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Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you got to the frontpage of HN the first time you posted your site which presumably generated the bulk of that 8k, right? I

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you got to the frontpage of HN the first time you posted your site which presumably generated the bulk of that 8k, right? If you hit the jackpot (I.e. front page of HN) on your first try, yes it's going to feel like it's super easy to make money off building a course.

onion2k 6y ago
The frontpage of HN seems to be a sort of 'holy grail' for some HN readers, but you always have to remember that it's only a good thing if "HN readers" are your potential customers. If they're not then it's just a distracting spike in traffic that will do very little for your sales. And HN readers are a pretty diverse bunch (geographically, financially, and as far as interests go) so it's unlikely that many of us are likely to be buying unless your product has a weirdly broad appeal. It's far better to get 50 page views from potential customers than 50,000 page views from people who aren't truly interested in buying what you're offering.
- ZephyrBlu 6y ago
  If you're selling a product related to vim I think HN is probably one of the best places on the internet to advertise your product, don't you? In practice, I think that if you're posting to HN then HN readers are likely to be in your target audience. Because why would you be posting here if they aren't?
  - onion2k 6y ago
    If you're selling a product related to vim I think HN is probably one of the best places on the internet to advertise your product, don't you? I imagine most HN readers fall in to two groups - those who are greybeards who already know a lot about vim, and those who are much more familiar with VSCode and don't care to learn vim. If I was advertising a vim course I'd target places on the internet where junior sysadmins or Linux devs hang out long before I'd hit HN.
    - DiggyJohnson 6y ago
      This is where we hang out. I’m very open to other suggestions though, as well.
CoffeePython 6y ago
Yes I did get to the front page of HN. It generated around $2800 worth of revenue. The largest chunk for sure. Lots of traffic also came from: reddit, word of mouth, FastAPI sponsorship, twitter, and indiehackers.
MrPowers 6y ago
Seems like OP is focused on building a steady traffic source to sell his product. Combination of a good product + marketing focus. I have a popular Spark blog where I sell Spark books: https://leanpub.com/u/MrPowers https://leanpub.com/u/MrPowers. Customers like the product and I have a steady traffic source. It's possible to build side hustles with SEO - don't need to hit the HN jackpot.
graeme 6y ago
Honestly it isn’t too hard to hit the front page with something polished that’s of interest to hn readers. I have not had anything to market to HN, but I’ve hit the front page with articles of my own a couple of times, with an ask HN once or twice, and with submitted articles at least twice. The most popular article I wrote here was about how I tried not having home internet for a month (didn’t work, but was interesting). How can an article like that not hit the front page? You see 2-3 articles a day on that theme: wacky personal experiment + earnest well written personal narrative. Not everyone can do that but it’s hardly some unique alchemy. If I’d done it once I’d say it’s the jackpot but it’s happened often enough without special effort on my part that I think anything reasonably interesting has a fair shot. Assuming the submitter is a HN user, knows the community, has a track record of writing stuff people like, etc. I’m pushing back because I think presenting fairly pedestrian accomplishments as jackpot level achievements has the effect of discouraging people from trying. Obviously not everyone can write well enough to pull that off but most people making a course ought to have that kind of communication skill.

onion2k 6y ago

The frontpage of HN seems to be a sort of 'holy grail' for some HN readers, but you always have to remember that it's only a good thing if "HN readers" are your potential customers. If they're not then it's just a distracting spike in traffic that will do very little for your sales. And HN readers are a pretty diverse bunch (geographically, financially, and as far as interests go) so it's unlikely that many of us are likely to be buying unless your product has a weirdly broad appeal. It's far better to get 50 page views from potential customers than 50,000 page views from people who aren't truly interested in buying what you're offering.

ZephyrBlu 6y ago
If you're selling a product related to vim I think HN is probably one of the best places on the internet to advertise your product, don't you? In practice, I think that if you're posting to HN then HN readers are likely to be in your target audience. Because why would you be posting here if they aren't?
- onion2k 6y ago
  If you're selling a product related to vim I think HN is probably one of the best places on the internet to advertise your product, don't you? I imagine most HN readers fall in to two groups - those who are greybeards who already know a lot about vim, and those who are much more familiar with VSCode and don't care to learn vim. If I was advertising a vim course I'd target places on the internet where junior sysadmins or Linux devs hang out long before I'd hit HN.
  - DiggyJohnson 6y ago
    This is where we hang out. I’m very open to other suggestions though, as well.

CoffeePython 6y ago

Yes I did get to the front page of HN. It generated around $2800 worth of revenue. The largest chunk for sure. Lots of traffic also came from: reddit, word of mouth, FastAPI sponsorship, twitter, and indiehackers.

MrPowers 6y ago

Seems like OP is focused on building a steady traffic source to sell his product. Combination of a good product + marketing focus. I have a popular Spark blog where I sell Spark books: https://leanpub.com/u/MrPowers https://leanpub.com/u/MrPowers. Customers like the product and I have a steady traffic source. It's possible to build side hustles with SEO - don't need to hit the HN jackpot.

graeme 6y ago

Honestly it isn’t too hard to hit the front page with something polished that’s of interest to hn readers. I have not had anything to market to HN, but I’ve hit the front page with articles of my own a couple of times, with an ask HN once or twice, and with submitted articles at least twice. The most popular article I wrote here was about how I tried not having home internet for a month (didn’t work, but was interesting). How can an article like that not hit the front page? You see 2-3 articles a day on that theme: wacky personal experiment + earnest well written personal narrative. Not everyone can do that but it’s hardly some unique alchemy. If I’d done it once I’d say it’s the jackpot but it’s happened often enough without special effort on my part that I think anything reasonably interesting has a fair shot. Assuming the submitter is a HN user, knows the community, has a track record of writing stuff people like, etc. I’m pushing back because I think presenting fairly pedestrian accomplishments as jackpot level achievements has the effect of discouraging people from trying. Obviously not everyone can write well enough to pull that off but most people making a course ought to have that kind of communication skill.