Reddit Launch Guide · Chapter 2 of 10
Get your account ready
In one sentence: Start preparing weeks before you start posting. New Reddit accounts and accounts with little history are often filtered automatically, and a real history of helpful comments is what makes people trust your post.
Many communities quietly hold back posts from new or low-karma accounts. Karma is the score Reddit gives you from upvotes on your posts and comments. Mods often set automatic filters (Reddit's AutoModerator and similar tools) with a minimum account age or karma. The exact numbers are rarely published, and they differ between communities. When a filter catches your post, you usually aren't told: it looks fine to you but nobody else sees it. Chapter 8 shows how to check.
People also look at your profile. If every post and comment is about your own project, readers and mods will see you as a promoter, however good the post is. If they see someone who answers questions, gives feedback and talks about other things too, the same post reads as a fellow member sharing their work.
How to get ready:
- Use one consistent account. Pick the name you'll use as a maker and stick with it. An older account with little activity is fine; you can build on it.
- Comment helpfully for a couple of weeks first, in the communities where you plan to post. Answer questions, give feedback on other people's projects, share what you know. It builds karma, and it teaches you each community's tone far better than reading the rules.
- Keep a healthy mix. A common rule of thumb in maker communities is to keep posts about your own project to about one in ten of your contributions. Some communities make that an actual rule.
- Fill in your profile. A short bio saying what you build is enough. You don't need your real name or photo.
- Never use extra accounts to post, upvote or comment on your own posts. Reddit treats this as vote manipulation and it can get every account involved banned, including your main one.
When I was preparing to launch UpstartRadar on Reddit, I had a five-year-old account with zero posting or commenting history. I'd simply been lurking, reading things that piqued my interest, with no intention of ever using Reddit for marketing.
I had zero karma, and my account had zero standing.
So I joined about 10 subs related to my project, started reading other people's posts, and commented wherever I could genuinely add to the conversation.
No links, and no mention at all that I was building something I wanted to promote later. I just genuinely engaged in the conversation.
Within about 3 weeks my karma had gone from zero to about 40. Still small, but enough to start thinking about my next steps.
Your account is the gate everything else sits behind: if a filter hides your first post, nothing in the later chapters matters. Run through these before you post anywhere.
Checklist: is your account ready?
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