How I got my first 10 customers using Reddit!

I hit 10 customers three days ago and profitability today at joyful.gifts. (profitability likely brief, due to the Holiday season). Probably 50/50 through Reddit and word of mouth.

Here is how I went about marketing in Reddit with 0$ spent marketing. I am by no means an expert and I just launched a month ago, so happy to hear your tips to make the process better - hopefully, some may found this useful though!

1. I got some karma and history through development subreddits - nothing related to the product, just helping folks with bugs or recommending tutorials. This helped not appearing like I was just there to spam a product.

2. I had a good launch story. Posting on smallish subreddits, meant it stayed on top for weeks!
   P.S. It didn't do too great on the bigger subs, where the noise made it harder to stick around.

3. I consistently used the search function, sorted by new posts, and posted when people had a problem joyful.gifts can solve.
   Examples: Complaints about gift shopping, trouble finding gifts, Itsy shop issues, and so on.

4. I went overboard and got banned from one subreddit :) So - I learned to be clever about promoting. Instead of saying check this website out: https://joyful.gifts - I said something like, you may find this useful (moderators are lazy, won't click the link).

5. I really tried to never promote without adding value to the discussion.

6. I tried my best to be kind and helpful to strangers, and engage without consistently selling. Giving people shoutouts and so on.

7. Toxic sub-reddits are not worth it. Once you stumble across one and get burned, just move on to greener pastures. There are plenty of users and subreddits to engage in.

Last thing, don't let trolls get to you! Keep up your spirits up and enjoy the journey :)