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1000 and 1 post: happy birthday, Habr ❤

May 26 - Habr's birthday. And also our 1000th publication came out, which might not have been if Habr were not what he is. In this article, we will talk about our path and about our conclusions that have been reached in 4 years of blogging. But this is below, under the cut. And here we want to write a few words about you, Habr.

Habr, for millions of readers you have become a textbook and cheat sheet, a means of self-realization and the best way of procrastination. We open you during working hours, scroll through in the morning and at night. We fight for invites to get the opportunity to write comments and broadcast our opinions. You are read by those for whom on your first birthday there was a graduation in kindergarten. We freeze, updating the rating of a new article and get angry when it does not move. We scold you and come back again. Habr, you are the best of what has happened with the technoblogs of Europe (and maybe the world). Habr - you are the cosmos! 


We stole this picture near Habr. Because Habr is a cake :)

Do you remember how it all began…?


Almost every company that came to Habr has growth diseases. New corporate blogs often sin in monosyllabic articles, publishing news and press releases. It is understandable: company managers are used to release receivers and "dumb" eminent (and already bronzed) sites where you publish a post, enjoy 100-200 views and sleep peacefully, because the checkmark in the content plan is well done. 

But everything changes when you go to Habr with such unnecessary articles - users do not hesitate to express their "fi" in karma, rating and comments. Not because you are bad, not because the product or project is boring, but because the audience is not interested. Believe me, friends, your press releases in 90% of cases are of interest only to you (but to whom I'm lying - and they are almost never interesting to you).

Actually, this is exactly what happened when the young still hosting company RUVDS first came to Habr. The next hosting on Habr, you seriously ?! We started, of course, with a twinkle ...


Our first posts. Classic press releases, low ratings, no views, minimum comments 


More press releases to the god of press releases! Press releases are our everything. Of course, this cannot be done and it is surprising that in 2020 we still see such posts on Habré. It's time to end this! 

Additionally, we were encouraged by user comments. Some companies are expressly aggressive towards comments, minus, try to complain about "objectionable." We were not afraid to face criticism, mainly because it contained the “growth hormone" for the corporate blog and we could find unique insights, revelations and groundwork for further development. 


It was painful. But informative and honest. Through the years, we can only say “thank you”

So, it took us less than six months to come to such concepts as a content strategy, content plan, and native promotion through trial and error, monitoring Habr and consultations. The secret turned out to be surprisingly simple in its wording: you need to write not about what seems important to you, but about what is interesting and important for the audience. The result was not long in coming.


The turning point in the development of our blog is the doctor, we felt for the pulse! The patient came out of a coma.

We were lucky. During the not very successful experiments in our blog, we did not lose the audience and its respect for the company. This was partly due to the fact that we provided really cool services and did not cause any particular negative (but not without it), partly because we did not create unknown garbage, but only honestly tried to find the right path.

All this sounds pretty simple, but not so simple: to work with content, we had to find our own reliable pool of authors and translators. We saw the phakaps of other companies with translations and already understood that we want from our blog what quality the originals should be, so that we are proud to provide their unique Russian-language translation.

The average number of views of our articles is 25,592, the most common number of views is about 4,220. On average, 137 users added to our favorite posts and 26 commented (although there were posts with zero comments). A total of 38 people voted for each post, of which an average of 34 put a plus and 4 a minus. The average publication rating is +29, and most often it is +25. The average time for the publication of our publications is 13:17, and the most frequent is 12:30 (which is not surprising, we set auto-posting at this time). Yes, we love publishing this afternoon. 

Most Viewed Publications





 


These publications, among other things, are also the most controversial. This scatter of opinions indicates the deep interest of the audience in you and the inconsistency of the topic itself. 

Functional programming: a wacky toy that kills labor productivity. Part 1 (+100 -68 = 32) The 

article gained 67.6k views, 399 comments - the battle was serious.

I turn to JavaScript (+121 -43 = 78) The

article scored 50.7k views, 406 comments. Based on the topic, it is not surprising.

Web Hosting: Windows or Linux? (+34 -40 = -6)

Most Commented Articles



?




But this was not enough for us. We began to move in two more directions.

The first direction is a series of articles - such as our cycle about education, about professions and what has already begun about the basics of private investment in stock instruments. Experienced experts who have gone through what they write help us create such materials. This is much cooler than ordering another compilation from a copywriter.

The second direction was expensive, complex and incredibly interesting. We began to do special projects and they attracted us and the contractors (I think you understand that one is not a warrior in the field?), And you, Khabrovites. There were many contests, activities and events, but we especially remember the seven epic events and launches.

  1. Regatta ( article about it ) is an exciting sailing adventure of the RUVDS and Habr teams. 

  2. ( ) — , 12 2019 . , . , ;)

  3. ( ) — , . 

  4. GAME OVERNIGHT — ( ). 

  5. — , , . -. , : Beer Bros — Dark Admin. , SmartAdmin. . , .

  6. Burgers - well, what a beer without a snack! Together with Burger Heroes, we developed a Habraburger - a delicious black burger with chocolate sauce and prunes. Alas, the offer was seasonal and it will not work.

  7. Cheese has become another snack, which we have pleased our customers. On Habré we talked about the set itself, and at the same time in general terms about the technology of cheese making.


And here is how our blog has changed, how our audience has changed.

We began to meet the gratitude of users and readers much more often than negativity. In fact, content has become our second profession, or rather, a hobby, because you get money for this profession, and you invest money in content, special projects and contests. You may reasonably notice that content and native advertising is a cool investment that pays off at the expense of those who come to buy and rent a server. Yes, this is part of the advertising strategy, but the blog on Habré cannot be called the main investment. A blog is your face, your image. At the same time, this is the needle on which you sit - because there is nothing worse than getting the page "ZZZ Company has suspended its activities on Habré." What happened: no money, no strength, there were reductions, no ideas? We’re not ready for this situation, we don’t want to leave the audience,for which we have been taking first place on Habré for many months.

But it's all lyrics and pathetics. True, only in part.

About Habré. Once again about love


What are we all about our thousand publications? The protagonist of today and all of this story is Habr. Today he is 14 years old. You and I could be witnesses to how many entertaining, IT, geek sites over the past 14 years have appeared and collapsed, in extreme cases, have slipped into completely uninteresting resources that have disappeared from our bookmarks and pockets.

Habr lived, Habr is alive, Habr will live. Yes, there is a certain transformation, which is also related to the fact that the audience itself is changing, that a new generation of readers is looking for content somewhere easier, somewhere shorter, and somewhere more sensational. It is difficult for companies and authors of Habr to be on a constant high note, sometimes we all sin with weak articles and shoot cool. Therefore, you should not think that content can only be selective. 

▍ What did Habr teach us?


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  • Habr team - fire! We were partners and sponsors at many events and seminars of Habr, the guys from the Habr team actively participated in our special projects and helped us to make megaposts. This is a professional, efficient, peppy and smart team. They make Habr cool, and do at a high level. We will exaggerate a little if we say that the Habr team in terms of speed and efficiency is a true IT Special Forces. 

Such are the obvious, in general, conclusions that many forget about. 

What's next? We continue our journey on Habré and with it, continue to work for you, our readers and you, our faithful subscribers. And today we want to make this path as long as possible, interesting and useful to everyone.

Your health, Habr! Chin Chin.

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