How to Drive Traffic with Reddit

Transcription

1 How to Drive Traffic with Reddit With great power, comes great responsibility Uncle Ben This guide was tremendously difficult for me to write. I have written and rewritten it multiple times, to the point I am not entirely sure how much of my initial ideas remain. The reason, I found this guide so hard is because I know what people are going to do with it. I grew my blog and brand quickly, by most standards, and the key to that success was networking with other professionals. Whatever, they were doing to drive traffic they would share with me and I would do likewise. When I began using Reddit, I immediately set about tell everyone I knew about the potential. That is until the complaints started rolling in about how my peers could not make Reddit work. The experience was a blessing because it forced me to go back and analyze why some social media strategies work and others fail. What you have here is the result of that learning endeavor. I want you to have a successful experience on reddit, however I have been in the game long enough, that I know many readers are going to get as far as traffic statistics and rush to hop on Reddit. I hope that you consider this guide in its entirety and avoid the common mistakes new Reddit users make. Overview Today I am going to explain, why you should be using Reddit, and how to use Reddit correctly. By now, you've probably heard about Reddit, and that it's an excellent source of traffic for a blogger or producer of content. You may also listen to tales of the unsavory side or Reddit. When most content producers, bloggers, podcasters, freelancers think of Reddit they often picture the cantina in Star Wars; a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Possibly even worse, the train station in the movie Total Recall. Reddit has a well-deserved reputation for being a complicated platform to master. Reddit users are extremely active, and they're susceptible to self-promotion. So, to market and be productive on Reddit, you really need to understand your readers, you need to understand the subreddits that you're participating in, and you need to know what to do and what not to do. Why You Should Consider or Reconsider Reddit "Everyone wants to be a bodybuilder, but no one wants to lift no heavy ass weights" Ronnie Coleman. Reddit is not a social media platform you should ignore. It s the third most visited website in the United States, with a reported 542 million monthly visitors. (Need I say more?) 1

2 Still not convinced? Twitter, as of first quarter 2018, has 336 million monthly users. Reddit is almost double the monthly traffic of Twitter. If you are familiar with the importance of sharing your content on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook then you can certainly respect the necessity of being on Reddit. To promote your content, you need to be in front of your audience, and chances are they are on Reddit. Unlike Pinterest and the others, Reddit users tend to engage with content better, they have a much lower bounce rate, and they tend to click through pages, comment, and engage with your site more than traffic from other social media. Reddit is a platform you will want to focus on and maintain a presence. Tip: In my experience Reddit users tend to be less inclined to sign up for lists. If you only judge success by the amount of opt-ins, then you will need to develop a powerful lead magnet. Reddit has the power to drive more traffic and build more authority for you and your site than any other form of social media. I have seen a successful decent Reddit submission drive over 8k views to a website. Average Reddit submissions can drive a few thousand views, and mediocre posts are still capable of a few hundred views. A post that goes viral on Reddit can produce 100s of thousands of views. New content producers that are starting out, will not see those kinds of figures from other social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For a new content producer in the early stages of building a brand/blog, being able to drive that kind of traffic can be instrumental in getting the blog to take off. Reddit is not just for the aspiring blogger, even the more experienced blogger or content producer should develop a presence on the site. Established brands are always looking for ways to break past plateaus, a few successful posts a week on Reddit could efficiently produce an extra 10k to 20K additional views a month. Tip: Google analytics tends to record Reddit traffic as direct. Getting those numbers will not be easy work, but it's not hard work either. To be successful on Reddit, you must build credibility, establish authority and learn the rules. To do so, you are going to have to invest some time every day on your Reddit strategy. I often tell content producers about Reddit, and they will remark they do not have time for Reddit. Ironically, I usually see these bloggers goofing around on Twitter with other bloggers. Networking on Twitter is fun and has it place in growing a blog, and it feeds your ego. However, if you want to feed your wallet and you have limited time, your time is better spent on Reddit. Still Not Convinced? Reddit vs. Its Peers One of the unique advantages to Reddit compared to some other types of social media, particularly Facebook, is that Reddit offers a potential better user experience than Facebook. This is because Reddit is more focused on content and discussion than other social media. 2

