How to Set Up Autofill for Directory Submissions: Your First-Launch Checklist
You have a product ready to ship and a list of launch directories in front of you. Then the grind begins: copy-paste your tagline into Product Hunt, re-upload screenshots on BetaList, retype the same long description on G2. It is slow, repetitive, and easy to lose track of which submission is live and which is still waiting on an email. This checklist shows you how to set up autofill for directory submissions so your product information is captured once and filled across your first batch of directories in one click. The whole setup takes about 10 to 20 minutes. It will not guarantee traffic or customers, but it will cut the manual form-filling down to near zero and keep your first launch organized instead of chaotic.
What This Checklist Covers
This is a stage-based first-launch checklist built for first-time founders, indie hackers, and small teams launching on Product Hunt, Hacker News, BetaList, AppSumo, G2, and similar directories. You will find the prerequisites, a step-by-step setup walkthrough with clear done criteria, priority ratings so you know what matters now versus later, the common failure points to dodge, a printable checklist you can reuse, and the next steps with pricing.
- What you need before you start
- A stage-based setup checklist covering before, during, after, and ongoing phases
- Priority labels: critical, recommended, optional, beginner, and advanced
- The five common failure points and how to avoid them
- A printable and copy-paste checklist template
- Next steps with tracking, pricing, and related guides
What You Need Before You Set Up Autofill
Ten minutes of prep removes surprises mid-setup. These are the only four things you need in place before you start filling forms. The good news is that the tracking side is free, so none of this blocks your launch.
- A free Donkey Directories tracking account. It is free forever and requires no credit card. This is your central dashboard for browsing, filtering, and tracking every submission by status: not started, in progress, or submitted.
- The Donkey Directories autofill Chrome extension installed in your browser. It does the form-filling work while you stay inside the directory page. On the free plan you get 3 one-click autofills to test the flow.
- Your raw product information compiled in one place: product name, tagline, one-line description, long description, URLs for homepage, demo and pricing, screenshots, and social profiles. The extension auto-scrapes this saved data, so the quality here decides the quality everywhere.
- One small directory to act as a test run before you touch the big sites. Pick a low DR or low-competition directory from the filtered list so mistakes are cheap.
Before and After: What the Time Really Looks Like
Here is the honest math behind skipping copy-paste. Manually moving a single product across five directories takes roughly 40 to 60 minutes: copying the tagline, pasting the long description, re-uploading the same screenshots, and keeping a spreadsheet updated as you go. With autofill, the slow part is the upfront setup. You build your profile once, then each directory becomes a single click and a quick review, about 10 to 15 minutes for the same five sites. The point is faster and more consistent, not a promise of results. Autofill removes the grind and the typos, and it does not push traffic numbers or customer guarantees.
How to Set Up Autofill for Directory Submissions: The Stage-Based Checklist
Think of the setup in four phases: before, during, after, and ongoing. Every item below carries four parts: the action you take, why it matters, how to do it, and a clear done criteria so you know when it is finished. Work through them in order, and by the time you tap autofill the first time you can trust what appears in the form.
Stage 1: Build Your Submission Profile (Before Launch)
- 1Action: enter your product profile once in the Donkey Directories platform, with name, tagline, description, screenshots, socials, and URLs. Why it matters: the extension auto-scrapes name, tagline, description, screenshots, and socials from this stored data, so garbage in means garbage out on every directory. How to do it: fill the form fields exactly as you want them to appear on launch day, then save the profile. Priority label: critical. Done criteria: your profile is saved and visible in the hub, and a single screenshot and tagline covers every launch site.
Stage 2: Install and Connect the Autofill Extension (Before Launch)
- 1Action: install the Donkey Directories autofill Chrome extension and sign in. Why it matters: the extension only works inside the browser where submissions happen, and signing in links it to your saved product data. How to do it: click Install on a supported directory page, pin the extension to your toolbar, and sign in once. Priority label: critical. Done criteria: the extension icon shows you are signed in and “form mapping ready.”
- 2Edge case: if the extension does not detect a form field, map that field manually to the correct saved field. Keep manual mappings to a minimum and only for fields the auto-scrape misses. Priority label: optional.
