My To-Do List for a Show HN (HackerNews)
For a long time I wanted to submit my product (a community called Enter Network) to HackerNews, and see if we would get some additional traffic to our website (and potentially new users).
Today, I finally jumped the gun and shared my first Show HN post.
I'm curious to see what will happen, and will share some thoughts afterwards. For now, I figured it could be interesting for others to read my to-do list, and the things I did to prepare.
So here's my Show HN to-do list:
- Read through a few articles on doing a good HackerNews submission if you like. To me, this article from MarketingExamples by @harrydry was particularly useful.
- Pick the time/day that you want to submit your post. I've read through a bunch of articles (e.g. this one on IH, this thorough analysis on Github, and this other thorough analysis) and there is no one clear conclusion on what is the best time or day to post. Nonetheless, make sure you have enough time to respond to comments, and that the timezone makes sense for your target audience. That's why I submitted on Sunday morning (local time).
- Think of a good title that is very informative, and not promotional at all (simply say what your product does).
- Consider the comment that you want to share immediately after posting. This is important because you want to provide more information than simply a link. In this comment (and the title), focus on technology wherever possible. This is a website for tech enthusiasts, so the more you can go into a technical problem or issue, the better.
- Share your submission on Twitter. Make sure to mention something like 'take a look' or 'discuss my product here', and link to https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew. You don't want to link to your submission directly because then upvotes don't count.
- Do the same with LinkedIn and any other social media or platform you're active on. In my case, I also shared it to our community's Slack server.
Lastly, if you want to see my ShowHN post, check out the latest Show HNs, look for our supportive community for early-stage European founders, and join the discussion!
Hope that's useful.
