I'll admit that I do that sometimes -- Patrick's blog over the years has been full of gems that are well written, easy to read, and make me feel like I could put into action were I braver / had better ideas / insert-excuse-for-not-starting-something-here. They were some of the best things I read when I first learned about HN, so I tend to value them more highly.
Because HN saves the list of things you've upvoted, I will at times upvote things that I know Patrick has written because I know it will be a good thing to read when I later get a chance.
Duplicate submissions count as an upvote to the original post.
If you have a source which is known is being popular by the community (i.e. stripe), then there is a race to submit that article to reap the karma of submitting that article.
That race causes duplicates which in turn increases the karma for posting that article first and pushes it to the front-page where it will get even more karma.
That causes a positive feedback loop which keeps that source popular as a source with which to "karma race", regardless of the post quality being sustained.
In this case I haven't read the post itself, so it may be of good quality, but it is a manner in which posts from certain sources quickly reach the front page seemingly without much community interaction.
I upvoted it before I even read it because I'm interested in both the subject and Stripe Atlas, and I think enough of Stripe that I hit the button and then the link. And getting the first 10 customers happens to be exactly where I'm spinning my wheels on a lower volume, "lifestyle" travel project - ideally something where I want to have a steady 10 in the pipeline, but no more, at any given point. Then I read the article, and now I'm back!
I thought it was a well-written article at least. For me I'm more interested in prospecting from various travel-related forums, but much of the remainder sounds like things that I can try. I'm terrible at sales, so even the basics are interesting to me.
32 points as of now. Not that many upvotes really. Stripe has hundreds of employees most of which read hackernews, YC alums also you get people upvoting everything from the company to see their investment succeed and finally fans. Stripe is ridiculously dev friendly so upvotes from the general community.
I don't work at or have any affiliation with Stripe. I saw Patrick Mckenzie (the author) tweeting about this article and thought it would be a good fit for HN.
Generally speaking yes. However it can be gamed for sure, just not consistently in the long run. Not saying Stripe did this in this particular case (in fact I'd think quite the opposite), but just like Reddit, Facebook, and Twitter's situation, it can be done with the right motivation.
Because the article is heavy on word count but light on details.
The author should provide details on the benefits of posting such an article in the first place (potential front page on HN, SEO, nurture customers), which could yield better results compared to what the author actually recommends in the article (spamming).
> compared to what the author actually recommends in the article (spamming).
Did you actually read the article?
SEO won't get you customers. Selling will.
He's saying, sell manually at first so that you can get to know your customer (and also see if your product is valuable). I.e. put in the time. This is universal sales 101.
Spending time getting HN frontpage or months on SEO won't get you any customers.
One or two months from launch. Basically just left it there without thinking much of it and then started to get customers all of a sudden. Now doing 7 digits revenue.
This article has hit the front page. I'm sure most businesses owners looking to get their first 10 customers research those keywords, and may be looking for a payment solution, to get incorporated etc. So the subtle SEO here helps Stripe / Stripe Atlas get more customers.
Furthermore, as a startup, content like this allows you to post and promote your brand on Quora, HN, Reddit etc., which can start conversations that lead to sales. These types of posts particularly work great on popular entrepreneur forums.
We got many of our first customers, and continue to get customers, by posting content. Combined with a free option. So far we haven't done any spamming via cold emails.
Certainly cold emails can work, but they may also come across as being "spammy".
Yes, but I know of marketers who have employed this tactic and it actually does work very well. Especially if you target those emails with laser focus.