Stages 3 and 4: Submit With One Click (During Launch)
- 1Action: open your first designated directory, click the autofill button, and review the prefilled form before you submit. Why it matters: this turns a multi-minute copy and paste session into a single click and keeps your tagline and screenshots consistent across sites. How to do it: trigger autofill on the form, spot-check the mapped fields, then hit submit. Priority label: critical. Done when the submission is registered and the directory shows “submitted” in your dashboard.
- 2Action: use the tracking hub to mark each directory as started, in progress, or submitted as you go. Why it matters: you never lose track of what is live versus still pending, and the dashboard stays your source of truth. How to do it: after each submission, update the status in the hub immediately. Priority label: recommended. Done when every submitted directory updates in the central dashboard.
Stage 5: Sweep and Verify (After Launch)
- 1Action: manually fill any field autofill could not map, including checkbox consents, custom pricing tier fields, and captcha image fields. Why it matters: incomplete or wrong submissions lead to rejections or duplicate listings. How to do it: after you trigger autofill on each directory, review the empty fields that remain and give each one a value. Priority label: critical. Done when every skipped field has a value on every directory before you hit submit.
Stage 6: Roll Out to the Rest of Your List (Ongoing)
- 1Action: apply the same one-click workflow to your broader filtered list, sorted by DR, category, pricing, or Dofollow status. Why it matters: the value of the extension is reusing structured data across many sites without re-entering it. How to do it: filter directories in the platform to build your list, then go directory by directory. Priority label: advanced. Done when all chosen directories are marked “submitted” in the hub.
- 2Recap: re-run the checklist whenever you change a launch detail, such as a new pain point, updated screenshots, or a revised price, to keep your data and submissions current. Priority label: recommended.
A Real Walkthrough: A Solo Founder, One Small Directory
Here is how the flow plays out with concrete fields. Priya is a solo founder ready to launch her analytics product. In the hub she saves a profile with these values: product name Flowly, tagline “Per-product usage analytics for indie teams,” a one-line description, a longer 3-sentence description, the homepage URL, a demo link, a pricing page, two screenshots, and her Twitter and LinkedIn handles. She saves it once. She opens a small, low-competition directory first as the test run. The extension drops the name, tagline, and description into the mapped fields, attaches the screenshots, and fills the demo URL. She adds a one-word category by hand only if the site asks for a free-form category field, reviews the short line, and taps submit. Her dashboard flips that directory to “submitted,” and she moves down the list with the same profile for the next one.
Edge Case: A Two-Step Signup Form
Not every directory is a single page. Some require an account first, then open a form. Suppose a directory asks you to create an account and then presents a two-step submission form. The extension fills the product details on step 1, and step 2 shows an email verification captcha and a pricing tier dropdown. You complete the captcha and pick the tier by hand, then submit. This is expected and normal, not a sign the tool failed. Captchas, image fields, and some dropdowns always need a human. Leave the flow that way: the extension handles the repetitive data, and you handle the few fields that browsers cannot read.
Priority Ratings: What Matters Now, What Can Wait
Every item in this checklist is not equal. Use these labels to decide where to spend attention on launch day. The critical items protect the quality of your submission and should never be skipped. The recommended items keep your tracking honest. The optional items are nice to have when time allows. Begin with the beginner tasks on your first directory, then graduate to the advanced bulk rollout once the flow is proven.
Priority Labels, Explained
| Label | What it means | Example checkpoint | Who this fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Critical | Must be done on every directory to protect the submission | Building a correct product profile, testing on one small directory, and manually verifying the form before submit | Everyone |
| Recommended | Keeps tracking truthful and results tidy | Setting the started or in-progress status, adding social links | Everywhere on a real launch |
| Optional | Polishes results only when time is available | Manually mapping rare fields, tweaking a description per directory | Founders with extra time |
| Beginner | The safe first subset that builds confidence | Account creation, extension install, first test submission | First-time founders |
| Advanced | Scales once the basics are proven | Bulk rollout to 100-plus directories, custom field mapping, status automation | Experienced solo operators and teams |
Common Failure Points (and How to Set Up Autofill to Avoid Them)
- Launching in a huge directory first. The big sites are crowded and unforgiving. Start with a small directory as your test, validate the mapping and copy, then go to Product Hunt or Hacker News.
