How to Win the Velo Writing Contest: A Detailed Cheat Sheet

This Slack discussion by Arthur Tkachenko occurred in slogging's official #writing-for-the-internet channel and has been edited for readability.

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 4:44 PM

Ok, let's explore here how I would try to win Velo Contest.

Just to make everything clear -> Nope, I'm not allowed to do it. Because it will be weird.

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 4:45 PM

But I can motivate people to participate. This thread might help to start somebody. Good luck!

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 4:53 PM

First of all, you need to know what to expect.
1. Read our announcement: https://hackernoon.com/introducing-the-velo-writing-contest-by-wix-and-hacker-noon-ta3433v0
2. Check our website(trying to cover all cases): https://hackernoon.com/ and https://hackernoon.com/velo-writing-contest

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 4:54 PM

3. Check some useful links:
- https://support.wix.com/en/article/getting-started-with-velo-by-wix
- https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/partners/better-developer-experience-with-cloud-operations-and-wixs-velo
- https://www.wix.com/velo/forum/community-discussion
- https://www.wix.com/velo/forum/tips-tutorials-examples

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 4:54 PM

4. Be prepared: it might work slow on your PC, but don't give up

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 5:12 PM

In order to display a non-static website - you'll need to have a data source and connect it with Velo. For example, you can create some sort of "fake API". Or, just create an express server and return some data from it.

Another way to store some json - use a clone of jsfiddle: https://jsonbin.io/

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 5:13 PM

Assuming you are familiar with Javascript, you can use some faker plugin for data: https://github.com/marak/Faker.js/

Or just get some dataset from Kaggle or something

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 6:54 PM

Let me mention few more ways to get/share some data.

You can use https://fakejson.com/ - pretty cool project

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 6:54 PM

Typicode(creator of LowDB & husky) also helping us here: https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 6:59 PM

Another way is to connect to some open API and display some data from it.
I have a cool list to share with you: https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 7:01 PM

Another way is to use RapidAPI(i'm a fan of their work): https://rapidapi.com/collection/list-of-free-apis

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 7:06 PM

So, let's talk about cool ideas that can catch our attention?

A cool project can be related to articles, published on hackernoon.
Each of our tags (https://hackernoon.com/tagged) has its own RSS feed.
You can parse it by hands. Or just use some online tool.

More details can see here: https://hackernoon.com/latest-tech-stories-3vin34bd

And you can use our "Editorial Pick" aka Featured articles thread: https://hackernoon.com/tagged/hackernoon-top-story/feed

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 7:06 PM

if you can't google, here is a link for RSS parser: https://rss2json.com/#rss_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Finternational%2Frss

Yes, I agree, only boomers know what RSS is...

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 7:12 PM

Going back to some App ideas, that you actually can show to someone:
- recipe app or anything related to food

- platform for handmade items

- website for selling digital art

- online courses website(because of a pandemic)

- travel website(also fun topic because of a pandemic)

- history website

- interviews website(text or video)

- website about movies or tv shows

- growth hack website with pool from twitter

- job board, platform for sharing CV

- fashion website

- tech jokes website

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 7:13 PM

You can even create a website related to sports activities. But a lot of peoples do not work out anymore

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 7:30 PM

You can also "steal"(learn) from the best.

if you not sure how your article should look - Muhammad Bilal created an awesome article: https://hackernoon.com/how-to-build-a-startup-landing-page-in-velo-7beb33jh

Arthur TkachenkoMar 9, 2021, 7:30 PM

Good luck!

This article related to a writing contest hosted by Hacker Noon in partnership with Wix. Learn how to enter here and take a shot at winning $1000 every month, from March 1st, 2021 to May 31st, 2021.