Thread by @frankdilo

How I got to the HN front page three times in a row. A short guide.

In the past month, I managed to get to the Hacker News front page three times in a row with these posts:

1) Show HN: Write-Only Interface for Twitter
2) Getting our first thousand customers in one day
3) SaaS we happily pay for

Those posts took me 1-2 hours to write and resulted in 40k+ visits to this blog, hundreds of signups for Typefully and Mailbrew, and ~300 new Twitter followers.

It's an incredible channel if you are a founder with a story to tell.

Here's my process:

1/ Select a topic

HN is a community of entrepreneurial hackers, curious about startups, programming, technical topics, and understanding the world.

You can write about anything as long as your writing is intellectually honest, in-depth, and does not try to sell something.

2/ Pick the right title

The title should describe exactly what the post is about. No marketing is allowed.

Think of the title more as a commit message than a headline.

3/ Don't try to outsmart HN

You can safely assume that the average HN reader is smarter than you. They have a radar for bullshit.

You are either telling a story, describing a problem, showing something you built, or *not* getting to the front page.

4/ Be responsive in the comments

Engaging with people in the comments is the funniest part of the front-page experience.

I don't take comments too seriously or personally. While the average HN reader may be smarter than me, there is a *lot* of variance.

5/ Dance like nobody's watching

I write for myself, and when I get a good feeling about a post, I submit it, trying not to overthink it.

Thread compiled with @typefullyapp, also available on my blog: francescodilorenzo.com/hn-frontpage