You wake up one day and decide to check Reddit for some news. Out of nowhere, a headline catches your eye: ‘Reddit Bans Advertisements’. You’re not sure whether to believe it or not, so you click on the link and take a look. Turns out to be true – Reddit has changed its policies and no longer allows advertisements.

Now, it’s not unusual for websites to ban advertisements, but for Reddit to do so is quite the contrary to the way it has always been. Usually when a website bans advertisements, it means that either:

• The website is trying to be more “self-sufficient” and relies on adverts for their income
• The website is getting increasingly less popular thanks to the growing number of adverts and is trying to cut down on the amount of ads they show

In the case of Reddit, the reason for the change is that the community has grown weary of ads and the feeling that they are irrelevant or even misleading.

So if you’re an advertiser trying to reach the Reddit community, how can you do so without being banned?

Well, you can’t. At least not without putting in the work. But it’s worth it, right? We’re not just talking about a couple of bucks here and there. If you’re going to do it right you can make a whole lot of money from a single campaign.

The Growth of the Community

The reality is that whenever a community builds something, whether it’s an online space or an app or a store, people will always want to benefit from it. It’s a basic human instinct.

“Do you want to make an impact?”

You can put it in terms of money or fame, but it’s always about making an impact. So if you can be the person who can provide value to the community; if you can solve a problem, show off a product that benefits the community, or create a cultural moment – all valuable things in their own right – then you stand a chance of earning their trust and, ultimately, their business.

Well, what if I were to say that you can use advertising on Reddit to do all of those things?

Let’s begin with the cultural moment. Do you remember when YouTube first came out and everyone was talking about cat videos?

Well, that was when anyone could upload videos and share them with the world. But the catch was that if you didn’t have a large audience, your video wouldn’t earn you any money from ads or subscribers.

Well, today those numbers have changed. Thanks to advanced AI and machine learning, the largest platforms can harvest videos on an unprecedented scale. That means you can now target an audience of millions and potentially even billions of people with your content.

If you’ve got a popular YouTube channel, you can make money from:

• Products related to your channel’s content (e.g. a fashion YouTuber can promote a product related to their style)
• Affiliate marketing (e.g. you can promote a product and earn a commission when someone clicks the link or buys the product)
• Live stream monetization (e.g. you can set up a webcam and stream video content while accepting donations)
• Display ads (e.g. when someone watches your video, they’ll see a brief advertisement)
• Video hosting (e.g. when someone visits your channel’s website, they’ll see a video showing a list of the latest videos without having to watch an ad every time)

The list of potential earnings is endless – as long as you’ve got a popular channel. And the good thing is that you don’t necessarily need to have an audience to make money from YouTube. You can use the platform to build your brand and establish yourself as an expert in your field.

Problem Solving

Everyone likes to solve problems. It’s a universal truth. When you have a problem, you want to be able to find a way to fix it. If you can, you feel more inclined to be satisfied with yourself and your life choices. And that’s what’s important here.

If you’ve ever tried to find a coupon or promo code for a product you’re shopping for, only to discover that the website hosting the offer has disabled the use of coupons or promo codes, you’ll know that trying to use an online discount without the code can be quite frustrating. Well, that’s what happens when you run into problems while trying to solve them. The solution to that problem is to create a pop-up window that offers a solution to the user. If the user clicks on the link and solves the problem, you’ve got an opportunity to show off your skills and earn a small commission.

You can actually create multiple solutions (or prompts, as they’re called in AI  teaching) and allow the user to choose the one that works best for them. This way, you’re showing off your expertise without being too pushy.

Fame

If you’ve ever wanted to become famous, you’ve probably tried a little bit of everything. Sometimes you do a little bit of this, sometimes you do a little bit of that, and before you know it, you’ve made quite an impact and garnered a decent audience.

The problem is that getting famous off of something you’ve created can be quite difficult – especially if what you’ve created isn’t that exciting or unique. If you want to get famous off of something you’ve created, you’ve got to do a little bit of everything. Create a viral video to draw attention to your channel. Upload lots of images relating to current events or topical issues to draw attention to your channel. Participate in social media platforms to draw attention to your channel.

In short, to achieve fame, you’ve got to do a bit of everything. And that’s probably the most effective way of doing so. By showing case studies of your work and being accessible to ask questions, you can establish yourself as an expert in your field while also earning the fame you desire.

If you want to use ads on Reddit to become famous, you’ve got to build a case study of your work. That’s a given. But what’s important here is that you have to be accessible to the audience and establish yourself as an expert in your field while also being able to solve their problems.

Value

No one likes to think that their money is being wasted, and that’s why whenever we’re asked to evaluate the worth of something, we always try to find a way of valuing it positively. When it comes to online advertising, value is measured in various ways, but most prominently in terms of ROI (Return on Investment). When you add up the cost of a typical digital campaign (e.g. cost per click) and then compare that to the amount you earn in terms of sales or leads, you get a clear indication of the value of the campaign.

When a website’s proprietors decide to ban advertisements, it usually means that either the site is struggling for money or the community has turned against ads and doesn’t want to see them on the site. In the first case, you can help by contributing monetarily or by providing additional content. In the latter case, you can still provide value by letting the user navigate to other websites or engage with you through social media. The important thing is to contribute something of value to the conversation. Essentially, if you can contribute something that’s both useful and interesting, you’ve got a chance of earning the attention and, ultimately, the business of someone named John, Paul, or Charles.

How to Make Money With Ads on Reddit

So you’ve decided that you want to try your hand at making money with ads on Reddit. Great! Now how do you go about doing so?