3 Have you ever considered setting up a Facebook group for your blog, however, were turned off by Facebook s requirement that you or your users cannot use a fictitious identity? Reddit offers the ideal alternative: users may have multiple accounts and are not obligated to use their real character. Many contentment producers and readers may value connecting in a group to discuss issues, but they do not want their identities compromised. If someone has questions about how to get their spouse on board in paying down debt, or how to financially prepare for a divorce, those individuals are probably not going to comment on your blog about those questions. Additionally, it s doubtful they will join your Facebook group that discusses those issues because they're concerned about their identity. Most readers don't want to risk it being out that they're in debt or pre-bankruptcy, or whatever the issue might be. These are things that many want to keep private. The beautiful thing is, after you've had a Reddit account for 90 days, you can set up your own subreddit where people can join anonymously. Creating your own subreddit around a topic is a great way to get Reddit traffic. Your subreddit becomes your community. If you're talking about those kinds of issues where a viewer s anonymity might be necessary, you can tell them at the end of a blog post, that you have group on Reddit where you can join anonymously and interact with us and read the content and ask questions, and we're here to help you. That's a great way to use Reddit correctly, as opposed to spamming links back to your blog. Additionally, Reddit doesn't data mine the way that Facebook does. If you have used Facebook, you know the site is always making recommendations on connections, and if you have followed the news, Facebook took a sizable hit in credibility and data security. Many people are starting to get turned off on Facebook. Facebook's apparently still a tremendous player and it's probably not going anywhere, but Reddit is an excellent alternative. When it comes to social media all it takes it one unpopular update or change to destroy a source of traffic. I realize it seems impossible to picture a world without Facebook, but social media fades in and out of popularity. Do you remember AOL chat, Myspace (I wonder what happened to Tom?) or even StumbleUpon? Reddit's an excellent alternative for people that are considering leaving Facebook as you can point readers to Reddit and ask them to connect with you. What is Reddit? Reddit is a news aggregation and discussion website, mainly. It's a large forum where users share and discuss content. Users submit content, such as articles, links, videos, pictures or texts posts and other users either vote the content up or down or respond to the submission with comments/questions. The site is comprised of multiple "subreddits" which cover a range of topics, such as the news, politics, pop culture, gaming, parenting advice, finance and more. There is a subreddit for almost every conceivable subject, and if you cannot find a subreddit that suits your needs, you are free to create your own when your account is old enough. 3

4 Subreddits can be thought of as a little community, or even significant communities, depending on the subreddit. Each subreddit has its own rules and culture. The key to success on Reddit is understanding the intricacies, rules and culture of every subreddit you want to participate in. Anyone that has tried unsuccessfully to use Reddit likely failed to do their due diligence in the subreddit in which they wished to participate. As a content producer, you must take a long-term approach to Reddit, if you are not willing to invest the time and effort to learn the cultures of the various subs, you will not be successful What Makes Reddit Great What makes Reddit great, makes Reddit hard, and what makes Reddit hard, makes Reddit great. Allow me to explain, Reddit is one of the most visited content curation websites on the planet. Reddit users are highly engaged, active and organized around any possible niche you could think of. Reddit is, for all intents and purposes the perfect social media site. Except for one glaring deficiency, Reddit is a tremendously difficult media to master. Everyone knows about Reddit, many prominent SEO, branding, and blog marketing professionals have all talked about Reddit at one point. Neil Patel has a few short videos online about Reddit, however as much as I respect Neil, his videos on the topic are short on actionable advice. If sharing your content on Reddit was as easy as sending out a Tweet you would not be reading this guide right now. Reddit has a bit of a complicated self-fulling prophecy problem because the site is popular so everyone and anyone with a product to pitch or sell or snake oil to peddle has tried to use Reddit at some point. Reddit users are aware of their belle of the ball status and have evolved to become hypervigilant to anything that smells of self-promotion. In fact, the backlash against self-promotion is so severe it s possible to be accused of such by posting content that is not even your own. Ironically, the hostile environment towards self-promotion is precisely why Reddit is so great. Does this sound familiar? You craft the perfect blog post, then you find the relevant Facebook group to share your amazing creation in. Excitedly, you post your masterpiece and what eagerly for the traffic to roll in and crash your site. However, before your post can take off, another member of the group posts an attention diverting meme, next thing you know your work is relegated to the bottom of the page. The problem with most social media sites is they are overcrowded, to the point of making it nearly impossible to get noticed or even stand out. The content producer that is looking to build long-term, lasting relationships and establish themselves as a leader can do so on Reddit without having to compete against and shout over all the noise on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 4

