Setting up a waitlist before launch

A waitlist is useful when:

• The product can’t be used yet, and you want a way to reach interested people when it can.
• You can only take on a few users at a time, for example because you set each one up by hand.
• You want to see whether a description of the product gets any response before building more of it.

It works against you when:

• The product already works. A stranger who could have tried it today is asked to wait instead. Open sign-up and ask for feedback.
• The list has become the goal, and collecting signups is standing in for getting people to use a rough version.
• You have no launch date in mind. A list goes stale while it waits.

Some places won’t accept a waitlist page at all. Hacker News treats sign-up pages and landing pages as off topic for Show HN, which is for things people can try (Show HN guidelines).

One clear promise. Say what the product does, who it’s for and what the person gets by signing up.

• Vague: “Something big is coming. Be the first to know.”
• Clear: “Invoice reminders for freelance designers. Leave your email and we’ll write once, when the beta opens.”

See taglines and descriptions for more on the wording.

One field. Ask for the email address and nothing else. Every extra field is a reason to leave, and under data protection rules it is more personal data to look after.

What happens next. One line under the field: what you’ll send, roughly how often, and that they can unsubscribe at any time. Link to a privacy page that names who is collecting the address.

Something to look at. A screenshot, a short clip or a plain description of how it will work. Skip fake scarcity and invented counters: “Only 50 spots left” on a list with no limit is a lie.

This section summarises official guidance and is not legal advice. A waitlist open to the world will collect addresses from people covered by different laws, so the practical approach is to meet the stricter rules for everyone.

UK and EU: consent

The UK regulator, the ICO, says you must not send marketing email to individuals unless they have specifically consented or are existing customers who bought a similar product from you, and that this exception does not cover prospective customers (ICO guidance on email marketing). People on a waitlist haven’t bought anything, so you need consent. The ICO’s guidance on valid consent sets out what that means:

• It has to be an opt-in. Silence, inactivity and pre-ticked boxes don’t count.
• It has to be specific and informed: say clearly what people are agreeing to, and identify yourself.
• You must be able to demonstrate that someone consented, so keep a record.
• People must be able to withdraw easily at any time.

Article 7 of the GDPR says the same about records and adds that it “shall be as easy to withdraw as to give consent” (text of Article 7, on an unofficial reference copy of the regulation). In practice, someone who typed an address into a waitlist form has agreed to hear about that product’s launch, and not about your other projects unless the form said so.

United States: CAN-SPAM

The FTC’s CAN-SPAM compliance guide describes rules for commercial email that centre on honesty and opt-out. The main ones:

• No false or misleading header information, and no deceptive subject lines.
• Include a valid physical postal address. A registered post office box or private mailbox qualifies.
• Explain clearly how to opt out, and keep that mechanism working for at least 30 days after you send.
• Honour opt-outs within 10 business days, without charging a fee or asking for anything beyond an email address.

The guide states there is no exception for business-to-business email, and that each email in violation can be penalised by up to $53,088 (the figure on the FTC’s page as of November 2026).

With double opt-in, a person submits the form, receives an email with a confirmation link, and is added to the list only after clicking it. Mailchimp’s documentation describes the two steps, and other email services have an equivalent setting.

Reasons to turn it on for a waitlist:

• It gives you the record. A timestamped confirmation click is straightforward evidence that the owner of the address asked to be on the list.
• It removes typos and addresses entered by someone else.
• Mailbox providers ask for it. Google’s sender guidelines for Gmail say to make sure recipients opt in and to “confirm each recipient’s email address before subscribing them” (Email sender guidelines).

The cost is that people who never click the link don’t join. Keep the confirmation email short, send it immediately, and tell people on the page to look for it.

The same Google guidelines require every sender to Gmail accounts to set up SPF or DKIM authentication for the sending domain, and ask senders to keep reported spam rates below 0.3%.

People forget what they signed up for. If the first email they get is the launch announcement months later, they may not recognise the sender. A few short emails in between prevent that.

1. A welcome email, straight after confirmation. Repeat what the product is, say when you expect to open, and ask one question, such as “What are you using for this today?”
2. Progress updates, about once a month. Send one when there is something to show: a screenshot, a decision you made and why, a revised date. If nothing changed, send a short honest note or skip the month.
3. Early access in small batches. Invite a few people at a time, starting with those who replied.

Write as one person, from an address that accepts replies. Put an unsubscribe link in every email and remove people who use it straight away.

On the day:

1. Email the list first, before you post anywhere else. They asked to be told.
2. Make the subject line plain. “[Product name] is open. Here’s your link” is better than “The wait is over”.
3. Use one link and one action. Send people straight to sign-up, and tag the link so you can count what the list produced.
4. Send one reminder a few days later, then stop.

Expect many signups never to become users. There is no dependable rate to plan around. Count sign-ups and active users from the launch email, and treat the size of the list as an upper bound.

After launch, the waitlist consent has done its job. If you want to keep emailing people who didn’t sign up for the product, ask them in the launch email whether they want further updates. The launch checklist covers the rest of the day.

A waitlist page can do a second job: it lets search engines discover your domain before launch. Google says changes can take anywhere from a few hours to several months to be reflected in its results, and that it finds most new pages through links (SEO Starter Guide). A page that is live and linked before launch gives that process time to start.

• Put it on the domain you’ll launch on, at the address the product will keep, ideally the homepage. Links people make to it now will still point to the right place later. A form hosted on a form-builder’s domain builds nothing for yours.
• Check for a leftover noindex. Site templates and staging setups often add one, and a page with noindex is dropped from Google’s results entirely (source). Run the page through the indexability checker.
• Write real text on it. A few paragraphs on the problem and how the product handles it, with a proper title and description. See meta tags for a landing page and getting indexed by Google and Bing.

When you launch, replace the form with the product’s sign-up on the same URL. Don’t move the page to a new address.