How to build a Product Hunt clone using WordPress

In this post I wanted to spend a bit of time writing about how you could build a clone of Product Hunt using WordPress.

I’ll cover the tools you need, plus the con’s of trying to clone product hunt directly. If you’re familiar with WordPress it only takes a few minutes to have a Product Hunt style website setup. Read on to find out how…

What do I need to get started?

Getting started with your very own ‘Product Hunt for WordPress’ style website is a lot easier than you’d think. If you’ve already got web-hosting and a domain name, getting started will take less than 5 minutes (all you need is the Plugin Hunt Theme). This theme gives you the ability to start a website similar to Product Hunt.

The Theme is named after the original purpose / demo website where it is used to ‘Hunt’ WordPress Plugins available from CodeCanyon (see the demo here)

If you’ve not got web-hosting or a domain name, then read on and we’ll run through just what you need to get started (and where to get it).

Web Hosting

Web hosting is how your website is ‘served’ to people visiting it. It means your website is always online and you can start getting traffic and users to yoru website. Blue Host is a good web-host for beginners and is what we would recommend for anyone getting started. Once you have web hosting then the next step is to choose a domain name.

Domain Name

Next up is you need a domain name for your website. There’s tons of services for finding a good domain name – but I personally like domai.nr it’s super easy to use and gives you different suggestions if your domain name is taken. What I tend to do when finding a new domain name is the following:-

Decide on what ‘niche’ I’m going to start the website in (see the Con’s of cloning section below)
Have ‘Hunt’ in the title (more often than not – but not necessarily)
Stay clear of the “.io” domains (as they’re generally more expensive)
Try and get the “.com” if it’s available

P.S. If you’re stuck for ideas – check out 10 Niche Website Ideas For You.

WordPress

OK. You have your web hosting setup and your domain name sorted. Next up you need to install WordPress. This is the ‘wordpress.org’ version and NOT wordpress.com. You’ve already got your hosting and your domain name. It’s super easy to install WordPress using Bluehost

Log in to your Bluehost cPanel account.
Find the Website section and select Install WordPress.
Click the Install button.
Choose the domain name to install it to. In the field next to the domain, you can enter a subfolder such as ‘blog’ or leave it blank if you want the site’s main page to be the blog.
If necessary, you can edit the email address, username and password for the new WordPress installation. Click “advanced options” and you can change those settings.
Read through the license and service agreements and check the boxes.
Select the Install Now button.

Plugin Hunt Theme

Finally, the quickest way to get up and running is to use the Plugin Hunt Theme for WordPress. Using the Theme you can be setup and running in a matter of minutes. Simply add new posts to your WordPress install

To Clone, or Not to Clone

Product Hunt is a huge website. Trying to ‘Clone’ Product Hunt using WordPress for hunting ‘tech’ products you’re more than likely to end up in the position of the image below

Yep, you may think you’ve cloned the Product Hunt ‘Kitty’ but you’ve actually got a Wooly WordPress Sheep…. OK enough sillyness. I think that while most people who search for the term ‘How to clone Product Hunt’ or ‘How to create a website like Product Hunt’ aren’t after direct clones. They just want the cool look and feel of Product Hunt.

They perhaps even want the ability to change the colours, and use it to ‘Hunt’ something completely different and Niche (like the best burger restaurant in the World).

If that’s what you want to do then great. With WordPress, The Plugin Hunt Theme and a good domain name (and hosting) you’ll be well on your way.