Introduction
Hacker News has become the go-to hub for technical writing, thanks to its deep roots in the tech community and its backing by Y Combinator. It’s a powerful distribution channel: it serves a massive audience of builders who read the site daily. If you’re a technical writer looking to be discovered by potential clients, Hacker News can help you substantially widen your reach. But relying solely on Hacker News can be limiting - virality isn’t guaranteed. Incorporating other distribution strategies increases the chances of your writing getting seen by the right people - we’ll walk through several options below.
Comparable Technical Websites
Cross-posting on similar technical websites can help you avoid over-reliance on Hacker News. Consider:
- Indie Hackers: site for founders and “indie hackers” to share stories and talk to each other
- Dev.to: community for software developers
- Medium: blog platform - not specifically technical writing
- Hashnode : blog platform targeted at developers
Each platform caters to slightly different tech audiences and increases your discoverability.
Alternative Methods
Social Media:
Developers increasingly use LinkedIn, Twitter (X), and BlueSky to share and engage with content. Posting on social media adds surface area for discovery by devs, even if virality isn’t guaranteed. These channels also offer opportunities to promote the same piece in different ways - for example, threads, quote-posts, reposts.
Newsletters:
Reach out to newsletter writers who cover your technical niche - they’re often looking for quality content to include and will share well-written, insightful posts. Newsletter features with backlinks to your work are a form of organic promotion that typically inspire higher trust and engagement than paid promotions.
Video (YouTube):Repurpose articles into short videos to take advantage of video SEO - even a simple talking-head video can be sufficient. According to a study by Moz, video content is 53 times more likely to generate organic search rankings than plain text. Be sure to link your original article in the video description to drive traffic.
Reposting on Hacker News (Strategically):
If your post doesn’t gain traction initially, wait a few weeks, revise the content, and try reposting on Hacker News. Avoid spammy behavior, take your time, and repost with intentionality. Hacker News is still an undeniably valuable channel; just don’t depend on it exclusively.
Conclusion
Technical writing is time-consuming and resource-intensive; in order to ensure that your work reaches the most and the right eyes, try out a variety of distribution channels and content forms. While Hacker News is a great place to start and can certainly help you build traction, don’t subject yourself to the mercy of luck. Post your content on other technical websites, write for newsletters, create promotional video content, and post on social media. A multi-channel distribution strategy makes your technical writing more resilient, discoverable, and impactful. Don’t leave distribution up to chance - own it.
