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I buy a decent about of ads ($xxK) for my own bootstrapped company, and Reddit offers communities that are ideal for us. However, as a Reddit user, I am comple

I buy a decent about of ads ($xxK) for my own bootstrapped company, and Reddit offers communities that are ideal for us. However, as a Reddit user, I am completely terrified of running ads on Reddit. The problem with Reddit is that the users are taste makers of the internet, thus if they respond negatively to your marketing, you will be irrevocably fucked. If reddit users get tired of seeing your ad, then god help you because they will probably "1 star" you on the whole damn internet. I like Reddit, and I wish they had a way to do some sort of sponsorship. If I advertise on Reddit, it damn sure better come across as me supporting the site, not me annoying their users.

sliverstorm 13y ago
I imagine the thing to do would be to test your ads on a very small subset of the site first, and judge the response.
- jcampbell1 13y ago
  That is a valid suggestion, but remember one comment is all it takes to turn a self promotor into a borderline rapist in the eyes of the internet. https://www.google.com/search?q=woody+harrelson+reddit https://www.google.com/search?q=woody+harrelson+reddit
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    If you are familiar with the incident, you should see that particular comment was really just fuel in the greater fire. Harrelson did not just make a tiny blunder in one comment; he turned all of reddit against him with his repeated attempts to steer the AMA towards Rampart, and they proceeded to locate dirt on him. If you are unnerved by 'the Rampart incident', take comfort knowing that it has been 15 months, and no one has committed a blunder of that magnitude since (as evidenced by the fact that we still use it as the go-to example)
    - shitlord 13y ago
      > If you are unnerved by 'the Rampart incident', take comfort knowing that it has been 15 months, and no one has committed a blunder of that magnitude since Didn't you hear about the Morgan Freeman thing? It was a running joke for about 2 weeks (but it obviously did not affect Morgan Freeman in the least). It eventually died down, but I think the reason people dislike the Rampart thread so much was because it was one of the first of its kind (the archetype of bad AMAs, if you will).
billybob255 13y ago
I think you're worrying about it too much and are looking at it from a very reddit-centric point of view. Like the example of Woody Harrelson, his terrible AMA in no way hurt his career. A better example would be Hipmunk though, it's created by Huffman (later joined by Ohanian) and they advertise pretty solidly on reddit. The comments for the ads are pretty negative despite the reddit history, but Hipmunk is still doing quite well. I think you'll do fine with a test run advertising on reddit, if you're that worried about it I'm pretty sure you can turn comments off for ads so they won't be able to see that other people don't like them.
- baby 13y ago
  Comments were negative, but still, I learned about Hipmunk through reddit and now do check Hipmunk (and many others) when I need a plane ticket.
  - onlyup 13y ago
    Hipmunk is definitely one of the worst sites in it's category
    - baby 13y ago
      Depends where you're living I think. I live in Europe and, besides not displaying easyjet, ryanair and the other lowcost companies, it displays good prices. But what really gets me is the UI. It's my favorite one out of all the websites I know.
      - onlyup 13y ago
        I live in Europe too and it doesn't display two of the most popular airlines?
      - kawsper 13y ago
        How will you compare it with Momondo?
thenomad 13y ago
I've advertised something that wasn't universally loved on Reddit. Nothing particularly bad happened. I've not used the system extensively, but I think if you don't choose one of the most aggressive subreddits and don't do anything really dumb, you'll be fine. Reddit users seem to accept advertising as a necessary evil.
logicallee 13y ago
Good! Thank GOD it's come to this. Let me share with you an old adage: "Good advertising is no more expensive than bad advertising: but at least it's good." Don't approach this as a way to influence and convince users. Advertising should entertian, teach, engross, delight, the full spectrum of the human condition. After all, isn't that what your product is - something for humans? A part of people's actual lives? I think if you approach advertising correctly you will find that it is your chance to be something more than lines of code or a manufacturing contract: it's your chance to be human.
- tptacek 13y ago
  That's a nice sentiment, but it doesn't actually address his concern. Even if he tries to make "good advertising", if Reddit happens to disagree, he'll get shellacked by the site's users; he'll be worse off than if he had just flushed the money down the toilet. People with experience with Reddit advertising seem to be confirming some of his suspicion downthread.
  - logicallee 13y ago
    I'm not sure it's possible to make "good advertising" targeting reddit that "reddit disagrees with". do you think I'm begging the question when I state that advertising targeting reddit is only good if reddit likes it? (I don't think I am, because there could be another definition of good based only on whether it converts anyone at all - even if 100% of the viewership including the converted can't stand it.)
    - nialo 13y ago
      The problem isn't that it's possible to make good advertising that reddit disagrees with, it's that making advertising that's good in this context is either difficult or risky or both. And that trying and failing is worse than just burning the money spent on the advertising.
      - logicallee 13y ago
stephencanon 13y ago
> the users are taste makers of the internet Funniest thing I've read this week, thanks. Redditors may be the tastemakers of a small incredibly self-referential corner of the Internet, but have approximately zero influence on the Internet that everyone else uses. Of course, if you're considering advertising on reddit, then I assume your target market has significant overlap with the reddit userbase (in which case the risk isn't that redditors are tastemakers, it's that they are prone to incredibly catchy herd cynicism).
- dmor 13y ago
  That might have been the case 2 years ago, but it isn't anymore. 70M uniques is a huge portion of the U.S. population, they're doing more traffic than Fox News (which has a huge influence on another huge Internet population).
  - spizzo 13y ago
    fox news aims to influence the population, that's their goal. You're making an apples to oranges comparison there.
- tep 13y ago
  > Redditors may be the tastemakers of a small incredibly self-referential corner of the Internet, but have approximately zero influence on the Internet that everyone else uses. Some reddit topics/threads were featured on the frontpage of popular German news websites during the last months. (Spiegel Online, Yahoo News, Süddeutsche)
  - GFischer 13y ago
    I've seen BBC articles referencing Reddit (and even Hacker News !! ).
jedberg 13y ago
> and I wish they had a way to do some sort of sponsorship They do, just ask. :) You can get an "ad" that shows up on the side that says "this reddit sponsored by foo", or myriad other options. Just hit them up and they will work with you.
orangethirty 13y ago
In reddit you dont advertise your general offering, but make a special offer for them. Specially engineered to create a positive response. Due to how each sub reddit is a world in itself. I market a lot on reddit and it is simply the best social like place to market rightnow.

