10 proven steps to get into the first page at Reddit (cool video)

Hi all my fellow good souls @ reddit, (well, it's an easy guess that u arrived here via Reddit)

Here are the steps you were dying to know. These are tried and proven. (explained later). Have a look and enjoy!

1. Use a title like 'Top 3 reasons why men hate cooking' or ' 5 steps to write a good article' or '10 steps to improve your code'

Note the similarity: they all claim to give you easy to read, point format, no nonesense list. This attracts people, looks like readers automatically assume the claimed item list is fool proof, like some kind of a law. Wierd but it works........

2. Make sure your list of points are on something a typical user would really interested in reading.

like the subject here, 'How to get into the first page at reddit' . Since Reddit is mostly read by techies, Anything on Software, beer, technology, gadgets etc would do

3. In the title, be bold and ambitious on your claims. Bit of exagertion, over emphasizing, use of exclamation marks, etc.

All help win attention. No one wants to spend time reading something ordinary. So make it look like something extra ordinary. You should sound confident about what you have for them in your article.

4. Keep in mind the 'Resume Rule'

When we write a resume or CV, we are adviced to keep to a single page or at least present a short attractive summary. For good reasons too. If the Resume is unable to catch the readers eye and make him interested in the first 5-10 seconds, chances are that he will not even read the rest of the resume. Same goes for links. You have to grab the users attention and make him click on your link. This decision happend within first 5 seconds of reaing your title and readers have lots of links to view so you better fight for every gram of attention (how else to measure attention ?) you could get.

5. At the end of the title indicate that you have a cool video or an image for them to comfortably view.

This is self explanatory. People like to lazily look at a video or an image or to listen to a track rather than reading. It would be nice if you really have a video or an image for them as promised. :-)

7. In the article, leave some intentional mistake for attentive users to notice.

Hopefully this will encourage them to write a short comment pointing the mistake you have put there for them to 'catch'. I bet reddit ranking engine will look at the number of comments an article has. Can you spot the mistake in this article ?

8. Of course ask few of your friends to click on your submission once it appear on reddit 'new' items and ask them to write few comments as well.

May be you can try that on this article itself and see the difference. (see whether the reddit rank moves up noticiably after you ask few of your friends to click on this link)

9. Number of steps you mention in the title has to be a sexy number.
For istance, no one would be that interested on "7 steps to.... " or a "9 reasons why..." on the other hand 10, 3, 5 are 'good' numbers.

What this also mean is: it is not necessary that you have exactly 10 points in your artcle as promised. 9 would do as long as the title says something like '10 proven steps to..."


And how do I say these steps are proven?

Well, the mere fact that you are now reading this is the best proof that these steps work. You got attracted by the title of this article when you saw it on reddit havn't you ? So, at least as far as you are concerened, steps are 'proven' :-)

On terrorism : The newest 'strategy' of combating terrorism

According to the Indian security expert B Raman, who is also a high ranking official in RAW (Research and Analysis Wing), India's equivalent of CIA or Mosad, you could combat terrorism by allowing their leaders to retire.

Since this a very innovative approach to outsmart terrorism, it warrants some attention. Mr Raman says : " If the Sri Lankan Tamil problem is to be solved, and unrest in Tamil Nadu prevented, LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran should be made to retire and not killed." and "... The best option, is for the moderates in the LTTE to persuade Prabhakaran to retire and had over power to them." etc..

Very interesting and creative thoughts indeed! perhaps U.S should consider allowing Bin Laden to peacefully go into retirement as well (the guy has achived enough in his life time anyway) and let Al Quida be run by a 'moderate' terrorist so that they could avoid unrest among his fans all over the world. It is bit confusing how one could define a moderate terrorist though. One who would kill less number of people and bomb smaller buildings may be?

Anyway, talking about LTTE and it's leader Prabhakaran, this fellow has definitely contributed a lot for world terrorism, that the least we could do is to consider him for a retirement scheme. He too, like Mr Bin, has achieved a lot in his life time and well deserves a break. his list of achievements are second only to Bin Laden himself (don't be surprised if his fans argue on this point).

record include :

• killing the Prime Minister (Rajiv Gandhi the son of Indira Gandhi and the grand son of great Javahallal Neru) of world's largest democracy, India.
• Killing a democratically elected executive president of a country (R. Premadasa, president of Sri Lanka)
• Killing number of government ministers and politicians.
• Responsible for deaths of thousands of innocent civilians including almost all of Tamil leaders (whom he is supposed to 'liberate' from the state) who did not agree with him.
• bombing of world heritage sites

Among others.

Any terrorist leader will envy Mr P and find it pretty 'challenging' to beat that list! Come to think of it, this whole thing is not a bad idea at all. By allowing the worst leaders to retire early, you discourage them from continuing the destruction they would otherwise happily continue. If the 'moderates' who will follow them get more ambitious and try to beat the records, perhaps you should 'allow' them to retire as well. These people were mainly busy for the most part of their lives creating mayhem and may be they don't have earned enough to lead a decent retired life. So perhaps we can consider them for a government pension too.

Few problems though, Mr P is wanted for the Rajiv Gandhi killing by Indian high courts. Perhaps Mr Raman can arrange some workaround for that, but it's still not clear how he could 'allow' Mr P to retire. Not sure whether Mr P has applied for a retirement scheme from Mr Raman so that he could readily 'allow' him one.

Anyway, if implemented, this newest combating strategy will increase the job value of being a terrorist by a great deal. (rather than an ordinary crminal who are not immune from the judiciary system and law enforcement authorities) Now it even includes retirement after making a name for oneself!