{Hit the Front Page of Hacker News} A guide to writing for technically sophisticated audiences

Content

30 Videos

Duration

5 Hours

Access

Lifetime

What You'll Learn

What if you could get your blog, business, or idea in front of 4 million people for free?

That's how many engineers, investors, and industry leaders visit Hacker News every single day.

If you've ever submitted something to Hacker News you'll know: what makes the front page can feel completely random.

Posts that make the front page follow a few common patterns. And once you know what to look for, you'll see them everywhere.

In fact, you can learn these techniques and use them to succeed on Hacker News.

  • Choose topics Hacker News will love
  • Understand Hacker News' distinctive culture
  • Write content that establishes credibility
  • Avoid common writing pitfalls
  • Transform your failed submission into a success story
  • Prevent hostile comment threads

When you share content on Hacker News, there are only two possible outcomes: "Front Page Glory" or "Fail in Silence." There's no in-between, so it will take you years to learn through simple trial and error.

Why suffer through it when I've already done the hard work for you?

What's Included

7
Lessons
30
Videos
5
Hours of Content

Course Modules

Hacker News has its own distinctive culture and etiquette. Before you can succeed on the site, it's important to understand their etiquette, rules, and unspoken standards.

It doesn't matter how good your article is if you pick a topic that's a poor match for Hacker News.

This lesson covers common topics that work well on Hacker News and how to estimate a topic's chances of success before you even begin writing.

If your only plan for sharing your content is submitting it to Hacker News, you're going to get your heart broken a lot.

It's impossible to predict perfectly what content will succed on Hacker News. That's why I recommend finding one or more backup plans: other communities that might be a match for your content.

Want an unfair advantage over everyone else on Hacker News? Invest in your writing.

You don't have to be born an amazing writer. You can improve your writing and make it more engaging simply by putting in more effort.

In this section, I'll talk about common writing pitfalls, how to avoid them, and how to strengthen your writing over time.

In this section, I'll walk you through the process of submitting your post to Hacker News, how to make the most out of your time on the front page, and how to keep the comment thread civil and friendly.

Even the best of posts sometimes get ignored by Hacker News.

In this lesson, I'll show you what to do when your post fails to reach the front page, and why it's not always as hopeless as it may first appear.

I've been developing an effective writing and publishing workflow for my blog over the past five years.

In this lesson, I'll show you all the tools I use in the process of coming up with ideas, writing a first draft, editing, publishing, and sharing.

Who Should Take This Course

If you're a blogger who wants to understand how to write content that attracts Hacker News' enormous, technically sophisticated audience, this course is for you.

If you're a founder who wants to attract the attention of thousands of investors, customers, or employees without spending a dime, this course is for you.

If you're a Hacker News reader who wants to understand what the process looks like from the authors' side, this course is for you.

About Michael Lynch

Since I started posting to Hacker News eight years ago, 40+ of my articles have landed on the front page, leading to 500k pageviews per year.

In the last twelve months, over 80% of my blog posts have hit the front page, and four of them shot all the way to the #1 slot. My $1M/yr business owed its success to an effective launch on Hacker News.

Course Reviews

The material in this course helped me make the front page of HN twice last month.

Michael is a craftsman who put a ton of work into this course, and I highly recommend it to anyone trying to produce content that gets shared widely!

I got to preview this course and it was genuinely fascinating and really practical.

To color this recommendation: I actually paid for this, and I rarely buy courses. It's legitimately good.

Founder of the Blogging for Devs community

The value I got from this course is a life-changer. I see blogging with a different lens: how to write well, make people engaged, write valuable content for people. Michael put a lot of effort into summarizing his journey with blogging, so I learned a lot from his own success/failures stories.

This course really 'de-mystified' HN for me - why posts get removed, why certain posts thrive and others flop, and how to optimize my content to do well.

Look at what previous students are saying...
Start Now

Amazing course! Michael gave me both the inspiration and the framework to be a better writer.

This course helped me figure out why my best blog posts didn't get upvoted and motivated me to try again with personal content that appeals to a larger audience.

Freelance React developer

Pricing

Essentials

$39
Core material
  • Seven core lessons
  • Four hours of downloadable video

Premium

$59
Videos + Deep Dives
Everything in Essentials, plus:
  • Five "deep dives" into successful Hacker News posts from other authors, analyzing their techniques
  • Over 50 minutes of extra video content

Ultimate

$69
Videos + Deep Dives + Stat Pack
Everything in Premium, plus insider stats all my blog posts:
  • Visitor counts for every article's first day, week, and year after publication
  • Hacker News scores and ranking for each post

FAQ

Can't find the answer you're looking for? Feel free to get in touch.

Will this course teach me "hacks" for reaching the front page?

No, this course focuses on reaching the front page the old-fashioned way: by tackling interesting subjects and writing well.

The course does cover techniques people use to try to cheat the system and why you're better off avoiding them.

How can you teach reaching the front page of Hacker News? Isn't it just luck?

Luck certainly plays a role, but technique is more important.

In 2020, I published nine blog posts. Eight of them reached the front page of Hacker News. It's possible that I got fantastically lucky, but it's more likely that I'm applying repeatable techniques in my writing that make my posts succeed.

What if I don't like the course?

I offer a 100% money-back guarantee.

If you watch the course and don't find the material useful, email me your receipt for a full refund, no questions asked.

 
 

Sign Up

Hit the Front Page will be available in early 2025.

Sign up, and I'll notify you when the course is available and give you access to special launch discounts.