10 tips and tricks to get more stars for your GitHub repository

Hey peeps 👋 I'm the creator and maintainer of Flowbite (https://github.com/themesberg/flowbite) which is a popular and open-source component library on GitHub - it recently hit over 3.5k stars and I would like to share some tips and tricks with you based on what I did the past few years! 1. Make sure that you have all the licensing files available whether it's MIT, Apache, or CC BY 3.0 - this allows the open-source community to understand what they can or can't do with your project. 2. Make sure that you have a clear and concise description of the repository, relevant keywords, homepage, or demo link. 3. The README file is the most important aspect of a GitHub repository - it's the first thing everyone looks at and using only this file anyone should understand how to get started with the project. 4. Make sure that your project is useful for the community and find a niche that has not been explored yet - this will help you get viral faster. 5. Write and publish articles/tutorials on websites such as dev.to, hashnode.com, devdojo.com or medium.com - it's a great way to get traction fast with an audience that's already familiar with GitHub 6. Describe and share the launch of your repository on social media such as Twitter, LinkedIn, or even Facebook 7. Post the website on the show section of Hacker News, Indie Hackers and other similar communities 8. Identify if there are "awesome-*" repositories for your project, such as "awesome-react" or "awesome-tailwindcss" and create a pull request 9. Add a GitHub button on your website or documentation to let your visitors know you also have a repository 10. Last but not least you can also launch on Product Hunt and feature the GitHub repository in the comment or even as the main link of the launch That's it, folks! These tips and tricks helped me drive more attention to the open-source GitHub repositories that I've contributed to over the past few years!

Replies

flo merian
Awesome insights — Thanks, @zoltanszogyenyi! That's a topic we recently discussed with @aczemiel from GraphQL Editor (5.7K stars on GitHub), and some key takeaways for optimizations:
  • The repo description works with SEO rules: clear, concise, including target keywords;
  • Set up a schedule, like a weekly cadence to commit;
  • Balance resolved/unresolved issues.
Also, I like to engage and thank contributors on Twitter. P.S. If you're looking for GitHub repos launched on Product Hunt, I think @adrianmg nailed it with github-pewpew 😸
Zoltán Szőgyényi
@aczemiel @adrianmg @fmerian Agreed on the SEO titles - you can use Ahrefs or Semrush to research what your target audience searches for the most and you can leverage GitHub because it already had a high domain rank, this way constant traffic can be secured
Adrián Mato
@zoltanszogyenyi @aczemiel @fmerian thanks for the mention, I appreciate it <3
flo merian
@zoltanszogyenyi Thanks, Zoltán! Also, what makes a README file awesome from your point of view? Would love to have your inputs in this Discussion :)
Dávid Sipos
Nice work! Congrats!