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I wrote a Show HN post, then crossed my fingers... and with luck, the post ended up upvoted, and eventually on the front page of Hacker News. I genuinely have

I wrote a Show HN post, then crossed my fingers... and with luck, the post ended up upvoted, and eventually on the front page of Hacker News. I genuinely have no idea how that happens. Everything I've submitted falls immediately off the front page and gets zero comments. At first I figured it's just because it was my blog (hello imposter syndrome), but I've also posted old classic articles from others that usually get a heap of comments, and they too got nowhere. I'm guessing HN front page is either dumb luck, or requires some deep SEO voodoo that's beyond me.

synu 4y ago
It does happen sometimes. It’s actually allowed to repost something that didn’t originally get traction, as long as it isn’t excessive.
- LAC-Tech 4y ago
  I've submitted 11 things on HN. Three things were my content, three I'd seen posted here before that got a lot of comments but hadn't been posted for a while, and the rest were just random things of interest. Had much more success submitting stuff to reddit. So I guess I'll stick to the comment section on HN :)
  - yamrzou 4y ago
    11 is not that much. Out of my 442 submissions, only 35 reached the front page and had significant activity (>= 20 points and >= 10 comments). That's an 8% chance of reaching the front page without optimizing anything (apart from the interestingness of the submissions themselves).
    - synu 4y ago
      Looking through your submissions, all of those are such interesting topics. It’s a shame there isn’t time and space for all the interesting topics that must be being submitted all the time.
    - LAC-Tech 4y ago
      Those are awful odds. I'll leave HN frontpage to the lucky and the professionals.
input_sh 4y ago
> or requires some deep SEO voodoo that's beyond me. Timing and somewhat clickbaity titles. By timing I mean if the last item in /newest is like 30 min ago, don't bother, it'll go to the second page too fast to get traction. If it's like 2h ago, then post. And by clickbaity titles I don't really mean "you won't believe what happens next" kind, but to use your submissions as an example, "You Can't Sit on the Sidelines and Become a Philosopher" is the only one I would click on. The other 10 didn't make me curious one bit.
- em-bee 4y ago
  i found about half of those topics interesting
- themulticaster 4y ago
  Interesting - normally I never look at /newest, but after reading your comment I had a brief look. And apparently some users post 4-5 links in quick succession. At first I suspected they were bots, but apparently said users simply decided to post a few links today. Not the typical submission pattern I would have expected.
  - michaelsalim 4y ago
    The other day I saw someone explain how they made a habit of posting interesting news they saw at the end of the day. I imagine that user might be doing something similar.
tuxie_ 4y ago
I asked this same question some time ago and it went nowhere: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27278175 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27278175 > as of this moment we even have stories with 3 votes in [the front page]. At the same time I've seen some stories go unnoticed with 9 votes in the "new" section.
tootie 4y ago
The unwritten rule of startup success is to be lucky. As with anything, luck favors the prepared but you still need luck.

synu 4y ago

It does happen sometimes. It’s actually allowed to repost something that didn’t originally get traction, as long as it isn’t excessive.

LAC-Tech 4y ago
I've submitted 11 things on HN. Three things were my content, three I'd seen posted here before that got a lot of comments but hadn't been posted for a while, and the rest were just random things of interest. Had much more success submitting stuff to reddit. So I guess I'll stick to the comment section on HN :)
- yamrzou 4y ago
  11 is not that much. Out of my 442 submissions, only 35 reached the front page and had significant activity (>= 20 points and >= 10 comments). That's an 8% chance of reaching the front page without optimizing anything (apart from the interestingness of the submissions themselves).
  - synu 4y ago
    Looking through your submissions, all of those are such interesting topics. It’s a shame there isn’t time and space for all the interesting topics that must be being submitted all the time.
  - LAC-Tech 4y ago
    Those are awful odds. I'll leave HN frontpage to the lucky and the professionals.

input_sh 4y ago

> or requires some deep SEO voodoo that's beyond me. Timing and somewhat clickbaity titles. By timing I mean if the last item in /newest is like 30 min ago, don't bother, it'll go to the second page too fast to get traction. If it's like 2h ago, then post. And by clickbaity titles I don't really mean "you won't believe what happens next" kind, but to use your submissions as an example, "You Can't Sit on the Sidelines and Become a Philosopher" is the only one I would click on. The other 10 didn't make me curious one bit.

em-bee 4y ago
i found about half of those topics interesting
themulticaster 4y ago
Interesting - normally I never look at /newest, but after reading your comment I had a brief look. And apparently some users post 4-5 links in quick succession. At first I suspected they were bots, but apparently said users simply decided to post a few links today. Not the typical submission pattern I would have expected.
- michaelsalim 4y ago
  The other day I saw someone explain how they made a habit of posting interesting news they saw at the end of the day. I imagine that user might be doing something similar.

tuxie_ 4y ago

I asked this same question some time ago and it went nowhere: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27278175 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27278175 > as of this moment we even have stories with 3 votes in [the front page]. At the same time I've seen some stories go unnoticed with 9 votes in the "new" section.

tootie 4y ago

The unwritten rule of startup success is to be lucky. As with anything, luck favors the prepared but you still need luck.