Hey! It's Joan.
Reading this post will (hopefully) save you a lot of time and prevent hair loss when trying to reach new audiences and customers.
First, I don’t have a magic wand. The tips in this post worked for me, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow them exactly. While it is true that following the upcoming guide will significantly increase your chances of getting traffic from Hacker News, it’s important to adapt these strategies to your own situation.”
Estimated reading time: 3 min 26 sec
1. Title
The title should be the main focus of your post. Keep in mind that it will be the first—and possibly the last—impression most users get from your content. Make the title PERSONAL and FEATURE-driven:
PERSONAL: Use words like “I coded…”, “I made…”, or “My side project…”.
FEATURE-DRIVEN: Clearly explain what your app is about. For example, in my recent launch for QuickLang, I used: “to easily localize my side project.”
IMPORTANT: Always add ‘Show HN: …’ at the beginning of the post title. This allows the HN algorithm to recognize that your post is meant to share something with the community.
Tip: The title snippet you need to apply is the following one: “Show HN: I [action] my own [tool] to [main feature].“
Don’t use emojis!
2. Description
Split the description into 5 sections:
2.1. Presentation of yourself and the startup
Make a brief presentation and ask the following questions: What is the purpose of the tool? Did you search for any similar solutions on the internet?
Additionally, provide more details about the main feature.
2.2. Explain the main reason why you developed that
People want to know what pain you are solving. Explain whether you genuinely use this product in your side projects or if it is just an idea you want to test and get feedback on. Did you come up with the idea during your current job? Are you looking to give it a try or are you simply asking for feedback?
2.3. Technical details
Remember this: Hacker News is a platform for tech enthusiasts, and everyone using it is technical. Therefore, you MUST explain as much as possible about the tech stack you used to develop your tool.
Include key terms like JSON, VPS, AWS, S3 Bucket, API, and any other technologies relevant to your project.
As mentioned, people love stories. Your tool is part of that story, so share the details of how you built it!
2.4. What’s next?
Explain your thougths about the project! Do you have any features on you roadmap? What are you currently working on? Is the product finished yet?
“I want to add…“
“Allow users to…“
“Add the capability of…“
2.5. Ask for FEEDBACK
Finally, ask for their feedback on your product.
“Let me know your thougths…“
“What do you think about that?“
“What do you think I should focus on?“
You will get a lot of comments that will help you improve or pivot your idea. (Usually people are very kind and friendly on HN 😄)
2.6. BONUS: Add the link!!
Finally, add the link to your website!
Hacker news post template
3. Add the first comment
Once the post is submitted, add the first comment. Make a short disclaimer:
🗨️ "Hey! I was fed up using translations. So I built myu own JSON translator alternative. Joan"
4. Results
You can check the post here
Appllying all that snippets, I used to get the following results on my Quicklang post:
🕛 I published, and my post appeared in the ‘shownew’ posts.
🕐 After 30 minutes, my post moved to the ‘show’ dashboard.
🕔 After 2 HOURS, my post reached the MAIN PAGE of Hacker News, positioning at TOP 🔟.
📈 From 0 to 1.6k unique visitors in 24 hours
👀 From 0 to 1.8k page views in 24 hours
🌍 Visitors from more than 30 countries
🗣️ More than 25 comments
👥 14 users signed up on my website
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