The Hacker News Effect

What is the effect of having one of your blog post end up on the front page of Hacker News?

Last march, I published a post titled Hire talent, not five years with Java and submitted it to Hacker News, one of my favorite websites and certainly the one I frequent the most.

My blog always had a modest readership and this was the first time I really promoted a post beside on my Google+ feed or LinkedIn account.

I posted it late at night on the 25th and got to about 2000 views before I called it a night. That was way more than any other post before and I was pretty excited. I thought I was maybe going to get another 3000 the next day.

The next morning when I woke up, I checked the stats and was pleasantly surprised. I had received much more traffic than I had anticipated and there were many comments waiting in the queue.

The details

23,451 views mostly over 3 days.

8 more people following my blog. That number was up to 3 before the post and is now 12.

47 comments on the post (including my own) on a total of 85 for the entire blog.

1 email from a startup founder with appreciative comments and his impressions on the post.

1 email for an interesting job offer from a recruiter. This was in a whole other league from the bland generic emails I usually receive mostly through LinkedIn. The recruiter clearly read the post and took the time to write a personal message.

Shares and likes on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

…

So clearly if you have a blog or something similar, a little self promotion is definitively worth it.