Keep showing up

Why it compounds. People start to recognise makers who show up regularly and help others. Your posts get a warmer welcome, mods know you're not a drive-by promoter, and your comment history makes your account more trusted (chapter 2). Each honest update also gives new readers another way to find you.

A light routine you can keep:

• A few minutes most days: read your main communities and leave one or two genuinely helpful comments. Answer questions you know the answer to, even when your project isn't relevant.
• Once a week or so: a short update where the community welcomes them (for example a build-in-public diary), with your numbers and one lesson. Link only as often as the rules allow.
• Once a month: a bigger post when you have something real to share: a milestone, a hard lesson, a feature people asked for.
• Every couple of weeks: review your results (chapter 9) and adjust.

Give more than you take. The often-quoted guide is that promotion should be a small part of what you post, with most of your activity being genuine participation. Whatever the exact ratio, the spirit is the same: be a member who happens to be building something, not a marketer who happens to be a member.

Close the loop. When you fix something people raised, tell them. "A few of you said the sign-up was confusing, so I changed it" is a good post, and it shows the community that their feedback mattered.

Your 14-day launch plan. A day-by-day version of this guide (account check, communities, rules, first posts, replies and review) is in the printable guide below.