Reddit is one of the top social news websites. It allows members to vote up or down news, pictures, videos and other media. Webpages voted to the frontpage generally see over 10,000 visitors within the span of a day. Being ‘hot’ on Reddit will likely cause the page to go viral, causing other social news sites to pick it up.
A small portion of visitors from Reddit are likely to become RSS subscribers and even buyers. You can easily see why web marketers would love to get their pages ‘hot’.
What does well on Reddit?
I’ve been a member of the Reddit community for over a year and have submitted over 30 pages which have reached the front page.
What types of pages were they?
pics (13), WTF (6), politics (4), offbeat (2), humor (2), tech (2), comics (1), news (1), Philosophy (1)
This isn’t too far from the norm. Here is the current hot page (frontpage):
funny (2), science (1), politics (1), WTF (1), pics (1), worldnews (1), offbeat (1), atheism (1), geek (1), technology (1), entertainment (1), environment (1), programming (1), cogsci (1), comics (1), business (1), economics (1), gadgets (1), askreddit (1), libertarian (1), news (1), videos (1), happy (1), web design (1)
Phew, what a list!
But what can we gather from this? Reddit has a large user-base with tastes that spread across the entire spectrum. But lets dig a bit further, shall we?
- Environment and CogSci are subcategories of science.
- Comics and pics, for the most part are of the humor variety.
- Gadgets are a subcategory of technology as is programming and most geek articles and web design.
- News and worldnews are one in the same.
- Libertarian is political.
Edited list:
Technology (5), Funny (4), Science (3), Worldnews (2), Politics (2), WTF (1), Offbeat (1), Atheism (1), Geek (1), Entertainment (1), Business (1), Economics (1), Videos (1), Happy (1)
If you go by subscribers, the top categories are:
Science, reddit.com (general category), technology, pictures, worldnews, funny, entertainment, programming, politics, business
What will I vote up?
Reddit allows for members to select what categories to show on their frontpage. Not only does this give members a better experience, but gives pages a better chance of gaining traffic.
In the old Reddit, pages were voted down only because of their category and not because of their content. Now, more members vote on the basis of content, and of course the headline.
So what will I vote on?
I find myself voting more and more on WTF type articles. Who doesn’t want to hear about the Sea Monster Dog thing that washed up on the coast? I, like many Redditors, also vote on political articles and the latest gadget.
Generally speaking, I will vote on anything and everything that I find interesting. If you write about a woman who was tasered seven times for smoking pot, I’ll vote that bad boy up like no tomorrow.
What should you submit?
If you want to be a karma whore or even get your own content on Reddit, here are a few suggestions.
- Submit what is interesting. Submit that article about the funky green crap growing under your toe nail.
- Submit what is funny. No, Reddit isn’t America’s Funniest Home Videos. But Reddit does love videos with monkeys and aliens.
- Submit awesome pictures. It can be of the tree man, the lobster boy, or even some fat kid in a darth vader costume. Redditors love pics.
- Submit something about McCain/Obama. An article about how old McCain is goes far. An article about how Obama is cool goes even further.
- Submit the latest technology. Is there a new green technology out that hasn’t been covered? Submit it. Remember though, Reddit isn’t Digg. Keep your Apple loving hands away!
Well, that just about does it. I hope you’ve learned something, I have. I learned that Reddit is even more awesome than before. Why? Because the Reddit alien looks hot. Oh crap, it’s a man.
Written: Aug 11, 2008
Tags: profiles, reddit, social media, social news
goofblogger make money online
August 12, 2008 @ 12:38 pm
Nice article. I plan on adding it to my arsenal. I enjoy reading and writing articles on bizarre subjects and it sounds like another way to get some attention.