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Ask HN: So where do I put an article, so it's discoverable, if not on Medium?

24 points by Nowado ↗ HN
So I have a small post I want to drop somewhere. It's on a fairly niche, amateur-to-semi-advanced technical topic - basics really, but I know more people had the same issue. And I'm guessing more will have in the future, so I'd like it to be googleable.

I used to blog, but I'm not starting one again right now. I know how to organize SEO, SM promotion, how to setup domain and hosting, but I don't want to. I just want to write a single post that will solve single problem and I want people who have that problem to find that post in the future. That is all.

So what do I do with it without increasing power of Medium overlords? Where do I just post a blog post?

30 comments

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greypowerOz
a free "problem_name.wordpress.com" type setup might suit your needs?

https://wordpress.com/free/

Nowado
I'm not sure if I'll go with WP specifically, but using problem/title the way free hosting platform expects me to use username is definitely a convenient work around.
quickthrower2
Contact me via my profile details and I’ll try to help you! I’d need to know your niche. I fancy the challenge! I been posting stuff for a while so quite adept at getting a most amount of eyes on a tech post.

However if you prefer I post a tip here: ... try subreddits and get involved with the communities and understand their norms about sharing links.

Nowado
I mean... I didn't mean to make it a 'launch', as it really is a tiny problem in a small space, but if that's your niche, you're about to get a PM^^

After some stalking I went with LI, as I can't find any more accessible way (can't PM your Twitter).

quickthrower2
Yeah I’m not talking about a launch. Sounds like you need help finding your tribe online.

I might be able to help even though I might not be experienced in that area of tech as the principles of how to share and promote blog posts are somewhat universal

quickthrower2
Just noticed my site doesn’t have a contact so will add that now to HN profile
Nowado
It will be weird, as I happen to have background in marketing and I used to tell people about tribes and stuff 10 years ago, but sure ;)
quickthrower2
You are probably better than me then at this stuff but a second pair of eyes can be useful.
aheckler
If you already have a website, maybe just make it a page there? No need to make a whole "Blog" section with this as the first entry.

If it has anything to do with code, maybe a GitHub Gist?

Nowado
I don't have a website. Well, at least not one for which it would make sense to add this specific post to.

Speaking of GitHub-things, I was considering GitHub Pages as a whole solution, but I'm just not that familiar with current 'space' and I'm looking for options.

SubGenius
You could use Gurlic. Here's an example.

https://gurlic.com/homer/the-iliad-book-i

Themed:

https://gurlic.com/homer/the-iliad-book-i?theme=pudding

https://gurlic.com/homer/the-iliad-book-i?theme=minimal

https://gurlic.com/homer/the-iliad-book-i?theme=naked

Gurlic supports custom domains too, by the way:

https://classics.wtf (this is a publication hosted on gurlic)

https://classics.wtf/the-iliad-book-ii

The main site that I shared with HN about a month ago already has a handful of users, but nobody is actively writing articles. I'm happy to hand out a free .COM domain to anybody who wants to help test Gurlic's article editor.

https://gurlic.com if you want to check out the rest of the site..

Nowado
How does it do on Google? I'm obviously not expecting it to do amazingly and I know off site SEO can be done. But, assuming you are tracking that kind of information, are there posts consistently getting hits from our Google overlords?

As much as I like optionally-self-hosted tumblr-like idea, reasonable expectation of getting search engine to rank 'quite high' when, say, 3 fairly niche keywords combined appear in the title and throughout the post would be a benefit.

SubGenius
I can see a lot of spider activity in my logs, but it's only been a month so far. I have not promoted it beyond one HN post and a reddit one.

I don't think I want to do too much tracking, not with third-party analytics anyway. Communities and users can be entirely anonymous, so tracking would be antithetical.

webmaven
> You could use Gurlic. Here's an example.

Gurlic looks interesting, but I find the juxtaposition of long form content in your examples vs. the tumblr-esque timeline on the front page of the site a bit odd.

Note that on mobile, following the footer links I glimpsed (including the 'about' page, which presumably could clear things up) is defeated by the infinite scrolling. A 'hamburger menu' in the header would improve access to these global navigation links.

SubGenius
It is a bit odd yes, since gurlic is attempting to be a bit of everything. I hope I'm able to clear up some of the oddities with better UI, when I have help.

I'll implement that hamburger menu, thanks!

Jugurtha
GitLab/GitHub pages? Long ago, I took notes[0] for myself and put them in a repo. It was easy to set up GitLab to build them.

I also had blogs. As a student living in an underbanked country, I wanted to trade stocks. I jumped through hoops to find a broker in the U.S. that would allow me to do that. I contacted so many that when I found one, I started a blog just for the article.

To get going, I needed a MasterCard. I jumped through so many hoops, literally knocking on banks' doors, being given conflictin/inaccurate/incomplete information, that when I finally go the card, I put up that article in the blog [almost a thousand comments and replies, hundreds of thousands have read it, and I became the 'internet payments' guy in the country]

- [0]: https://jhadjar.gitlab.io/kbase

- [1]: https://dzdinars.wordpress.com/2013/07/29/carte-visa-masterc...

marketgod
Congratulations this is a nice setup as well.
fattybob
here isn't a bad starting place
futhey
If you like Medium's writing interface, use it. Just be sure to publish your articles without opting in to monetization, if you want your content to live outside the paywall. It'll still be discoverable through Google (I get >1m reads through Google / Bing / Social).

Medium gets a lot of well-deserved hate because they employed some super scummy tactics in the past.

For example, they won't promote your content on their network though unless you opt-in to monetization. Which sucks.

But they're backing off on some other points like asking guest users to sign in or click through a popup before reading an article.

Substack is super polished, if you haven't tried it. Similar interface & setup.

inquirerofsorts
The problem is writing something good. Not SEO.

Sort out the first one and the other will follow.

Shorel
This doesn't address the issue of plagiarism by SEO peddlers.

How can an original article be the top result when a carbon copy with better SEO is up there just some hours after the original appears?

su1000
Try blogspot free hosting and then by a domain. Also then monetize it and donate the money
commonturtle
I'd just post on blogspot or a free blog from wordpress.com. Then use HN / Reddit / Twitter for discoverability instead of relying on Medium.
rajanmr
Best option is to approach a blog in your niche and offer them guest post. This way you get your content published and they get fresh content. Both are benefitted.
Simulacra
Have you considered an analog pathway such as a technical journal?

Edit: Just as I clicked submit.. What about a white paper on your website? Just leave it there and load it up with SEO.