Top 3 Ways to Make Money on Reddit 🤑

Quick disclaimer, you will need to own Reddit for most of these to actually make you money.

In recent years, Reddit has made several business decisions that have significantly impacted its users and the broader community. From introducing API restrictions to rolling out the Reddit Contributor Program, these changes have sparked controversy and frustration among users. Understand the three major changes designed to ramp up profits, how they impact Redditors, and what you can do about it.

A Brief History of Monetization on Reddit

In 2024, Reddit went public. That means more profit motivation and cost reduction, and a new layer of responsibility for the Reddit team, led by Steve Huffman (or Spez on Reddit). 10 years ago, Spez said this in an AMA:

“One of my first priorities is to re-establish a relationship with the community.”

In the leadup to Reddit’s IPO, Reddit’s actions suggested that the “community” referenced by Spez was not Redditors – but investors. 

In 2023 alone, the year before IPO, Reddit has:

• Restricted API usage, putting numerous third-party Reddit browsers out of business 
• Started selling your content as AI training data
• Implemented a complex, stingy contributor rewards program
• Forced targeted ads on all users

Despite (or maybe because of) Google’s financial support and algorithmic prioritization, the platform’s traffic is largely reliant on Google. A reduction to google traffic earlier this year sent Reddit share prices plummeting over 28% this year alone (~21% down in the last month). A far cry from the relatively strong S&P500 (index of the top 500 companies), which has waned by just 3.4% over the last 3 months.

1. Restricts API Usage and Kill Third-Party Apps

In 2023, Reddit implemented API pricing changes that effectively forced many third-party apps out of business. This move not only reduced the variety of content available but also led to a decline in user engagement. The loss of these apps, such as Apollo, has been felt deeply by users who relied on their unique features and customization options. The community responded with protests, including subreddit blackouts, highlighting the importance of these apps to the Reddit experience. 

2. Sell Redditor Data to the Highest Bidder (and Google)

Your attention is for sale right now via ads.reddit.com – where almost any business can pay Reddit to insert content in front of Redditors based on their Reddit activity, demographic activity, or other data. Reddit ads have been around for over a decade, but in 2023, Reddit began forcing all users to receive targeted ads. Effectively, this means your Reddit activity is available for advertisers to buy at an auction. 

2023 was shaping up to be a big year for Reddit – but not big enough for their looming IPO! In the same year, Reddit and Google entered into an exclusive crawling partnership that would see Google leveraging Reddit’s vast amounts of user-generated content to train their AI models. Reuters reported that the contract was worth about $60m USD per year. Users have received nothing. 

“One of my first priorities is to re-establish a relationship with the community.” (Spez, Reddit CEO, 2015)

3. Launch The Reddit Contributor Program, Incentivizing ‘Better Content’

Unsurprisingly, under one year pre-IPO (2023) Reddit rolled out their Reddit Contributor Program (RCP). The stated goal of the program is to reward users with cash for great content – a simple, unoriginal idea (see: YouTube Partners, TikTok Creator Rewards).  

In reality, the RCP is a complex web of currencies, eligibility requirements, and barely-possible targets. If you do manage to meet the eligibility requirements, we hope you also make content for subreddits that have opted into the Contributor Program. 

Redditors participating in the Contributor Program have almost nothing good to say about it. One Reddit user ‘celebrated’ getting a ‘Top Contributor’ badge, along with an abysmal $11 payout.

The top post in /r/contributorprogram is a group of users lamenting over their shared experience that “Nobody gives out gold” – a requirement of earning via the RCP.

When you consider the RCP’s failure to incentivize users to post their best content on Reddit, alongside Reddit’s CEO blaming Google’s algorithm for declining traffic; a simpler explanation emerges. The best content on the internet probably isn’t on Reddit anymore.

Censorship With Reddit’s New Block

While the profit link is unclear, in the last couple of days, Reddit’s block functionality appears to have evolved into a strange, opaque censorship tool. If you are blocked on Reddit, you may be prevented from seeing, editing or deleting your comments. However, other users are still free to see and reply to your (blocked) comments. 

In effect, you can share your opinion, but if the community disagrees and chooses to block you – you will be cast out of the town hall, while the community is free to ridicule you in private. Healthy internet fun! 

What Can You Do?

Since IPO, Reddit has clearly prioritized squeezing quick profits out of the business over delivering a great user experience. They’ve forced targeted ads on you, sold your content as AI training data with 0 compensation, and disrupted alternative Reddit browsers. Despite this, investor confidence wanes with changes to Google prompting huge sell-offs. Not to mention rolling out a contributor program, which has completely failed to incentivize quality content on Reddit.

At this point, it’s fair to say that you might be a little frustrated with Reddit. 

Our app, Redact.dev, is the perfect tool for ex-redditors and Reddit antifans. With Redact, you can edit everything you’ve ever posted on Reddit, for free – disrupting AI training, reducing Reddit’s ability to sell ad space alongside your content, and avoiding user-driven censorship using Reddit’s new “Block” feature. Just get Redact and follow the steps here!