Reddit bans promotional accounts fast. A practical warm-up checklist for founders: karma requirements, the 90/10 rule, week-by-week sequence, and the mistakes that get accounts flagged.
Reddit is one of the few places where a founder with zero audience can reach thousands of qualified buyers, and it is also the platform most eager to ban you for trying. Threads there rank on Google''s first page for the exact "best [tool]" queries buyers type, which is why so many founders show up, drop a link on day one, and get removed before anyone sees it. The fix is boring and unavoidable: warm the account up first. Here is the checklist.
Why Do New Reddit Accounts Get Blocked From Posting?
Three separate systems stand between a fresh account and a visible post:
AutoModerator gates. Most active subreddits run automated rules that remove posts from accounts below a minimum age or karma. The thresholds are set per subreddit and almost never published, so the numbers people cite online ("you need 10 karma for this sub") are community folklore, not documentation.
Reddit''s sitewide spam filter. New accounts that post links early, repeat similar comments, or jump straight into promotion get silently filtered: your post looks live to you and invisible to everyone else.
Human moderators. Mods check profiles. An account whose history is 100% comments about one product reads as a marketing account, and many subs ban on that basis alone regardless of karma.
Warming up is the process of clearing all three before you ever need them to trust you.
How Does Reddit Karma Actually Work?
Karma accrues at the account level: your comment karma and post karma are two whole-account totals, visible on your profile. But the gates are per subreddit: each sub''s AutoModerator checks your account-wide karma, your account age, and sometimes the karma you have earned inside that specific subreddit. A 500-karma account can still get filtered in a sub it has never participated in.
Practical implications:
Comment karma is what matters early. Comment gates are lower than post gates almost everywhere, so you can start commenting long before you can post.
Earn karma inside your target subreddits, not just anywhere. In-sub history is what convinces both AutoMod and human mods.
Roughly 50-100 comment karma with a 3-4 week old account clears the posting floor in most business subreddits with margin. Treat that as a working target, not a guarantee.
The Warm-Up Sequence, Week by Week
Week 0: setup and reconnaissance.
Pick a normal-looking username. Not your product name. An account named after your product is a promotion flag before you write a word.
Add an avatar and a short bio. Blank profiles pattern-match to throwaways.
Choose 5-8 target subreddits where your buyers actually are, plus 2-3 general ones you genuinely enjoy.
Read the rules of every target sub, including the pinned posts. Self-promotion policies vary wildly: some subs have weekly promo threads, some allow it with flair, some ban it outright. Note which is which.
Weeks 1-2: comment only. Zero links.
Sort target subs by New and answer questions you actually know the answer to. Specific, experience-based answers earn karma fastest and read as human.
Aim for a handful of genuine comments a day, not 30. Volume without substance is its own spam signal.
Do not mention your product, even when relevant. You are building history, not converting anyone.
Week 3: first posts, still no links.
Start threads that ask real questions or share a lesson learned. Text posts only.
Keep commenting. Your comment-to-post ratio should stay heavily weighted toward comments.
Week 4 and beyond: promote inside each sub''s rules.
Follow the format each sub permits: promo threads, flaired posts, or story posts where the product appears as context rather than headline.
Keep the long-standing 90/10 guideline: no more than about 1 in 10 of your contributions should involve your own stuff. Reddit''s own self-promotion guidance has used this ratio for years, and mods still apply it when they scan your profile.
What Gets Accounts Flagged? The Do-Not List
Do not buy aged accounts or karma. Purchased accounts carry history and behavior patterns that get detected, and the ban takes your subreddit standing with it.
Do not paste the same comment across subreddits. Duplicate text is one of the easiest spam signals to catch.
Do not post AI-drafted comments verbatim. Redditors are the internet''s most sensitive AI detectors, and one "this reads like ChatGPT" reply poisons the thread.
Do not drop links in your first weeks. Even helpful links. The filter does not know your intent.
Do not ask friends to upvote. Vote manipulation is a sitewide ban, not a subreddit removal.
Do not delete and repost hoping for a better time slot. Repeated identical posts get filtered.
Do not DM people who comment. Unsolicited DMs get reported at a high rate, and reports feed the spam filter.
How Do You Check if You Are Filtered or Shadowbanned?
Open your post in a private browser window while logged out. If it is not visible, it was removed or filtered. If your whole profile 404s while logged out, the account is shadowbanned. Politely messaging the sub''s mods ("did my post get caught in the filter?") resolves the common case, and mods are notably friendlier to accounts with real participation history.
What Actually Works Once the Account Is Warm?
From the companies we have broken down at Systemaic, the Reddit wins share a shape: they read as a founder talking, not a brand posting. 1Lookup, a two-person company around $224k in monthly revenue, grew its early user base with build-in-public posts in r/SideProject and r/SaaS. Its milestone post drew 83 upvotes and 27 comments, and its most engaged post was one where the founder asked why the product page "looks scammy": 78 upvotes, 186 comments, and a wave of feedback that doubled as distribution. Vulnerability and specifics outperformed polish everywhere we have data.
The Checklist
Normal username, avatar, bio set
5-8 target subreddits chosen, rules and pinned posts read
Self-promo policy noted per sub (promo thread / flair / banned)
2 weeks of genuine comments, zero links, zero product mentions
50-100 comment karma, account 3-4 weeks old
First text posts are questions or lessons, not announcements
Contributions stay near 90/10 non-promotional
Logged-out visibility check after each early post
Promotion follows each sub''s permitted format only
None of this is fast, which is exactly why it works: the warm-up is the moat. Most founders will not do three weeks of unglamorous commenting, so the ones who do inherit the channel.
If you want help picking which channel deserves those three weeks in the first place, our free growth audit turns your domain and four questions into a 30-day distribution plan.
Questions, answered straight
QHow much karma do you need to post on Reddit?+
There is no single number: karma accrues account-wide, but each subreddit sets its own unpublished minimum via AutoModerator. As a working target, 50-100 comment karma on an account 3-4 weeks old clears the posting floor in most business subreddits. Comment thresholds are lower than post thresholds almost everywhere.
QHow long does it take to warm up a Reddit account?+
About 3-4 weeks: one week of setup and subreddit reconnaissance, two weeks of genuine link-free commenting, then first text posts. Faster attempts are exactly what the spam filter is built to catch.
QCan I just buy an aged Reddit account?+
No. Purchased accounts carry behavioral history that gets detected, and the ban takes your subreddit standing with it. Three weeks of real commenting is cheaper than starting over.
QHow do I know if my Reddit posts are shadowbanned or filtered?+
Open your post in a private browser window while logged out. If the post is invisible, it was filtered or removed; if your whole profile 404s, the account is shadowbanned. Message the subreddit mods politely: filters catch legitimate posts often, and mods restore them for accounts with real history.