Strategy Sharing for Reddit

[devise]

It's pretty clear that Reddit traffic is going to become key going forward.

Thought we could share strategy for how to maximize Reddit for getting traffic.

Right now I'm making several subreddits and trying to build them. Writing good articles and linking back to my sites.

 

[Steve Brownlie]

Right now I'm making several subreddits and trying to build them. Writing good articles and linking back to my sites.

I've read a few people commenting that traffic leeching through taking advantage of google's reddit fetish at the moment was working the way you describe - I just wondered do you have to actually get people into your subreddits to make it work or can you just make them up and go ham with posting your stuff?

 

[Smith]

I see two simultaneous strategies...

1. It's a lot easier to go where people already are when you're getting started... then add some value and leak traffic back to your site(s)

2. Long-term play is to own subreddits... but like anything, it's gotta be value driven and you should hold off on "monetizing" (e.g. leaking) too early in the process

Start doing both. That's my play.

 

[devise]

I took over a subreddit that has a few thousand subscribers.

Totally worth it as this is in the personal finance space. Been inactive for 2 years people couldn't post.

Since I restarted, posts everyday. Good engagement and views.

The other ones I started barely are getting views.

I consider each a longer plays.

But yeah, probably using GummySearch for Reddit would work better.

I've read a few people commenting that traffic leeching through taking advantage of google's reddit fetish at the moment was working the way you describe - I just wondered do you have to actually get people into your subreddits to make it work or can you just make them up and go ham with posting your stuff?

1. Yes! That's why I'm focusing on Reddit.

2. You have to or you can't freely share content.

I see two simultaneous strategies...

1. It's a lot easier to go where people already are when you're getting started... then add some value and leak traffic back to your site(s)

2. Long-term play is to own subreddits... but like anything, it's gotta be value driven and you should hold off on "monetizing" (e.g. leaking) too early in the process

Start doing both. That's my play.

 

[Smith]

I took over a subreddit that has a few thousand subscribers.

Totally worth it as this is in the personal finance space. Been inactive for 2 years people couldn't post.

I've been looking into this as well... how straightforward was it after you submitted your request? And what was the status of subreddit/mods before you took over?

 

[chubes]

People on Reddit are very sensitive to self-promotion so you have to be really careful about it.

Stick to small subreddits for posting your own articles unless you take the time to establish a presence and trust in a large sub. It's very much a long game and the older your account is, the more karma you have, the more you can get away with.

Also, people don't care if you post your own stuff as long as the content is good, and you don't go overboard. Bonus points if they recognize your username.

You spend time engaging with people in a subreddit before you post, and then when you do post, people who recognize you will be much more open to you sharing your own links. Similar to the situation on any forum really, Reddit is just a huge conglomerate of forums.

It works the best in small-ish subreddits, especially if you can find an active one that isn't heavily moderated. You can get away with a lot more if nobody's watching. Or if your content happens to perfectly align with the goals of the subreddit....

It is very tempting to go overboard when you get some success. Don't do it. You will get flagged for self-promotion or suspicious activity and have to start all over with a fresh account. They take that shit seriously over there.

Same goes for any buying of upvotes. It works, until you get too excited and try it in the wrong sub. The mods will flag you if you aren't careful or if you post something that doesn't belong and it becomes suspiciously upvoted when it shouldn't even be there in the first place.

I have a branded subreddit that I made close to 10 years ago and never posted in. Maybe now is the time to get that up and running too. Interested to see if y'all have any success with building your own subreddits, as I've never gotten into this aspect of Reddit.

 

[devise]

@chubes is right.

Reddit is very sensitive and acts like bitchy little girls when you try to promote.

They also don't like AutoPosting bots I've found. AutoMod you have to use but AutoPosting is bad.

Straightforward just follow how they ask you to do it.

I've been looking into this as well... how straightforward was it after you submitted your request?

It was inactive for 2 years. The mods locked it.

Maybe became too much for them.

And what was the status of subreddit/mods before you took over?

 

[chubes]

@chubes is right.

Reddit is very sensitive and acts like bitchy little girls when you try to promote.

They also don't like AutoPosting bots I've found. AutoMod you have to use but AutoPosting is bad.

I mean, would you like it if someone auto-posted a bunch of self-promotional content in your community? There are certain platforms that are auto-publishing friendly and Reddit is not one of them.

Pinterest and Flipboard are both good for auto-syndication. You can have it pull an RSS feed directly into the platform.

 

[devise]

Even if you are a Mod on a Subreddit they don't like Auto posting.

I mean, would you like it if someone auto-posted a bunch of self-promotional content in your community? There are certain platforms that are auto-publishing friendly and Reddit is not one of them.

Pinterest and Flipboard are both good for auto-syndication. You can have it pull an RSS feed directly into the platform.

Definitely are.

People on Reddit are very sensitive to self-promotion so you have to be really careful about it.

You need to Mod the Reddit.

Stick to small subreddits for posting your own articles unless you take the time to establish a presence and trust in a large sub. It's very much a long game and the older your account is, the more karma you have, the more you can get away with.

Also, people don't care if you post your own stuff as long as the content is good, and you don't go overboard. Bonus points if they recognize your username.

Yes, just a huge massive forum.

You spend time engaging with people in a subreddit before you post, and then when you do post, people who recognize you will be much more open to you sharing your own links. Similar to the situation on any forum really, Reddit is just a huge conglomerate of forums.

You can try GummySearch.

It works the best in small-ish subreddits, especially if you can find an active one that isn't heavily moderated. You can get away with a lot more if nobody's watching. Or if your content happens to perfectly align with the goals of the subreddit....

Always be careful on it.

It is very tempting to go overboard when you get some success. Don't do it. You will get flagged for self-promotion or suspicious activity and have to start all over with a fresh account. They take that shit seriously over there.

Same goes for any buying of upvotes. It works, until you get too excited and try it in the wrong sub. The mods will flag you if you aren't careful or if you post something that doesn't belong and it becomes suspiciously upvoted when it shouldn't even be there in the first place.

I would relaunch it.

I have a branded subreddit that I made close to 10 years ago and never posted in. Maybe now is the time to get that up and running too. Interested to see if y'all have any success with building your own subreddits, as I've never gotten into this aspect of Reddit.

 

[chubes]

Haven't heard of GummySearch until now. Checking it out, and it seems like a useful resource.

My Reddit knowledge just comes from me being a longtime Reddit user outside of my business. I got into it when I was young and have been using it for a long time. I truly am a "redditor with a website" like they describe in their rules.

I share my articles when I know they are good enough for Reddit. I've fucked around with some more aggressive tactics and it has backfired without fail. I'm thinking of it as a long-term snowball now, and actively treating it as such.

I'm not really interested in gaming it heavily for traffic because I don't want to get banned. I'd rather game Pinterest with AI images as I feel the userbase is a lot less intelligent. Also trying to build up Instagram as it is huge in my industry.

As a journalist on Reddit, I'm more interested in becoming well-known in a handful of targeted, niche subreddits. Like local communities, or ones about niche music genres. Just a steady presence who actively contributes.

I go in and talk to people about topics that I write about on my website (things I'm personally interested in) and have a profile link to my blog. My Reddit account is connected to me as a human being, so anyone who wants to know who I am can find out via my Reddit account.

People on Reddit love to check out your profile. So even if you get a popular post that isn't directly connected to your business, but is niche-relevent, you can get some passive traffic from it when people go to your profile to see who you are.

Here is a small win from this strategy (despite the shit engagement time, possibly from posting in irrelevant places). Simply taking it more seriously as of late and recognizing the process I outlined above as a viable route for traffic. Plus writing a handful of Reddit-friendly articles that I shared in my chosen subreddits. I hope to continue this trend.

Past 28 days Reddit vs. previous 28 days:

It ain't much (yet), but it also ain't getting me banned.

 

[devise]

Someone just reached out to volunteer to Mod the subreddit.

This will save me an enormous amount of time hopefully.

Try to find fans that want to Mod.

 

[devise]

I haven't paid for it but I'm thinking about it.

Haven't heard of GummySearch until now. Checking it out, and it seems like a useful resource.

Reddit is a long term strategy.

My Reddit knowledge just comes from me being a longtime Reddit user outside of my business. I got into it when I was young and have been using it for a long time. I truly am a "redditor with a website" like they describe in their rules.

I share my articles when I know they are good enough for Reddit. I've fucked around with some more aggressive tactics and it has backfired without fail. I'm thinking of it as a long-term snowball now, and actively treating it as such.

Do AI images work on Instagram and Pinterest?

I'm not really interested in gaming it heavily for traffic because I don't want to get banned. I'd rather game Pinterest with AI images as I feel the userbase is a lot less intelligent. Also trying to build up Instagram as it is huge in my industry.

Good plan.

As a journalist on Reddit, I'm more interested in becoming well-known in a handful of targeted, niche subreddits. Like local communities, or ones about niche music genres. Just a steady presence who actively contributes.

I go in and talk to people about topics that I write about on my website (things I'm personally interested in) and have a profile link to my blog. My Reddit account is connected to me as a human being, so anyone who wants to know who I am can find out via my Reddit account.

That's a good idea. Will create an account for the financial site.

People on Reddit love to check out your profile. So even if you get a popular post that isn't directly connected to your business, but is niche-relevent, you can get some passive traffic from it when people go to your profile to see who you are.

My engagement is up.

Here is a small win from this strategy (despite the shit engagement time, possibly from posting in irrelevant places). Simply taking it more seriously as of late and recognizing the process I outlined above as a viable route for traffic. Plus writing a handful of Reddit-friendly articles that I shared in my chosen subreddits. I hope to continue this trend.

Past 28 days Reddit vs. previous 28 days:

It ain't much (yet), but it also ain't getting me banned.

 

[chubes]

@devise I don't use AI images much on Instagram, because it's kind of antithetical to my brand which promotes independent artists. I've even had some pushback from people I respect.

Still do use them sometimes but try to avoid it whenever possible. I just try to be subtle about it.

But yeah, you can straight up use AI images on Instagram and have success. As long as you aren't marketing to artists who are upset or scared about AI. There are lots of accounts that post all AI images and have hundreds of thousands of followers. Look up #midjourney and you'll find some of it.

I've had good luck on Pinterest with AI images. I've been doing this for my SEO articles. Just creating multiple images that represent the content and pinning them with the same link. Midjourney V6 lets you add words and with some finessing you can get some really cool stuff.

Can be time consuming because it doesn't spell very well so it can take a lot of Variations to get the words right. And when you run out of credits (happens fast when mass producing) you have to use "slow mode" which can be... slow.

I think a lot of it really depends on the type of content you're promoting. For me, it's artistic analysis, for certain musicians that a lot of people are obsessed with. So generating images with the likeness or art style of those musicians seems to be working, because people dig the musicians.

Again, I'm in the early stages of this strategy. But, I see random people saving my AI pins to their boards every day and my followers are going up. So yes, it works.

Also remember that Pinterest is overwhelmingly used by women. So financial content or other boring, (manly) non-visual things will have limited success.

If you have a food-related site, you can make a killing on Pinterest.

Like anything, it's going to take consistent effort to see results. With a brand new account you aren't going to get a lot of reach, and you just have to keep chugging, experiment, and double down on things that work.

 

[devise]

Most of the audience for my financial content is women. @chubes

I wonder if I could leverage Pinterest.

I might need to dig into this more.

 

[Smith]

Most of the audience for my financial content is women

That's super interesting - pinterest, instagram, and tiktok would likely be strong platforms for you then.

Are you monetizing through ads/product/affiliate?

Also, can you share a bit more about the type of financial content or niche you're in?

 

[devise]

I haven't monetized the site since it doesn't get much traffic. I still need to work on back links. Better Reddit promotion. Socials.

