it redirects to a login page, times out, or dead-ends, the scraper hits the same wall — and a failed fetch falls back to your bare domain instead of blocking the submission, which does the listing no favors either way.

Outbidly's category filter lets a visitor narrow the board down to just Developer Tools — pick it because it's genuinely the closest match to what you built, not because it feels like the "serious" category. A CLI, a library, an API, a self-hosted tool, or a piece of infra all belong here; something closer to general productivity software or an AI product with a developer-facing UI might actually be better served by a different category where the intent-match is tighter.

6. Submit and pay the $5 minimum to claim your spot on the board. That's a starting total, not a guaranteed rank — where it lands you depends on what's already been paid in the Developer Tools category.
7. Check the rendered listing immediately after paying. Confirm the title, description, and favicon pulled through the way you expected — if the fetch fell back to a bare domain, it's worth checking whether the page returned an error on that request before assuming it's fine.

8. Decide your top-up budget before you're mid-launch, not during. Raising an existing listing only ever costs the gap to your new target (minimum $1) — a reasonable approach is to pay the $5 floor, see where it lands, and top up in small increments as you gauge whether it's worth passing whoever's currently ahead of you.
9. Time a bigger push around a coordinated moment — a release announcement, a Hacker News post, a conference talk — using the Today board, which resets daily and typically needs less to lead than a mature All-Time board.