Before I go any further with this article I would like to make one thing clear : Reddit is one of the hardest social media services to game. This makes it loved by many and hated by the most. However, it sure does carry the true essence of social media. Reddit community is one of the purest community I have seen on any social media and content voting services. The fact that its hard to game Reddit is what makes it truly an essence of a social web for some and a pile of garbage for others. I have been quite active on Reddit for a few months and I find myself quite amazed by the collaborative effort of its community . Gaming Reddit is possible to some extent but unlike Digg and most other social media services its not as easy or as manipulative.

In this article I will discuss some ways to use reddit that might ultimately help you get some love from “redditers.” But once again, please note that reddit unlike any other social media site is quite finicky and the results might not be what you expect. However, the tips that you are about to see has worked for many quite well.

Getting the initial burst of traffic

Although reddit happens to be one of the hardest social media sites around to game, it also happens to be one of the easiest sites to get a quick initial burst of traffic. Getting to the front page of reddit is like cracking a nut with your head unless you truly have an article that caters to the reddit community. But getting on hot section of each category is probably the easiest. Whether you are trying to promote your own content or trying to build you profile simply follow the steps below to get your submission or content on the categories page to get that initial burst of traffic. I would say you can get anywhere between 200-500 easily if you can make it to the category hot section. From there on how many upvote it gets and how far it goes truly depends on the reddit community and your content itself. Getting to the hot section isn’t the tough part, the tough part is to get it to stay there and build it from there on out. If 200-500 quick visits will satisfy your thirst for some visibility, follow the steps below :

• Once you submit an article/image/video please wait for about 5 minutes before you start promoting it.
• After about 2-3 minutes you should see your articles appear on the new section for that particular category.
• Now ask your friends ( IM, Email ) to upvote the story. I would say the best way to get votes for reddit is through IM since the down votes come pretty fast so you want to get upvotes at the same rate as well.
• While sending out the request do not send the submission itself. Send your requests from the “New” section of the category. We will talk more about this as we go along with the article.

If you can get about 10 votes within a matter of about 10-15 minutes I can almost guarantee you will make it to the hot section of that particular category. This should get you seen among active redditers. From here on out its the content itself that might get you to the reddit front page. Of course you can keep getting upvotes and try your hardest but trust me if your content isn’t solid then at this point the article is a dead meat. However, if you manage to get it to the “What’s Hot” section of the category you should see some traffic, I would say between 200-500 for sure.

Please look at the images below which should give you a clear explanation of how to get that initial burst of traffic. The following images show what the text above says you should do. Thought it might be helpful to see it through images as well.

 

Once you submit to the appropriate category. Wait for about 3-5 minutes.

 

Once your submission appears on this page its time to gather up some votes.

As you can see from the image above, as little as 5-10 points can get you to the “what’s hot” section of that category. Of course there are more upvotes than that is shown here and probably more downvotes as well. The key is to get upvotes as fast as you can to bring your submission to this page of the category. Once your submission or content hits this page you should be able to generate that initial burst of traffic.

What you need to know when asking for votes on Reddit

This is one of the things that most users tend to ignore when using social media services. Please note that what I am about to talk isn’t true for just reddit but for any social media sites. When you ask for votes for your reddit submissions or your content please do not send the direct submission URL. This is a red flag in itself. Think about it. Someone votes on your content or submission but comes directly through the submission page. Not through the article page, not through “what’s hot” or “new” section from the category, then how the heck is that article getting upvotes? Exactly! Someone is passing it around and the algorithm will catch it. Besides it doesn’t even need an algorithm, human eyes are more than enough to spot such gaming and Reddit human moderators are a pretty active bunch to say the least.

I have also seen most users send link to their profile pages asking for votes. Although this might be an easy way to do it, I would recommend you do not follow this approach. Of course you can send the profile page and ask your contacts to vote on 5 stories but again its a red flag cause the user might only vote on your subs and nothing else, so there is a red flag again. Follow these approach when asking for votes.

• Send links to the “new” or “hot section” of the category and give your contacts the title of the story. This looks more natural. For example : http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/new/ War or Peace. This certainly makes a little more work for the user who is helping you out since they have to look where it is on that page. But this is the only way to make it look natural.
• Have the user you are asking votes from vote on other stories as well so it looks like they are not just voting on yours and then out of that page. Simply ask them to vote up or down on couple stories on that page. Make sure you give them the title of your story so they don’t vote down on yours.

Please look at the images below which might give you some idea on how to proceed.

When sending out votes do not send the direct link to the submission.

When asking for votes send the links to “what’s hot” or “new” section of the category page depending on where your article is. If you were to ask for votes on the second article that is shown on the image then you would give your contact link to the “what’s hot” page and give them the title of the story.

  Ask your friends to vote on a couple other submissions once they vote on yours. This will make it look like they are voting randomly and not just yours. The key is to make each vote as natural as possible.

Although I would like to share a lot more with you in terms of Reddit, this is all I have at the moment. There are other ways that reddit community can be utilized for one’s benefit. But as I mentioned before the community is very pure and its hard to game reddit. Give the simple tips discussed above a try and see how it works out for you. And after a while we will bring you more on how to utilize reddit for your benefit. As of this point, please follow the steps above and you should be able to see some buzz from reddit.

If you missed our article on StumbleUpon and Digg Please follow the links below :

StumbleUpon : 3 Most Interesting Things To Keep In Mind
5 Naughty Tips To Boost Your Digg Profile