I’m going to show you how to cash grab as a Reddit moderator.
5 minutes of work, then thousands of dollars per month for doing nothing. Maybe tens of thousands.
With a 100% real example. I’ve edited nothing.
When you’re a Reddit mod, you have a TON of power in that subreddit. You can delete anything you want and ban users from your subreddit. Most importantly, you can pin a comment to any post in that subreddit. This is the key.
So let’s say you’re a mod in an office subreddit and a post in your subreddit happens to hit the front page of Google, like this one:
That Reddit block is right at the top of Google for an extremely popular and lucrative keyword. It’s position #1 in the organic rankings. The traffic and money is insane here.
If you were a mod of that subreddit, you could go into that comment thread, add a new comment with your own affiliate link, then pin that comment to the top of the thread. And that’s EXACTLY what someone has done:
One option is to link directly to a product and add your affiliate link to it. For those that don’t know, an affiliate link is tied to someone’s account. When anyone uses that link and then purchases, the account owner gets a kickback. I don’t know what the commission for a standing desk is right now but it could easily be $100. That’s $100 every time someone purchases the product from your link.
Another option is to link to an ENTIRE affiliate site. That’s what this mod has done, the link points here:
Okay, a shoddy site that was slapped together pretty fast. Maybe the content is better?
NOPE. It’s just an Amazon affiliate table. I haven’t seen one of these in the wild for at least 12 years.
A lazy affiliate site covered in Amazon affiliate links.
And for anyone checking receipts, this list of products does NOT match any of the recommendations in the thread. Shocker. Not that I trust those either. I have a standing desk and did a ton of research on this category a few years ago. Most of the products in that Reddit thread aren’t legit. And none of the products on the affiliate site are.
This is technically the top organic product list on Google for “best standing decks”:
- Google features the Reddit thread at the very top of the organic search results.
- I click that link, then see the pinned comment from the mod.
- The top link in that post goes to a shitty affiliate site featuring terrible standing desks on Amazon
The number of people that click the top links in Google is massive. Even after doing SEO for 15 years, I’m still surprised by how many people don’t know the difference between the normal Google ads and organic rankings.
This affiliate reddit spam is absolutely getting clicked on. A flood of people are hitting that site.
To top it all off, these abusive mods aren’t even doing a good job at making money. This is some of the laziest affiliate spam I’ve seen in a long time. I’ve built a $7.2 million affiliate business, I know how the affiliate game works. If they closed affiliate deals with standing desk companies, put even a little effort into their content, and optimized their site for product clicks, they’d easily 10X their revenue. They could absolutely earn more than $10,000 per month off of this. Like a lot more.
Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t a good idea to trust the top rankings in Google to UNPAID REDDIT MODS.
[UPDATE] If you check this Reddit thread now, it’s been purged. I got the original Reddit mod banned. But a bunch of other stuff happened too. The whole followup story is here.
How to Reddit Spam Your Way to the Top of Google Without Being a Mod
“But Lars! I’m not a Reddit mod! And I want to spam Google tooooooo!”
Have no fear! You too can spam your way to glory and riches!
It’s pretty simple.
We’re going to find a subreddit to target, post a question for our target keyword, then fake all the responses. By the time you go to bed, you’ll be on the first page of Google.
The real effort comes from faking everything in a way that looks legit. And getting past all the automoderation stuff.
Find a Subreddit to Target
Step one is to figure out which subreddits are whitelisted for your product category. Google isn’t going to rank just any Reddit post, it looks for posts in subreddits that are deemed trustworthy. Hah, “trustworthy.”
Anyway, google around for your target keywords, usually stuff like “best (product)”. See which subreddits get rankings. You’re looking for a list of 4-5 active subreddits.
Now go check the posting rules. Some subreddits are super strict and require all sorts of things to post. That’s why we pulled a group of subreddits to target. If you hit a blocker, just go to the next one.
This is where we’ll fake the entire Reddit conversation.
Getting Past the Subreddit Filters
Tons of spammers try posting questions like “what’s the best (product category)?” because those are the big money keywords in Google. Subreddits know this is spam, they’ll have a filter to reject any “best” keywords in post titles.
