How I got 40 paying users in a day with 1 reddit post

I'm sure a lot of you are like past me - you've built your website, set up metrics but see no users. You've probably then realised that you show up nowhere unless you post it to social media and platforms like this.

I searched far and wide for how to get my app seen and stumbled upon a great "blueprint" in the book make (https://readmake.com/) by Pieter Levels. In one chapter, he describes how Reddit can make your site get insane amounts of traffic and cause your launch day to start like this:

What subreddit?

This is a tough one. If you've tried sharing your app on reddit before, you've probably had your post blocked by a moderator. In fact, I've had a post that went semi viral on r/InternetIsBeautiful get removed, causing what seemed like an amazing launch to immediately stop.

Luckily, you can check a subreddits rules before posting. If there's any rule banning self promotion or SPAM, don't post there!

The main subreddits that encourage self-promotion for indie hackers are:

• r/Alphaandbetausers - The perfect subreddit to launch on – low expectations, multiple daily posts

• r/indiebiz - For startups to offer and share, not a ton of activity but at least you’ll get backlinks

• r/Linkbuilding - Another good place to trade links, and no ban on self promotion

• r/MicroSaas - Software as a Service businesses run by a very small team, perfect for launching a SaaS

• r/Plugyourproduct - Promotion here is encouraged, but traffic is infrequent

• r/Promotereddit - Meant for cross promoting other subreddits, so create a subreddit for your own Saas or App and then share it here

• r/RoastMyStartup - Promotion here is encouraged, so perfect for launching here

• r/SideProject - Self promotion is encouraged, and is very active

• r/Smallbusiness - Promotion here is permitted, traffic is active

• r/SoftwareAsAService - Active subreddit where self promotion is allowed, if you are a SaaS then post here

• r/Startup - This is a subreddit to bring people together and help startups get help with their business needs

• r/Startups - “You MAY share your startup in the Monthly Share Your Startup thread”, very active and sharing is encouraged

• r/WebDev - Minimum karma requirement. Has Showoff Saturdays to post projects and portfolios.

(I got this list from https://github.com/KingMenes/awesome-launch. Check it out if you want more place to launch).

Now, you need to come up with a title and either a link or a video. I recommend videos as they are very engaging. Make your title something simple starting with "I made a ...". It makes you genuine and shows off you as a individual.

This is what I settled on:

I then quickly went and made the first comment:

Here, explain the problem you faced and how your app provides the solution. In this case, I've also experimented a bit with emojis.

That's it! My app is https://howtoconvert.co by the way. I'll be posting more tips like this on my X https://x.com/JakeManger. Check it out if you want more.

I hope following this gets you your first sales! If you get a bad response, try again a bit later, perhaps on a different subreddit. If you can't seem to get anything to work, it could be a sign that there isn't validation for your website idea.

Note that viral social growth is not forever! It's very short term and inevitably drops off within a day or so like you see below. For continued growth, you need to keep those posts flowing, which will then help you rank better in the long term on Google (which should be your main goal).

🍻