As Reddit lives up to it’s self-proclaimed “the front page of the internet” motto by boasting over 1 billion visits per month, it’s no wonder a percentage of those visitors, perhaps even yourself would want to gain some influence on the site. Whether the reason you’re trying to gain influence is business-related or simply personal amusement, there’s no better metric to influence than upvotes.
You see, Reddit’s “like” system works a bit differently than other sites. Reddit has “karma” instead of likes, which come from upvotes. However, users can also downvote a post, which would make your karma go down. In the Reddit community, karma is the main indicator of how much you can trust a user. This is why many subreddits (communities) require minimum karma for a user to be able to post in them, as a form of “anti-spam”, if you will.
Many users try to cut corners by “karma farming”, which is the practice of posting useless content or even reposting. In fact, there are subreddits dedicated to karma farming to give new users a place to start in Reddit. However, many subreddits frown against karma-farming and will ban you from their community if they notice such activity in your account. Not only this, but Reddit users are also quick to call you out if they find out you’ve been karma-farming. For these reasons, it’s best to avoid it.
Now you may be asking, “how will I get Reddit upvotes if I don’t karma farm?” Well, there are many ways you can get upvotes on Reddit. That’s why we’ve put together 5 Ways to Get Upvotes on Reddit so that you can take your business to the next level, or simply build trust in your related area.
1. Be Active in Larger Subreddits
Many people insist on quality over quantity, but if you post and comment enough in large subreddits such as r/all and r/funny, you’re bound to get some upvotes. Being active will not only bring some upvotes to whatever you post, but it will also help establish your account as a member of the Reddit community, and at the same time build trust in the communities you choose to be active in.
Being active can be as simple as liking someone else’s comment or post, or asking a question in the relevant subreddit. There are even subreddits like r/AskReddit where you can ask whatever question you may have, whether it’s about a business strategy or your personal life.
2. Post Quality Content in Relevant Subreddits
Sure, you can go the “quantity” route and make a bunch of posts and comments in the big subreddits. Doing so is going to get you upvotes, but not a whole lot of them. Also, people may think you’re only posting for the karma if your posts are low quality, which can lead to people downvoting your posts, actually lowering your karma and backfiring in the end. That’s why the second way to get upvotes on Reddit is to post quality content.
Truth is, there is no replacement for quality content. If you focus on a subreddit you’re interested or have experience in, you’re able to write quality content for that subreddit. And with quality, value is created. The people who see your post or replies to their comments are going to see the value of the information you’re giving them, and in turn, they will upvote you.
3. Post Pet Pictures!
We all know that most people love their pets, so it should be no surprise that they post them on social media every day. Well, Reddit is no exception to this. With r/cats having over 1.4 million members and r/aww having 21.4 million members while also reaching the front page, if you’re not posting on these subreddits you’re pretty much not even trying. A post on r/aww is very likely to get at least hundreds of upvotes, especially since you’re reaching such a wide audience.
4. Post Recent News / Events
Ever wonder why newspapers and publications rush to get the latest news out to their readers, sometimes even publishing articles with grammatical errors just to get it in the eyes of the reader first? Well, that’s because people are enticed by the news, which means they will read the first article that catches their eyes regarding a particular event.
The same rule applies to Reddit. For example, the subreddit r/worldnews is constantly on the front page and a trending post on this community typically garners over 20,000 upvotes on the day it is posted. For this technique to be successful though, you’ll need to constantly be on the lookout for news reports while also ensuring you’re the first person to post about an event, as you may get downvotes if people portray your post as a duplicate.
5. Interact With Trending Content
If all else fails, one more thing you can do to get upvotes on Reddit is to piggyback on content that is already trending. That way you can “steal” the buzz from a post or comment. You can do this is by going to any subreddit and sort by “trending”, then comment on those posts. For those posts that already have traction (1,000 or more upvotes), you can reply to the top comments, as people will continue to read down the comment thread and instinctively upvote your comment.
It may also help to be funny or have a sense of humor, as people tend to be quite sarcastic in Reddit. Things like a witty reply to an obvious question or even comebacks to insults are all ways to get upvotes on Reddit. You just have to be creative!
Final Thoughts
In the end, getting upvotes on Reddit shouldn’t be too hard given that you follow the aforementioned steps. As long you’re comedic, engage with trending content, and stay active in subreddits that interest you, there shouldn’t be an issue in your post or profile gaining karma.
