3 builders who never spoke to each other

Earn the top slot in someone else's forum

Assume plain promotion is either banned or ignored, and put the value up front instead: condense something the audience would otherwise have to work through, promise a payoff in the title rather than pointing at yourself, and cut the piece into short visual tips where attention is short. The narrow forums are the point, since one post at the top of a specific one delivers a specific audience.

The method

1. 01

   Assume plain promotion will be either banned or ignored on most subreddits, and plan to earn attention instead of asking for it.

2. 02

   Condensing something the audience would otherwise have to work through themselves is enough upfront value to win the top slot in a big subreddit.

3. 03

   Expect a headline that promises the reader a payoff to out-pull one that simply points at you by two orders of magnitude, because people arrive in these communities to learn.

4. 04

   Reddit's thousands of narrow subreddits let you talk straight to a specific audience, and a post that climbs to the top of one brings serious traffic.

5. 05

   In Facebook and Slack groups, cut the article into a series of lightly branded visual tips, because attention there is short and overt promoters get punished.

What it returned

• 19

  A user posted compressed notes covering 19 top-rated books on business, and it held the number one position on r/Entrepreneur for days.

• 100x

  Author estimates roughly 100x more attention for a value-promising title.

• 2020

  Jack Ellis wrote up his custom domain method on Laravel News after launching it in April 2020, and says a great many people went on to use it.

• He notes the right community may well not be Hacker News.

Sources

• The key to self promotion on RedditHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · The problem · undated
• How I promote my contentHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · The specifics · undated
• The marketing genius of Lil Nas XHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · Part 2 · undated
• 2020 Year in Review - Fathom AnalyticsJack Ellis · usefathom.com · April - Custom domains · 2020-12-23
• Friday - From side project to raising $450kLuke Thomas · failory.com · Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated
• Bits of Consulting AdviceGreg Kogan · gkogan.co · 2020-05-06