5 If you are willing to work a little harder and have an audience s undivided attention, then your Reddit strategy will be successful. My Friend Said Reddit was Awful Typically, when I hear people say they had a bad experience on Reddit or that they got ran off the site, it warrants some digging into their approach. When reviewing their experience, I routinely find they broke or ignored all the rules. They joined Reddit, they named their account after their blog, only ever posted their own stuff, didn't leave any meaningful comments, weren t engaging the community, and, they got burned for it. Most likely probably rightly so. Think about your own previous experiences on social media, have you ever had a post in a Facebook group bumped down by another content producer? If you have you ever reviewed the offending post and thought to your self is this is low quality spam, why is it here If so then you likely know why some people fail at Reddit. So, You Have Decided to Become a Redditor First, you're going to need a Reddit account, and that's simple. Go to Reddit.com and sign up for an account. The biggest mistake that bloggers and content producers make in setting up their Reddit account is naming it after their blog, podcast or brand. Reddit is very strict, and very upfront with the rule: You are allowed to be a Reddit user with a blog, you're not allowed to be a blog with a Reddit account." Reddit Rules Do Not Name Your Reddit Account after Your Blog or Brand! Reddit is an old and highly visited site. You may need to try a few different name variations when signing up until you find a name that has not been taken. I cannot stress this enough: do not choose a name that is or can be associated with your blog or brand. Naming your Reddit account after you blog or brand is going to limit your future growth potential on Reddit. Keep in mind using a fictitious name is not about deceiving or concealing your intent on Reddit. Rather, using a fictitious name is to follow Reddit s rules, that you are Reddit user with a blog, not a blog with a Reddit account. Part of your long-term strategy may be to eventually create your own subreddit and build a community around an under-represented niche of Reddit. In this incidence you may want a branded account. Should you suspect that launching a subreddit is in your future, make two accounts. 5

6 One account will be used outside of your own subreddit. The other branded account would be used solely in your own subreddit. This may sound like a lot of work; however, the Reddit app makes it very easy to switch accounts. Caution: Do not use multiple accounts to upvote or comment on your own work. Reddit is wise to those kinds of shenanigans and will ban your account if you get caught. Caution: If you are not willing to invest the time and effort into using Reddit correctly, please do yourself and other content producers a favor and stay off the platform. Not only do you risk getting your own accounts suspended you risk having subreddits close the doors to other content producers as well. I Have a Name, Now What? "Patience you must have my young Padawan" - Yoda Once you have an account on Reddit, you need to become an active Reddit user. What most content producers want to do after making an account on Reddit is plaster the place with their links: fight the urge. This is imperative because Reddit users are hypersensitive to self-promotion. (I m going to make this point repeatedly thought out this guide) If they see a new account, and that new account is only publishing its own content and is not engaging in subreddits, then most likely they are going to ban you from the subreddit. Subreddits are moderated by real-life users and by mod bots. The mod bot software may automatically remove your submissions based on your account being new or having low Karma. (more on Karma later). Should your content get auto-moderated you will need to message a moderator to get the post approved. As a new user that's not a situation you want to be in. I mentioned previously, due to the hostile nature to spammers, many Redditors are going to default to assuming a new account stuck in "mod queue" is marketer opposed to a "noob" trying to learn. Remember: what makes Reddit great makes Reddit hard, and what makes Reddit hard makes it great. Tip: I highly recommend when you join Reddit not posting any of your own content for a month or possibly longer. You Need Karma Reddit uses something called a Karma system where every time you make a post or comment, you earn Karma points if another user upvotes your post or comment. Your Karma points are displayed prominently on your profile. 6

