How to promote an open-source project?

Question

I am working on my own open-source project which I expect to finish in March. This is a SaaS boilerplate for developers. The idea is not new since there are countless similar repositories on Github but I want to do it anyway because I have a lot of experience since I have done a lot of SaaS for my clients.

I am targeting fỏ 1500 stars on this repository on Github. This is a lot but I have seen other similar projects on Github achieved this.

Could you give me some ideas to promote an open-source project?

Stephane Ibos · Accepted Answer

On top of Reddit and Indiehackers, you might want to try Hackernews. Just keep in mind it's quite a fierce platform - plenty of excellent stuff, but a very sharp crowd that does not forgive anything considered as 'spammy'.

Can give your project excellent visibility though.

David Tran · Answer

@stephane_ibos yeah, I read Hackernew a lot and must be carefull when I make a comment. It must be insightful and meaningful, otherwise it will be downvoted.

flo merian · Answer

@stephane_ibos @davidtranwd FWIW @anhthochuong recently shared her best practices for HN in this post: How to get the first 1,000 Github stars for an open-source project my key takeaways:

write about problems,
keep posting -- consistency is key.

above all, I absolutely love this quote from @paulg: > "If you want to appeal to Hacker News readers, tell them how something complicated works."

David Tran · Answer

@inumel Thanks. I use Reddit a lot and right now it's one of the best place for authentic discussion. HN is also a great place for software related discussion.

flo merian · Answer

@inumel @davidtranwd out of curiosity -- what are your best subreddits for marketing OSS? I recently started a list of places to promote open-source projects on GitHub. would love to add your contributions -- thanks!

Fabian Maume · Answer

https://www.indiehackers.com/ can be a nice place to promote your project. You can share milestone there for GitHub stars (100 star, 500 stars, 1000 stars).
Facebook groups about SaaS could also be interesting.

Fabian Maume · Answer

@davidtranwd 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/SaaSgrowthhacking/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasfoundersnetwork/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasproductsandmarketing/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasrevolution/

You can use social fixer to monitor facebook groups at scales: https://fabian-maume.medium.com/how-to-monitor-facebook-groups-effectively-f9a54a77ca6e

Jakub T. Jankiewicz · Answer

I've written an article about using SEO for marketing your Open Source projects: https://itnext.io/seo-for-open-source-projects-1a6b17ffeb8b

You can also search "How to promote open source project" in Google there are a few articles about the topic.

Michael Ventures · Answer

I think maybe going to reddit and tapping into their different subs will be a great way. Besides product hunt, Reddit has some really robust community would love to see the journey of building things. One of the subreddit that come to mind is /EntrepreneurRideAlong. The majority of people who post there are building alot of things sometimes open source. Sometimes brands. The key with these type of subs is to be real and authentic and just think of it as a diary where everyday you come in and just tell them what your working on and the progress you have made. Doing this will be a great place for you to start. Hopefully this helps

Sachin shajan · Answer

@inumel @davidtranwd @fmerian Thanks for this now

David Tran · Answer

@fabian_maume I found out that indiehackers is also a very active community. Could you share me the link the the SaaS group?

Kevin Wan · Answer

@fabian_maume I'm the author of open source project https://github.com/zeromicro/go-zero, I'm wondering if I can promote go-zero at indiehackers? If yes, how can I get a invitation code? Thanks!

David Tran · Answer

@fabian_maume Great! Thanks for your valuable information.

Samy Melaine · Answer

@davidtranwd @fabian_maume   thanks !:)

How to promote an open-source project?

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