- Filling the profile once but never testing the mapping on the first site. If the fields are misread, you publish broken copy. Fix it by running a test submission and checking that the tagline, description, and screenshots landed correctly before you scale.
- Reusing the same email or username on every directory. Several sites prevent duplicates by email. Keep a clear per-site email mapping so you never submit the same identity twice and risk a rejection.
- Never updating the status fields as you go. Skipping this erases the tracking advantage and mixes submitted directories with pending ones. Update the “submitted” status at the same moment you finish each submission.
- Expecting autofill to handle everything. Captchas, image uploads on some sites, and pricing tiers always need a human. Set that expectation up front so the tool never feels like it failed.
The Downloadable Setup Checklist
You do not need to re-read the whole guide to launch. Grab a version you can keep open while you work. You can print the full checklist as a PDF, copy the condensed markdown list below, or copy the table row as a template for your own tracking spreadsheet. Every task, phase, and done criteria are captured here in the same order as the walkthrough.
- Before: build the product profile, install the extension, sign in, pick one test directory, and verify the mapping. Done when the profile is saved and the icon shows form mapping ready.
- During: trigger autofill on each directory, review the prefilled fields, submit, and update the status from in-progress to submitted in the central hub. Done when every rolled-out directory says submitted.
- After: manually fill the captcha, consent, and pricing fields and verify there are no empty required fields. Done when every empty field has a value.
- Ongoing: roll the same workflow across the rest of the filtered list and re-run the checklist whenever a launch detail changes. Done when the whole list shows submitted.
Checklist Template, One Row Modeled
| Action | Why it matters | How to do it | Priority | Done criteria |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enter your product profile once | The extension auto-scrapes this data into every form | Fill name, tagline, description, screenshots, socials, and URLs, then save | Critical | Profile is saved and visible in the dashboard; one tagline and screenshot covers every site |
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take to set up autofill for directory submissions?+
The setup itself takes about 10 to 20 minutes, made up of creating the free tracking account, entering your product profile once, and installing the extension with a sign-in. The actual submissions are then a single click with a short review on each directory.
Does the Donkey Directories autofill extension work on every directory?+
It works on most popular directory sites, but not every field on every site will map itself. Captchas, some dropdowns, and image uploads lands on some sites still need manual input. Treat overlapping as normal rather than a problem: the repetitive fields autofill, and the few extras you handle yourself.
Which directories does the autofill extension support on my first launch?+
It is built for the launch directories in the Donkey Directories catalog, which includes Product Hunt, Hacker News, BetaList, AppSumo, G2, and 29520-plus curated sites. Filter the catalog by DR, category, and pricing to build your first list, and start with a small site as the test.
What if a directory form field does not auto-fill?+
Click the extension and map that field manually to the correct saved field. This is an optional, rare fix. Most fields map automatically, and the few manual ones, like a captcha or a custom dropdown, are expected to stay manual.
Is submission one-click or do I still review before submitting?+
Autofill fills the form in one click, but it is smart to review the prefilled fields before you hit submit. The one-click saves the repetition; the short review catches a wrong field on a tricky directory. The flow is fill, spot-check, submit.
Do I need to pay to set up autofill, or can I start free?+
You can start free. The tracking dashboard is free forever with no credit card and includes 3 one-click autofills to test the flow. Paid one-time credit unlocks more: 100 one-click fills for €10 or a Lifetime plan that gives unlimited submissions for €69 (currently).
How do I track which directories I have submitted after autofill?+
The central Donkey Directories dashboard tracks every directory wiped status: not started, in progress, or submitted. Update the status right after each submission so the overview always reflects what is live versus pending.
Next Steps: Turn This Into Your First Auto-Submitted Launch
You built the profile, installed the extension, tested one directory, and rolled out the rest. Before you go further, confirm every “done” criterion in phase order: profile saved, extension connected, submissions registered, and all statuses current in the hub.
- Audit your setup: open your saved product profile and your directory list, and confirm your first 5 directories are all tracked in the dashboard. Fix anything that shows stale or missing before you scale.
- Get more out of the extension as you add directories: the paid plans unlock unlimited one-click fills on the data flowing through your authentic input.