BC GROWTH HACKING
Saved by @zmbnski

How I auto-share ~120 blog posts to Reddit every month, reached 35k karma, and gotten millions of views.

And why I love building automation so much!

A thread!

 I have hit the top of Reddit hundreds of times.

Through all of the love and hate that I get on the platform, I think I've found that it's here to stay.

After years of posting on Reddit, I've slowly built an automated system that is now 100% hands off.
This is my Starter Story backend, where I save the content of my stories in a markdown format.

This is great for Reddit because Reddit is also in a markdown format!
While I edit and publish starter stories, I set the "reddit title" in advance.

This is so I don't really ever have to think about it again. Once that's set, the system knows it should post this one to reddit, and that should be the title.
I also create a "Reddit intro" and "outro"

Although the content of the blog post is stored in my database, I still should introduce myself in the Reddit post.

I use other variables in my database to construct this.
I even tag the Reddit user (just recently starting tracking this data in my database) as they will get a notification when their post goes up.

This (and other data) is filled out when the interviewee is plugging all their info.
Here's another fun thing.

Reddit has an algorithm that will "shadow ban" (google it) your posts if you have certain links.

I have a list of links that I will strip from the markdown automatically:

(this list has been built from trial and error mostly)
I also need to make sure we only post one story per day to Reddit. Maybe one day I will increase this.

This is our content calendar.

When you see a⭐️that means it will be automatically posted to Reddit.

This content calendar allows us to schedule WEEKS in advance with stories.
Then, once a day, a worker runs that will post that story to 4 different subreddits (you can see which ones in screenshot)

I run these at 15 minute intervals to avoid tripping any spam things.

Here's the code. Just a few lines.
I also started my own subreddit!

https://t.co/wkIMCyNfw3

I post ALL stories there, and we just passed 600 members. Small, but growing a little every day :)
In addition to stripping blacklisted links for the reddit post, I also do a few other things:

- strip out affiliate link params
- remove blockquotes
- add links for the images

This gives the post a "less bloggy" feel IMO.
The automation timeline!

This has all been a process:

1. at first I manually posted and found what works
2. then i set reminders to do it
3. then i built the code that writes the intro (copy/paste)
4. then i configured the API
5. then i made it so i could just click "post to reddit"
6. then i created the worker

This is high level, but I slowly did this and tweaked over the last year. Many bumps in the road.

Automating things is an iterative process!!!!
The benefits of automating?

Other than the obvious benefits (save time/money) the biggest benefit is that I'm not constantly checking Reddit anymore, seeing how upvotes are going, seeing the latest hater comments, etc.
I'll often check the site and find my post hitting the front page and I had no idea!

Anyways, that's it. Hope you found something interesting out my fun little automation.

Even though it's simple, I'm proud of it!

Happy to answer any questions. What do you think of this?

More from Pat Walls

Pat Walls
Pat Walls
@thepatwalls
And here they are...

THE WINNERS OF THE 24 HOUR STARTUP CHALLENGE

Remember, this money is just fun. If you launched a product (or even attempted a launch) - you did something worth MUCH more than $1,000.

#24hrstartup

The winners 👇

#10

Lattes For Change - Skip a latte and save a life.

https://t.co/M75RAirZzs

@frantzfries built a platform where you can see how skipping your morning latte could do for the world.

A great product for a great cause.

Congrats Chris on winning $250!


#9

Instaland - Create amazing landing pages for your followers.

https://t.co/5KkveJTAsy

A team project! @bpmct and @BaileyPumfleet built a tool for social media influencers to create simple "swipe up" landing pages for followers.

Really impressive for 24 hours. Congrats!


#8

SayHenlo - Chat without distractions

https://t.co/og0B7gmkW6

Built by @DaltonEdwards, it's a platform for combatting conversation overload. This product was also coded exclusively from an iPad 😲

Dalton is a beast. I'm so excited he placed in the top 10.


#7

CoderStory - Learn to code from developers across the globe!

https://t.co/86Ay6nF4AY

Built by @jesswallaceuk, the project is focused on highlighting the experience of developers and people learning to code.

I wish this existed when I learned to code! Congrats on $250!!
MAKERS
Pat Walls
Pat Walls
@thepatwalls
If you have less revenue/growth/success than you wish you had, then the best thing you can do is OWN IT.

Write a tweet, tell your friends, and move on.

Once you own it, you fix it.

99% of people on Twitter/social media/internet won't do this.

Being radically transparent and honest is a competitive (and life) advantage.

From @RayDalio's Principles:


My new product has 14 users and <$400 monthly revenue. I've spent the last 4 months on it.

I'm going through a lot of pain to validate and grow it.

But if anyone asks me how it's going I will tell them exactly that.