sliverstorm 13y ago

I imagine the thing to do would be to test your ads on a very small subset of the site first, and judge the response.

jcampbell1 13y ago
That is a valid suggestion, but remember one comment is all it takes to turn a self promotor into a borderline rapist in the eyes of the internet. https://www.google.com/search?q=woody+harrelson+reddit https://www.google.com/search?q=woody+harrelson+reddit
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  If you are familiar with the incident, you should see that particular comment was really just fuel in the greater fire. Harrelson did not just make a tiny blunder in one comment; he turned all of reddit against him with his repeated attempts to steer the AMA towards Rampart, and they proceeded to locate dirt on him. If you are unnerved by 'the Rampart incident', take comfort knowing that it has been 15 months, and no one has committed a blunder of that magnitude since (as evidenced by the fact that we still use it as the go-to example)
  - shitlord 13y ago
    > If you are unnerved by 'the Rampart incident', take comfort knowing that it has been 15 months, and no one has committed a blunder of that magnitude since Didn't you hear about the Morgan Freeman thing? It was a running joke for about 2 weeks (but it obviously did not affect Morgan Freeman in the least). It eventually died down, but I think the reason people dislike the Rampart thread so much was because it was one of the first of its kind (the archetype of bad AMAs, if you will).

billybob255 13y ago

I think you're worrying about it too much and are looking at it from a very reddit-centric point of view. Like the example of Woody Harrelson, his terrible AMA in no way hurt his career. A better example would be Hipmunk though, it's created by Huffman (later joined by Ohanian) and they advertise pretty solidly on reddit. The comments for the ads are pretty negative despite the reddit history, but Hipmunk is still doing quite well. I think you'll do fine with a test run advertising on reddit, if you're that worried about it I'm pretty sure you can turn comments off for ads so they won't be able to see that other people don't like them.

