The smart dingus guide to Reddit.

[uberdanger]

Alright so this post originally went up over a year ago.
Then a lot of things changed, so the information written here was mostly misinformation.

Theese are the key things you need to know about Reddit.
It works kind of like an "internet newspaper", the frontpage is seen by everyone and gives SUPER much traffic to all the content on there, however to get to the frontpage a post (a submission of a link, that can be to anything, including a Youtube video) must have a high "karma score"

Your karma score is your upvotes on the post minus your downvotes, basically every user can either press up or down, and in short terms if it gets a lot of ups, your post rises.

There are "subreddits", which for my analogy can be described as different types of newspapers.
They may not be the "standard" newspaper that everyone sees, however there's a subreddit for (almost) anything. I get around 6-7,000,000 views a month, and I wouldn't have been here if it wasn't for the league of legends subreddit.

The smaller a subreddit the easier it is to get to the frontpage and make a name for yourself there, keep that in mind. Vote manipulation is near impossible on Reddit.

To have people upvoting your post, it has to fill a niche, be unique. For example if your video isn't "newsworthy" so to speak, you wouldn't make the frontpage of the "newspaper". I hope this somewhat sums it up, Reddit is one of the best sources of traffic if you know how to use it right.

Some gamers have it easy, League of Legends, Minecraft, Dota, call of duty, and a lot of other big games all have big subreddits, which means that your original content will be able to get a lot of traffic.

 

[Thrashbat]

I've been looking into Reddit. I still don't completely understand it, but this is a good start. Thank you!

 

[colevincent1]

Hello, I'm UberDanger, I'm a duck.

Today I will share with you, how I use Reddit to get traffic to my channel.
Theese are the Reddit posts for my last 2 videos:

• http://redd.it/1txrav

• http://redd.it/1t1bjs

(Don't worry, this isn't self-promotion, both threads are by far over, and I'm not trying to fish for upvotes here, I just want to show the stats as proof that I really do know how to gain traffic from Reddit)

Now before I even get into how you get a post to the frontpage, you need to find out which type of content you have, and where it would fit in on Reddit. Default subreddits like /r/videos, /r/gaming, and so on, are incredibly hard to get on, simply because they ARE default subreddits. Finding a niche, like for example /r/leagueoflegends for me, is really great, since they are more likely to want your content.

If you're a gamer it simplifies things, since for many big titles, there are large subreddits. /r/pokemon /r/dota2 /r/gtav and so on. /r/oculus is very much so on the rise, and I think VR gaming is the future.

If you're a vlogger, I'd say your best shot is honestly /r/videos or /r/funny, now I know I'm contradicting myself here, however I just don't see any worth while traffic in subreddits as small as /r/vlogging. My favorite vlog of all time is one I found on /r/funny, it's the one Nate Clark made after towing Joey Gayceffas car, and it has over 3 million views if I'm not incorrect.

If you make skits/short films there are several smaller subreddits in which you could go on discovery, however this is very tricky. /r/videos is always there if you make something completely new and awesome, and it will be an amazing place to get traffic. However it depends entirely on what you're making, in this case YOU have to work to find the niche.

Another thing that should be clarified, is that Reddit functions kind of like a newspaper. All the biggest "news" are in front, which means that if your content isn't original, has been done before, or isn't very entertaining, then you are NOT going to get a lot of traffic from Reddit.

Now that that's over, it's time to GET TO THE FRONTPAGE
There are 3 stages of a Reddit post, and I'll be going over them seperately.

The baby phase:
You just recently submitted your Reddit post, and 3-5 votes in either direction could change everything, remember the first 10 upvotes mean as much as the next 100, and the next 1000 after that. At this point what I do is I message all my friends, asking them to upvote my post. Now do NOT send a direct link to the reddit thread, this will only make the mods see a bunch of traffic coming from one link, and they WILL remove your post.

For example if I just submitted it, I'll send them a link to /r/leagueoflegends/new, where you can see all the new posts. You keep doing this untill your post hits at least the second page.

Contrary to popular belief, it is actually ok to have a link to your Reddit thread in your video description, or in the comments. I usually tell people, that if they don't have g+, they can comment on the Reddit thread. DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, ask for upvotes, or your thread will be removed.

As for submitting, it's ok to submit your own videos, as long as your comment-to-video submission rate on that subreddit is at least 9:1.

The undecisive teenager:
Your Reddit post is in on of "thoose" phases, and it's deciding whether it's gonna burst or breach. At this point you want to go into the comment section, and reply to all the things that are relevant, but do it without seeming desperate for recognition. If someone asks for the song, you link them the song, don't forget to format your comments, Reddit has a formatting guide right below the comment box.