If I asked them, I would hope they would give me the raw truth as well. Truth builds trust.

I think that goes for your internet audience as well. Authenticity is attractive.

I see this with @starter_story all the time - people don't want to share their revenue yet because they don't have any, or it's not high enough (not all cases but often).

I wish I could tell them that getting the cat out of the bag would actually fix the problem itself!!
LIFE
Advertisement
Pat Walls
Pat Walls
@thepatwalls
ANDDD IT'S DONE.

Clout Report: Crowdsourced data on hundreds of upcoming rappers.

We compiled a list of over one hundred upcoming rappers and used APIs and scrapers to get over 2,600 total data

Don't let the image fool you! Hear me out!

Features:

Sort, filter, and search by:

- Gender, age, location, record label, region
- SoundCloud follower data
- IG, twitter, and FB follower data
- YouTube subscriber data
- Spotify data

I think this is particularly useful/monetizable for:

💿 record labels looking for new talent
🥁 concert/entertainment venues that want to gauge the size of the audience of an artists
🎧 artists looking to collaborate with other artists
😎 finding artists "before it was cool"

We built this in 24 hours on stream!

Thanks so much to everyone who slaved away at googling for all of these usernames, ids, etc: @AlecOfJones @jnil @DigitalSparky @cameronrohani and sorry for everyone i cant name


Many ups and downs.

Per usual, there's always someone trolling the stream. We had dozens of people editing the google sheet when someone kept deleting data and columns...

Luckily Gsheets has revisions..
ALL
Pat Walls
Pat Walls
@thepatwalls
After one full year, I'm officially free of credit card debt! 💳

So last year I realized I was in a horrible financial situation 😞

I had to sat down and made a REAL budget 💪

One year 👉 Paid off total of $24,705!! 😱

How I did it 👇


2/ First off, I want to talk about embarrassment. Nobody talks about their financials, unless of course, they are great! So I NEVER hear about other ppl in credit card debt.

This has made me feel like I'm a failure or that I can't even manage basic financials...

3/ So I hope this helps others out there feeling the same way.

Maybe it's how I was raised (my parents aren't great either with it) but I consider myself pretty savvy.

4/ How I got in this situation?

Living in places like SF and NY and never saving, living basically paycheck to paycheck. Then I did a coding boot camp and funded most of it off credit cards. Then I moved to NY.

Spending on my CC and thinking I'll figure it out later.

5/ Going on expensive trips with friends and funding it off my CC. Having friends that don't have to focus too much on budgeting (parents help them) and keeping up with their lifestyle.
ALL
Pat Walls
Pat Walls
@thepatwalls
I'm doing an AMA on @IndieHackers.

Drop some questions in there! Happy to answer anything, esp around building side projects with a full-time job :)

https://t.co/da4Ael9TnE


My high level plans for Starter Story.


On almost quitting

cc: @daviswbaer


@daviswbaer How I find so many businesses to interview


@daviswbaer On balancing different projects
STARTUPS

More from Growth hacking

Marketing Examples
Marketing Examples
@GoodMarketingHQ
🔥 How to build a website which converts email subscribers

THREAD...

Over the last 2 months, Marketing Examples welcomed 31,000 first time visitors. 4,000 of these visitors subscribed to the email list.

That’s an email opt-in of 12.9%.

The industry average is 2%. The top 10 percentile average is 5%.

So, screw it, I’ll go there:

“Marketing Examples is one of the best websites in the world at converting passers-by into email subscribers.“

What follows is a series of things I've observed whilst trying to build a website which maximises email subscribers.

1 - Being obvious works

I imagine a few of you have read The Alchemist. Pretty good book right? How many of you signed up to Paulo Coelho's email list?

No matter how good your work no one is going to go out of their way to sign up to your email list. You have to make it obvious

There are four ways to sign up to the Marketing Examples email list:

1) From the fixed position navbar
2) At the end of any article
3) Through the exit intent popup
4) Directly from the subscribe page

From any given point you're only one click away from subscribing.
GROWTH HACKING
Marketing Examples
Marketing Examples
@GoodMarketingHQ
🔥 Marketing tools are damaging your SEO. And how to fix it.

THREAD...

1/ It's no secret that a site's “performance” is a ranking factor for search.

But how does Google actually measure it?

Well, open up Chrome DevTools, click the ”Audits” tab, then ”Run Audits” and you'll see that “Performance” is made up from 6 metrics.


2/ Most casuals assume that performance is all about how fast a site displays on the screen — “First Meaningful Paint”.

But if you look at Google's weights you'll see that “Time to Interactive” — how long it takes for a site to become interactive — is far more important.


3/ Essentially, Google prioritises “interactivity” over “visibility”.

