How I Created a 100K+ View Reddit Post That Generated 90 Sign-Ups on Launch Day

[renatusfueritexaqua]

Have you ever dreamed of going (kinda) viral on Reddit?

Of having your product or idea seen by thousands of people and generating a flood of sign-ups?

Well, I'm here to tell you that it's not as impossible as you might think.

In fact, I recently managed to do it myself, (almost) by accident.With just a few simple steps,

I managed to generate over 100,000 views for one of my posts, and I got 90 sign-ups for my product’s launch in just one day.

It was an incredible experience, and I'm still buzzing from it.

But what's even more amazing is that I didn't have to do anything special to make it happen.

I just followed a few simple principles, and the rest took care of itself.

So, if you're wondering how to go viral on Reddit, keep reading.

I'm going to share with you the exact steps I took, and I'll also provide some additional tips that i learned along the way, that you can use to create your own viral posts on Reddit.

1. Identifying Key Subreddits​

The first step is to pinpoint the right subreddits where potential users might hang out.I ended up with a list that many indie hackers will find familiar:

1. RoastMyStartup
2. EntrepreneursRideAlong
3. AlphandBetaUsers
4. Microsaas
5. Sideproject
6. IMadethis
7. Internetisbeautiful

(I’ll break down the analytics for each subreddit at the end, so stick around!)

2. Crafting a Hook That Captivates​

90% of success is in your post’s title (the hook)

• It needs to bring emotions/curiosity
• The higher the emotional value, the better
• Without it, no one is giving a click

For this part, I followed this simple advice that I found on Twitter, which was :“Find the posts with the most upvotes, and copy their style” - I know, this wasn’t a very hard one to figure out..

I also noted that most of the posts that generate traction start with one of these 3 hooks :

• "I made..." → Present your own story
• "I worked at ..." → Include big names
• "I made 100K views..." → Include specific numbers

And this is the title I came up with : “I made this free app to build your personal dashboard with snapshots of any apps or website, that stay up to date automatically”

3. Engaging Content That Tells a Story​

Here's the narrative I crafted :

Hi guys,I've created a new tool called [X - Don’t want to self promote] that lets you take "live screenshots" of any app or website, so you can stop juggling tabs to get an overview of your most important information.The idea is simple: to help you build a centralized dashboard with up-to-date information from all your most important apps, without any technical integrations.Here are some examples of how our users have been using the tool so far:

- Automating sales reporting- Monitoring crypto market signals, sentiment, and news- Building a personal productivity dashboard- Sharing project updates with teams and clients- Monitoring favorite surf spots (with webcam)

Quick question for you: what do you think of this project? And what would you use it for?We've opened a free version of [X - Don’t want to self promote] for our launch. Check it out and let us know what you think!

4. The Art of Engagement​

Answer every single comment you get.But be smart.

By "be smart" I mean, always leave 2-3 comments unchecked.

And when the replies from people slow down, leave a comment under these unchecked ones.

This is the theory. But to be 100% honest, I ended up replying to all of the comment instantly.

We had just launched our product, and we were prioritizing valuable feedbacks over virality.

I’m the impatient type of guys that think that people would expect you to reply to every comment they leave on the post within 5 minutes. I don’t think that’s actually the case.

However, if you really want to get viral, don’t be like me, and be smart when it comes to engaging with the comments.

5. Dissecting the Results​

Here's the outcome:

1. RoastMyStartup**:** (text post) - 0 upvotes - 95 views - 0 comments
2. EntrepreneursRideAlong (text post) - 1 upvote - 688 views - 0 comments
3. AlphandBetaUsers (text post) - 1 upvote - 196 views - 0 comments
4. Microsaas (text post) - 2 upvotes - 710 views - 0 comments
5. Sideproject (video post) - 14 upvotes - 3000 views - 4 comments
6. IMadethis (video post) - 1 upvote - 188 views - 0 comments
7. Internetisbeautiful (video post) - 84 upvotes - 112 000 views - 57 comments

The lesson?

Engagement is the heartbeat of virality.

And yes, videos do wonders compared to text-only posts.Based on these results, it's clear that the key to creating viral Reddit posts is to multiply the Reddit subs where you post your content (of course without being spammy).

If I had stopped at the first post, I would have ended up with approximately 95 views.

As you imagine, the post that got 112K views didn't go all the way up by itself. The strategy revolved around one key thing: engagement.

It also seems that posts that included video ended up getting a lot more views than “regular” posts. So don’t hesitate to create one (if you haven’t already).

I really hope that this will help some of you craft some amazing posts for the community.

And again, of course : I’m a beginner at this. Don’t take my words for granted.

Experiment on your own.. And keep trying !