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Re:How I generated incomes as a web developer without workin... by polote on Saturday October 17, 2020 @09:22AM (#24809782)
On HN it all comes down to having 5 people upvoting your post in the first 30 minutes, so of course there is a lot of luck in here.

The rule I follow when I want to publish one post is this one:

- Publish it one time first and see if you get at least 2 upvotes

- If you got them, try again to post it the next day at 9am (sf time)

- If still not successful try again in 3 days

If you dont get those 5 guys interested in your post in 30 minutes you will never get the frontpage, when you are on the frontpage, then there will be enough people seeing it and deciding if it should stay on the frontpage

On HN there are also a lot of emphasis on the title, and clickbait helps a lot also (look at this current post)

(I manage this [1] newsletter of 'HN blogposts which went unnoticed' and very often a post is linked in the newsletter and then a few days after that reaches the frontpage, because it gets re-posted or included in the second pool chance)

[1] https://hnblogs.substack.com

Re:How I generated incomes as a web developer without workin... by ghaff on Saturday October 17, 2020 @11:00AM (#24810447)
>clickbait helps a lot also

I do like to point out that there are bad examples. Titles that misrepresent content or low quality listicle stuff + "You won't believe #2!"

But headlines have been trying to entice people to read stories since before there were clicks to bait. I know a lot of people here think headlines should be basically boring but that's not how publications outside of journals etc. have ever operated.

Re:How I generated incomes as a web developer without workin... by XCSme on Saturday October 17, 2020 @10:10AM (#24810084)
I disagree, I posted my Show HN thread [0] on a Sunday, got only 1 upvote in 36 hours, but then it started getting traction. I am not sure what happened, but you can still get on the front page even if you don't get upvotes immediately after submission.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24746921

Re:How I generated incomes as a web developer without workin... by polote on Saturday October 17, 2020 @10:32AM (#24810228)
Re:How I generated incomes as a web developer without workin... by XCSme on Saturday October 17, 2020 @10:44AM (#24810299)
Thanks for the info, that's really interesting, I assumed something like this happened but I didn't know about this system.
Re:How I generated incomes as a web developer without workin... by moron4hire on Saturday October 17, 2020 @10:31AM (#24810219)
The moderators will repost Show HNs that didn't get traction to try to help them out.
Re:How I generated incomes as a web developer without workin... by mooreds on Saturday October 17, 2020 @09:28AM (#24809823)
Great insight. Are your rules based on analysis (which would be a fun project!) or experience/instinct?
Re:How I generated incomes as a web developer without workin... by polote on Saturday October 17, 2020 @09:30AM (#24809838)
It's experience from having a few posts reaching the frontpage and seeing how contents published on the newsletter finally reach or not the frontpage