Even if your page appears fast, 3rd party scripts loading in the background (delaying user interaction) will see you penalised.

4/ One example of this is @ToDesktop.

Their site content loads in < 1s, but run it through a Google Audit and its “Time to Interactive” is 8.8s.
GROWTH HACKING
Advertisement
joshbuckley
joshbuckley
@joshbuckley
Paid user acquisition is a curse. Later stage consumer startups that depend on it are the walking dead.

• After launch, ROI declines consistently across every advertising channel
• Early metrics are misleading because traffic is front-loaded due to the way ad algos work

Digital ad metrics have decayed every year since the industry was created.
• CPMs on major ad networks are now increasing at ~40%/yr.
• In 1997, CTR on HotWired was 78%. In 2019, Facebook’s average CTR is about 0.9%.
(H/t @andrewchen)

Facebook/Google algorithms are so good at targeting people that paid acquisition traffic tends to be highly front-loaded.

Founders and investors are often shocked when numbers rapidly decay — because the ad population has been saturated.

So, what’s the answer for these startups? I think a few things:
1. Optimize ad spend as the userbase saturates
2. Build a distribution moat to re-target customers later
3. Focus the core business on things that spread organically
4. Explore emerging advertising channels quickly
GROWTH HACKING
Martin Delaney
Martin Delaney
@FoundersHustle
Want to grow your Twitter audience around a niche subject?

Here's how 16-year-old @PrasoonPratham attracted 40,000+ followers wanting to learn about machine learning over a few months, from scratch! 👇🧵


2. Pratham joined Twitter June 2019 to learn more about his life passion, programming.

In May 2020 he got curious about machine learning and started tweeting about it.

But, he was just a beginner! 🙃

No matter.

By the end of the year he reached circa 40k followers.

3. So, how can someone with no prior experience on a subject become an influencer in such a short period of time?

Particularly on a platform that counts numerous—highly followed—machine learning experts amongst its ranks of users from the likes of Google and Amazon. 🤔

4. Pratham says he found a "gap in the community."

Before Pratham came along most of the machine learning content tweeted by 'big' subject matter accounts was by experts for experts.

He catered to beginners.💡

5. A lot of tweeters trying to build a Twitter audience make the mistake of choosing a topic that is already popular and simply emulate the top voices within it. 🗣️

Unless you have overwhelming domain authority, there’s simply too much noise to compete effectively with them.
GROWTH HACKING
Dan \u26a1\ufe0f
Dan ⚡️
@DanPierson
~2 months ago, I started working @bolt_travel’s funnel more systematically, with friendly email+ text reminders in days after folks applied to join.

We’ve seen a 40% lift in conversion.

Your product is very important to you. It’s priority #201 for everyone else. (1/3)

Obviously, you want to be tactful and respectful. We‘re a very high touch product, people spend considerable time applying, so I‘m comfortable with that kind of outreach.

We haven’t had a single person complain about text or email reminders. (2/3)

bottom line: if they spent the time to show interest, that means they want to know more. And like everyone else, they might just have a lot going on and need a reminder every once in a while.

Don’t be afraid to surface your product (while respecting privacy and attention) /end
GROWTH HACKING

You May Also Like

Jaya_Upadhyaya
Jaya_Upadhyaya
@Jayalko1
SRI SWETHA VINAYAGAR, THIRUVALANCHUZHI, KUMBAKONAM
(TN)
#bharatmandir

While main deity is Shiva as Kapartheeswarar, the kshetram is famous for Ganesha, known as Swetha/Vellai Vinayagar (white Vinayak)

During samudra manthan, Vasuki snake (used as rope) started spewing venom.


Unable to bear the intense heat, Devas rushed to Siva. He told them that this was because the task was started without getting Ganesha’s approval.
So the Devas created a Ganesha murti from white sea foam and worshipped it.
It was later taken by Indra to Indralok.
@GunduHuDuGa


But once Indra had to come to Earth to pray to Shiva to seek relief from a curse inflicted on him. So he brought the murti of Ganesha with him. When he came here, he wanted to take bath before puja. So he gave the murti to a boy to hold for sometime. The boy was actually Shiva.


He kept the murti down and vanished. Indra could not lift it again and a divine voice told him to let Vinayagar stay there and visit every Ganesh Chaturthi to pray.
Since Vinayagar is made of foam, no abhishekam is done here. Only punugu is applied n camphor powder is sprinkled
ALL
Chuck Wendig
Chuck Wendig
@ChuckWendig
TRUMP: "I've decided to eat babies."

PEOPLE: "He can't eat babies, that's super illegal."

TRUMP, on TV, eating babies, not even cooking them first: "People are saying that I really am the best baby-eater, folks."

