How to Market Your Project on Reddit: The Best Subreddits to Promote Your Startup

If you want to promote your business for free, here is a list of startup Subreddits where submissions are allowed (text posts only): ^[1]

SubReddits To Post Your Product/Project

• r/buildinpublic
• r/RoastMyStartup
• r/StartupLaunches
• r/startupideas
• r/Solopreneur
• r/AlphaandBetausers
• r/GrowthHacking
• r/Digitalnomad
• r/explainlikeimfive
• r/todayilearned
• r/Promotereddit
• r/Entrepreneur
• r/EntrepreneurRideAlong
• r/Entrepreneurship
• r/advancedentrepreneur
• r/IMadeThis
• r/AppIdeas
• r/IndieBiz
• r/SideProject
• r/juststart
• r/LaunchMyStartup
• r/SmallBusiness
• r/LifeProTips
• r/lifehacks
• r/Startups
• r/Growmybusiness
• r/Linkbuilding
• r/SEO
• r/Freepromote
• r/SocialMediaMarketing
• r/Analytics
• r/Content_marketing
• r/Advertising
• r/PPC
• r/AskMarketing
• r/ProductivityApps
  • only if your app is related to improving productivity
  • examples
    • Antinote, the productivity scratchpad, is giving away 100 lifetime licenses right now. Exclusively to r/productivityapps : r/ProductivityApps
• /r/InternetIsBeautiful
  • → use phrase like: "show what you have built…"
• /r/SideProject
  • -> ask “please roast my landing page”,
  • examples:
    • Please roast my landing page 🔥 : r/SideProject
    • x.com
• r/BootstrappedSaaS
  • → use "self-promo" flair
• r/SaaS
  • → use comments in regular posts called What was your win this week? While you're at it, pitch us your SaaS!
  • examples
    • What was your win this week? While you're at it, pitch us your SaaS!(100K views 👀 on previous posts) : r/SaaS
• r/micro_saas (& r/microsaas)
• r/webdev ^[2]
  • → use "showoff Saturday" flair (meaning you should post only on Saturday)
  • examples:
    • I made an extension to make the web more accessible 😃 : r/webdev
• r/testmyapp ^[3]
• r/MVPLaunch
• r/apple
  • → use "Promo Sunday" flair
  • examples:
    • Shottr now has beautiful backgrounds (screenshot app for mac) : r/apple
• r/indiehackers
  • → use "[SHOW IH]" flair
  • examples:
    • Introducing Relative News - Your Gateway to Unbiased News : r/indiehackers
    • and more here: Independent developers building their own way

Find Subreddits Related to Your Project

It is important to find a subreddit specific to your project.
Eg. If you are building an #obsidian plugin, it is relevant to Obsidian users, and therefore r/ObsidianMD/ subreddit, etc. → you know the grind 😉

PROTIPs!

PROTIP 1: Use [Showcase] Prefix

Wondering how to attract as many as possible Reddit users to your post?
Use the following formula for the post title: 👇

[Showcase] <Main painpoint>
eg. [Showcase] Add Custom Javascript to any Notion Page

Examples:

• Add Custom Javascript to any Notion Page : r/nocode
• [Showcase] Obsidian Plugin Stats : r/ObsidianMD
• [Showcase] Plugin turns your Obsidian vault into a reflection of your creativity.  : r/ObsidianMD
• [Showcase] New Plugin I Cannot Live Without: TODOs Sorter - Automatically group and sort checkboxes : r/ObsidianMD
• [Showcase] Gallery of Sites/Gardens Built With Obsidian : r/ObsidianMD
• The Obsidian Garden Gallery just crossed 150+ public vaults! To celebrate, we launched a FREE Vault Templates category to help you build your perfect setup. → This post is exactly using the showcase prefix; however, it follows the same pattern as the successful showcase post on Reddit 🔥

PROTIP 2: Look at What Works the Best in Your Subreddit

List the most popular posts of the last year in the subreddit you are about to post in, and try to replicate them, eg:

PROTIP 3: Post Only When at Least 100-150 Users Online

PROTIP 4: Don't Use "Links Shorteners"

Resist the temptation to track the "performance" of your marketing efforts by using shorting services like Bitly or Dub.co - Link Management for Modern Marketing Teams (or generally any link shorteners out there).
Reddit's spam filters will recognise this and flag it as spam, meaning your comment or post will be deleted as soon as it is posted. What a shame!
An even better tactic is to not share any links at all. Tell people about your solution rather than the tool itself. If it solves their problem, they will ask about it. Then, it's a good time to share the name of your tool. People will Google it and find it, which will boost your Google rankings as well for free.

Looking for Other Places than Reddit?

… to promote your project or product?
Try this Where (& How) to Promote Your Product (With No Followers)

This article was originally published on https://craftengineer.com/. It was written by a human and polished using grammar tools for clarity.

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