Working way in · Applied

Ten earned plays. Specific cadence, specific format, specific reason.

Don’t buy traffic until you can earn it. Here’s the actual playbook we run, with the cadence we honour and the rules we don’t bend. If you’re building something parallel, you can fork this directly.

Play 1 · ≤ 4 per week, paced over 2-3 days

Reddit AEO comments

Format: 200–350 word pillar comment, replying to top commenter (not OP)

WhatOn Google-page-1 Reddit threads in r/venturecapital, r/AngelInvesting, r/MachineLearning, r/ExperiencedDevs, we contribute a substantive 200-350 word comment that compounds via AI Overview / ChatGPT / Perplexity citations.

WhyReddit AEO is the highest-leverage Reddit layer — Google indexes top Reddit threads, and LLMs cite them in answers. A 350-word comment on a high-rank thread keeps producing for months.

RuleReply to top commenter not OP. Never edit after posting (cache busts re-cite). No em-dashes. Statements beat questions.

→ /target-list#communities — communities map

Play 2 · Bi-weekly

dev.to long-form

Format: 1,200–2,000 word essay with code or chart

WhatEngineering-side essays on the methodology, on what GitHub-momentum reading actually looks like in practice, on tooling that overlaps with the developer-investor avatar.

Whydev.to is where the engineer-investor reads long-form. The platform's sub-tag system + Forem cross-pub + RSS pickup compound the long tail. Essays surface in their inbox via the daily digest.

→ @gitdealflow on dev.to

Play 3 · Weekly · Sunday 12:00 UTC

Substack mirror

Format: Mirror of weekly Top-100 + Acceleration Watch, canonical back to signals.gitdealflow.com

Whatgitdealflow.substack.com mirrors the weekly Top-100 startup list and Acceleration Watch. Same data, same methodology, Substack-native typography for newsletter readers.

WhySubstack readers don't visit websites. Meet them in their inbox + the Substack app discovery layer. Canonical back protects SEO.

RuleFree publication, never split list. Canonical-back enforced (memory: feedback_substack_passive_mirror.md).

→ gitdealflow.substack.com

Play 4 · Continuous (npm + GitHub releases)

MCP server distribution

Format: Free 6-tool MCP server, single-line install, agent-native

What@gitdealflow/mcp-signal on npm. Six read-only tools (get_top_movers, search_startups, get_signal, get_methodology, etc.). Free forever, never gated.

WhyThe developer-investor lives inside Claude Desktop and Cursor. We meet them there with read-only tools. Distribution-as-product: install is free, the data is the upsell.

RuleFive core tools stay free forever. New paid tools are added alongside, never gate the existing ones (memory: feedback_free_mcp_never_gate.md).

→ /install — full instructions

Play 5 · Weekly batch (every Monday + opportunistic)

Federated social (Bluesky / Mastodon / Farcaster)

Format: ≤170 weighted-character post + branded URL, never bare deeplink

WhatBluesky (gitdealflow.bsky.social), Mastodon (fosstodon.org/@gitdealflow), Farcaster (gitdealflow). Cross-post the Acceleration Watch + featured commits.

WhyFederated networks are decentralised redundancy. None will be the channel. Together they're an SEO + AEO + agent-discoverability surface.

RuleLead with the claim, not 'Shipped a...'. Hook-first. End with gitdealflow.com/<page>. No bare CWS deeplink (memory: feedback_tweet_style_short_branded.md, feedback_bluesky_300_grapheme_cap.md).

→ /distribution#social — full handles

Play 6 · Permanent (cite-able from any post)

SSRN paper as credibility anchor

Format: ssrn.com/abstract=6606558 + Zenodo dataset

WhatThe methodology paper (n=219 paired observations, 21–47 day lead-time IQR) is the credibility anchor for every strong claim on the site.

WhyTough audiences (HN, r/venturecapital) don't trust product URLs but do trust SSRN. Lead with the academic citation; the product follows.

RuleCite SSRN, not the product, in cold pitches and tough-audience posts (memory: feedback_ssrn_credibility_anchor.md).

