After failing on r/books, a solo founder spent weeks building Reddit karma the right way—commenting genuinely, contributing value, learning the platform. When he launched again on r/InternetIsBeautiful, he started slow. After 45 minutes, upvotes accelerated. After 2 hours, he hit #1. He stayed at the top for 24 hours straight, generating 20,000 unique visitors and $75 in affiliate revenue. His takeaway? The second launch worked because he learned from the first failure.
📍 What It Is
The Reddit Redemption Strategy: Learning from initial failures, building genuine community participation through the 90-10 rule (90% helpful contributions, 10% self-promotion), and timing your re-launch when you truly understand the platform's culture.
🎯 Why It Works
Reddit rewards patient community members - Karma built through genuine participation signals you're not a spammer
Second launches benefit from learning - Your first attempt teaches you what works; your second attempt applies those lessons
The 90-10 rule builds credibility - 90% value-giving, 10% asking creates trust before promotion
Steady engagement beats viral spikes - 100-150 concurrent users for 24 hours often outperforms a brief traffic burst
Community feedback compounds - Each launch provides invaluable product insights alongside traffic
Most people quit after one failed Reddit post. The winners treat failure as education and come back smarter.
⚙️ How It Works
Step-by-step implementation:
Accept and analyze your first failure - Don't make excuses. Shashank's r/books post failed because he didn't understand the community yet. He took responsibility and studied what went wrong instead of blaming Reddit or claiming the platform "doesn't work."
Build karma authentically before re-launching - Spend 2-4 weeks genuinely participating in your target subreddits. Comment on posts, answer questions, share insights. The 90-10 rule: 90% of your activity should be helping others, only 10% can be self-promotional. Reddit's algorithm tracks this.
Improve your product between launches - Shashank didn't just re-post the same thing. He improved search algorithms, added UK and Australia support, and fixed issues from user feedback. Launch better work, not the same work twice.
Choose the right subreddit - r/books rejected him, so he researched and found r/InternetIsBeautiful was a better fit for creative web projects. Match your content to communities that will appreciate it, not just tolerate it.
Accept slow starts without panic - The first 45 minutes were slow. Most people would have assumed failure and given up. Shashank knew from his HackerNews experience that momentum takes time. Stay calm and keep engaging.
Reply to every comment in the first 2-4 hours - This is critical. Shashank replied to almost every single comment. High engagement signals to Reddit's algorithm that the post is generating valuable discussion, which boosts visibility.
Track metrics that matter beyond vanity numbers - 20K visitors is great, but Shashank focused on: $75 in affiliate revenue, return visitors from previous launch, quality of feedback, and product validation. Revenue matters more than traffic.
Pro Tips:
Document what you learn from each launch—successful or failed
Build relationships with active commenters who provide feedback
Time your re-launch 4-6 weeks after the first attempt (enough time to improve but maintain momentum)
Track concurrent users, not just total visitors—sustained engagement matters more than spikes
Use return visitors as a signal of product-market fit
The Critical Difference: This wasn't about gaming Reddit. Shashank genuinely participated in communities, improved his product based on feedback, and approached the second launch as a community member, not a marketer.
🏆 Real Example
Founder: Shashank (Pages on Pages - book price comparison tool)
What he did: After a failed r/books launch, spent several weeks building Reddit karma by commenting genuinely on posts across various subreddits. He improved his product significantly (better search algorithm, more countries, better functionality) and launched on r/InternetIsBeautiful instead of trying r/books again.
Timeline:
0-45 minutes: Slow start, steady climb
2 hours: Hit #1 on the subreddit, 100 concurrent users
24 hours: Stayed at #1 the entire day, maintained 100-150 concurrent users consistently
Results:
20,000 unique visitors in 24 hours
2,900 upvotes and 650K Reddit views
$75 in affiliate revenue that day (bringing total to $250 in first month)
Consistent return visitors from previous HackerNews launch
Invaluable product feedback from engaged community
Massive confidence boost in product-market fit
What made the difference:
He actually used Reddit properly for weeks before re-launching
He significantly improved the product between attempts
He chose a better-fit subreddit after researching
He replied to almost every comment (high engagement signals)
He stayed patient during the slow start
Key takeaway: The first launch failure wasn't wasted effort—it was education. By treating the failed r/books post as a learning opportunity rather than a final verdict, Shashank came back with better karma, a better product, and better subreddit selection. The second launch succeeded because of the first failure, not despite it.
💡 Your Turn Pick one topic you want to own in AI search. Run it through ChatGPT and Perplexity this week to see who's currently getting cited.
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