NYT: "Trump Vs. Babies: The Rhetoric On Both Sides Must Stop"

Jeff Flake tweets: "It is a sad day in America when this callous man can eat babies live on TV"

Jeff Flake, 10 seconds later, votes to help him install a series of 4,000 new judges that are very, very pro-babyphagia.

Judge Kavanaugh, found drunk in a Capitol Hill closet: "I LIKE BEER. OKAY? I LIKE BEER AND I LIKE BABIES AND THAT'S NOT SO WRONG. THAT'S RIGHT. I LIKE BABIES DIPPED IN BEER. I JUST DIP EM. IN THE BEER. THE BABIES. THE BABIES I EAT. OKAY? THAT'S AMERICA."

Mike Pence, wringing his hands about the baby-eating: "We must take care of our children. Our youngest must be protected on this troubling day."

Mike Pence then invites a Baby Chef to say a prayer.

Twitter Users: "It's a distraction technique! Trump eating babies is trying to DISTRACT YOU from ALL THE OTHER HORRORS, which are themselves distractions from the BABY-EATING. It's DISTRACTIONS ALL THE WAY DOWN."

Trump: *eats tons of babies at a rally*

*literal tons of babies*
POLITICS
Advertisement
Vibhu Vashisth
Vibhu Vashisth
@VIBHU_Tweet
RISHI PINGALA:THE ANCIENT INDIAN SAGE DISCREDITED FOR HIS MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO MATHEMATICS & PHI

Have you ever heard about,"The Golden Ratio"?
The Golden Ratio or Phi(Greek) is a mathematical ratio of nature. Mother Nature is the most exquisite artist in herself.


&Its this Phi she uses to create all the beauty in World.
If anyone uses this ratio correctly in their art,it can turn into a spell-binding piece of work.Such is the significance of'Phi'.But my thread isn't about it.Its about somethin called'Fibonacci Series'&who actually made it


Phi is related to Fibonacci series(0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34...)
&this series is responsible for everything dat is beautiful on this planet. Just try to calculate the ratio of any 2 successive numbers ÷ each of them by the number before it in above infinite series.

E.g. 3/2=1.5, 5/3=1.666, 8/5=1.6, 34/21=1.61904 and so on. Did you notice something? The ratio is coming almost same every time. This ratio is called 'Phi 'which is numerically represented as 1:1.618. This Golden Spiral is made in exact proportion of 1:1.618.


The thing I want to emphasize here is that we always find only those things appealing and attractive that have Phi. It's in our subconscious. Isn't it some revelation? We are the part of this Divine proportion of the God or the Mother Nature. Check these:
ALL
Sam Rocha
Sam Rocha
@SamRochadotcom
THREAD

I get asked for writing tips a lot. Of all the ones I’ve given, here are a few of the ones that seem to hold true and remain somewhat universal or at least mostly unobjectionable:

#amwriting #writingtips

1. If you are a fast writer (i.e., if you compose first drafts very quickly) then you absolutely must become a slow editor. Much of what I call “writing” is really, for me, editing.

2. If you don’t read you cannot write a lot or well. Sure, maybe you can read like a maniac for a decade and then read less after that, but without some large volume of intake, there will never be a meaningful output.

2.1 I sometimes say that I feel like writing without reading is like trying to run a marathan on a cracker. And sadly I see many students struggling to write when they have simply never read enough to fuel that demand of the task at hand.

3. All writing is writing if one decides to treat it that way. If one takes some degree of intentional will when sending emails, posting on social media and writing notes and marginalia, then all of that can count as meaningful daily writing.
ALL
Suhas S. Hardutt
Suhas S. Hardutt
@HarduttSuhas
THE BATTLE OF SARAIGHAT (1671)

Lachit Borphukan's humiliation of Aurangzeb.

The battle of Saraighat was a naval engagement fought on the Brahmaputra river near Saraighat between the M0ghul empire and Ahom kingdom in 1671.

Guts, resolve and glory!

(Elaborate thread)


Koch was a state situated between the dominions of M0ghuls and Ahoms. For Ahoms, it was a buffer state for keeping M0ghul territorial expansions at bay.(1)

Times changed when the ruler of the Koch kingdom, Nara Narayana passed away in 1587 resulting in Koch being divided into 2. Western Koch was ruled by his son Lakshmi Narayan and the eastern Koch by his nephew, Raghudev.(2)

Lakshmi Narayan formed an alliance with M0ghuls after which he attacked Parikshit, son of Raghudev, in 1602. Parikshit Narayan was defeated while his brother Bali Narayan took refuge in the Ahom Kingdom.(3)

The M0ghuls used it as a pretext to invade Ahom kingdom. The first battle between them took place in 1615 leading to a series of engagements in which both sides had their shares of ups and downs resulting in a stalemate.(4)
ALL