This won’t stop us at all.
Google has gotten pretty good at semantic understanding, they haven’t needed exact keywords for years. So twist it slightly and you’ll get past the subreddit filters: “what (product category) is typically used by (industry)?” Or any number of other variations. Just get the product category into the question.
Faking a Reddit Conversation
Now the real fun starts. You’ll post the question and answer the question yourself on a different Reddit account.
Then you’ll seed ALL the engagement for the entire thread. Yup, the entire thread will be faked. Maybe a couple of real responses will wander in but they’ll get buried at the bottom.
If you’re a company doing this, you might just mention your brand or product name in a comment and call it a day. That looks the most natural.
If you’re an affiliate spammer, you could try getting your affiliate link into your comment. If it all works, your affiliate link will be in the top comment on one of the top links for the first page of Reddit. Then you’ll be getting paid for nothing. At least until a mod deletes the post or someone out fakes you.
Here’s the tactics:
- Publish your question, then wait 15 minutes to respond with your answer. This is about how long a normal response takes. Make it feel real.
- Then add another 10ish comments with different accounts. Focus on pumping up engagement with your main comment. You could throw in a few alternative answers to make everything look more natural. Upvote the post from these accounts too.
- The conversation will essentially “lock” at 6-10 hours since no one will be naturally engaging with the post anymore. Any new comments from competitors will be permanently buried at the bottom.
It’s completely possible that you’ll see your post pop to the top of Google by the end of the day.
A little Reddit spam for breakfast, a flood of Google traffic for dinner!
And that’s how you get to the top of Google within 24 hours by spamming Reddit.
Other Ways Marketers Spam Reddit
Going after Google isn’t the only way that marketers are manipulating you on Reddit.
There’s a whole bundle of ways to manipulate Reddit users. Yippie.
Stirring Up a Subreddit and Positioning Yourself as the Hero
This strategy isn’t about SEO. It’s about riling up an entire subreddit and getting your brand right in the middle of it. You come out looking like the hero.
We’re gonna do another fake Reddit conversation. But this time, we’re going to rile the whole subreddit up.
Find a subreddit that’s full of your target market.
Then post a deeply visceral complaint that your market tends to have. Let’s use standing desks as an example again.
I could go to any popular subreddit for tech workers or other folks that tend to work from home. Then post something like:
“Been working from home for 6 months, starting to get back pain when watching TV at night with my spouse. Anyone else find a good way to avoid pain?”
Maybe add 1-2 paragraphs of details to make it feel real.
Publish the question, wait 15 minutes, then reply under your other account. A few tips:
- Offer a bunch of value in your comment. Don’t just post your product.
- Mention your product in an off-hand way. “I do all these habits…blah…blah…blah. Oh, I also got a standing desk from XYZ and that’s been a game changer.”
- For best results, mention the product name and don’t even link.
- If you must link, make it a simple URL to the homepage like a normal customer would. Don’t link to landing pages or anything a marketer would use.
- Don’t add any tracking links. That will look suspicious on Reddit.
Use all your Reddit accounts to pump up the conversation and get it trending. Once that’s done, the community should run with it.
If you hit an emotional pain really well and your product mention looks natural, the subreddit will go crazy. Everyone will jump in, empathize, offer their own suggestions, argue, upvote, the whole thing.
And because you got your ideal comment in early, the odds are pretty good that it’ll keep getting upvoted. From there, you can ride the wave.
That’s a TON of brand awareness and a nice spike of direct traffic to your business. All for an hour’s worth of work. Not bad.
Building Your Own Subreddit by Hijacking Post Recommendations and Crossposts
What if you could build your own subreddit? Then you’d be the mod! You get COMPLETE control.
Post whatever you want. Manipulate SEO rankings for your whole industry. Remove any negative PR.
Controlling your own subreddit is having the keys to the cookie jar.
The hardest part of creating a subreddit is seeding it with users. Getting that first critical mass for an active community is brutal.
Or you could steal some content and hijack Reddit’s own recommendation engine!
Here are the steps:
- Go to a popular subreddit that’s similar to yours.
- Find a popular post that’s a few months old.
