22
24 Comments

Posted to Hacker News for the first time 😱

I've been putting off doing it because I've heard users on HN can be a little harsh on the comments

But then my friend Richie told me that katlinks.io could do well on HN

So I decided to do a post it 🤷

HN Post

So far, about 3 hours after posting this, we've had 5 trial signups

Not bad for a single post 🤩

How has your experience been posting on Hacker News?

  1. 7

    HN is lottery, in the sense that it takes luck to get to the front page.

    The newly posted content is seen by a lot less people than the front page. If you get an upvote or two in the first 10 minutes, you're going to appear somewhere on the front page and you're golden.

    Otherwise, once you slip off the newest page (in about 30 minutes, depending on the time of day), very few people will see your post. You'll get a few visits, but that's peanuts compared to what you get even if you're on the front page for a very brief time.

    I sometimes post there and the posts mostly slip unnoticed, getting a few dozen visitors. The other day I lucked out with a post that got 2 upvotes in 2 minutes, enough to put me on the front page, which in the end resulted in ~100 upvotes, ~3.5k visitors and 5 trial signups.

    About those harsh comments. I got about a dozen :) Remember why you're posting, tho: to raise visibility about your project. Every comment contributes to that, even if negative. Take the information from the comment if it's useful, but try to ignore (I know that's hard!) the emotional baggage that comes with it.

    1. 2

      Good stuff here! I had no idea how it worked. Thanks!

  2. 4

    Nice product!

    I was looking for affordable SEO tool for my bootstrap project, and I found it here somewhere.

    I'm currently in the trial but it's already really useful to me as I got lost with all big tools like: sem rush and ahrefs.
    Also pricing is great for indie project :)

    Good luck 😃

    1. 2

      Awesome! Let me know if there's anything I can help you with!

  3. 4

    The other week I got on HN as well with a blog post of mine (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29153223). The comments were all constructive and I got 7K visitors. Only 3 (free tier) sign-ups though. I'm betting on the long term SEO effects.

    1. 2

      Nice! From what I'm seeing, technical topics tend to get more traction, which I guess goes in line with the HN audience.

      1. 3

        That definitely helps.

  4. 3

    Good job, Roberto! Write a thread on Twitter about your experience.

  5. 3

    I've posted a couple of articles regarding my latest project on HN, but all of them remained on the newest page.

    Once, an article of mine got a couple of upvotes, but it didn't get enough traction to reach the front page.

    If you are able to reach the front page though, it can be very rewarding.

    Cheers!

    1. 2

      Hopefully one day I'll get to the front page!

  6. 3

    Congrats! I got only a few comments from 3 postings, but one was interesting from a synesthete about how a spatial calendar messes up his vision :)

    1. 2

      Your calendar looks nice and interesting!

  7. 3

    I posted my idea on hn about an API first diagram tool and it got no comments no traction at all so that you got 5 sign-ups is nice.

    1. 2

      Yeah, I really wasn't expecting much!

  8. 3

    Well done Roberto! Your 9 cats, 3 dogs and 1 llama would be proud of you 😍

    Your post did well, but I believe you should have posted it with the "Show HN: " prefix. It would have shown up in the "show" section. I'm not sure, but I think you'd get more visibility there, as it is less crowded. 💪

    I've had no success with HN, but no harsh comments (although I've seen a lot of harsh comments on other posts lol)

    🚀

    1. 3

      I can always post it again there!

      1. 3

        I don't think you can. As far as I know, Show HN: is just a filter they use and your commenters will probably be more kind with you.

        But don't worry too much about it.

  9. 3

    Congratulations Roberto, this is a total surprise. I got no results with HN

    1. 2

      Maybe you should give it another try and post about it on Twitter!

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 49 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 29 comments My Top 20 Free Tools That I Use Everyday as an Indie Hacker 18 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments