What 6 Reddit bans taught me about marketing on Reddit (and the tool I built from it)
The unwritten Reddit rules nobody tells founders, learned the hard way
10 months, 6 suspensions, 1 post with 510K views. Everything I learned about marketing on Reddit without getting banned
A while back I decided Reddit would be my main growth channel. Free traffic, millions of people talking about exactly the problems founders solve, no ad budget needed. Seemed obvious.
Over the next 10 months I got suspended 6 times.
Not warned. Suspended. [one line on the worst one, e.g. which sub, what you posted, how fast it happened]
Eventually it clicked. I grew to 450+ karma and one of my posts hit 510K views. Here's what I wish someone had told me on day one.
1. Your account is on trial before anyone reads your post
A brand new account posting links looks exactly like a spam bot, to both Reddit's filters and the mods. Most of my early posts never had a chance. They were removed before a single human saw them.
The fix is boring: comment for a few weeks first. Be useful in threads that have nothing to do with your product. Karma and account age are your ticket in.
2. Every subreddit is its own country with its own laws
r/SaaS, r/Entrepreneur and r/startups all look similar, but their rules on self-promo are completely different. Some ban links outright. Some allow them only on certain days. Some want a specific flair. Some quietly auto-remove anything with your domain in it.
I got burned by rules I never read. Now I read the sidebar and the pinned posts before I post anywhere, every time.
3. Shadowbans are the silent killer
The worst part of one of my bans: I didn't know about it. I kept posting for days into nothing. No errors, no notification. Nobody could see my posts.
If your posts suddenly get zero engagement, check your account in a logged out browser before you post again. I also made a free checker for this:
4. Nobody on Reddit cares about your product. They care about their problem
My first posts were basically "I built X, check it out." Dead on arrival.
The post that hit 510K views didn't lead with my product at all. [one line on what it was about] It told a story and gave away something useful, and people found me from there.
5. Comments beat posts
Posts get the attention, but comments get the customers. Someone asks "what tool do you use for X?" and you give a real, honest answer. Those threads keep sending traffic for months because they rank on Google too.
6. Consistency beats one viral hit
The viral post was great. But the traffic that stuck came from showing up in the same few communities week after week until people recognized my name.
So I built the thing I needed
After 10 months of learning this the painful way, I turned it into a tool:
You tell it what you built, and every day it gives you a plan: which subreddits fit your product, which threads to comment on right now, and posts written to match each sub's rules so you don't get removed or banned. You still do the posting. It just does the research and guesswork that took me 10 months.
150+ founders are using it so far, and now I'm sharing it with Indie Hackers.
Try it here:
What I'd love from you
Roast it. What's confusing, what's missing, what would stop you from trying it?
If you've ever been banned on Reddit, what for? I'm collecting these, and every one makes the ban checks better.
Happy to answer anything about Reddit marketing in the comments, whether you try the tool or not.
