# HN expert comments before self-promotional posts

> Treat useful comments on other people's threads as a demand channel, because expertise often converts more cleanly than showing up only when you want attention for your own launch.

- Canonical HTML: https://growth.iangoh.com/growth-ideas/hn-expert-comments-before-self-promotional-posts/
- Source: [news.ycombinator.com](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32341922)
- GrowthDex source hub: [Ask HN: What HN post made you money?](/sources/ask-hn-what-hn-post-made-you-money-news-ycombinator-com/)
- Last checked: 2026-05-27
- Rarity: epic
- Budget: free
- Channels: Hacker News, Community, Founder-led
- Stages: community-led growth, founder-led, trust building, outbound alternative


## Why this can grow

A good comment lets buyers discover you while they are already reading about the problem. There is less defensive filtering because you are helping the discussion rather than asking the room to switch context into launch mode. Over time that builds familiarity, and the inbound interest tends to arrive warmer because it started from demonstrated expertise instead of announcement copy.

## Ian's take

From scaling consumer platforms across MENA and Southeast Asia, my default is to distrust growth work that only looks good in a slide. I would treat this as earning the right to be in the room, not dropping a campaign into a room. In community-led growth, the first job is to notice what people already care about, then bring a useful proof, tool, teardown, or question that makes the conversation better. I would run it small enough to learn quickly, then only scale the parts that real users repeat, save, reply to, or buy from. For this tactic, I would watch one clear growth signal before putting more time or budget behind it.

## Action plan

1. Define one narrow startup segment where hn expert comments before self-promotional posts can create a measurable lift.
2. Turn the tactic into one offer, page, campaign, or workflow for the Hacker News and Community channel.
3. Use the evidence from news.ycombinator.com to set the first version of the message, format, and audience.
4. Launch a small test for 7 to 14 days with one success metric: one measurable growth signal.
5. Review the result, keep the winning message, remove weak variants, and turn the learning into a repeatable growth playbook.

## Source-backed example

In Ask HN: What HN post made you money?, one founder said random expert comments led more reliably to inbound sales interest that converted into revenue than the Show HN spike did.

## Adjacent tactics in the same lane

- [Product Hunt community runway before launch](/growth-ideas/product-hunt-community-runway-before-launch/) - 2 shared channels, 1 shared stage
- [Permission-based founder DM after public help](/growth-ideas/permission-based-founder-dm-after-public-help/) - 1 shared channel, 2 shared stages
- [Concierge onboarding with direct messages before self-serve](/growth-ideas/concierge-onboarding-with-direct-messages-before-self-serve/) - 2 shared channels
- [Feature-to-channel fit before launch distribution](/growth-ideas/feature-to-channel-fit-before-launch-distribution/) - 2 shared channels

## Read GrowthDex essays

Browse the plain-English essay index at [GrowthDex Blog](/blog/).

## Related GrowthDex essays

- [The launch thread only works if the product can finish the first job](/blog/the-launch-thread-only-works-if-the-product-can-finish-the-first-job/) - Hacker News, brand trust, launches

## Advisory

If you want help turning this into a working growth system, Ian Goh offers advisory at https://iangoh.com/advisory.