7 Think of Karma like social proof. Higher Karma indicates that you have received lots of up votes and are likely credible and post valuable content. Low Karma indicates that you are either new, inactive, post low-quality content or some combination of all three. Karma is not just about impressing your peers, it does have some value on the platform. Accounts with low Karma are much more likely to have their posts swept by the auto moderator. Additionally, some subreddits restrict the ability for new and low Karma users to make posts in the sub. Additionally, Reddit users are highly suspicious of low Karma accounts. The assumption is a low Karma account that is posting their own content was likely a previous user who got banned and returned with a new account. Think of Reddit like dealing with the IRS, the burden of proof is on you to prove you are legitimate. They are going to assume you re a scammer. (I realize that just made me the worst Reddit sales person ever! However, I want you to be successful and the path to success begins with being honest.) Types of Reddit Posts When you post to Reddit, you can post one of 4 different types of posts: video, picture, text or link. A video post merely is and a link to a YouTube or Vimeo video. These types of posts do well in specific subreddits. However, they should be used sparingly in subreddits where this type of post is not common. A picture post is an uploaded image with a title as a caption. This kind of post is prevalent in specific subreddits. In fact, several subreddits exist just to share memes or cute animal pics. Most financial content producers are going to want to focus on link posts or text posts. Link posts are posts are where the submitter posts the URL and title of the content they want to share with no other context of explanation. Some subreddits do not allow Link posts, and others require users to have a certain Karma or account age before posting link posts. Most bloggers will want to gravitate to making link posts, however, again resist the urge. Try to think like a Reddit user and not a blogger. Many Reddit users do not like being forced to leave the site to view unknown content. As such, text posts are often more effective. Text posts, sometimes referred to as "self-posts", are posts where the submitter posts a body of text, and possibly a link or two to supporting information. These posts take more time to write; however, they are generally assumed to be less "spammy" and less self-promotional. Many new Reddit users are reluctant to publish text posts but they offer some compelling advantages over link posts. In a text post, you can provide a synopsis of your post and offer compelling reasons why the Redditor may wish to visit your site. Think of a text post as an opportunity to sell your post. 7

8 It will take you some trial and error to figure out the right balance of providing enough information that the post is viewed as being valuable and not just self-promotional spam, while not giving away so much of your content that the Reddit users are not compelled to visit your site. You may be tempted to avoid giving away any of your content by posting link posts only. This approach could backfire since when posting only a link post you run the risk of another user providing their own synopsis of your post. You often see this with list article posts, where a user will post TL, DR which stands for too long didn't read, and they will then list out a condensed version of your article. Being proactive and putting some thought and effort into your posts helps ensure your posts will be successful. Being Effective on Reddit The first step in being effective on Reddit is to produce quality content. Now every piece of advice out there always says write good content, but Reddit's very much the case of that as well. The low level of engagement on other forms of social media covers up a lot of bad habits and poor content. On Pinterest, if you create an ugly pin, it may never get repined, and that is the end of it. A Pinterest user is not likely to you and tell you your Pins are ugly. On Twitter, if you are tweeting out non-purposeful pictures on your dog, Twitter users are not going to call your dog ugly and report you to mods for spamming. On the other hand, Reddit users will review what you are doing in the subreddit where you posted as well as what you posted in other subreddits. This advice is not to discourage you, rather it s to help you be successful. When you are on Reddit you must bring your A game. The tertiary benefit is if your content survives Reddit, then it will do well anywhere. (hopefully) If your content's not right and you're trying to publish on Reddit with low-quality content, they are going to eat you alive for that. Producing Reddit Quality Content Reddit posts should be Rockstar Finance quality posts. I highly recommend you review the guide on delivering Rockstar quality posts. Read your post before you post it to a subreddit and ask yourself this question, Does this post give the reader something of value? The best Reddit posts give readers something valuable, i.e., a better way to complete a task, ways to save more, exciting or inspirational stories, and so on. Avoid posts that are thinly veiled marketing copy. Ask yourself, "Is this post asking the reader to buy something?" Product pitches are usually poorly received. 8

