Ran a 4-funnel experiment over a few weeks posting free browser tools on Show HN. Scores: 2pts/1cmt, 2pts/1cmt, a 1pt floor, and one thread that hit 216pts/175cmt. Zero of the four made money on their own — but the passing one taught me the exact mechanics that the other three got wrong.
I packaged the full post-mortem as a $1 PDF: the 5 working post templates, the timing rules (the ~19s self-comment bump, pinning the paid link on day 2 not day 1, comment-reply cadence), and the full score table as the case study.
Show HN Post Template Pack — $1
Mostly writing this up because I keep seeing the same three mistakes in every failed launch: burying the "why" in the body, linking the product on day 1 before the thread has karma, and never self-commenting early enough to trigger the HN notification loop. The templates in the pack are written to avoid all three, with the passing launch annotated line by line.
Happy to answer questions on the numbers — the 216pt thread's exact timeline is inside.
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