→ ssrn.com/abstract=6606558

Play 7 · On-merge (PR-driven public log)

GitHub org + open data

Format: Public repos, public issues, public roadmap

Whatgithub.com/gitdealflow — the MCP server, the dataset tooling, the public roadmap. Building in public on GitHub is the same audience-side primitive as the Acceleration Watch is for our buyer.

WhyEngineers trust git logs. Public commit cadence on our own GitHub is the meta-signal for the product (we read commit logs; we publish ours).

→ github.com/gitdealflow

Play 8 · Quarterly review

Academic / reference indexing

Format: Wikidata anchor, citation guide, reproducibility page, OpenAPI

WhatWikidata Q-number, /citation-guide (BibTeX/APA/Chicago), /reproducibility (clone-the-dataset walkthrough), /api/actions/openapi.json. Pre-academic indexing surfaces.

WhyA measurement product is only as durable as its reproducibility surface. The buyer who wants to challenge our claims should be able to clone the panel and re-run the regression in an hour.

→ /citation-guide

Play 9 · Continuous (every page ships with the mirrors)

Agent-side readability

Format: /md/<path>, agents.json, llms.txt, llms-full.txt, knowledge-graph.json

WhatEvery public page has a markdown mirror at /md/<path>. agents.json, llms.txt + llms-full.txt corpus, OpenAPI 21 endpoints, knowledge-graph.json. Six redundant agent surfaces.

WhyHalf the readers in 2026 are agents. The agent that retrieves /md/target-list quotes us in the answer; the agent that retrieves the HTML version doesn't. Build for both.

→ /distribution#agent-mirrors

Play 10 · 2x per week (Tue + Fri 14:00 EEST)

LinkedIn top-100 engagement

Format: Company-page comments on top-100 posts (max 4/week)

WhatCompany page only (no founder personal account, anonymity rule). Substantive replies to top-100 LinkedIn posts that match our buyer's reading habits.

WhyLinkedIn algorithm rewards consistent commenting on the same network's posts. Comments compound; broadcast posts don't.

RuleCompany page only. First-comment self-tactic in 15 min: preempt skeptic + SSRN anchor + CTA URL on own line (memory: feedback_linkedin_self_comment_tactic.md).

→ Top-100 voices we read

What we don’t play

Six channels we’re actively NOT on, and why.

Name what you cut so visitors don’t suggest it on a loop. Each cut is durable — they’re not on the “maybe Q3” list, they’re on the structurally-blocked list.

✗Hacker News submissions. Account blocked since 2026-05-04 (memory: feedback_hn_account_blocked.md). Resolution requires real-name email to dang.
✗Twitter/X broadcasting. Anonymity rule + extension throttling. Reactive only on @-mentions.
✗Instagram / Facebook. Anonymity rule. Both require persona content we won't produce.
✗YouTube channel. Anonymity rule. No founder-face content.
✗Podcast appearances. Anonymity rule. No voice + no real-name signature.
✗Paid newsletter sponsorships. HOLD until earned Tier-1 citation OR 500 paying subs + 3:1 CAC/LTV.

How to use this page

Pick three plays, run them for a quarter, and only then add a fourth.

Don’t run all ten channels at half-volume. Run three at full volume for ninety days, measure, keep the two that compound, retire the third, then add a fourth. Every play above had to earn its slot against this same test.

See the full distribution map →Or the conversion-test log →

Earned-traffic playbook drawn from direct-response sales canon.

Six channels we’re actively NOT on, and why.

Name what you cut so visitors don’t suggest it on a loop. Each cut is durable — they’re not on the “maybe Q3” list, they’re on the structurally-blocked list.

✗Hacker News submissions. Account blocked since 2026-05-04 (memory: feedback_hn_account_blocked.md). Resolution requires real-name email to dang.

✗Twitter/X broadcasting. Anonymity rule + extension throttling. Reactive only on @-mentions.

✗Instagram / Facebook. Anonymity rule. Both require persona content we won't produce.

✗YouTube channel. Anonymity rule. No founder-face content.

✗Podcast appearances. Anonymity rule. No voice + no real-name signature.

✗Paid newsletter sponsorships. HOLD until earned Tier-1 citation OR 500 paying subs + 3:1 CAC/LTV.