9 Now, if you are in the business of selling a product and use content marketing, you may have success on Reddit if your posts are super jammed-packed with value. Some brands are very effective at content marketing and have published guides that are so value-packed, they end up going viral and become respected resources. If you spend some time studying and paying attention to what does well on Reddit, you will learn how to replicate these types of posts. What Not to Post on Reddit Here are some examples of what to avoid on Reddit: Product round-up posts. Most people on Reddit do not care about the ten products you used to remodel your bathroom that can be purchased through your Amazon affiliate link. Round up posts. Your weekly round-up blog post or the 10 quotes from other blogger posts. List articles that provide little information. If you are going to share ten ways to save money be prepared to back it up with some facts and data. Make Sure Your Website is Reddit Worthy Developing great content is only the first step. You need to make sure your site doesn t look spammy. Once you get Reddit users to your website, you must impress them. If your site is a cluttered mess of ads and sign up hard sells, then the Reddit users are not going to read your content. Ask yourself does your blog look like an authoritative news site or does it look like spam? If you are not sure how your website will be received on Reddit, ask some fellow bloggers for feedback. The Rockstar Finance Forum has a bloggers lounge where bloggers are very supportive of each other and would gladly review your site and make recommendations. Don t worry if you fail to review your site prior to posting on Reddit, Reddit users will. It s just that their feedback won t be as constructive. Tip: To be successful on Reddit, your calls to action and sign ups should be at the end of your post. If a user is greeted by over imposing popups when visiting your site, they are going to click away and probably downvote your post. If You are Participating, You Will Know What to Post or Not Post To be successful you will need to engage with other Reddit users. You want to join with the right subreddits and discover what type of content is doing well. You must invest some time in 9

10 understanding your audience on Reddit. Think of it like market research: you need to learn what works and what does not. You could choose to learn the hard way by posting unsuccessfully or you could spend some time observing and learning the community s culture. Observation is going to lead to a less stressful and more rewarding experience. This is a much more hands-on approach. If you treat Reddit like most bloggers treat Twitter or Facebook where you just kind of publish a post, shoot it out there and hope it sticks, you're going to fail on Reddit. Participating in Reddit will make you a better blogger, as you will become more aware of whether or not your posts are adding value. Using Reddit Effectively The key to success is being a real Reddit user. First, follow the subreddits about the topics that you would like to talk or write about. Engage in these subreddits, leaving comments on other people s posts, answer questions and ask questions. The best way to build your authority on Reddit is to become a valued source of knowledge in the community. One of the best ways to be successful on Reddit is to become the authority on your topic in the appropriate subreddit. When you become the trusted source for information, not only will the community become much more tolerant of you posting your own content, users will seek you out and ask you for help. Second, follow some of the subreddits that you have hobbies or interests in. So, if you like to bicycle, join the subreddits about bicycling and engage in that community. You might never post a blog post in there, but it's an excellent way to make your Reddit account appear as if you're a real Reddit user and not just there to spam your content. To be clear, you should be a "real" Reddit user. To torture my IRS analogy from earlier: Just like the IRS, Reddit has seen every possible scheme you can think of to game the system. Any ideas you may have about buying up-votes, using multiples accounts, etc. Reddit has seen it and will catch it. Most experts recommend that you maintain the 9-to-1 ratio: for every post of your own content, you post nine things that are not your own content. Keep in mind you should maintain this ratio over all subreddits. Reddit users and moderators will review your profile. Should a user see that you posted the same post in ten subreddits, even though you may have a 9 to 1 ratio in a subreddit, they could still ban you. Self-Promotion and Reddit You re going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view. Obi-Won 10

11 Self-promotion depends on our point of view. Remember that scene in Star Wars where Obi-won uses the force to convince the stormtroopers "these are not the droids you are looking for? I think we can all agree that was an ethical use of The Force. Likewise, I think we can agree that if Obi-Won was using the force to pick up dates at the cantina, that would be an unethical use of the force. But most in most cases it s not as clear. The tolerance for and definition of self-promotion will vary significantly between specific subreddits. Therefore, caution should be taken when approaching any subreddit for the first time. Review each subreddits rules for people posting and when in doubt message the moderators. You will find some subreddits are more lenient towards self-promotion. They may have a specific day when self-promotion posts are allowed, or they allow self-promotion if it's clearly indicated as such. Other subreddits have a stringent zero-tolerance policy. For example, the business subreddit, even if you were profiled in Business Insider and you try to post that into the business section and they can connect that post with you, even though that's not necessarily your own content, they will ban you from that sub. They just do not allow selfpromotion. Whereas some subreddits allow promotion on certain days. Another example: the financial independence subreddit provides self-promotion on Wednesdays. There s a thread there where you can go and leave a comment -- and you can talk about what you have going on and post to that subreddit. To be successful, you need to understand the community s culture. Find out what type of content is doing well in there and make sure you're not violating the rules. If you start getting banned from a couple subreddits, then you're going to end up getting banned from the whole site eventually. Reddit does monitor IP addresses, so if you end up getting banned and you try to circumvent the ban, you could end up getting not just your IP address banned from Reddit, you could end up getting your URL banned from the site. In the case of the latter, no one ever would be able to post links from your website to Reddit. The quantity and quality of traffic from Reddit is worth investing the time to participate correctly. How to Get on Reddit without Breaking the Rules For starters, add a Reddit sharing button to your blog and blog posts. Make your blog posts easy to so share -- it should be easy for any Reddit user to copy the title of your blog post. You should have professional looking feature images. Your feature image will be displayed on the Reddit post, so these images need to look professional and not appear self-promotional. 11

