Learn How to Use HackerNoon's Story Settings to Your Advantage, newsletterest1!

Have you explored the "Story Settings" option when submitting your stories? This powerful tool helps optimize your story post-publication by boosting search engine rankings, attracting readers, and reaching high-traffic pages.

Fill out these settings before submitting your drafts to maximize your story’s potential and audience reach!

1. Upload a Cool Featured Image!
Featured images are key to catching readers' attention and setting the tone for your story. One common mistake writers make is adding the featured image directly to the draft page. Instead, use the “Story Settings” and select “Click to upload Featured Image” feature to upload your image properly. Taking a moment to pick or create the perfect featured image will make your story more appealing, engaging, and shareable!

Speaking of featured images, be sure to explore the AI Image Gallery, where we showcase all the AI creations ever made on HackerNoon.

2. Drop a Note to an Editor!
You can now reach out to editors directly through your draft’s Story Settings! Write a custom message or select from our curated list of common draft issues for quicker and more efficient communication!

3. Meta description & TL;DR
Your meta description is like an elevator pitch for your story—it’s your moment to grab attention in just a few words! Keep it concise (155-160 characters), include a target keyword, and give readers a compelling preview of what’s inside. Plus, when HackerNoon shares your story on socials, your meta description becomes the caption, making it even more important to get it right - see an example here.

Need tips? Learn more about crafting the perfect meta description here.

A TL;DR is a brief summary that highlights your story’s key points, helping readers quickly decide if they want to dive in. We recommend keeping it between 300-500 characters. In our newsletters, we feature your story’s image, TL;DR, and a 'Read More' button, so make it compelling—or let our AI generate one for you!

4. Add Tags

Tags are the internet's indexing system, playing a key role in organizing and distributing content. When you submit a story to HackerNoon, you can add eight tags, which benefit you in two main ways:
- Tags help Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and friends find your content
- Tags help HackerNoon distribute your content to top trafficked pages, as well as the most subscribed tags via our customizable newsletter, The Tech Brief.

Want to learn more? We’ve written an entire story on it—check it out here!

5. Emoji Credibility Indicators
This feature provides readers with important context for each HackerNoon story, whether it's a simple label (like news or opinion) or more complex information, such as the writer's potential bias or use of AI.

Here's how the Emoji Credibility Index shows up on your story settings:

6. Repost or Original Story?

If you’re reposting a story originally published elsewhere, you can still submit it to HackerNoon and leverage our distribution engine. By selecting the “max readership” option, your story benefits from audio story conversion, newsletter distribution, and RSS feed pickups. For quality content republished from personal blogs, we also provide canonical links to help you grow your audience.

In addition to free editorial review and story distribution, you can get your call to action(s) more prominently featured across HackerNoon by updating
your profile call to action.

🚀 The AI Writing Contest by Bright Data

Calling all developers, data scientists, researchers, writers, and everyone interested in AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to share their insights for a chance to win up to $2,500 in prizes. To enter, write a story with the #ai tag using this writing template. Submissions close December 1st, 2024—just 2 days left!

💰 The Bitcoin Writing Contest by Rootstock

This contest invites thought leaders, writers, talented developers, or anyone passionate about blockchain technology, to showcase your expertise in various Bitcoin-related topics. Submit your story using this template for a chance to win. Submissions close tomorrow—just 1 day left!

Until next time,
HackerNoon Team