Ask HN: Have you ever written a white paper? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Have you ever written a white paper?

5 pointsLAC-Tech9 comments

And if so, how did it go?

How long did it take? Did many people read it? Did it help your career?

I'm considering this is a solo consultant, to establish myself as an authority in a small niche. But I can also see it being very time consuming and maybe not effective.

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It's basically content marketing. I wouldn't go as far as writing a white paper unless you have a very specific insight that can drive people to you. Even then, a white paper is quite a bit of work and if you aren't doing it well, it's likely even hurting you.

I would start smaller: blog posts, LinkedIn posts, twitter, medium or whatever else is out there. This is significantly less work which will increase your reach as well. LinkedIn has been quite rewarding (for me) but all of these things take time.

Also, don't hide your white paper behind an "give me your email to access white paper". This isn't flying anymore and nobody will read it at all.

The overlap between anything that would be in a white paper and anything that would gain traction on LinkedIn or Twitter seems small.

I wrote one about a year ago for a company that was in a space in which I have experience and who found me via a mutual contact. They paid me $5,000 for a 3,000 word whitepaper. Ultimately, it took me about 40 hours of work, between the initial meeting, emails, research, writing, and later updates (so about $125/hr). I probably wouldn't do it again, as it was more time consuming than I planned, but I did learn quite a bit about a niche topic.

Once, I and three other candidates were asked to write a white paper as part of the selection process. We were given two weeks to complete the paper and access to certain company information, under nondisclosure of course. The position was rather senior and the executive search firm was highly reputable. So we all participated. There were a few follow up questions on our papers. Roughly, a month after papers were submitted, we were informed that the company had withdrawn the position and terminated their relationship with the search firm. Beyond the fees paid to the search firm, the company incurred little expense for very experienced consulting. Unethical to say the least.

Yes, in the cyber security domain. Took about a month of part time work (45 hours?). Led to conference talks internationally, attention from the press, external vendors who were impacted. I'd say it was worth it because I had a respected platform to launch the paper from. Without that it would have been a waste of time.

what was the respected platform?

Tiring. 3 months. 1 reader. No.

I think that my experiences have been better than yours!

I think it's good to be clear and show some authority in a field, and it's also marketing.

Is it instant riches and fame? Not for me!

Would love to hear more

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