12 Images with lots of text, tend to do poorly on Reddit. You May find that you need to write specific posts to do well on Reddit, and posts for other social media. What works on Pinterest and Instagram may not carry over to Reddit. Even the best subreddits tend to have an anti-blog bias. You should model your posts after a news media source such as MarketWatch. Secondly, ask your readers to share your content. You could add a little call to action at the end of your posts for people to kindly share your post if they enjoyed it. Caution: Reddit has strict rules about asking for people to share your content or up-vote your posts. You should familiarize yourself with those rules. Thirdly, find and make raving fans out of Reddit users. Logically, the best way to get your content on Reddit without breaking the rules is cultivating a readership of Reddit users. Remember, Reddit frowns upon asking people to share you content, however it s logical that a fan found on Reddit is going to be more likely to share your content on Reddit than a fan found on Twitter. How to Not Get Kicked Off Reddit I've spoken with a lot of financial bloggers and content producers over the months. I had many people who've told me that they tried to post on Reddit and that they've had issues, or perhaps they got kicked off Reddit. When I have gone back and reviewed what they were doing, I noticed a couple of things. There is this tendency when people first join Reddit, they want as many views as possible. So, they'll go on Reddit, find the biggest subreddit they can, and immediately set about sending out their links. This approach fails for several reasons, most significantly because larger subreddits are populated by a more diverse audience than niche specific subs. When you go to a large subreddit, you run the risk of attracting the attention (negative) of people who are not interested in your content. When new users post in the wrong subreddits they risk getting auto-moderated, down-voted, or reported to the mods and ultimately end up having a lousy Reddit experience. You do not need to post in the largest subreddits. In fact, you re likely to get more traffic from the smaller niche subs. For example, if you have a blog post about how to save money on infant formula or nursery supplies, will that appeal to everyone in the personal finance or even parenting subreddit? Rather, would that post do better in baby bumps, where expecting parents gather to discuss such topics? Tip: The personal finance subreddit is very anti-self-promotion. Do Not Attempt to post your content in that sub. You can go in the Personal Finance subreddit and be a user, answer questions, make friends, built up Karma by being a valuable member of the community. However, don't try 12

13 to do any promotion in there or it's going to end badly. The personal finance mods are incredibly active, and they will ban you very quickly and without warning. The Just Right Subreddit What is the best size subreddit? It depends. Different sizes can generate the same traffic depending on how active the community is. For sure the subreddits that are between 40,000 users and 100,000 users can generate considerable traffic. But even smaller subreddits can generate traffic if the community is active. Plus it is easier to stand out and become an authority in a smaller subreddit, than it is a large subreddit. If you have information that is very niche-specific, then posting in a smaller subreddit makes sense. However, if you're looking for mostly views or broader audience, you want to go into a little bigger subreddit. There s no exact science to it. How to Find Subreddits Reddit has a search bar and you can search the site for content like your own. Look for communities where they are sharing and discussing topics related to your content and then subscribed to those subreddits. Also, Reddit will make suggestions of subreddits to join based on the subreddits your frequent. Review these subreddits because many of them have names that a new user may not know to look for. Many subreddits will also link to related subreddits in the community sidebar. Example, you may have a post about a side hustle, so logically you search for a side hustle subreddit. However, you post may do better in the beer money subreddit. When to Post Reddit posts decay over time. No matter how popular a post is it will not stay on the front page indefinitely. As the post ages, it takes exponentially more and more upvotes to keep it on the front page. Realistically, a decent post is going to stay active for 24 hours or less. To maximize the number of people who see your post it s significant that you post at the correct time. Users are very active on Reddit during the weekday. Posts on the weekend tend to do very poorly. Each subreddit will vary to some degree in when the community is most active. Ideally, you want to find out and keep track of what times work best for you and your audience. Your hands may be tied to some extent by community rules. For instance, if the subreddit only allows self-published content on certain days, then that s when you will need to post. 13

