Drive Free Traffic to Your Site with Reddit!

[JohnPlace]

Hey guys,

In honor of all the success we're having with our Stumble Upon Exchange Program (which operates on principles of individual judgment and reciprocity), I thought we might want to start a Reddit Exchange Program.

If you don't know what Reddit is, it's a social networking site, very similar to Digg, with a few exceptions: 1) Its inhabitants seem a tad less hostile, and 2) In my experience, they're a lot more likely than Digg members to actually read your article.

SU is still *way* better than Reddit (in my opinion) for driving traffic, but Reddit does have its place. I've gotten thousands of hits per day from Reddit before, and so can you. The key is submitting articles to the Reddit directory that people will enjoy reading and voting up.

Let me know if you're interested in exchanging Reddit submissions. Basically, here's how it will work.

1) You'll post links here (in this thread) to articles on your Website that you'd like others to *consider* for posting to Reddit.

2) Then, you'll review the other links posted in this thread to see if you can find anything that you feel is worth posting to Reddit, and if you find anything, will submit to Reddit.

3) Let us know which articles you've submitted so we don't go duplicating our effort -- and also so the rest of us can go "vote up" the submission.

A couple of points: In my opinion, exchanging links (instead of submitting our own) does two things for us: 1) It helps us create a profile where we're submitting a variety of different sites, so we don't appear to be spammers, and 2) It helps us keep from submitting our *own* sites, which definitely reduces the appearance of spam.

GUIDELINES FOR USAGE -- Please Read This

1) You can submit as many of the links posted to this thread to Reddit as you desire, but no more than 2 per site per week. Any more often, and your Reddit profile will start to look like a spam machine for a certain site. These guys do not like spam.

2) Only submit articles that you think Reddit users will enjoy. Take a look at their "hot items" page to get an idea for the kind of stuff they read.

3) Look at the way people use TITLES on Reddit. When you submit an article to Reddit, try changing the Title to make it something people will want to click on. Some of the users there are very creative. Just make sure the article delivers the goods.

4) Much moreso than in our SU exchange, discretion about the articles we submit to Reddit is essential. Please read every article thoroughly before submitting to Reddit to make sure it's up to par.

5) Feel free to ignore my suggestions if you like. I'm just trying to help.

[JohnPlace]

I figured I'd get us started by submitting the articles I'd like you guys to consider for Reddit Submission:


7 Ways to Increase Your Self Esteem

How to Disagree and Persuade without Offending -- this one might take off on Reddit if you give it a snappy title, like LEARN HOW TO COMMUNICATE IDEAS IN AN INTERNET FORUM WITHOUT PISSING PEOPLE OFF -- GOOD LUCK!

[Chet]

Pretty nice social site.
I went to subit your article on procrastination and found it was submitted already.

[Kiba]

Making Money off Free Software Games?

This article got a pretty good run for a while. I was thinking maybe they have a chance at a social networking website.

Note that it is not aimed at all at Freeware authors. The difference is very subtle. Free softwares can be commercial softwares. Think Freedom, not price.

[JohnPlace]

Originally Posted by Chet

Pretty nice social site.
I went to subit your article on procrastination and found it was submitted already.

Oops, I'll take that link off the page then. I didn't realize someone had submitted that one.

[aussieNickuss]

Why limit this to Reddit. Couldn't you also submit to Digg and Netscape as well?

[JohnPlace]

Originally Posted by aussieNickuss

Why limit this to Reddit. Couldn't you also submit to Digg and Netscape as well?

That may be an excellent idea. If you guys want to include Digg and Netscape, fine by me.

My thoughts? I personally have tried to avoid Digg users like the plague. They come in a massive, server-crashing wave and seldom leave anything behind worth having -- except, I am told, sometimes a Digg surge can lead to links.


So I'm okay with it if that's what you guys want to do.

[JohnPlace]

Now that I'm thinking of the logistics of all this, maybe it's just easier to submit our own stuff.

Heck, I don't know.

[aussieNickuss]

I dont have any stuff to submit, but you should definitely not give up on it. Like you said, its better if others submit your content to avoid looking like spam.

"I personally have tried to avoid Digg users like the plague."

I'm a digg user!!!

But your right, most diggers want an instant fix of breaking news, geeky stuff, funny picture, new Apple product, iPhone related article, microsoft or sony bashing story, ron paul etc. etc. etc. They generally aren't interested in more deep or meaningful topics (unless you are talking about Steve Jobs of course). And they usually do come in instant droves (and never again), crashing your server and then criticizing you about it at the same time.

I'm not a reddit or netscape user so I don't know too much about them except they have the same principle, just with a different community.

[JohnPlace]

Originally Posted by aussieNickuss

I dont have any stuff to submit, but you should definitely not give up on it. Like you said, its better if others submit your content to avoid looking like spam.

I'm a digg user!!!

I'm a Digg user too, occassionally. I guess that's why I know so much about their behavior.

Reddit and Digg are a little different. For one, I've noticed from my Stats that Reddit users are more likely to read the article (they stay on the page a little longer), and they're a little more likely to convert into subscribers.

But StumbleUpon is by far the best SN site I've tried for driving traffic. I've had nearly 75,000 visits from SU just within the last 30 days, and these guys convert very well.

[JohnPlace]

Originally Posted by Chet

Pretty nice social site.
I went to subit your article on procrastination and found it was submitted already.

Incidentally, I stumbled upon your search engine rant on SU last night and gave it big thumbs up.

[jasonivers]

To avoid duplication, please read my post over in the StumbleUpon thread... and if you think my new site is a good idea, feel free to submit it to whatever you feel like, though since there are only a couple of pieces of the story on there so far, it may be useful to wait until there are more. Still... I really, REALLY want feedback on this, so let me know.

Help Write My Story