If your launch on HN fails to get any votes in the first 5-10 minutes, and you feel your post has significant merit for the community, your best course of action is to just delete the submission and try again.
I've never done it, but considering how random it is to get or not get just a first upvote from someone else (let alone the 5+ needed for front-page), I can't blame people.
HN still needs a vastly better way of separating the wheat from the chaff for new submissions, that involves the whole community, not just the few who occasionally look at "new".
I reckon they should make every submission appear as the last item on the front-page for 60 seconds. Essentially make that little slot an extension of "new".
I wouldn't do it, on the other hand it proves it's entirely luck what submissions make it to the front page. Your post can be pushed down and get no attention just because a bad dice roll.
I have posted before and got no attention, I started getting attention after I changed the title. Truth is, you got to make the title as attractive since that's all users are seeing here.
If the post was Show HN: "product name" then I wouldn't click it since I don't know if it'll be a waste of time.
Interestingly, a few startups have been putting "Show HN" in their titles even when it's especially unwarranted (i.e. a product that's been on the market a long time) for that Hacker News SEO.
