Live data from Hacker News

Hacker News Data Analysis

blog.rjmetrics.com

41–50 of 79 posts

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#42
post #16

#1 Lesson from all of this: Instead of talking about your product to your prospect, talk about something your prospect cares deeply about to your prospect. I had no idea what you did and didn't really care until you used it in context of something I did care about: Hacker News. Now I know what you do, understand how it applies to me, and best of all, I'm starting to visualize how else I could use it. We should all ap…

I would be curious to see how 'meta-submissions' (i.e., posts about Hacker News itself, about Y-Combinator, and about YC-backed startups) rank in the charts versus the five categories shown in the rjmetrics blog post. (The blog post, which made it to the top of the HN front page, is itself a meta-submission!)

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#43
This is an interesting analysis yet the information can be derived from using your site's analytics and your observational skills to come to the author's conclusion.

It's like a painting - the subject matter is important, yet the stuff around the main subject is what makes it stand out.

Analyze what your stats don't have, or seem to have 'less of', as compared to other content.

I think the data analysis could have been more interesting to a broader audience by making it more 'newsworthy' rather than a raw analysis targeted at a relatively small community (compared to a more general audience).

By 'newsworthy' I mean something along the lines of 'NYTimes, WSJ used by technical users too' - or something like that - or something like - 'Hackers in controversy - observers and participants'.

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#44
post #42
post #16

#1 Lesson from all of this: Instead of talking about your product to your prospect, talk about something your prospect cares deeply about to your prospect. I had no idea what you did and didn't really care until you used it in context of something I did care about: Hacker News. Now I know what you do, understand how it applies to me, and best of all, I'm starting to visualize how else I could use it. We should all ap…

I would be curious to see how 'meta-submissions' (i.e., posts about Hacker News itself, about Y-Combinator, and about YC-backed startups) rank in the charts versus the five categories shown in the rjmetrics blog post. (The blog post, which made it to the top of the HN front page, is itself a meta-submission!)

[deleted]

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#45
> Also interesting is the enormous gap between the New York Times, whose content tops this list, and the Wall Street Journal, whose content performs among the worst.

I think this might actually be more related to the WSJ paywall. If you dont have a subscription, you can't view many WSJ articles, whereas the reverse is true for the NYT.

On an unrelated note - I wonder how the category of HN related posts do, relative to other (basically same analysis of the "Pinterest" category). Judging by the success of this post, I suspect HN + Data are a good mix. Are posts about "Data" just as successful?

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#46
post #16

#1 Lesson from all of this: Instead of talking about your product to your prospect, talk about something your prospect cares deeply about to your prospect. I had no idea what you did and didn't really care until you used it in context of something I did care about: Hacker News. Now I know what you do, understand how it applies to me, and best of all, I'm starting to visualize how else I could use it. We should all ap…

I don't see that as an "instead of." He talked directly about his product, he just picked a very good, relatable example. And then showed specific details about how his product helps you do it. Most of Apple's commercials are like this: they show their product directly, and they show how you might use it for specific things. Compare that to some vague "we think you're a good person, and we're good people too" branding commercial that tries to relate without showing what I'd actually get out of using their products, or a product-featuring but otherwise short on examples commercial with people throwing Surface tablets around like frisbees.

So absolutely tell your prospects how your product will let them do things they want to do—if you don't understand what they want to do well enough to be able to do this, they aren't very good prospects yet—but always focus on your product, because that's what you have to sell, and that's what people are going to be willing to pay for.

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#47
post #42
post #16

#1 Lesson from all of this: Instead of talking about your product to your prospect, talk about something your prospect cares deeply about to your prospect. I had no idea what you did and didn't really care until you used it in context of something I did care about: Hacker News. Now I know what you do, understand how it applies to me, and best of all, I'm starting to visualize how else I could use it. We should all ap…

I would be curious to see how 'meta-submissions' (i.e., posts about Hacker News itself, about Y-Combinator, and about YC-backed startups) rank in the charts versus the five categories shown in the rjmetrics blog post. (The blog post, which made it to the top of the HN front page, is itself a meta-submission!)

The HN Community is fascinated by the outside view of HN and eagerly gazes at the held-up mirror. One of our shared interests is emerging online social structure, of which we're an example.

We're also attracted to self referential expression, such as HN comments about HN self-organization, HN self-policing, and HN self-referential comments.

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#48
post #47
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be curious to see how 'meta-submissions' (i.e., posts about Hacker News itself, about Y-Combinator, and about YC-backed startups) rank in the charts versus the five categories shown in the rjmetrics blog post. (The blog post, which made it to the top of the HN front page, is itself a meta-submission!)

The HN Community is fascinated by the outside view of HN and eagerly gazes at the held-up mirror. One of our shared interests is emerging online social structure, of which we're an example. We're also attracted to self referential expression, such as HN comments about HN self-organization, HN self-policing, and HN self-referential comments.

Which really could just indicate that we all have an interest in HN being a good resource for us to read.

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#49
post #16

#1 Lesson from all of this: Instead of talking about your product to your prospect, talk about something your prospect cares deeply about to your prospect. I had no idea what you did and didn't really care until you used it in context of something I did care about: Hacker News. Now I know what you do, understand how it applies to me, and best of all, I'm starting to visualize how else I could use it. We should all ap…

>#1 Lesson from all of this: Instead of talking about your product to your prospect, talk about something your prospect cares deeply about to your prospect.

Better yet, make your product something that your prospects will care deeply about. That way you can kill both birds with one stone.

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#50

I once worked out there were 100:1 visitors to voters for a link. Most of the people I know who peruse HN regularly are not registered users. They are happy to let others do the commenting (which they read). http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/18839832580/reddi... It was super-surprising to see my own blog getting an average of 55pts on HN; I hadn't wondered about that before.

Certainly fits in line with the 1% rule http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_(Internet_culture)
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