A lot of people want to be Reddit famous. Having been there several times, I’m not sure why…

For marketing purposes, I admit it’s tempting to look at the top of Reddit, or similar sharing sites.

If your product, blog post, or tool makes it to the summit, that can mean a lot of traffic. That’s more awareness for your company. And maybe a few of those even sign up to give your product a try.

My first Reddit success was 2008. I know, forever ago.

I didn’t even add my own blog post. A developer put it in the programming section, it took off, and my editor pointed it out.

The post was an introduction to REST APIs in an era when they were still a new trend. At the time, I was writing for Webmonkey, a developer resource that was part of Wired.

It was also on the front page of Digg (there’s a blast from the past!). So, that was a lot of attention on this geeky little post.

My editor was thrilled with the page views, since that was our primary metric.

And then…

… I did the one thing you aren’t supposed to do on the Internet.

… I read the comments.

They don’t seem as cutting now (you can read them all here). And there are fewer than I remember, so maybe the Digg thread was worse.

More likely is that I’ve internalized the feeling of being misunderstood.

My post was meant to help a non-expert. I wanted someone who had only heard of REST be able to connect it to what they already understood: using web browsers and forms.

So, I glossed over a lengthy academic dissertation to make the topic approachable.

I stand by that choice, but only because I understood Webmonkey’s audience.

Now, 13 years later, I’m still helping educate the right developers with content that meets them at their current level.

You can attract developers in the same way, which I cover in-depth in the book.

My trip to the top of the Programming sub-reddit gave me an early taste of how tough an audience developers can be.

To be successful takes more than tamping down your promotions (though that’s important). You also need to make sure your educational message is aimed at the right audience.