It's all about serendipity to me. If you don't ever put yourself out there, there is 0 chance that opportunity will show up, but if you do it even a little there is a chance it finds you.
HN is prime for people wanting to blog because blogging is the most accessible way a writer can get his stuff out there, and HN is all about doing things and making stuff
I think the key thing is to keep iterating and experimenting. Keep posting into the void, but don't keep doing it the same way every time. If your tweets get 5 views, don't just keep tweeting. Try a different platform, or target the tweet at a community/niche, or try presenting the post/content in a different way, etc. If you find something that works even marginally better, double down on that.
Often the people who seem to suddenly "make it" are doing this, but it gets left out of the story.
