What We Did to Gain 3,000 GitHub Stars for the Liam Repository
Text by Takashi Masuda
Published
Recently, the Liam repository exceeded 3,000 stars just three months after its release. The repository continues to gain stars, alongside increases in traffic, forks, and external contributions.
These stars didn't accumulate naturally—they were the result of proactive strategies.
In this article, I'll share our thinking and the strategies we implemented to achieve 3,000 GitHub stars.
What is Liam ERD?
Liam ERD is the first product under the Liam brand, a tool that easily generates beautiful ER diagrams automatically from database schemas. It's released as open-source software with the goal of growing alongside the community.
Liam ERD
Setting 3,000 GitHub Stars as a KPI
We set 3,000 GitHub stars as our KPI for the following reasons:
- We are currently developing a paid product in the database design space based on Liam ERD
- We wanted to significantly expand recognition for the first product under the Liam brand
- GitHub stars are a public metric that serves as a leading indicator of user trust1
Strategies Found from Predecessors
Having set GitHub stars as our KPI, what specific actions should we take?
Throughout my career as a software engineer, I've developed OSS individually and created OSS repositories for companies, but I had never promoted a company's OSS. Also, blatant promotion isn't something I personally prefer.
I consulted Google and ChatGPT, but ultimately found an article featured on the Star History website.
https://www.star-history.com/blog/playbook-for-more-github-stars
"Writing the post I wish I found 6 months ago" was exactly the information I was looking for.
Strategies Implemented to Gain 3,000 GitHub Stars
Basically, I turned everything mentioned in the Star History article into actionable tasks and implemented the ones that were feasible for us.
Here are the specific strategies we implemented, with links included:
1. Preparation
Increasing traffic without proper repository preparation would be counterproductive. First, we focused on preparing the repository to welcome interested users.
Setting up the GitHub Repository for OSS
We set up the repository following the guidelines in the article below. We tried to include all GitHub recommendations and security measures.
Sharing the "OSS Publishing Tutorial" Created by ROUTE06, Inc.
Organizing the README.md
README.md is the face of the repository.
To make it intuitively understandable at first glance, we focused on:
- Using attractive animated GIFs to instantly show what the ER diagrams look like
- Creating a clear tagline that concisely summarizes the tool's features
- Using colorful badges created with Shields.io to display the tool's status
Additionally, to encourage community participation, we included:
- Links to contribution guidelines and roadmap
- Visualization of contributors using contrib.rocks
After release, screenshots of the README.md were frequently shared on social media, confirming its role as the repository's face.
2. Directly Increasing GitHub Stars to 100
Before sharing on social media, we wanted to show that many people were already interested in the repository, so we aimed to reach 100 stars through direct strategies.
Sending Kickoff Messages to Friends and Acquaintances
I directly asked friends and acquaintances to star the repository via X (formerly Twitter) DMs and Slack.
Making the First Post on X After Exceeding 100 Stars
We had planned to post after getting a few dozen stars, but the response exceeded our expectations, so we posted after surpassing 100 stars.
https://x.com/liam_app/status/1881975247613923737
Here's what we focused on in this post:
- Prepared a video that clearly demonstrates what the tool can do
- Concisely introduced features in bullet points
- Mentioned well-known relevant accounts
- React Flow quoted and reposted it2
As a result, we gained 41 reposts and approximately 30,000 views.
💡️ Although we are a Japanese team, all our X posts are in English. This is to avoid being perceived as a product only for Japanese users, which could limit its appeal in English-speaking regions. Based on our estimates, the majority of stars seem to come from users outside Japan.
3. Indirect Strategies After Exceeding 100 GitHub Stars
Creating Blog Content on the Service Website
We created content for our company blog, including direct or indirect introductions to Liam ERD, list articles, and knowledge-sharing pieces.
Example: Introducing Liam ERD - Liam ERD
Distributing Blog Content to Various Media
We cross-posted to dev.to, Hashnode, and Medium with canonical URLs set.
Example: Generate Beautiful and Interactive ER-Diagrams with Liam ERD - DEV Community
We posted slightly modified content on Reddit and HackerNoon. As a side note, you can't post to certain subreddits on Reddit without accumulating karma first. It's better to build up karma early.
