Part 6: Submission Day
When to post?
- Unlikely to find an edge in post timing
- Experiments to find “best” time are flawed
When to post?
- Difficulty of front page correlates with traffic volume
- Easier to hit front page at low-traffic times
- Higher traffic on weekdays
- Higher traffic in US daytime
When to post?
- Control your own timing
- Other people might post your article
- Allocate time for comments
When to post?
- What I do
- Post on a weekday morning
Avoid big release days
- Google I/O
- Amazon re:Invent
- Apple WWDC
Prepare for success
Would you play this slot machine?
My first HN submission
A peak of 1.3 pageviews/second
My most popular HN submission
A peak of 5 pageviews/second
Types of HN posts
Types of HN posts
- Standard link post
- Good for blog posts
Types of HN posts
Types of HN posts
- Prefix title with “Show HN:”
Types of HN posts
- Show HN as text
- If it requires more context
- Usually better to link directly and explain the context in a comment
Types of HN posts
- Ask HN, Tell HN
- Launch HN: Only for YC startups
- Poll - Nobody uses this
Seed comment
What happened to my title?
- HN automatically shortens certain title phrases
- “How I Learned to Fish” -> “I Learned to Fish”
- Moderators manually change titles
- “How I Stole Your Siacoin” -> “How I Stole A User’s Siacoin”
Link from your post
Moment of truth
You succeeded!
Now what?
- Share screenshots on social media
- Don’t pack the comment section with your supporters
Managing comments
Engaging in comments
- Probably doesn’t really matter, but it’s fun
Engaging in comments
- OP doesn’t stand out
- Identify yourself as the author
Managing comments
- Mindset
- Q&A after tech talk
Dealing with hostile comments
- Don’t
- Attempt to dunk on people
- Get defensive
Dealing with hostile comments
- Do
- Appreciate that they read your article
- Try to value their perspective
- Bend over backwards to assume good intent
Three magic words
- “Thanks for reading”
Dealing with hostile comments
The value of nice comments
The value of nice comments
The value of nice comments
If you don’t have anything nice to say
It’s okay to disengage
- No rule saying you have to:
- respond to everything
- read every comment
Success is its own story
- How I made the front page of Hacker News on my first try
- by Madison Taskett
Success is its own story
- Daniel Vassallo does this well
Success is its own story
- Other options:
- Indie Hackers
- /r/SideProject, /r/Entrepreneur, /r/juststart
n-gate
- n-gate makes fun of top posts
- Fun if you enjoy being roasted