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How to use YCombinator’s Hacker News to get traffic to your website?

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Hacker News is a social news website that was launched in 2007 by Paul Graham and is part of startup incubator YCombinator. It has since become a go-to destination for tech-savvy users looking for the latest information on startups, programming, and other tech topics.

The word “hacker” in “Hacker News” is used in its original meaning and refers to people who enjoy tinkering with technology.

The goal was to create a community similar to the early days of Reddit.

Users can submit links to articles, stories, products, or other content and vote them up or down. The site is divided into sections and includes a voting system whereby the articles with the most votes appear on the front page.

Contents hide
1 How to make the most of your time on Hacker News?
2 How does the Hacker News algorithm work?
3 How to increase traffic to your website with Hacker News?
4 How to get on the front page of HackerNews and generate traffic to your website/app?

How to make the most of your time on Hacker News?

If you’re looking to get the most out of your time on Hacker News, there are a few things you can do:

1. First, take some time to familiarize yourself with the site and how it works. This way, you’ll be able to navigate it more easily and find the information you’re looking for more quickly.

2. Second, make use of the voting system to upvote the articles, stories, and products that you find most interesting or useful. This will help to ensure that the best content rises to the top of the front page.

3. Third, take advantage of Hacker News’ user-friendly interface to submit your own links to articles, stories, products, or other content. This is a great way to increase traffic to your website or blog.

Keep these tips in mind and you’ll be sure to make the most of your time on Hacker News. Who knows, you might even find yourself becoming a regular contributor!

How does the Hacker News algorithm work?

As explained in their FAQ, The basic algorithm ranks stories and comments based on how long it has been since they were submitted.

Factors that can affect a user’s rank on the site include user flags, anti-abuse software, software that demotes overheated discussions, account or site weighting, and moderator action.

The ranking performed by Hacker News looks like this:

Score = (P-1) / (T+2)^G

where,
P = points of an item (and -1 is to negate submitters vote)
T = time since submission (in hours)
G = Gravity, defaults to 1.8 in news.arc

It is easy to put the algorithm into practice.

Effects of gravity (G) and time (T)

Gravity and time have a big impact on the score of something. This is usually true:

  • the score decreases as T increases, meaning that older items will get lower and lower scores
  • the score decreases much faster for older items if gravity is increased
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How to increase traffic to your website with Hacker News?

If you’re looking to increase traffic to your website, one of the best places to start is Hacker News. By submitting your links to articles, stories, products, or other content, you can reach a large and engaged audience of tech-savvy users.

The site has a policy of proactive moderation, which includes automated flame and spam detectors as well as human moderation.

In addition, the site uses stealth banning, which means that user posts stop appearing for others to see without the user knowing.

The site also uses software to detect voting rings in order to prevent users from purposely voting up stories.

In order to maximize the impact of your submissions, there are a few things you can do:

1. First, make sure that your links are to high-quality content that will be of interest to the Hacker News community.

2. Second, take the time to write a catchy and attention-grabbing headline for your submission. This will help to ensure that your link is clicked on and read.

3. Third, be active in the comments section of your submission. This will show that you’re engaged with the community and interested in hearing feedback.

By following these tips, you can increase traffic to your website and make a positive impression on the Hacker News community. So what are you waiting for? Get started today!

How to get on the front page of HackerNews and generate traffic to your website/app?

For people in the tech space, getting on the front page of Hacker News is a very important thing. This is because the front page can lead to a lot of downloads, page views, and installs for your startup.

You need to write something interesting if you want people to read it. If you don’t, it won’t matter how good your article is because no one will see it.

Include the name of the article and the direct URL when submitting. Do not use a URL shortener.

You can increase the chances that your post will be seen by more people if you send the link (news.ycombinator.com/newest) to at least 20 people from different locations who you know will upvote it.

Once you hit 5 or 6 upvotes, within the first five to ten minutes, your chances of getting to the first or second page become much higher.

Once your post reaches the front page, you can change the link (news.ycombinator.com/news) and send the front page to people when asking to upvote. Try to send it to another 10 people. All at different locations.

Whilst the comment count does not seem to impact your ranking directly, it does encourage people to engage with the post and discussion. Reply to comments that people post.

The majority of Hacker New’s readers will be from the US (around 40%). You can get more people to see your post if you time it to be published on a weekday, and during working hours. Posts created on Sundays between 7 AM and 10 PM (EST) seem to have the highest average number of points. This might be because more people vote on those days, or because there are more visitors during that time but fewer submissions.

 

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