Ask HN: Is open sourcing my side project a good way to get traction?
So I've been building something and thinking that open sourcing it might be a good way to get more traction. I've followed the progress of Ghost and Wordpress and they both are doing well. There are also a few other tools that I use which have become open sourced recently.
Personally, I'm more inclined to be interested in an open source project than a closed sourced one, even if I pay for it to be hosted elsewhere.
I'm curious if anyone here has had experiences with this. Has anyone noticed if open sourcing projects helped gain traction?
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I think if you want traction, then you should focus on marketing your project first, and make it very easy to try it out and say "wow".
Open source can be a strategy in your marketing plan, but just having code on github won't get you users. If you can share more about the project, maybe the community can give you more ideas on the marketing strategies.
A Show HN is a good start and, for example, you don't even link your project in your hn profile.