I Spent 2 Hours Searching for the Right Subreddits. Here's the System That Took Me 10 Minutes.
Last month I needed to find subreddits for a productivity SaaS I'm building.
Typed "productivity" into Reddit search. Got r/productivity - 3 million members. Tried posting there. Buried in 30 seconds.
What I actually needed were the smaller communities. The 10k-50k member subreddits where posts get visibility and people actually engage.
Finding those took me way too long. So I built a system.
The Problem With Reddit's Search
Reddit's native search prioritizes subscriber count. Big communities show up first. The niche, active ones are buried.
For marketing or community building, big subreddits are usually the worst choice. Your post competes with hundreds of daily submissions. Unless you hit the algorithm lottery, nobody sees it.
What Actually Works
Method 1: Sidebar Chain
Find one relevant subreddit. Check its sidebar for "Related Communities." Visit those and check their sidebars. One subreddit leads to three more, which lead to nine more.
This is how I found most of my hidden gems - places that never show up in search but are linked from established communities.
Method 2: Google Site Search
Reddit's search is bad. Google's is better. Use: site:reddit.com/r/ [your topic]
This finds subreddits through recommendation threads that Reddit's own search would never surface.
Method 3: r/FindAReddit
There's literally a subreddit for finding subreddits. Post your criteria, get recommendations from people who actually participate in those communities.
Method 4: User Profile Mining
Find helpful users in your niche. Check where else they participate. Active users in one subreddit often hang out in related ones.
The Tool I Built
After doing this manually for weeks, I built Wappkit Reddit (https://www.wappkit.com/download) to search multiple subreddits at once and filter by engagement metrics.
Has a 3-day trial, then $14/month with code BNWPJRLVJH. Mainly useful if you're doing systematic outreach across many communities.
The Sweet Spot
For marketing, I target subreddits with 5k-100k members. Big enough to have activity, small enough that posts get visibility.
The mega-subreddits with millions of subscribers are brutal for new posters. Skip them unless you have established karma.
Quick Checklist
Before joining any subreddit:
Check posts per day (use "New" sort)
Look at comment-to-post ratio
Read the rules carefully
Lurk for a week before posting
The communities that convert best aren't the biggest. They're the ones where people actually show up and engage.
What subreddits have worked well for your niche? Always looking for new communities to explore.
The sidebar chain method is criminally underrated. I've found more useful communities through that than through any search. The sidebar links represent editorial judgment from mods who actually understand the space - way more signal than subscriber count.
The 5k-100k sweet spot is real. I've seen posts get buried in seconds on r/SaaS (280k) but get genuine engagement in r/microsaas (50k) or even smaller vertical-specific ones.
One thing I'd add to the checklist: check the ratio of self-promotional posts to discussion posts. Some subreddits have become dumping grounds for link drops with zero engagement. Others maintain genuine conversation. The latter are worth 10x more even if they're smaller.
The "lurk before posting" advice is crucial. Nothing burns credibility faster than dropping into a community you clearly don't understand. Spending a week reading threads tells you what questions have been asked a hundred times vs. what actually sparks conversation.