Gitroom

Two weeks ago, I wrote an article that, as of now, stands on 19,869 views.
When I created this article, I thought it would get more, but what’s important is that I know it will fly.

The article discusses how to land a new job in open-source. This means that it mainly targets developers who contribute to your open-source repository.

As you read the article, you can see that it differs from what you would mostly write. In this newsletter, I want to cover why it worked and what target audience it’s directed to.

Target audience

Just by looking at the title, you can understand that it’s directed at junior developers. Now, you probably say… hold on… I run a tech company that sells to architects; this is a waste of time.

I think you are partially correct. This won’t bring customers directly, so I don’t think you should write this type of article every week. What it does bring is:

Contributors
Stars
Brand awareness

You see, this article tremendously increased the amount of engagement in my GitHub; from 0 activity, I already got 4 contributors.

This, of course, will only work if your audience will allow juniors in. If your repository is the subsequent stable diffusion that requires tons of research - that might not work.

How to write this type of article

Generally speaking, I think this tactic can be used in every article (not only a “story”), but feel free to use it where you see fit.

# Rule 1: Nail the title and the description

The title and cover picture is the most important thing about any article that comes from “browse.” If it’s SEO-based, it might not matter. I will say it a million times until people pay attention. I see so many good articles with good content and a shitty title and cover pictures.

NO - MAKING A GRADIENT COVER PICTURE WITH THE TEXT OF THE TITLE OF THE ARTICLE IS NOT A GOOD COVER PICTURE.

Remember, people decide to click on your article based on your hook, not your content.

If I write a story article for juniors, I will focus tremendously on the title that will be affiliated with them.
I will always show the result in the title (read the article, you will get a job in open source)

# Rule 2: talk as a person - not a company

People in the world connect with people, not with companies—always remember this. Writing an article in your personal voice will always be more inspiring than writing in the company voice.

Instead of “We in Gitroom,” you should write “I tried….”

# Rule 3: hero epiphany story

According to Marvel and DC, they have a particular thing that goes in every story. They started as X, but it didn’t work for them, and then they had an epiphany that made them Y; now, you can do Y yourself by repeating the same thing.

Here is an article that I will release next week. You can see how I build up my story from not good to good. The progress is also essential (experimented with stuff)

# Rule 4: don’t give everything at the start

You want people to read everything from start to end. If you give everything at the start, they will churn. Build up your story.

# Rule 5: Add more pictures in gifs

Nobody wants to read a dull article, so incorporate some gifs and images. If you check my newsletters, they are always full of pictures. You might ignore them, but your subconscious won’t.

# Rule 6: Explain to people why they need to take action

Instead of writing, “Happy if you can contribute” or “Please give us a star,” - write what they can achieve by doing so. Here is a new paragraph for next week's article.

Don’t be afraid to experiment

You might think that these kinds of articles might not suit you - try them at least once. But be very precise about what you are trying to achieve.

Don’t write an article about “How Git changed my life,” and in the end, the call-to-action won’t match the goal. Here are some examples you should try:

Contributing to open-source
Finding a new job
Become a better developer
AI Future (scarcity) - contribute to my repository (solve)
Learn faster with open-source
Get a stage for your contribution

Gitroom updates

I want to share with you some of what I have done and my conflicts - maybe you can help me out? 🙂

Updates

New features for the Gitroom Platform

I have added the Gitroom marketplace. Here, you can buy or list yourself as a content writer or influencer and buy/sell social media posts.
Auto post generator for social media: You can give the generator different post URLs or the ones that are scheduled in the system, and it will generate posts for you for the entire week.

Conflicts

I have been running Gitroom for the last 1.5 years, with constant content in the newsletter and YouTube. My main problem is that Gitroom's audience is small. Over the last 1.5 years, I have grown it to 1,758 subscribers—I am literally the only person who talks about this niche.

This type of content is perfect for building a service-based or consultation business. But not the best in building my big passion - SaaS.

My previous Startup was in a very crowded niche (not developers). I managed to get 3000 people to my newsletter without really doing much. And my profit was a lot higher.

The Gitroom Platform's audience is really low, so I am considering making it more generalized for the public market as a scheduling tool. That means closing Gitroom.

It’s my baby, so it won’t be an instant decision, but I am happy to hear your thoughts.