Ask HN: How did you get website traffic?
I have tried posting to HN, reddit, etc. Blogging is what I will try next. What are some things you guys have done to increase website traffic?
My language learning website (www.captionpop.com) was ignored by HN, reddit, and the other random places I posted it. Finally, I put a post on producthunt and it spent the whole day in the top 5. From there, other blogs started writing about it. Ironically, it was then passed all over reddit.
I had another web property that was totally ignored, and then one day the Google Chrome Webstore decided to feature it. From then on, I had more than enough traffic.
So, there is no magic formula. You just have to keep trying stuff and wait for the internet gods to bless you.
Blogging is a popular approach, but I think people underestimate how much work this is. You have to consistently write good quality blog articles that are actually solving problems for people. This can be as much work as building your actual product.
"You just have to keep trying stuff and wait for the internet gods to bless you." I like this quote
Any hints on how this happened? Anything about how many downloads and reviews you had? Did it happen around a time when it was promoted online elsewhere?
Whenever I've checked the Chrome Webstore for maybe the last 2 years, I see the same extensions being featured often like they don't update them very often.
For example, I get about 90% of my 200,000 monthlies to my marketplace site selling law notes via two initiatives: - I hired an UpWorker to generate 500+ short case summaries (perhaps 300 words each), and put them on individual pages on my website. - I turned 30% of the PDF and DOCX documents people upload to sell on my website into HTML as free samples that can be picked up my Google.
I have a series of videos explaining more here: https://www.semicolonandsons.com/episode/seo-strategies-for-...
Thanks for sharing.
Announcements of new changes would be published to sites like HN or Slashdot as press releases. So I wasn't really posting things like "hey, check out my site, it does X!" It was more like "How Y can integrate into X" or "trending stats on Z, provided by X". That sort of thing.
It was also crucial to have a mailing list in place where people could sign up easily. That way, I could reach the users directly without worrying about trying to get a post approved or posted onto a third party's site. The other benefit is that, if people liked my updates, they would sometimes go out of their way to repost my updates on sites that they visit that weren't even on my radar.
Communications would always try to tie back into relevant problems or interests of our userbase's demographic, but referring to the site as a potential solution. So there's value for readers, even if they aren't my users.
Just keep trying new things and new audiences. Things will click into place as you go if you're delivering quality and as long as you don't stop.
Social media requires a lot more smaller and frequent effort which I honestly haven't been able to keep up with to say whether or not it's worthwhile.
Videos, though, are much harder because they take a long time to produce, relatively speaking. They also aren't visually engaging for the subject matter in my case.
Be consistent in both producing value, and in sharing it. Try to get better at both of these activities as you progress.
Your 'luck surface area' [1] will, over time, increase and then network effects will take over.
[1] - https://www.codusoperandi.com/posts/increasing-your-luck-sur...
Then there's always paid advertising don't be afraid of it. With not much $ you can do a lot of experimenting.
Focus on writing every single day. Create educational content. Have only one ask as the call-to-action in the article.