Do not under any circumstance ask people to subscribe, or anything similar in the comment section.

No brakes on the traffic-train:
You've done it, your post just hit the frontpage, and for it to have come this far a ton of people looked at your content and said to themselves "I like this, upboated". Keep answering relevant comments on Reddit and there's pretty much nothing that can stop your post at this point. DO NOT go on social media and write "yay frontpage" or in your comment section. This can be seen as attempts to get more upvotes, and might get your post taken down.

Depending on the size of the subreddit, and it's active users, you will now gain traffic depending on how long it stays there. A large subreddit with 10+ hours of frontpage exposure in the top 3, will easily grant you 250,000 views, but remember it's much more than that. The exponential growth you gain from thoose extra views/followers, goes way beyond that number itself.

Finishing words:
I hope this guide helps you, I wish I could have gone more in-depth in terms of subreddits, however fact of the matter is there aren't a TON of big subreddits. If you have any questions please post below, I will be on/off and answering.

Thanks uber! Another wonderful guide

 

[uberdanger]

I've been looking into Reddit. I still don't completely understand it, but this is a good start. Thank you!

To summarize, reddit is "the frontpage of the internet" and it's entirely user driven. What content gets promoted depends entirely on people upvoting/downvoting.
Every post has a certaint amount of "karma", karma = your upvotes minus your downvotes. So 1000 upvotes and 500 downvotes on a post gives you 500 karma.

Your post gets ranked with an algorhythm of karma and post time, the longer time has passed since you posted, the more karma you need to stay on frontpage.

Subreddis are the different sections of Reddit, since Reddit is a site for anything you want really. All the Subreddits that you "follow" or subscribe to, gets shown to you on the frontpage with a mix of posts from each subreddit. The beauty of Reddit is that it's different for anyone, it can be whatever you want it to be.

Don't want news? unsubscribe from news! Want news about a game? subscribe to that games subreddit!

Reddit can be used as, and IS a functional: news website, entertainment hub, p**n site, meme base, knowledge base, and much more.

It's my favorite website by far, and if you're getting into reddit my reccomendation is /r/askreddit, I can just spend hours reading through posts there.

 

[SwingPoynt]

Always been a bit afraid of reddit. Some real stinkyheads hang out there.

I'd say subreddits are definitely the safer option.

What surprised me is how many downvotes you got on a certain post. (about 4000). Yet your video only had about 130 dislikes on YT. compared to the thousands of likes.

 

[uberdanger]

Always been a bit afraid of reddit. Some real stinkyheads hang out there.

I'd say subreddits are definitely the safer option.

What surprised me is how many downvotes you got on a certain post. (about 4000). Yet your video only had about 130 dislikes on YT. compared to the thousands of likes.

I don't think you understand Reddit.
"Subreddits are definately the safer option"
there's no alternative to subreddits on reddit, every place on reddit is a subreddit. You can't submit something WITHOUT submitting it to a subreddit.

As for the dislikes, no I did not get 4000 downvotes. Reddit scrambles votes to prevent botting, so it may add 10 upvotes and 10 downvotes, it leaves the karma the same, but it makes it impossible for botters to see which of their upvotes go through. I wouldn't expect more than maybe 30 of thoose to be actual downvotes.

 

[SwingPoynt]

I don't think you understand Reddit.
"Subreddits are definately the safer option"
there's no alternative to subreddits on reddit, every place on reddit is a subreddit. You can't submit something WITHOUT submitting it to a subreddit.

As for the dislikes, no I did not get 4000 downvotes. Reddit scrambles votes to prevent botting, so it may add 10 upvotes and 10 downvotes, it leaves the karma the same, but it makes it impossible for botters to see which of their upvotes go through. I wouldn't expect more than maybe 30 of thoose to be actual downvotes.

Excuse me, What I meant by subbreddits was the "specific" topics. Instead of just "funny" or "gaming". I said it incorrectly.

 

[uberdanger]

Excuse me, What I meant by subbreddits was the "specific" topics. Instead of just "funny" or "gaming". I said it incorrectly.

Oh right, I get what you mean. Default subreddits which you are automatically subscribed to when making a user, are the most bland and impossible to get frontpage on.

 

[NIP]

A nice guide! Thanks man!

 

[uberdanger]

A nice guide! Thanks man!

You're ever so welcome, if you have any questions or anything just feel free to ask ;3