First Reddit post - 268 points, 14 new subscribers
by Dawid CedrychI have never been a Reddit user before and wanted to give it a shot as many fellow bloggers/newsletter geeks suggest it as a great channel for visitors' acquisition. On the flip side, I was just curious about the result, will they roast me or the welcome will be slightly warmer?
I worked hard to get my 10 comments karma in r/entrepreneur subreddit and be allowed to submit my first post. My goal was to post my content in a way users find it worthwhile and helpful.
Having in mind that direct promotion is not an option- here is what I did:
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Took this article https://altabits.substack.com/p/2-pick-the-right-market and copy-pasted its content with minor tweaks (deleted mentions of my previous articles)
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Came up with a new title as "Pick the right market" sounds too vague. I went for "A piece of advice that helped me stop worrying that my business idea already exists."
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Added the following closing section for authenticity "This piece of advice changed my approach to new business ideas completely. I used to be like "Ohh, something similar already exists" and ditched the idea right away. Now, I don't get discouraged so quickly - I think of the market size and what I could do better than competitors to claim at least a chunk of the right market."
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Held my breath and clicked submit
Luckily, the first comment submitted under my post (and eventually most upvoted one) referred to the concept I described in my other essay, so I shared a link in my reply. I thought this is not going to be seen as direct promotion, and I was right. No one complained and got a few upvotes on that comment.
It was Friday around 2 PM CET. Until 6 PM the post received around 20 upvotes, then from 7PM - 11PM likes started flowing in (over 200). Finished with 268 points.
It resulted in circa 350 new views and 14 new subscribers to Alta Bits!
Reddit post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/f09b6s/a_piece_of_advice_that_helped_me_stop_worrying/
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I'm back with an update on how long it takes to get to 10 karma points on Reddit. I'm now on 11 points on my second day of commenting. You have to pause between comments or you trigger an alert telling you to stop and wait. I spaced out 9 informative comments in 3 communities over the two days. Got two replies thanking me, so I guess that was part of it.
I don't actually know if I can make a post yet. But I don't want to jump into it yet, I think Dawid's plan of being around for a few weeks is a good idea.-
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Note that 10 Karma is not the same as "10 karma comment points" in a particular subreddit - this is the requirement to create a post in r/entrepreneur.
Good luck!
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Thanks, you've been very helpful. I enjoyed your latest article, I too remember IRC. Gave an upvote, hopefully every little bit helps. You write very well btw.
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No worries, I'm always happy to help! Thanks for the upvote and your kind words - I have literally zero faith in my writing skills so that helps a lot!
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You took a risk and it paid off. 👍👍 I think the extra work you did to tweak it to Reddit's audience likely helped a lot, esp the title change. Congrats!
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Thank you! To reduce my imposter syndrome I need to confess though - the extra work took me less than 15 minutes :)
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Reddit is super interesting. For my app I found a couple of subreddits where my post got like 250 upvotes and I got maybe twice of that installs.
Then in some other subreddits I get maybe 2-3 upvotes and thats it.
I think its really about finding the right audience in form of the right subreddit and you will have some sort of success on Reddit.
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This is very interesting, thanks!
I wrote a blogpost recently and I wasn't sure how to post it on reddit.
When I asked a admin if it was okay to post a short version of the blogpost with a link to my site underneath they said: hi, not interested.
Will try this approach!
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That is awesome, thank you for sharing!
I really like your point about remembering to generate some karma so you can even post at all. I’ve been lurking on a couple of game dev subreddits but need to get more active so I can eventually post something.
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Exactly! Also, I think this mechanism of onboarding new users by encouraging commenting first makes perfect sense. Otherwise people would probably treat it like good ol' PHP forums where one signed up and posted right away, which would drive the quality of content down.
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Thanks for posting. Reddit is on my to-do list, but I've never been a user. You've given me the reminder to hang out on a targetted subredit for a while and provide some useful input! Best of luck with your approach (which I intend to "copy" in a completely different field!).
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Thanks! Don't forget to let us know how this approach works for you! :)
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So I'm a complete newb and signed up to Reddit today. Answered a few questions with good info (I know my field), and now I get an automated reply that I'm commenting too much. Did a bit of reading, and fair enough, I've only got one karma point and I guess they want to keep bot-spamming down.
Do you mind saying how long it took you to build up the karma to post e.g. how many comments a day were you making?
Actually - I see you already answered similar question, and it took you two weeks, thanks for the detail.-
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Yes, I wasn't pushing too hard, like a comment or two every second day. Also I think I should edit my another answer as apparently it cannot be done in one day. Thanks for checking!
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That's so interesting!
I wondered how to approach reddit when lanunching my product - I feel like it's really easy to look spammy and have people complain and downvote you.I don't have those 10 karma points either, what was your approach on that?
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I browsed for posts I could add something valuable to. I never posted spammy comments just to get some random upvotes by serendipity. I think it took me two weeks to get 10 karma points but I think it could be done in one day if you have something worthwhile to say :)
EDIT: @wavehopper has tried posting multiple comments and received an automated reply indicating he replies too much. Therefore I can't say if it can be done in one day but I recommend being patient :)
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You just cracked a tough nut! Congrats :P
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Thanks!
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Great approach Dawid (@thedc) and congrats on the traction! Just curious, wouldn't it be alright to share the link to the original article at the very end of the post? Have seen quite a few reddit posts where authors do this. It's great anyway that you got to share the link in the top comment :)
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Thanks! Well, I was afraid that would be seen as self promotion especially that it was my first Reddit post ever. But I plan to reshare my another post on Reddit this week. This time perhaps I dare to include the link to the original post at the very end.
I was also thinking of another approach. Start without link, and only when the post gets traction (say 100 points), edit it and add the link. Thus, users might be less prone to see it as self promotion as the post already is upvoted by many users.
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Makes sense. I am curious to know how it goes! Also, from what I read, it depends quite a bit on the specific subreddit and the mods and it also helps to reach out to the mods in case the post gets flagged. Eager to know how it goes :)
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getting flagged would definitely break my heart :D I will keep you all in the loop once I test this approach with including link once the post gets traction!
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Reddit is super powerful, as a platform. Some community members might be toxic in their comments but provide some useful hints in the end.
I've learned a lot from the open topics and also get valuable help when I faced issues in my programming work.
It's on my daily reading list, along with IH posts :). -
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Great post I've just subscribed!
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Cheers! 👋
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This comment was deleted 4 years ago.
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Thank you! In fact, I posted another one on Reddit a few minutes ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/f28r6k/how_i_gave_up_the_idea_that_being_an_innovator_is/I will keep you all posted how it performed :)
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