How I Finally Made Reddit Work for My SaaS (After 2 Months of Failure)
Okay so I've been lurking here for a while, reading everyone's marketing journeys. Figured I'd share what actually worked for me with Reddit because honestly, most advice out there is pretty vague.
Quick context: I built a desktop tool for Reddit research. Nothing fancy. When I launched, I had exactly zero marketing budget and zero audience. Just me and a laptop.
The First 2 Months Were Painful
I did everything the "guides" told me to do. Joined relevant subreddits. Tried to be helpful. Posted comments. Made a few posts.
Result? Maybe 5 visitors total. And two of those were probably me checking from my phone.
The problem wasn't Reddit itself. The problem was I was doing it completely wrong.
What I Was Doing Wrong
Three things killed my early Reddit efforts:
- I was commenting on posts with 100+ comments
My replies got buried instantly. Nobody saw them. Complete waste of time.
- I was scrolling manually looking for opportunities
This took forever. Like 30-40 minutes per day just to find 5-6 decent threads. And I'd still miss most of the good ones.
- My comments sounded like a marketer wrote them
Too polished. Too helpful. Too... obvious. Redditors can smell marketing from a mile away.
What Actually Started Working
The breakthrough came when I started filtering threads by comment count. Sounds simple, but it changed everything.
Posts with 0-5 comments are gold. Less competition. Your reply actually gets seen. And if the thread takes off later, your comment is near the top.
I started using my own tool (yeah, eating my own dog food) to bulk-scrape posts across multiple subreddits and filter by comment count. What used to take 40 minutes now takes about 5. Honestly pretty game-changing for my workflow.
If you want to try it: Reddit Toolbox - free tier available. UI is rough but the filtering works great.
The Other Thing That Helped
I stopped trying to sound helpful and started writing like I actually talk. Shorter sentences. Some humor. Admitting when I don't know stuff.
Turns out Redditors respond way better to "yeah I tried that, here's what happened" than "here are 7 tips for optimal results."
Current Results (Month 3)
Reddit is now about 23% of my signups. Not my biggest channel, but it's consistent and the users are way more engaged than from other sources.
Time investment: Maybe 30 minutes per day, 5 days a week.
Not gonna lie, some days I get zero traction. Some comments just flop. But the average is worth it.
What I'd Tell Past Me
Stop commenting on popular threads. Stop writing like a marketer. And for the love of god, stop scrolling manually through subreddits - batch your research first.
Anyone else doing Reddit marketing? Curious what's working for you.
The low-comment filter is a genuinely underrated tactic — visibility over volume makes total sense.
I've been approaching Reddit from a slightly different angle though: less about finding users to market to, more about extracting structured pain signal before deciding what to build.
The process I've been using: scrape high-engagement threads in a niche, then score each pain point by two axes — how frequently it appears, and how emotionally charged the language is. The comments where someone writes three paragraphs about a problem they've "tried everything" to solve are worth far more than 50 people casually mentioning a missing feature.
The output is basically a priority matrix of what the market actually hurts about, in their own words — before a single line of code gets written.
Curious whether your tool surfaces emotional intensity in any way, or mostly focuses on the discovery/filtering side?
it 's true . Use the brain and data science function to find the way of winning the internet trafic
@Vkrishnafb yep exactly - using reddit to find potential users.
the strategy is basically:
it's not "post about my product and hope" - more like "find
people already looking for something like this and be helpful."
what are you working on?
My project is advertising on Reddit as well. I am very curious about which subreddit you were posting?
@OptionLab_ai good question - I'm mostly active in niche subreddits
where people ask for tools/solutions. stuff like r/SaaS, r/startups,
r/Entrepreneur for the business side.
but honestly the specific subreddit matters less than the thread
itself. a low-comment post in a tiny subreddit can outperform a
comment on a huge thread in r/marketing.
what's your project btw?
what exactly are you using reddit for? to get users for your product?
@Vkrishnafb yep exactly - using reddit to find potential users.
the strategy is basically:
it's not "post about my product and hope" - more like "find
people already looking for something like this and be helpful."
what are you working on?
I am trying to validate a tool I want to build for freelancers using fiverr/upwork.. inside reddit forums for freelancers .. made some posts but got deleted and the account was suspended. I guess they have these guardrails inside -
Validating on Reddit before building is actually the smart move — most people skip this step entirely. Freelancer tools are a solid niche too, lots of clear pain points. How far along are you with the idea?
