Ask HN: What is the right way to advertise side projects on HN? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is the right way to advertise side projects on HN?

9 pointsElongatedTowel3 comments

I seem to be more scared by advertisement than I should be. I'm working on a few really small projects, not yet close to release and some of them probably only getting money from one ad. But right now I'd be happy to squeeze even $1 a day out of one. And of course some of them are merely open source projects.

I've seen peoples submissions dropping instantly just out of sheer bad timing (which seems to have a heavy influence on nearly everything here, especially if you're not living in the US), deleted or people beeing shadowbanned, probably because posting the same link twice because the first one got no attention isn't a good idea anyway. Or attention mongering in general.

I'm just wondering what steps I should take and if such submissions actually proved of any worth for people. I have no blog/github/personality in general/friends (yet) to get any traction or exposition anywhere. Though I write most of the code for enjoyment I know how I'd feel seeing 0 Stars hovering above my github repo for months.

So, a Show HN: is always a good idea, but it seems hit or miss. I'll openly admit that I have no clue how HN works. We recently submitted a side project of ours, it got some upvotes and it ended up #15 or something after a couple hours. Then suddenly, in a matter of seconds dropped into the 100's and was never seen by anyone again. I have a hunch that single players on HN have a ton of influence. So basically, cross your fingers that none of them down vote you.

I think the subreddit would probably be a little better for exposure of side projects: http://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/

It'll sit for longer and allow for discussion/more eyes to see it, instead of the all or nothing that HN seems to be.

For awhile, http://hnpickup.appspot.com/ used to be the go-to place to find out when the best time is to post on HN.

I'm in Sydney Australia, and I've posted a couple of my projects (http://sideprojectors.com - the latest one) and I usually try to post around 12am my time (I think it's around morning time in US) and I do think it gets a better response.

Reddit has a few subreddits, sideprojects, startups, entrepreneurs are good ones.

There are a number of "how to make the front page of HN" that you can google for, but it's as much art as science. Definitely a luck factor too; your post may go viral, or be bogged down in a flame war about bitcoins.

But given that it sounds like you just want to promote your projects, you may want to google (or search HN) for general advice on marketing, and how to reach your intended audience.

You can also go for the meta approach, and Ask HN how to get the word out about your new site $AIRBNB_FOR_DOGS, then use any advice you find to post a Show HN later. :)

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