After working on our project NSFW Filter for 2 months, we made it to #1 repository in Javascript today.
I wanted to share what we did along the way to reach here and how you can too.
Not that making it to #1 is totally necessary, it helps people discover and contribute to your project and I believe that makes your project even awesome(r).
NSFW Filter is a web extension that uses AI to BLOCK NSFW content. It is available in Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
Here is the stuff that I think made our project popular:
Good Documentation: At first I was the only one working on this and I made it open-source in GitHub at an early stage of development. I made sure that I wrote a good README that would help developers use and contribute to the project.
Spreading the word: To get your first users and contributors you need to spread the word about your project. Once it gains initial traction, then people will spread the word for you. Here are the channels in which I shared about my project:
https://news.ycombinator.com/show: This is the place where we got the most views.
Reddit: The second most users came from Reddit r/webdev.
Product Hunt: We released it on Product Hunt and even got featured. That was something we did not expect but it drove a lot of traffic to our project.
http://www.echojs.com/: Lot of users were from here too.
https://dev.to/t/javascript: This is a good place to talk about your project and get feedback.
Twitter: YEAH! TWEET IT! tweet it with relevant hashtags and there are a lot of bots that retweet certain hashtags.
Timing: Timing is key when it comes to sharing the project. You need to take into account the Time Zone and the Time of the Day to post your project to gain more users. You can post to different channels at different times to get to users from all over the World.
Write an Article: Talk about your project in an article on platforms like Medium and Hacker Noon. That is a good way to get people interested in your project.
Once you gain some traction other channels and publications would share your project with their users.
Our project was mentioned in some channels like JavaScript Weekly and from there, it markets itself.
If you would like to check out our project here is the link to the repo.
I hope you find this useful! Kudos open-source!
Top comments (5)
The thing that I miss here: How to really use these channels? If a famous / well known person endorses the product then of course people will have a look. But what's the situation if you are not that known or famous?
For pages like Reddit, Hacker News, Twitter, ... you must have a network of followers (or some / enough points to post) otherwise you are not going anywhere. How was the situation for you on these pages there and how was your strategy. How to grow from there, too?
I think these are the interesting questions, which, unfortunately, have been left out. Any update appreciated.
Most of these pages let you share a title and a link. For example in Reddit r/webdev, I made a post on Showoff Saturday when you can share your projects with the community. The post was "Browser extension to block NSFW content using AI" and I had the link to my GitHub repo.
Hacker News has a thing called Show HN. I made a similar post there with a link to my repo.
After making the post, there would be some comments. This can be a good place to get feedback and engage with your users/contributors.
I only have some 600 Karma in reddit and about 30 followers on Twitter.
The strategy is to go all out. Once you have some reach, other publications, online newsletters would share your project. Then you will have plenty of visitors organically.
I hope I was able to provide some idea. Thank you for asking the question.
Edit: I shared it on product hunt just to get some people interested in contributing. I created an account and hunted my own project. Normally, you would go to a top hunter for this. Try to convey the idea of your project in a single sentence. It should be that simple and engaging.
If I'm new to Reddit - how can I post? Getting 600 karma take a lot of time.
I guess you misunderstood my question slightly.
I too did not have much Karma before posting about the project. Some communities require a buffer period where you can join the community but not post anything.
So I would suggest you start using Reddit. These communities are really interesting and you can find a lot of cool stuff there. Engage with posts. And after you have a minimum Karma, post it.
There can be a lot of criticisms and people may respond to your project badly and that is something you have to risk
You mentioned bots that retweet certain hashtags. Which ones? How can I find some in my area?