Reddit is tough. You can’t just post a promotional link to your blog and hope that people will like it - even if it is perfectly relevant and informational (trust me - I learned the hard way) unless you want to buy Reddit upvotes. You have to figure out the right game plan for using reddit in a way that will help you grow without annoying the mass of angsty Redditors.

Why Reddit?

• Last month Reddit had over 160 Million Unique Visitors
• Those visitors viewed over 7 Billion pages
• Clients have received 54 votes on a subreddit with 61,000 readers that nearly crashed their website

How do you get started?

1. Get signed up here
2. Edit your preferences here
3. Find some subreddits you like with this subreddit finder tool
4. Participate. You can’t expect to jump in and just start vomiting links everywhere. You need to read things, upvote, downvote, and comment.

Your first submission

You can submit either a link or text. I would suggest that your first post is a text submission. Something that engages the subreddit community so you don’t blindside them with a link to your blog. After that, you can try submitting a link post and see how it goes. But remember, even if it is helpful, even if it is perfect, if they don’t know you - you will likely get a lot of hate comments and downvotes. Redditors want you to be real, to be engaged - not just some agency pushing some crappy blog link in their faces.Some tips for submitting good links:

1. Start off by submitting links in some very narrow subreddits. It will cause less damage if you screw up. You can use this to practice engaging with the community while building up your reddit karma so you don’t look like a complete noob jumping into the deep end of a really popular subreddit.
2. Be transparent. If you hide something - they will figure it out; and punish you. If it’s your blog - go ahead and mention it.
3. Write a good title. Make sure it’s relevant.

A few things to avoid:

1. Spamming a subreddit with your own domain repeatedly. You will be hated - and likely kicked off.
2. Auto-posting is annoying, easy to spot and will get you some serious hate. Post it manually and take the time to really craft your submission.
3. Paying for upvotes is harder to spot - but if you get caught, you’re toast. Better to play it safe and stick to the rules.

Taking it up a notch

After you’ve figured out a few of the basics and you aren’t being chastised by the Kings and Queens of Reddit - you can start to dive into bigger subreddits. Some of these subreddits have millions of followers. This means that if you find something that strikes a chord with this group - you will likely get some serious traffic to your site.Here are the current top ten subbredits:

1. AskReddit - 9,043,795
2. funny - 9,030,688
3. pics - 8,937,530
4. announcements - 8,932,611
5. todayilearned - 8,906,982
6. worldnews - 8,741,685
7. science - 8,721,498
8. IAmA - 8,645,569
9. videos - 8,199,574
10. gaming - 8,139,463

And this is generally the type of content that does the best:

1. Infographics - people like seeing pictures that explain difficult concepts.
2. Interviews - we all love hearing about what others are doing.
3. Drawings - the funnier the better. If you can’t do funny - then do interesting.
4. Videos - again - funny and interesting are the kings here.
5. Questions - this is one of the best ways to engage the community, build up some credibility, and get some great comments.

When should you post?

I’ve seen people suggest posting at a very specific time - like 9AM, but really, you should judge that individually. Your subreddit might be best at 2pm because that’s when there are the most people on. Or maybe it’s better at noon because there are less competing posts at that time. You have to figure this one out for yourself and do some testing to really be thorough.Ultimately what matters most is the timing of the article itself. If the information is super fresh it will do better than a post that is a few days old. Try to be the one to break the news and you will get some huge upvotes.

What are some success stories?

Louis CK - the comedian made $1 Million in 8 days from engaging the reddit community. He asked questions, took chances, and found the way to the hearts of many redditors.Megabots - this giant fighting robot got 94 upvotes in a very short time when they announced their fight challenge with the giant fighting Japanese robot.

Conclusion

While Reddit won’t be the easiest network to master as a marketer, it will certainly pay off if you take the time to learn how to do it right. Ultimately it comes down to actually using the service the way it was intended - which is maybe what we should try to do a bit more of as marketers anyway. Take the time to figure out a good Reddit game plan, put it into action, and reap some sweet rewards - it just takes a little hard work :)Have you tried using Reddit? What was your reaction?