Controlling this subreddit helps a lot though.

I don't have much interest in TikTok, Instagram, or Pinterest. Maybe hire a VA or something. I guess that's my problem lol.

It's a popular and growing industry but isn't covered well. That's all I want to say. @Smith

 

[chubes]

Most of the audience for my financial content is women. @chubes

I wonder if I could leverage Pinterest.

I might need to dig into this more.

In that case, then yes you definitely should. Create graphics that stand out, or infographics that provide useful information in bite-sized, pretty chunks (large text), with a link to your site.

Set up your boards like you would a category on your site. Group related pins together so they can be found more readily. Think of Pinterest as a visual, social search engine.

Spend a few minutes every day saving popular pins from other users to your boards. This will help spur engagement.

On all these platforms you get rewarded for participation.

I don't have much interest in TikTok, Instagram, or Pinterest. Maybe hire a VA or something. I guess that's my problem lol.

My biggest gripe with all these platforms is that they are designed to be addicting and distracting. Spending a lot of time on any of them sucks balls, and then you find yourself hooked and have to consciously recognize and go against it.

I've never downloaded TikTok, I fucking despise it.

A VA wouldn't be bad... but you have to learn the platform first and teach them exactly how you want them to do it or you're just going to get shitty results.

 

[devise]

Yes! This is why I'm focused on SEO and only Reddit right now.

My biggest gripe with all these platforms is that they are designed to be addicting and distracting. Spending a lot of time on any of them sucks balls, and then you find yourself hooked and have to consciously recognize and go against it.

 

[Smith]

@chubes For probably a decade I've been using a platform blocker called News Feed Eradicator. I think Tim Ferris referenced it in 4 hour work week or something. It's a Chrome extension.

Anyways, it blocks all the feeds (hence the name), and that way I can use the platforms for work/ads/posting, etc, and avoid getting distracted by the algo.

You can also turn it off anytime you want on a platform basis when you want a hit of algo-induced dopamine. I just checked and it doesn't block Pinterest or TikTok but it has YouTube, FB, Insta, X, Linkedin, Reddit, and others.

 

[devise]

Going to try it. Thanks! I started using Unhook on YouTube. @chubes

https://unhook.app/

Just made a Sticky Post on my Reddit community.

It goes over 3 sections;

1. Subreddit Rules - Just explains the rules for the Subreddit.
2. Post Flair - What Post Flair for. Good to clearly explain.
3. FAQs - This is where I link back to my own financial site in this niche. I answer FAQs I see.

Make it clear that the Sticky Post can be updated at anytime.

Even if people don't read the sticky, it makes it look more organized.

I might make another Sticky Post just for FAQs too.

 

[secretagentdad]

I made a lot of money from posting keyword sheeter in appropriate places.

Then, I pissed off a mod cabal and all my best old posts that were picking up longtail traffic from google got strategically removed.

Step one, get into the right discords/ slacks and play the social game or they will get you. (I'm talking about using them as a parasite for quality traffic, not memeing dumb bullshit for volume traffic)

 

[devise]

On Reddit?

I made a lot of money from posting keyword sheeter in appropriate places.

I reached out to a financial company about doing an AMA on the Subreddit.

The CMO is very interested as he has seen how much Google loves Reddit now lol.

 

[secretagentdad]

Ama's seem to do pretty good. Good luck with that. Let us know how it goes.

Most of what I had success with was just responding to people who were already posting about the brand or topic.
Managed to get some good listicles response posts to rank for a few years with my stuff at the top using adjectives designed to sell.

Branded subreddits been a real stinker. They stuck a notice on mine after I started using it for support that really drove people off so I kinda abandoned it.

 

[devise]

What do you mean branded?

Branded subreddits been a real stinker. They stuck a notice on mine after I started using it for support that really drove people off so I kinda abandoned it.

 

[secretagentdad]

What do you mean branded?

https://www.reddit.com/r/Sheeter/

If I was more mature I would probably just try harder and stop being a poop about it.