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What we've learnt getting feedback on reddit

· 8 min read
Philip Wee
Co-Founder, FireJet

Posting on reddit

Over the years, we've hacked together several products, and to check if anyone cares, we released them for free on reddit.

In this post we'll be sharing the statistics from each released product, and a summary of all our learnings.

Interesting Statistics

  1. 51.3% of our traffic was mobile *
  2. Performance for different media types:
  • Video (41 upvotes/sub)
  • Website (45 upvotes/sub)**
  • Youtube Link (3 upvotes/sub)
  • Text (1 upvote/sub)

* 51.3% is for all website visits, I suspect reddit users are even more likely to be mobile users
** While the website got more upvotes per sub, we only posted a website link once so results may not be accurate

Statistics

PostUpvotes/SubUpvotesCommentsViewsTypeNo. Subs Posted in
Figma to Code6578342Video12
Automatic best practices in figma5611214Video2
Figma to Tailwind4631949Video7
No Code Web App Builder with export to tech stack459015Website Link2
FJ Sync (Before building)3313215Video4
FJ Sync (After building)336522Video2
Generate portfolio website1710021Video6
ezbackend3164Youtube Link6
Tweak (2nd Round) (Removed login and forms)23255195Text2
Tweak (1st Round)127938Text2
ContenX1121241Text2

Post content and descriptions

See more
PostTitleDescription
Figma to CodeI made a Figma to React+TS converter focused on human-readable code, responsiveness and pixel perfection [TOOL]https://packaged-media.redd.it/774przpba4r81/pb/m2-res_480p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1694516400&s=8f43d9ddd9a8ca5e075af49639a9ba17f66f9387#t=0
Automatic best practices in figmaAutomatically Enforcing Best Practices in Figmahttps://www.reddit.com/r/FigmaDesign/comments/w2tkqx/automatically_enforcing_best_practices_in_figma/
Figma to TailwindI’m making a Figma to Tailwind converter focused on human readable code, responsiveness and pixel perfectionhttps://packaged-media.redd.it/r3cuf8psmf191/pb/m2-res_480p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1694516400&s=ae2f7b10aa91a9a54cf6df589cd036e321e89671#t=0
No Code Web App Builder with export to tech stackHey everyone! I'm making a No-Code WebApp Builder with Code-Exports to your tech stack of choicewww.firejet.io
FJ Sync (Before building)I’m making a Design Tool that allows designers to directly update your code with a Figma-like UIhttps://packaged-media.redd.it/l3jjpsyp3kw91/pb/m2-res_480p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1694516400&s=fda7b6e7b4420e0ad6380cc0c59feb5a9213cc07#t=0
FJ Sync (After building)My friend and I spent the last 4 months building a figma alternative that exports to React + Tailwindcss
https://packaged-media.redd.it/fb33pexb0ria1/pb/m2-res_480p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1694516400&s=8de4bafd0dc637150e7539f2cdb84dbec6b37646#t=0
Generate portfolio website[TOOL] I’m making a Figma to TailwindCSS converter, and I generated my portfolio website with ithttps://packaged-media.redd.it/33u9vk9n27691/pb/m2-res_480p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1694520000&s=d020a178140a2a26401a017a99fb4762b14755f9#t=0
ezbackendEzBackend - How to build a backend in 4 minshttps://youtube.com/watch?v=kQRRckdEFr8&feature=share
Tweak (2nd Round) (Removed login and forms)What's wrong with my app?Hey everyone, I launched my app here a while back to try get feedback, but I didnt really manage to get any feedback

Ive removed all forms and logins, so it goes straight to the app's main page

Any feedback would be appreciated! Thank you https://tweak.firejet.io/session
Tweak (1st Round)Looking for feedback on no-code editor for coded sitesHey everyone, my name is Philip. My friend and I have been working on a no code editor that can:

Edit coded websites (For now react + tailwind)

Update website copy

Make small design changes, like colors

Submit a pull request to developers based on the changes made

Its currently completely free, and we’re hoping that it will be able to save you time and effort on back and forths with your developers. If you have any feedback, it will be really valuable to us. Thanks!

