Share your launch on Reddit

What to do

1. Build a real comment history for 2–3 weeks first. New accounts with little karma are often filtered automatically, and many subreddits have minimum karma or account-age rules. Spend 15 minutes a day answering questions in subreddits about your problem space. Search site:reddit.com [problem you solve] to find threads where your knowledge helps (see answer threads). Do not mention your product yet.
2. Follow the 9:1 habit. For every post or comment about your own project, contribute around nine that are not about it. Moderators and users check your profile. A history that is only self-promotion gets you banned.
3. Pick subreddits that welcome project posts. Start with ones built for it:
   • r/SideProject and r/alphaandbetausers accept posts about things you built,
   • r/indiehackers and similar founder subs, following their rules,
   • niche subs for your audience that run a weekly or monthly self-promotion or “share your project” thread,
   • for games and open source, the subs for your engine, language or genre, which often welcome demos.
4. Read every sidebar and wiki before posting. Rules vary a lot: some ban links, some require a flair, some allow promotion only in a pinned thread or on a certain day. If unsure, message the moderators and ask. They often say yes when asked politely.
5. Write it as a story, not an ad. Use “I built X because Y” and tell what happened: the problem, what you tried, what you built, what you learned, what is still broken. Readers respond to a person, not a product page.
6. Keep the link out of the title. Title the post around the problem or story, for example “I got tired of losing receipts, so I built a tool that turns a photo folder into a spreadsheet”. Put the link in the body near the end, or in a comment if the sub prefers that.
7. Post in one subreddit at a time. Do not cross-post the same text to ten subs on the same day. Adapt the angle to each community and space posts a few days apart.
8. Reply to every comment for the first few hours. Early replies keep the post alive. Thank people, answer questions with specifics, and take criticism openly: “Good point, I hadn’t thought of that. Adding it to the list.”

Template

Title: I built [what it does] because [problem you had]

For [time period] I [struggled with specific problem]. The tools I tried [why they didn’t work for you].

So I built [product]. It [what it does in one or two sentences]. Here’s a screenshot: [image]

What I learned building it: [one or two honest lessons].

It’s free to try [or: free tier / demo] here: [link]. It’s still rough around [known gaps].

I’d love to know: [one specific question for this community].

Why it works

Reddit has a community for almost every niche, and members trust other members far more than brands. A post from someone with real history in the sub, telling an honest story, reads as a peer sharing something useful. Comments give you blunt feedback, and a good post can keep sending visitors from search for months.

How it gets users

Results vary widely. A typical post in a small or medium sub gets a few dozen upvotes, some comments and anywhere from a handful to a few dozen visitors who try the product. A post that fits a larger niche sub well can bring hundreds of visitors in a day. Most posts in r/SideProject-style subs get modest attention because many founders post there. The real value is usually the feedback and a few highly engaged early users who find you through the comments.

Common mistakes

• Posting from a brand-new account with no comment history.
• Putting the link in the title or writing a feature list instead of a story.
• Ignoring subreddit rules or posting outside the self-promotion thread.
• Cross-posting the same text to many subreddits on the same day.
• Getting defensive with critics or deleting a post that did badly.
• Asking friends to upvote, which Reddit detects and can get the account suspended.