14 I find that the best time to post is typically after lunch and later in the afternoon. I'm in the Eastern time zone, and I see the best time as in the afternoon. That time catches people that are still at work that maybe check Reddit while they're at work. It also means that the post is still alive and active when people get home. Tip: Posts posted to Reddit late at night or too early in the morning tend not to work very well. Social Proof Reddit is a social proof engine. Posts are upvoted or downvoted based on content quality. Users are highly influenced by the number of upvotes, downvotes or comments a submission receives. A submission placement is determined by how recently it was posted and how many upvotes or downvotes, it has received. Posts that receive lots of upvotes, move to the top of the subreddit, increasing the post s visibility and the amount of time the post will be active. It is critical that you're posting at times when your audience is online so you can get engagement as quickly as possible. If no one is online when you make your post, the post will not get upvotes and you risk it sinking into obscurity. Reddit users are profoundly influenced by the comments on the post. Should the first couple comments you receive on your post be positive, your Reddit post will probably do well. If the post starts getting downvoted or the initial comments are overly negative or nasty, you may want to consider just deleting the post and trying again later. Keep in mind, some Reddit users can get downright nasty, and they can swear and get rude. You will need to develop some thick skin to be effective on Reddit. The unfortunate reality is the unsavory element of Reddit often time has the loudest voice. Some Reddit users and moderators feel it's their job to police the internet personally. The best approach to just ignore them. If you're using Reddit correctly, are not spamming the website, and are an excellent Reddit user, stick up for yourself. Feel free to message the mods or report abusive users to Reddit. If people are acting poorly and you're following all the community's rules, you have the right to stick up for yourself and tell the moderators that a user is being abusive or rude. When you report abusive users, you make the platform safer and better for everyone. Now keep in mind that you can follow all the rules, do everything right, and you're still going to get trolled or attacked on Reddit. These trolls may very well be other content producers that want to bump you off. After all there is only so much room at the top of the page. Conclusion Reddit is a valuable and underutilized tool for growing and marketing you blog and brand. Your individual results will vary based on multiple factors, however ultimately your results are going to grow in exponential relationship to the amount of work you put into the platform. 14

15 If you invest the time and effort to learn and understand Reddit, it can drive tremendous, highly engaged, niche specific traffic. If you go on Reddit and don t put the work in.well don t say I didn t warn you. Bonus Round Rules of Fight Club. 1 Don t talk about fight club. Reddit users are do not like being marketed to. Be prepared as Reddit users will review your profile, look at your posts across various subreddits, and check out your web. If you go on your blog and start blogging about all the massive traffic you are getting from Reddit, Reddit users will out you on Reddit. You risk not only your ability to become an authority on the site, you risk getting banned from subreddits or even worse your URL banned. My advice follows the rules of fight club: Leave your Reddit stats out of blog posts and do not go on the various forums bragging about your Reddit traffic. Really, if you are building a quality, authoritative brand, you do not need to be bragging about or advertising your statistics. Reddit FAQs My blog caters to women, isn t Reddit all men? Why should I consider Reddit? If you review the demographics of Reddit you will find that it is approximately 53% male users, so it is certainly not overwhelmingly male. Additionally, Reddit is visited by such a large audience even a smaller demographic still likely represents a large number. Said differently, a few percent of 500 plus million users a month is still a lot of people. I followed the rules and still got banned. What should I do? Really be honest with yourself. Are you posting Rockstar Finance quality content? Your posts should offer so much value that you are basically giving away money. Review the subreddit: Are you posting off-topic content? Ask yourself if you are posting too much of your own material too often? I keep getting nasty comments. What do I do? Are the comments related to your content or are they directed at you personally? In the case of the latter you should message the moderators or Reddit directly. Reddit has strict rules are harmful or abusive behavior. 15

16 In case of the former, if your content is getting overly negative comments and things aren't going well, you may be better off just deleting the post and trying again some other time. You may need to evaluate your content and really do some soul-searching to figure out why you are getting the bad comments. The wonderful thing about blogging and being a content producer is how supportive the community is of each other. If you have a hard time with your Reddit strategy stop by the Rockstar Finance Forums, say hi, introduce yourself and get your questions answered. 16