When I first started blogging on WordPress, I found to my delight that they had widgets that allowed you to share things to reddit. I was aware of this website through my daughter’s work on Video Games Blogger.
It is used by quite a few games channels and websites as a means to publicize their articles. I had never used it before and was eager to give it a go. The first ever post I uploaded to reddit was a post about the film Stake Land the referrals I got from reddit alone helped to push my view count up to 1051 views. In one day. For one post.
I was, in a word, ecstatic.
I started sharing all my posts with reddit and I also interacted with the folks who had commented on my upload. Everything went swimmingly for a while, then…zilch, nada, and zero, “zip-ah.”
Now, I don’t have a full understanding of how reddit works. I am not the guru of networking and my rudimentary knowledge of the site could fill a matchbox, maybe. I do know that each category and sub-category is watched over by a sort of “mediator.” This man or woman tries to insure that the submitter abides by the rules of the site.
They also “weed out” the spam.
I’ve got a suspicion that as I used reddit a lot that I’ve been put on the naughty list.
I splurged and bought a “Gold” reddit account and I wished that I’d saved my money. So, okay, maybe I was spamming the site. I did create a little group of accounts so that I could keep submitting to the site. In my defence though, reddit is sort of wacky when it comes to submissions. You can take a day or two break from submitting and when you get back on the site to submit, they tell you, “You’ve been doing that too much lately, wait for 125 minutes and re-submit.”
What?
Due to this “apparent” banning of my website I had to chuckle when Tyson over at Head In A Vice mentioned it in a blog post. Because he’d mentioned it, I decided to give the reddit another shot.
The end result?
Zilch, nada, zero…zip.
In essence, no change at all; my website is obviously still on the naughty list. I don’t mind (like hell I don’t) but I’ve never gotten one word of why or how I got put on the list; if such a list even exists. It would be nice. I went through a short time period of getting thousands of views per day. I was so excited that it’s a real wonder that I did not have my heart attack sooner.
I am trying, though, to comply with Tyson’s Call to Arms to help publicize other folks’ blog posts, but, reddit is not one avenue that works for me. I have even tried “sharing” other blogs’ posts with the site and again, gotten no response.
So I’ll wait to see if I get taken off the naughty list, it has been about six months, and hopefully I’ll start getting more views again. If not? Well, I’ll continue to write, rant, and ridicule where I see fit. Despite my obvious preoccupation with them, numbers don’t really matter. Only the writing does and I’ll never stop doing that.
So there, reddit; put that in your metaphorical pipe and smoke it.
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Yeah, the mysteries of reddit are beyond me, mate. I’ve been submitting posts since I wrote the article and not gotten one view. 🙁
I am entirely with you – Reddit is a mystery.
I have self-submitted a few times and found myself getting ignored or flamed. I think there is a very specific unwritten etiquette on Reddit that community members in the know follow religiously. One thing I am certain of is they are not keen on self-submissions from the flame-comments I have received.
The Reddit ‘elite’ and cliques can be really mean and vicious in my experience. They also seem to have an odd sense of superiority because they are in the know on these rules and etiquette.
The only time I have ever really seen an uplift in views from Reddit was when I shared a blog post that was just a funny picture; it has never attracted attention to the more substantial writing on my blog.
LOL Yeah, I think a week is how long most folks seem to benefit from the site. I think that is about the length of time it took me to fall out of favour with it. 😀
I think that you’ve hit the nail on the head, reddit is just a huge message board. I was seriously in love with the site when it got me so many views it was unreal. I also had some great discussions with folks on there till the stream dried up! Thanks for sharing mate! 😀
Hate the way it looks, works and most the people on it! Didn’t work for me and the majority of people only go on for a week and give up. Trying new thing honestly haha 😀
I have never self-submitted there, but I have had my stuff submitted there by mystery benefactors occasionally. It brings in a bunch of hits for a couple of days, but nobody ever comments. I’ve never gotten in a conversation with a reader who says, “I got here from Reddit.” Honestly, the site is so confusing, with its refusal to let you easily see all the comments, that I can’t even tell where I’ve been linked, just that hits come in from Reddit for a couple of days.
It doesn’t seem to be a good way to market yourself. I did join in conversations in the horror section though, until I got bored with the site, and people were friendly enough. Or rather, not rude. Which is saying a lot for what amounts to a large internet message board.
It is very annoying. Like I said, I liked them so much I bought a gold account and then nothing. Let me know how it turns out mate. 🙂
I’ve been through the exact same thing Mike. I’m going to try to hang out in /r Movies a bit and see if commenting and upvoting does help.
Because to me, it’s not even getting banned (which has happened to me), its that when I post, my links sink to the bottom of the sea with no love at all. LOL 🙁
Maybe, but I won’t be holding my breath! LOL 😀
Great for visits and views but it is ugly and unrewarding. Hits from it feel cheap I had something similar to you the other day with over 1000 but it felt plastic u know. It feels random. If you start upvoting other and clicking links reddit might become friends with you again.
The Karma thing doesn’t work, my karma shot up because I was commenting back and entering discussions. It still resulting in no referrals at all. Reddit is a waste of time, except when you first use it, I’m thinking. :-/
No worries mate! Always a pleasure!! 😀
Reddit is really weird..and its so confusing to use. I just started to figure it out after Tyson had his little Call of Arms. I still post something up there once in a while but I don’t know. It seems you need to build yourself some sort of karma in order to have stuff happen. But the views really surge in the first 2 days..then it dies off dramatically..haha!
Yeah, it’s a strange one. Im trying to upvote and comment on peoples stuff, just to see if it makes a difference! Thanks for the links buddy 🙂
I tried this for one week and posted maybe seven links out there. Cabin in the Woods got me almost 1500 hits one day and then someone flagged me for spam and now I get nothing. WTF – screw Reddit. I think the key is that you have to be constantly out there, voting on things and no one has that kind of time. Obviously if you’re just posting your links and not voting on 10,000 other things, you’re spam. Who has that kind of time?
That was the idea behind getting the gold account, it appears all that enables you to do it to spend money…
Yeah, they do seem to love that message!
Yeah, it seems that I’m not alone in my opinion of and treatment by reddit!
Yep, same here Mike, very odd how it works. I think you need to become an active member of the community over time, upvoting stuff and commenting on other people’s stuff so that it takes you more seriously. I’m not sure just posting your own stuff, or even other people’s stuff, works after a while. Odd that you still had problems after upgrading your account though, you’d have thought you could do pretty much what you liked after that.
Seems like kind of a flim-flam. I get that “You’ve been doing that too much lately” message every time I try to submit something now. Screw it.
I started with Reddit just last week actually and while I had about 800 views on the page I submitted on the 1st day, not much has happened since. Seems like everyone’s having the same problem…
😀
That is obviously how they “hook” people in, bit of a cheat, especially if you pay for a gold account.
Something like that!
I had the same results. I have no clue or desire to learn how Redit works anymore. The first week was great an then I got zilch as well.
I think that they are arbitrary just for the sake of it. I’m definitely not a fan. Oh and I submitted this post to reddit. So far…zip as usual. lol
How does that old saying go? A mystery wrapped in an enigma? 🙂
I’m banned too. I posted maybe three times and that was that. Never since. Pisses me off, but there doesn’t seem to be a Hell of a lot I can do about it. I’m glad it’s not just me!
I’m with you on it…it can generate a lot of views, but exactly how it works…I have no idea either. I didn’t submit a whole lot, but if I do now, not much seems to happen. Reddit therefore is a bit of a mystery to me as well..