Why I'm Bullish on Reddit and Original Content

Welcome to this week's issue of the Niche Media Publishing Newsletter.

If you missed last week, check it out:

Before jumping in, a quick word from today’s sponsor:

Seeking impartial news? Meet 1440.

Every day, 3.5 million readers turn to 1440 for their factual news. We sift through 100+ sources to bring you a complete summary of politics, global events, business, and culture, all in a brief 5-minute email. Enjoy an impartial news experience.

Join for free today!

Let’s get started with this week’s topics.

Why I’m Bullish on Reddit & OG Content

Google’s recent core update (ongoing) shows some early signs of rewarding previously diminished indie media.

That’s a nice bone for us. I’m seeing some upticks, but not nearly enough to make up for the losses since last year.

But the interesting subtext is that these small publisher gains are NOT coming at the expense of Reddit.

In fact, Reddit is up to:

Reddit doesn’t appear to be going anywhere in Search.

And I think there’s something to this.

Reddit serves many purposes in today’s landscape, but two stand out for me.

1. The Future is Human

First, Reddit is “human to human”.

The execution isn’t perfect. I still see some clearly “AI” answers breaking through.

BUT, Reddit has more natural defenses than Google does.

First, Reddit has it’s own algo spam filter. It’s heavy-handed and arbitrary (accounts can be banned or suspended for the slightest infringements… perceived or real), AND it keeps out a lot of purely self promotional, non-community oriented users.

Second, Reddit has Karma, a built in social currency that provides explicit restrictions (you can only do certain things with certain Karma levels) and implicit (sort of street cred for other users to evaluate you by).

Third, Reddit has human moderators, catching the cruft (sometimes elaborate) that gets through the top filters.

Think about this vs Google for a minute.

Google tried to implement features in the past like this. Things like AuthorRank and even a “comment on SERPs” feature. Both of these appear dead on arrival.

This gets at an interesting implicit truth: Maybe Reddit is BETTER at assessing and moderating the internet than Google is.

2. AI is Hungry and It’s Dinner O'clock

Second, AI requires a massive influx of ORIGINAL content and insights to fuel large language learning models.

in 2023 Google saw a massive influx of AI generated and “assisted” (the nicer euphemism) content. Worse, it was actually ranking!

AI content wrappers and services proliferated. Content was fully commoditized.

Or so we thought.

The reality is that SEO content was commoditized. And it led to some grave problems.

Like a human centipede, AI ingesting increasingly large amounts of AI generated created a crises point for the AI teflon’s.

I can get away with leftovers night once a week in my house….

There just wasn’t enough original data, insights, and content to feed the beast.

Reddit (and UGC) is an ideal solution for this problem. Millions of people engaging and commenting in near real-time across thousands of communities and topics.

I remember reading about a dystopian future where AI demand necessitates the creation of boiler rooms for answers. Thousands of people answering coding (and other) questions in a sweat shop-like environment in Southeast Asia.

Reddit is a better version of this. An existing infrastructure. An insights factory in full swing.

So What Now?

I’m a big fan of “examining the inverse” as it relates to new trends.

The TRENDS are telling you to add “AI” to your product description.

The TRENDS are telling you to start an “AI” company and raise a lot of money.

The TRENDS are telling you to use “AI” to generate content at scale.

But what about the inverse?

What does NOT change?

Basic content is commoditized. “What is a kiwi” doesn’t need to be answered.

Average content doesn’t move the “insights and perspectives” needle further. Regurgitating a top 10 listicle isn’t helpful.

What remains?

Building a business around genuinely original content and human to human connection may just be the MOST valuable thing you can do right now.

Learn More About Reddit (Free Virtual Event)

I’ll be on a webinar next week talking about Reddit. Please come!

My co-panelist is Nick Andrews, a 15(!) year veteran of marketing on Reddit. I’m so excited to learn more from him.

Need Traffic? Want to Build Community?

I’m “all in” on Reddit right now as the fastest way to acquire users and build community.

As such, my course is a fluid, evolving project. I’m adding new modules weekly!

Other Things I Read Recently

These are some articles I enjoyed, but don’t really have anything to add to!

Other Newsletters Worth Following

Here are some other publications I subscribe to, author, or co-sign.

If you are operating a newsletter (or even just interested), this next one is one of my “must opens” every week as a newsletter operator myself:

For some of the best breakdowns of creator success stories:

If you want to go deeper with Reddit (one of my favorite creator ecosysystems right now), check out my sister publication:

And don’t miss Amy’s excellent insights into wants happening in the world of content marketers.

Interested in Booking an Ad?

I’ve put together a resource sheet over at Passionfruit here.

====

OK, that's it for this week...

Please do reply to this email with any feedback or suggestions.

Ewen