Example: New Open-Source Tool Lets You Auto-Generate ER-Diagrams for Database Visualization | HackerNoon
We also posted a translated article on Zenn for the Japanese audience. This article helped generate our first +100 stars, but it resulted in Japan accounting for over 60% of stars by country, raising concerns about our initial hypothesis regarding the potential to be overlooked in English-speaking regions.
Promoting on Various Sites and Newsletters
In addition to the sites mentioned in the Star History article, we researched other potential promotional sites. Except for Hacker News and Reddit, these were all new to me.
As of writing, we've been featured on:
- Hacker News
- Reddit - r/coolgithubprojects
- https://www.reddit.com/r/coolgithubprojects/comments/1iza4q6/liam_erd_generates_beautiful_and_easytoread_er/
- This subreddit doesn't require karma and had a good response with 7 upvotes and 1K views
- daily.dev
- https://dly.to/D8CwMwsw2Jb
- Unexpectedly good response with 211 upvotes, 2.5K views, 11 comments, generating our first +100 stars in the Japanese region
- Gitroom
- CodeTriage
- Up For Grabs
- https://up-for-grabs.net/#/filters?names=563
- Not many, but generates continuous traffic
- freestuff.dev
- Open Hub
- G2
- Dev Hunt
- https://devhunt.org/tool/liam-erd
- Paid, but they promoted us several times on X during the featured period
- It's launched!
To get featured in React Flow's Showcase, we mentioned them several times on X and posted about our blog article on X. Thankfully, they featured us quickly.
[Column] How We Researched Potential Promotional Sites
While still exploring, here's how we researched:
- Used Ahrefs to check backlinks of competitors and similar products, adding sites that featured those products to our list of candidates
- Searched directly using ChatGPT and Google
- Sometimes found sites by chance during daily checks of Hacker News, Reddit, etc.
- For example, we found It's launched! through Hacker News' Show HN
- Sometimes found sites through a chain of discoveries:
- The Star History article mentioned earlier was originally a cross-post from this dev.to article
- Read all articles by Livecycle on dev.to
- Learned about Dev Hunt3 and added it to our candidates
- Dev Hunt founder John Rush is a serial entrepreneur who creates products solving challenges like ours, and builds more products with his existing ones
- Researched several of his products and added some to our candidates. Among them, https://osssoftware.org/ was particularly interesting in its small-scale approach
Introducing at Tech Conferences
So far only in Japan, but team members have introduced Liam ERD at several conferences.
Example: Findy Tools 1st Anniversary Celebration
Adding to GitHub awesome-lists Repositories
We submitted pull requests to relevant 'awesome list' repositories related to Liam ERD. The following repositories merged our requests:
Approaching Influencers
We directly reached out to influencers who introduce OSS projects:
- @tom_doerr
- @GithubProjects
Celebrating Milestones
We posted celebratory messages on X when we reached milestone numbers of stars:
- 200 stars
- 500 stars
- 1,000 stars
- 3,000 stars
Most Effective Strategies
daily.dev and X posts by influencers were particularly effective.
The most effective was @GithubProjects' X post in early April. This resulted in a #2 daily ranking on GitHub Trending, creating the following positive cycle:
- Featured on GitHub Trending
- Massive increase in Liam repository traffic and stars
- Continued featuring on GitHub Trending
At this stage, we noticed an increase in spontaneous sharing without our involvement.
It's fair to say that "to increase stars, aim to be featured on GitHub Trending."
🔗 https://www.star-history.com/#liam-hq/liam&Date
Conclusion
I've shared the strategies we implemented to gain 3,000 GitHub stars for the Liam repository.
As a software engineer, I initially hesitated about actively promoting OSS, but changed my mindset, recognizing that good products don't always spread organically.
I'm truly grateful for the Star History article mentioned earlier. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to directly express my gratitude to the author, Zevi Reinitz4.
This article is just one example, so I can't guarantee that following these exact steps will lead to success. I hope it serves as a useful reference for someone.
Footnotes
Text byTakashi Masuda
I am a software engineer working in the OSS Promotion Department at ROUTE06, Inc. In addition to working with the OSPO (Open Source Program Office), I am also responsible for OSS promotion.
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