Rule Reddit Give Away Rights Ebook

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Chapter 4: What Type of Content Thrives on Reddit and Gets Shares?

With all that in mind, you might be wondering which types of posts do well on Reddit. What kind of content will get 100, 200, 1,000 upvotes and make it to the front page?

We've seen how you can improve your chances of success by finding the right sub, by doing your research and by building your reputation gradually over time. But ultimately what is really going to determine your success is how good the content you're posting is. How do you go about posting something that will get tons of likes and tons of shares?

Content That Thrives

The basic point to understand here is that content that thrives on Reddit is generally the same content that thrives on the web. And the way to create this type of content is something that's changing constantly as the web grows and develops but right now, the single most important factor is that this content is smart.

The internet you see, is getting smarter. It's been around a while now and as such we have become far more savvy as users. We've seen that generic, derivative content (Top 10 Ways to Get Abz!!!) a million times and we can smell 'promotional content' a mile off. Meanwhile, Google's algorithms have gotten smarter meaning that Google is better at spotting ads. To succeed online you need to be smarter and you need to write content that is intelligent, engaging and that has an 'X-Factor'.

This is particularly true for Reddit. For all we have said that Reddit can be mean-spirit, it is also a place that attracts a lot of very smart and a lot of very well-read users. You only have to read through the comments section of any Reddit post in order to quickly see that Redditors are generally very witty and very funny. They are self-referential, cynical, sarcastic, mean and hilarious. Dumb content here just isn't going to work.

So if you run a web design company and you're about to create a post with the headline:

'Scratch Old! Get Great WordPress Web Design and Get New Visitors'

Then you can stop right there. This is not going to succeed.

Earlier we discussed a posting about bodybuilders with beards. This is a much better idea. Why? Because it is completely unique. Because it has a very specific target audience. Because it is funny. And because it has a highly visual nature that will invite clicks.

Similarly successful would be any post that looks at a topic in an entirely new way. Want to post something to r/parkour (free running)? Then forget 'how to backflip' because it's been seen a thousand times before. Instead, how about 'The Psychology of Parkour - Why We Jump off Roofs' or how about 'Can Ambidexterity be Useful for Parkour'. These again are topics that offer a new angle, that sound interesting, that can stimulate discussion and that offer some real value. For someone who loves parkour, they've probably heard just about everything there is to hear about backflip technique and jumping. Ambidexterity is something completely new and interesting.

The single most important test you should give any new content you're thinking of creating and sharing to Reddit is this: would you read it? Would it catch your eye? Would you stop what you were doing and actually be excited to sit down to it with a cup of tea? If not, then you need to rethink your strategy.

The Psychology of Sharing and Upvoting

Another important point is that you should try to get inside the heads of people who share and upvote and why they do.

This is a very important question and it's probably not as straightforward as you think.

People upvote because they've read your content and enjoyed it right? And they share for the same reason?

Well actually, in many cases, the answer is 'not really' on both these fronts.

For starters, recognize that the vast majority of people will not upvote or share your posts even if they're amazing. If you have a post that has 80+ upvotes then you can consider that a big hit for Reddit. How many actual visits can you expect to get from that? About 4-6,000 (this is from experience). That's means only a very small fraction are upvoting. If you use Reddit, how often do you upvote?

When you upvote, you stand to gain nothing from doing so and no one will even know you've done it. That means you're only likely to do it if you really care about either the subreddit (i.e. you are a moderator or a regular visitor) or if you really care about the post (it really pulls on your heartstrings or angers you).

The best way to get upvotes then is to make posts that have some kind of emotional resonance with the views of that sub. That means you need to post things that people can really get behind or that people will think can greatly benefit the other visitors of the sub. So if there's a subject that you feel passionate about or that you're constantly ranting about, this may just be excellent fodder for Reddit. Annoyed at how people are always eating your sandwiches at work? Then post about it! Although you better make it different as this is a pretty done-to-death subject.

Now onto sharing. Why do people share? Again, very few people who read your content will share it and actually a lot of people will share it who haven't read it. This might seem odd but again experience shows this to be true. It's not uncommon to post an article to Facebook, to see it has 20 likes, but likewise to find the page has only had 3 hits. Those people liked the content without even reading it!

So why do they like it? Well they will have liked it based on the title and on any images alone. The same goes for sharing to Reddit a lot of the time and upvoting.

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