[LINK REMOVED]
ContenXRoast my Side ProjectHey everyone, I made a free tool (No login required) that helps convert your content to match the writing styles required for various social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter

For example if you already post on reddit, you can repurpose your content for other social media platforms

Any feedback, good or bad will be appreciated! Thank you

www.contenx.io

Best practices

Use videos when getting feedback

Comparing the posts that included videos versus those that didnt, those with videos on average had more than 30 upvotes/sub each, whereas those without videos got less than 5 upvotes/sub

What we consider when making our videos:

  1. Text large enough to view on mobile
  2. Short ( < 2min )
  3. Include subtitles

Make sure your post is mobile friendly

Our ContenX analytics show the following results

DevicePercentageTotal
Mobile51.3%121
Desktop48.3%114
Tablet0.4%1

Both your introduction video and product should work on mobile - otherwise, you're losing half your audience

Remove logins and only get feedback for free products

Self advertising is a huge turnoff for redditors.

I believe that reddit as a platform should be used to test if people want your product, and not selling. If you want to get people's feedback, make it as accessible to everyone as possible.

Don't link to youtube, post direct video on reddit

The time it takes for youtube to load, (especially on mobile), followed by any ads that your users may watch will cause significant churn in your funnel.

Don't use promotional language

Imagine reading the following post on reddit:

Introducing ezpets: Bridging Pet Owners with Wholesale Accessory and Food Sellers!


Hey Redditors! 🐾 We're thrilled to unveil ezpets - a two-sided marketplace designed to connect passionate pet owners directly with top-notch wholesale sellers for pet accessories and food. Why pay retail when you can access quality products at wholesale prices? Dive in, discover, and let your furry friends enjoy the best without breaking the bank. Your feedback is invaluable to us. Check us out!


The promotional - sounding language in the above post is highly likely to get readers turned off and get you outright banned from several subreddits.


Here are some improvements I can think of:

  1. Shorten 'Introducing ezpets' to 'ezpets'
  2. Remove the emoji
  3. Remove words like 'thrilled' and 'unveil'
  4. Remove exclamation marks
  5. Rephrase the 'Why pay retail when you can...' with a more factual statement instead of trying to be attention grabbing

The easiest way to understand the mindset of redditors is to use reddit yourself - and try to imagine how you would feel coming across your own post in the wild

Make something people want

Quite frankly, if you've made something people want, it will always be upvoted regardless of how poor your phrasing is.

For example figma to code tools - everyone loves them and there's been at least 5 seperate launches of figma to code tools on product hunt and all 5 of them were product of the day

Celebrate personal wins as part of the community

If you've put in alot of effort into your product, don't be afraid to show it.

For example, if you've spent 4 months building something, you can make a post like

"I've spent the past 4 months building XXX"

If you're building something technical, don't be afraid to share the technical infrastructure, and if you've had some traction, share that too - posts with more details and sharing of knowledge tend to be upvoted more

Our biggest mistakes

Our ContenX post did particularly poorly because... we posted the wrong link like the fools we are. (www.contentx.io instead of www.contenx.io)

We only found out 2 days later, when we got our first comment saying:

"Why does your link say please purchase the domain"?

Posting the wrong video

For some reason our posts on building my portfolio website with our figma-to-code tool did reasonably well, but all the attached videos were accidentally cropped to be 2 seconds long.

If the videos were not cropped, they would probably be able to do alot better

Track click through

You need to know exactly how each post is performing and be able to compare them - by using a different tracking link for each platform you post on, you can see how your posts performs

Conclusion

Alot of people find their first users on reddit - see this video. When posting on reddit you must really ensure that your phrasing is not overly dramatic and salesy, and make sure you provide value to the community - otherwise you'll be downvoted and most likely banned.

All the best!

Try the 🔥FireJet plugin now!

Run the FireJet plugin in Figma as usual to try the new features.

As we try to continuously improve FireJet to meet your needs, we welcome any feedback or suggestions you might have. Your input is invaluable as we work hard to make FireJet the best Figma to code tool available. Get priority support on our Discord Community.

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