I blog sometimes. I publish a good bit of music as well, and yet, no one knows me.

This is fine. I happily mosey through life without internet celebrity, but candidly (and probably humanly), it would be nice to get recognition for the things that I make. So how does one get “discovered”?

Youtube just recommended me this small linux youtuber, who struck me with a Jimmy Neutron style, brain blast on how these algorithms likely work. In the video, he shows off his minimal youtube stats, and notices a parabolic uptick in his old linux videos views after he posts new videos with similar content.

Make Persistent, Similar Content

Here’s the hypothesis: “The Algorithm” will push you if you create lot of content that is all similar.

Let’s use YT for the example. The more videos you have, the more data the algorithm has to find the right audience for you. He has 10 linux videos, let’s put him in front of a computer crowd.

With each posted video, the algorithm then gets another “at bat” to try you out on a new audience, which means again, more data. Ok, the computer gamers didn’t like him, but some of these other nerds over here clicked.

Finally, by the time the algorithm has found a good audience for you, your channel has loads of content that this audience is going to love, which makes them stay on the app longer, symbiotically giving you views and the app more eyeball time.

Ninety percent of success in life is just showing up - Woody Allen

Unfortunately, persistence is quite hard and of course, your content needs to be semi interesting, although I don’t think that’s nearly as hard as consistently making content over months… Being persistent.

I find I get spasms of motivation, on a specific topic, and then recede into the shadows for a time. Not ideal for discovery.

As a musician, I’ve found this hard because I’m often inspired by different music on different days. I think that if I had a sound which was similar enough to some other artist, and just kept hammering out tunes like that, I would end up on playlists with that artist and then get plays. But I’d also probably have to persistently canvas playlists.

I think blogging is a bit easier to get readers. Just keep writing about your interests. People will read anything on HN/Reddit. Even this rag.

Food for thought anyway, would love to hear comments. Thanks for the brain blast RoberElderSoftware, give him a watch and feel free to follow my thing here.