@Vkrishnafb ah that sucks. freelancer subreddits are super strict.
what helped me:
for validation, DMs after helpful comments work way better than posts. good luck with it!
I'm actually going through the exact same problem right now. I'm a senior software engineer, I've built my product, but I'm just starting to learn marketing strategies. At the same time, I'm trying to grow an organic audience. My first step will be to try your app, my friend 🙂
Hey, welcome aboard! Let me know how it goes - the free tier should cover most use cases. And good luck with the marketing journey, I know how steep that learning curve is for us engineers 😅
This resonates a lot. Filtering by low comment count is such an underrated insight — visibility beats volume on Reddit.
Also agree on the tone shift. “Here’s what actually happened” consistently lands better than polished advice. Feels like Reddit rewards honesty over optimization.
@Shemithmohanan thanks! yeah it's one of those things that seems obvious once you see it, but took me way too long to figure out. visibility > volume every time.
I actually kind of did the same but mostly to see if my idea was worth persuaing and putting in the effort. but somehow, the people on reddit thought i was a marketer, this is while i was looking for feedback. still have trouble finding the right places to post. this can actually help alot. thanks.
The EV charger reliability problem is so underrated most apps just show you a pin on a map and call it done. Validating through Reddit before building is actually the smart move. What's been the biggest signal from early users so far?
That's actually super common. Reddit is paranoid about marketing. What worked for me was making my comments shorter and less "helpful" sounding, if that makes sense. Like, more conversational and less like I'm trying to teach something. Hope it helps!
"Posts with 0-5 comments are gold". Solid advice!
@cliffaust thanks! honestly that one insight probably saved me hours of wasted commenting lol
Will try it out. This is great marketing copy btw :)
Ha, thanks! Hope the tool actually backs up the copy 😄 Let me know if you run into any issues.
good article.Learn from this a lot.Thanks
@Truman_1 appreciate it! glad it was helpful 🙏
Been active on Reddit for a while...can confirm it rewards timing and honesty, not polish.
@Sonu_Gos exactly - timing + honesty is the formula. polished content almost always backfires on reddit.
Great practical advice. I'm finding Reddit to be fickle as well.
@j_time yeah it's definitely inconsistent. some days nothing lands, some days everything does. just gotta keep at it.
Hey, I've got several actors on Apify that I've been trying to share in Reddit but haven't found the correct approach, without sounding too market-y. Thanks for this insight!
Apify actors are tricky to promote without sounding promotional - I feel you. The framing that worked for me was focusing on specific problems they solve rather than what they do. Like "I built this because X was driving me crazy" rather than "Check out my actor that does Y". Good luck!
Totally get that, Reddit is unforgiving when things feel market-y.
The approach that usually works is reframing actors like yours around use cases and problems, then surfacing them in high-intent threads where people are already looking for solutions. That way it feels helpful, not promotional.
Happy to walk you through how I’d approach this specifically for your Apify actors.
You can reach me here and we can take it from there:
📧 [email protected]
💬 Telegram: @preshtechsolution
Thanks for sharing this, looks like I've been doing reddit wrong these past few weeks.
@AnielaO don't worry, we all start there! the low-comment filter alone will change things for you. give it a shot and let me know how it goes 👍
i can help you with that massively
Seems you only support Windows - I am Linux - reply if you have a tool I can use. Thanks for the Reddit advice though.
Even when a tool itself is OS specific, Reddit discovery still works at the problem level (workflow, pain, alternatives), not the tool level. I usually help founders surface demand first, then route the right users to the right solutions without sounding market-y.
If you want, I can walk you through how I’d approach this for a Linux friendly setup as well.
📧 [email protected]
💬 Telegram: @preshtechsolution
Happy to help.
Yeah, Windows only for now - it's built on a Windows-specific framework. Linux support is something I've been thinking about though. Would you be open to a web version instead if I build one? Curious what your workflow looks like.
A web version would actually solve the OS constraint nicely, especially for early validation.
From a Reddit angle, I’d focus less on the tool itself and more on the workflows Linux users already complain about, then validate whether a web version fits those pains before building.
If you want, I can map out how I’d test demand for this on Reddit in a week or two and what signals I’d look for before committing to the build.