As an affiliate, you are always on the lookout for new channels and fresh ideas to grow and become successful. There are many ways to achieve your goals and many platforms at your disposal. The key is knowing and understanding how best to utilise these platforms to your advantage and bolster your success. A rich platform for affiliates to use is Reddit. If this is new to you as an affiliate, or you need to know how to win on Reddit, then this article is for you. Let’s learn more about how to use reddit for marketing.
What is Reddit?
Reddit is one of the largest, or smallest (depending on how you look at things) social media platforms today. Reddit is a forum-based social media site that was founded in 2005 by Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman. Unlike Facebook, Reddit was created to be a bulletin board for people with different interests.
How does Reddit work?
Within the site are thousands of smaller communities, called a “subreddit”, each covering a specific niche in the market. Each of these communities are represented by ‘r/tag’, for example, r/birdwatchers. From bird watchers to shoe fanatics and everything in between, you’ll undoubtedly find it on Reddit. In these communities, you can post interesting questions or have hearty discussions that other “redditors” can comment on and engage with. Each subreddit has its own rules, discussions, moderators (the community gatekeepers), and “ways of working”.
At first glance it may seem strange for an affiliate to use this platform, but what sets Reddit apart from other sites is its uniqueness. That is, if you can successfully find your niche market and break into it, you can find a gold mine of potential revenue and thrive as an affiliate.
Affiliate marketing on Reddit
What every affiliate knows is that you need traffic, that is, people visiting the website or specific product that you are promoting. If more people set eyes on your content, that means you have more opportunities to make commission. 2021 statistics indicated that Reddit had over 1.7 billion, yes, billion, visits in June of that year. That’s traffic and bank for any affiliate marketer.
It is also important for affiliates to be aware that Reddit has an official policy on affiliate marketing. They have an anti-spam policy that protects its communities against spam posts that could tarnish the purity of their communities and discussions. They are so strict on this that you could be banned from subreddits if you violate their policy. In cases where affiliates ignore these requests from redditors, you can even be banned from the site entirely.
Can you use Reddit as an affiliate?
The above might make you pause and wonder if affiliate marketing on Reddit is worth it. The rules seem strict and nearly impossible to get passed. But it is possible.
Success as an affiliate takes time, effort, research, and a lot of work. Where you can simply share a link in a post on other platforms, on Reddit, you need to put in the time to engage with the communities and use traditional affiliate techniques to get results. You have to find your audience, nurture your audience, and then sell to them. It’s affiliate marketing for the long haul.
How to use Reddit as a marketing tool
So, how do you navigate this platform and thrive as an affiliate on Reddit? You need a strategy.
- Build a niche community.
Reddit is all about community. For affiliates, this is great news because with your subreddit you will have a ready-to-buy audience at your fingertips. Moreover, you become an authority on what you post about. This helps you build trust with your community and will make them more responsive to what you promote.
- Become an expert.
If building your own subreddit from scratch is not for you (it is a fulltime job) then work on becoming an expert in an already existing subreddit. You do this by providing valuable, credible, and legitimate insights, comments, tips, asking and answering questions posted in that community. Once you’re established (it will take time), you can ask the community moderator for permission to share your affiliate product with the rest of the community.
- Go viral through organic traffic.
This is easier said than done because no one can accurately determine what post will go viral or not. The first step to this is through the above – becoming an expert. Once you’ve reached a credible status you can share a post rich in value that will capture audiences and have them wanting more from you. But make it natural and don’t try and trick the community into something that isn’t true as you will get caught and banned. Affiliate marketing is a business after all, and trust and credibility is the foundation to any successful business.
- Get an ad
Sometimes you must spend money to make money and that’s where paid advertising comes in. Like anywhere else, people often tend to ignore or skip ads that don’t grab their attention. Therefore, you need to ensure your ad is posted in the right niche market, is gripping and looks like a post. Try to make your copy look like other posts shared on Reddit, people will pay more attention to it this way. However, what will distinguish it as an ad is the “sponsored” next to it.
Top tips for affiliate marketing on Reddit.
Like marketing on any other platform, you have to know your audience.
- Use titles. These will make your post stand out.
- Use tags in your brackets like this [Discussion], [Image].
- Find smaller subreddits to post in. This will give you more exposure.
- Be sure to follow the rules and guidelines of each subreddit.
- Provide credible sources for anything you post.
- Research what other affiliates are doing successfully on Reddit and replicate it – but make it yours.
- Be helpful. As much as you want commission, don’t make all you post be about you. Offer good advice, comment, and engage with others.
Some helpful subreddits you can join are:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Affiliate/
https://www.reddit.com/r/DigitalMarketing/
Affiliate marketing is a lot of work. In some instances, it’s trial and error, especially when you’re using a new platform while also trying to remain relevant and provide your audience with fresh content. But all things are possible, even on harder to reach platforms like Reddit. Affiliate marketers on Reddit have a community where they discuss this trade and how to make the most of the platform. Your affiliate sub-reddit can be found here. Find help. Be helpful. And win at affiliate marketing on Reddit.
