Reddit wasn't working for me (until I fixed these mistakes)
When I first started building, I followed people's advice and tried to promote on Reddit.
My first results:
0 upvotes, 1 comment (someone hating on me), and a couple of suspended accounts.
Fast forward a couple of months later:
14k weekly views, 10+ comments & upvotes and consistent traffic to my product.
I was failing at Reddit not because it “doesn’t work”, but because I was using it completely wrong.
Here’s what I was doing completely wrong:
1) I treated Reddit like Twitter
I posted updates.
I shared links.
I talked about my product.
Nobody cared.
Reddit isn’t a broadcast platform. It’s a problem-solving platform.
You need to find the people that are desperately looking for solutions, and bring them value.
2) I pitched too early
When I was writing a comment to a post, my WHOLE goal was to promote my product.
And it was embarrassingly obvious.
People ignored my comments because they knew I'm just here to pitch my tool.
Now, I genuinely try to provide as much value as possible. I share practical advice, what worked, what didn't, and I mention my tool as part of the solution, not just another pitch.
3) I chased volume instead of intent
I was replying to as many posts as possible and copy-pasting the same posts across multiple subreddits.
I thought this meant "outworking" your competition. I was wrong.
Not everyone is interested in your solution. When you force it, it feels forced, and people can smell that instantly.
On top of that, not every subreddit has the same audience. Even if two subs look similar on the surface, they care about different things, use different language and have different tolerance for self-promotion.
Copy-pasting without adapting ignores all of that.
Once I stopped chasing volume and focused only on finding people with intent, my volume dropped, but my signups increased.
Fewer replies. Much better results.
So if you’re like me and Reddit isn’t working for you yet, it’s because you haven’t adapted to how Reddit actually works.
Stick to what works, and things will start to click like they did for me. Here's the proof.
This hits home hard. I've been a solo dev for years with 24 apps, and I made every single one of these mistakes.
My biggest lesson: I spent 2 months localizing my apps into 35 languages thinking "more languages = more users." Complete waste of time. What I should have been doing was exactly this - finding people with real intent on Reddit and actually helping them.
Point #2 about "chasing volume instead of intent" is the key insight. Quality conversations > spray-and-pray. The fact that your signups went UP when your volume went DOWN proves this perfectly.
Saving this post. Thanks for sharing so transparently.
Thanks man, I can feel your grind through your comment.
I've made SO many mistakes, the important thing is to learn, and reapply.
Rooting for you!
Thanks for the valuable information
Glad you liked it!
Its amazing
I got most of times banned of communities for posting about product haha, i was doing same thing as u
I wanted to learn how to use reddit actually haha
Thanks for it
Now that you know how hope you succeed this time around! :D
Very insightful! I was trying to promote my product too much myself and my account even got banned...
Yeah, I've had accounts banned too.
Here's a tip when you create a new one:
Don't start posting / replying in niche subreddits. Go to a subreddit like espresso or coffee or pets, and post a picture of your coffee or pet and you'll get a bunch of upvotes. This can help you increase your karma a bit before you start promoting using these tips this time.
you can try Leadmore.ai, it can help you market on Reddit without getting banned.
Thanks for sharing this. I’m just starting out with promoting my own product and honestly have no idea what I’m doing yet. Reading posts like this helps a lot.
Leadmore.ai can help you market on Reddit without getting banned, you can try it.
My experience correlates with yours almost to a tee. Reddit punished me in the beginning as well but looking back on it, I earned it. ~
The paradigm shift for me was realizing there are two types of posts, conversations vs promotions. Once I stopped looking at every comment as a means of getting something from someone, they really engaged with my posts.
Question: Once you began to notice this change in engagement, how long did it take to see the difference? I did not see an acceleration in responses right away; I experienced a bit of a lull before I really began to see results.
What is a helpful tip? I now read the most upvoted comments first to get a feel for what the subreddit looks for before I post anything. Each sub has a different set of values; read them and post accordingly.
Yeah, reading the top comment can give you insights of how to structure (but sometimes the top comment is something short and witty)
can you explain your question a bit?
This is actually helpful, I'll take a look!
Glad to hear it's helpful! Good luck man
Am I understanding this correctly? Your product is to help people get customers on reddit automatically and you say you were using Reddit wrong, but fixed some things and now you have customers... for a tool that is designed to help you get customers from Reddit? You said self-promotion wasn't working in a post promoting a tool that helps you do the thing you were saying wasn't working?
This is interesting and almost as ironic as the person who commented they created a tool that is similar to yours ; )
When I started indie hacking I built other tools non-Reddit related and I was failing hard at Reddit then.
While building this tool, I actually learned how to use Reddit and baked these strategies into my tool. And yeah they do work (I think my verified growth proves this, no?)
For sure, I just like the cyclical nature of it!
It's a story about redemption with a full arc lol
Comment:
This is spot on. I'm literally making these exact mistakes right now with ProductOrbit.
The "pitched too early" part - that's me. I've been thinking about dropping links in r/productmanagement but haven't even started because I can tell it would just come off as spam.
Your point about intent vs volume makes sense. I was planning to blast multiple subreddits but sounds like that's the wrong move.
Question - when you say "mention your tool as part of the solution," how long did you wait before you started doing that? , Like, how many genuine helpful comments before you felt comfortable mentioning it?
Saving this because I'm about to start validation
Tokens remaining: ~14%
Mention your tool in the same comment, but first provide value and give practical advice before positioning your tool as part of your advice. For example you can mention various approaches and tools that could help, and your tool would be one of them.
Also, what's with the tokens remaining part?
I built a tool that follows and only engages with high intent posts and users, DM if you want early access.
Thank you for your sharing.
Glad it helped!
This resonates a lot.
Most platforms “don’t work” because people copy tactics instead of understanding intent.
Thanks for breaking it down clearly.
Yeah, each platform has unique strategies you need to follow.
I'm happy it was valuable!
The Reddit tracker mistake is so relatable. It's easy to get tunnel vision on one platform when there are people everywhere looking for solutions. Sounds like you figured out the real problem though - people need better ways to find each other, not just another Reddit client. Good pivot.
Thanks man!
Am I understanding this correctly? Your product is to help people get customers on reddit automatically and you say you were using Reddit wrong, but fixed some things and now you have customers... for a tool that is designed to help you get customers from Reddit? You said self-promotion wasn't working in a post promoting a tool that helps you do the thing you were saying wasn't working?