“Viral on Reddit” means Hot in a room that is big enough for the post to leak into home feeds. Sometimes it then hits r/all. Most of the time it does not, and that is still a win: a thread that sits on Hot for a day can out-traffic a week of tweets.
There is no tactic that forces r/all. There is a short list of things that make Hot possible, and a long list of things that make it impossible.
The post has to belong there
Format match is non-negotiable. A link post in a screenshot subreddit is dead. A sales landing page in a help subreddit is dead. Read 25 Hot posts. If your draft would look alien in that list, pick another room or rewrite until it does not.
Title is most of the click. Specific, concrete, no marketing cadence. The writing guide is here.
The first two hours
- Post when that subreddit is actually reading New. Measure it.
- Reply to every comment as it lands. Silence reads as a hit-and-run.
- Hot is velocity. A dead first hour rarely recovers.
If the post is good and still stalling in New, paced upvotes are a floor, not a catapult. A weak post with bought score still gets downvoted or removed.
A labeled example
Same product, two openings
“Check out our new productivity app” — ignored or removed. “I built a two-minute timer because every other one hid the pause button. Here is the ugly first version.” — that can live in a maker subreddit. The second one can still flop. It at least belongs.
Things that block it
- New account, no karma, posting a link.
- Same post in five subreddits in an hour.
- Asking for upvotes in the title.
- A title written like an ad.
- Disappearing when people ask questions.
If you want the post written in the room’s voice and published from an aged account, that is $10 a post. You still need a room that allows it.
Questions
How many upvotes in the first two hours means a post can run?
There is no universal number. In a mid-size subreddit, tens of upvotes plus real comments in the first two hours is a live post. In a huge default, you need much more. Compare against whatever is already on Hot.
Does buying votes make a post go viral?
Votes can keep a decent post from dying in New. They cannot force r/all. Weak titles and rule-breaking posts still get removed.