baby 13y ago
Comments were negative, but still, I learned about Hipmunk through reddit and now do check Hipmunk (and many others) when I need a plane ticket.
- onlyup 13y ago
  Hipmunk is definitely one of the worst sites in it's category
  - baby 13y ago
    Depends where you're living I think. I live in Europe and, besides not displaying easyjet, ryanair and the other lowcost companies, it displays good prices. But what really gets me is the UI. It's my favorite one out of all the websites I know.
    - onlyup 13y ago
      I live in Europe too and it doesn't display two of the most popular airlines?
    - kawsper 13y ago
      How will you compare it with Momondo?

thenomad 13y ago

I've advertised something that wasn't universally loved on Reddit. Nothing particularly bad happened. I've not used the system extensively, but I think if you don't choose one of the most aggressive subreddits and don't do anything really dumb, you'll be fine. Reddit users seem to accept advertising as a necessary evil.

logicallee 13y ago

Good! Thank GOD it's come to this. Let me share with you an old adage: "Good advertising is no more expensive than bad advertising: but at least it's good." Don't approach this as a way to influence and convince users. Advertising should entertian, teach, engross, delight, the full spectrum of the human condition. After all, isn't that what your product is - something for humans? A part of people's actual lives? I think if you approach advertising correctly you will find that it is your chance to be something more than lines of code or a manufacturing contract: it's your chance to be human.

tptacek 13y ago
That's a nice sentiment, but it doesn't actually address his concern. Even if he tries to make "good advertising", if Reddit happens to disagree, he'll get shellacked by the site's users; he'll be worse off than if he had just flushed the money down the toilet. People with experience with Reddit advertising seem to be confirming some of his suspicion downthread.
- logicallee 13y ago
  I'm not sure it's possible to make "good advertising" targeting reddit that "reddit disagrees with". do you think I'm begging the question when I state that advertising targeting reddit is only good if reddit likes it? (I don't think I am, because there could be another definition of good based only on whether it converts anyone at all - even if 100% of the viewership including the converted can't stand it.)
  - nialo 13y ago
    The problem isn't that it's possible to make good advertising that reddit disagrees with, it's that making advertising that's good in this context is either difficult or risky or both. And that trying and failing is worse than just burning the money spent on the advertising.
    - logicallee 13y ago

stephencanon 13y ago

> the users are taste makers of the internet Funniest thing I've read this week, thanks. Redditors may be the tastemakers of a small incredibly self-referential corner of the Internet, but have approximately zero influence on the Internet that everyone else uses. Of course, if you're considering advertising on reddit, then I assume your target market has significant overlap with the reddit userbase (in which case the risk isn't that redditors are tastemakers, it's that they are prone to incredibly catchy herd cynicism).

dmor 13y ago
That might have been the case 2 years ago, but it isn't anymore. 70M uniques is a huge portion of the U.S. population, they're doing more traffic than Fox News (which has a huge influence on another huge Internet population).
- spizzo 13y ago
  fox news aims to influence the population, that's their goal. You're making an apples to oranges comparison there.
tep 13y ago
> Redditors may be the tastemakers of a small incredibly self-referential corner of the Internet, but have approximately zero influence on the Internet that everyone else uses. Some reddit topics/threads were featured on the frontpage of popular German news websites during the last months. (Spiegel Online, Yahoo News, Süddeutsche)
- GFischer 13y ago
  I've seen BBC articles referencing Reddit (and even Hacker News !! ).

jedberg 13y ago

> and I wish they had a way to do some sort of sponsorship They do, just ask. :) You can get an "ad" that shows up on the side that says "this reddit sponsored by foo", or myriad other options. Just hit them up and they will work with you.

orangethirty 13y ago

In reddit you dont advertise your general offering, but make a special offer for them. Specially engineered to create a positive response. Due to how each sub reddit is a world in itself. I market a lot on reddit and it is simply the best social like place to market rightnow.