- Copy and paste the post into your new subreddit, it’s a proven winner already.
- Pump the upvotes with your fake accounts or by buying them. Then it’ll start getting featured in users’ feeds.
- Some of those users will join your subreddit.
- Boom! Now you’ve got an active subreddit that you completely control.
You can also pump upvotes into crossposts.
Crossposts are very normal in Reddit, nothing wrong with that.
But if you crosspost something in your subreddit, then pump up the votes on the crossposts, your crosspost goes to the top of another subreddit, then some of those users come over to join your subreddit.
Another quick way to build your own subreddit.
How to Not Get Caught When Spamming Reddit
To keep yourself in the clear, you’ll need to:
- Before upvoting and commenting on your target post, engage with other stuff on Reddit. Go to other subreddits, upvote some stuff, leave a comment or two, act like a normal user.
- Use a separate browser for each account. And don’t use your main browser for any of it.
- Always clear your cache before logging into another account.
- Change your VPN to another US city for each account.
- Before posting something important, warm up all your fake accounts by engaging across Reddit for about a week before posting.
- Only use USA-based Reddit accounts.
- Make sure your accounts are 3-6 months old. Older is better.
- Each account should have 500-1000 karma.
- Account history should look legit, people will check it. So remove anything that doesn’t make sense.
Reddit Spam Tools
Signals.sh is the main tool for all this stuff.
- Buy aged Reddit accounts for all your fake threads and manual upvoting. Each account is $150-300. Word is out and prices keep going up. So I’d do this sooner than later.
- Also good for buying upvotes for all your upvote pumping.
- If you have a PR disaster and need to bury something, or lift something up, they can act fast with upvotes/downvotes.
- Can also buy comments if you really need. You can submit the copy for the comment.
Why Reddit Spam Has Become Absurd
We all know Reddit is being manipulated by marketers.
But over the last year, it’s hit an absurd level. It’s everywhere.
Right now, Reddit consultants are teaching companies how to manipulate the shit out of Reddit.
And I don’t blame them.
Reddit now ranks for everything in Google. And there’s a ton of money to be made with Google rankings.
Lily Ray has been tracking this for awhile:
Number 3! Reddit is the 3rd most visible site in Google. And all that content is 100% dependent on UNPAID Reddit mods. What. The. Fuck.
I’ve spent my whole career building companies online. SEO has always been the golden goose. Rank for the right keyword and you’ll make $100,000 in a month. That’s how much I’ve made on a single blog post.
But SEO is fucking HARD. I usually tell companies they should expect to eat shit for 5 years before getting a good ROI. And you at least had to put some effort into the content. You couldn’t just spam the shit outta everything.
Now you can get to the top of Google with 1 hour of work, 24 hours of waiting, and a VPN. Or just pin a comment if you’re a mod in the right subreddit.
Fuck I wish I was joking.
Does anyone really think Reddit mods will ignore the bundles of cash at their feet? I don’t.
Why I’m Sharing Secret Tips on How to Manipulate Reddit
Shouldn’t I keep this all to myself? Shouldn’t I use all these tricks to make a ton of money? Why am I sharing it when it’ll just make Reddit harder to spam for me?
Because fuck Google that’s why.
Reddit used to be a reliable source. SEO had its issues, but at least there were rules to the game. Google torched all that. Most of the niche sites are gone from SEO and Reddit ranks so easily that it’s been flooded with affiliate spam.
Google is 100% responsible for how insane the spam has gotten on Reddit. I’m not naive, marketers have always been doing sketchy shit on Reddit. But because of the crazy SEO rankings, there’s now so much money on the table that the spam has trashed huge sections of the platform.
And now all that content is being fed into all the AI platforms. Whoop dee fucking doo dah. Hey Google! Are we placing bets on how many platforms you can torch with a single OKR? 5? 6? I’m going with 6.
So now we get search results full of Reddit and the vast majority is spam.
I grew up with the internet. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, the spam doesn’t stop until it’s completely out of hand.
So here’s me helping it get out of hand.
Maybe then Google will do something and I can go back to helping people by making great content.
May the bridges we burn light the way.
