Last month I watched a TikTok creator hit 500K followers in 60 days. No dancing. No fancy editing. Just... reading Reddit stories.

The creator was doing AITA (Am I The Asshole) stories with Minecraft parkour in the background. That's it. AI voice, simple captions, and drama from Reddit. The comments were going crazy.

So naturally, I had to try it myself.

The Problem Nobody Talks About

Here's what those "how to start a Reddit story channel" tutorials don't tell you: finding good stories takes FOREVER.

I spent my first week manually scrolling through r/AmItheAsshole, r/relationship_advice, r/ProRevenge, and about fifteen other subreddits. Copying links to a spreadsheet. Checking upvote counts. Reading through posts to see if they're actually interesting.

Four hours later, I had maybe 8 usable stories. Not great.

The successful creators? They're pumping out 3-5 videos daily. There's no way they're doing this manually.

Which Subreddits Actually Work

Before we get into the finding-stories part, you need to know where to look. Not all subreddits are created equal for content.

The drama goldmines:

r/AmItheAsshole - The king of Reddit content. Millions of viewers love judging strangers on the internet. Wedding drama, family conflicts, roommate horror stories. Pure engagement bait.

r/relationship_advice - Cheating stories, breakups, in-law drama. Gets emotional fast.

r/TIFU (Today I F***ed Up) - Embarrassing stories that viewers can relate to. Great for humor content.

r/ProRevenge and r/pettyrevenge - Satisfying justice stories. People eat these up.

r/entitledparents - Karen stories basically. Always viral.

r/MaliciousCompliance - Workplace revenge stories. Business audience loves these.

Less obvious but solid:

r/BestofRedditorUpdates - Pre-curated drama with updates. Gold for longer content.

r/confession - Dark, personal stories. High engagement but handle carefully.

r/NoSleep - Creepy stories for horror content.

The Manual Method (Why It Sucks)

Okay so the "obvious" way to find viral stories is:

Go to subreddit
Sort by "Top - This Week" or "Hot"
Scroll and read posts
Copy links to good ones
Repeat for 10 different subreddits

I did this. It works. But here's the math:

10 subreddits x 15 minutes each = 2.5 hours
Maybe 30% of posts are actually usable
Need to check if story was already used by other creators
Need to verify audio length (too long = won't work for Shorts)

That's a part-time job just for finding content. The actual video creation comes after.

What I Actually Do Now

I got tired of the manual grind pretty fast. Tried a few approaches.

GummySearch - Popular tool for finding Reddit content. Works okay but expensive ($19/month) and focused more on market research than story hunting.

Custom Python scripts - Wrote some PRAW code to pull posts. Hit API rate limits constantly. Also 2023 API changes broke a lot of functionality.

Reddit search operators - Using site:reddit.com "AITA" upvotes:1000+ in Google. Decent but slow and misses new posts.

Eventually I started using Reddit Toolbox because I needed something that could bulk-scrape multiple subreddits at once and filter by engagement metrics.

The workflow that actually works:

Input all my target subreddits: AmItheAsshole, relationship_advice, ProRevenge, TIFU, entitledparents
Set filters: minimum 1000 upvotes, posted within last 7 days
Export to CSV
Sort by upvote/comment ratio (high comments = controversial = engagement)
Batch-review titles in spreadsheet

What used to take 2+ hours now takes maybe 20 minutes. Not gonna lie, the UI could be better, but the filtering saves stupid amounts of time.

Filtering for Actually Viral Stories

High upvotes doesn't automatically mean good content. I learned this the hard way.

What actually makes a Reddit story go viral on TikTok/YouTube:

Strong emotional hook in first sentence - "My wife has been lying to me for 8 years" hits different than "So there's this situation with my spouse..."

Clear conflict - Hero vs villain. Right vs wrong. Not ambiguous situations where "everyone sucks."

Resolution or update - Stories with "UPDATE:" posts perform 2-3x better because people want closure.

Relatable situation - Workplace drama, family issues, relationship problems. Things viewers have experienced.

Reasonable length - 500-1500 words is the sweet spot. Too short = not enough drama. Too long = loses attention.

What to AVOID:

Clearly fake rage-bait (obvious karma farming posts)
Stories that require paragraphs of context
Posts where OP is clearly the asshole (audiences like rooting for someone)
Anything with identifying info that could cause issues
Stories already covered by major channels (check competition first)

The Competition Check

This is crucial and most guides skip it.

Before spending time on a story, search YouTube and TikTok for the first sentence or unique phrases. If Raven Reads or another big channel already covered it, that story is burned for algorithm purposes.

I keep a simple spreadsheet with:

Story URL
Title/hook
Upvote count
Competition status (uncovered/covered/saturated)
Notes

The goal is finding posts with 5K+ upvotes that haven't been turned into videos yet. These are harder to find but worth the effort.

Quick Tips from 6 Months of Doing This

Timing matters - Monday-Wednesday posts tend to have more engagement. Weekend posts often get buried.

Comments are content too - Top comments often have story additions or alternative perspectives. These can extend your video or create follow-ups.

Updates are gold - When you find a story you've covered that gets an update, that's your next video already. Subscribe to Reddit notifications for posts you've used.

Niche down - "Reddit Stories" is saturated. "Wedding Drama from AITA" or "Workplace Revenge Stories" can find dedicated audiences.

Don't ignore smaller subreddits - r/weddingshaming, r/bridezillas, r/ChoosingBeggars have great content with less competition.

The Monetization Reality Check

Since everyone asks: yes, Reddit story channels can make money. But it's not as straightforward as tutorials claim.

YouTube requirements: 1,000 subscribers + 10 million Shorts views in 90 days. Long-form has different requirements (4,000 watch hours).

TikTok Creativity Program: Need 100K+ followers and some engagement requirements. Payouts vary wildly.

The real money: Most successful creators monetize through affiliate marketing, merch, and Patreon rather than pure ad revenue.

Also - pure text-to-speech videos without commentary are getting harder to monetize. Adding your own reaction or voice helps a lot with meeting YouTube's "originality" requirements.

My Current Setup

For anyone curious about the actual workflow:

Finding stories - Reddit Toolbox for bulk scraping + filtering. Usually run this twice a week.
Competition check - Quick YouTube/TikTok search before committing to a story.
Scripting - Copy paste story, add intro hook and outro, maybe trim length.
Voiceover - Started with ElevenLabs AI voice, now doing my own voice (better engagement and monetization).
Visuals - Minecraft parkour or satisfying compilation background. Working on adding animated elements.
Publishing - Post to TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels simultaneously.

Total time per video: about 25-30 minutes including finding the story. Batch 3-4 videos in one session.

What's Next for Reddit Content

The space is getting more competitive but it's not dying. People still love drama and judgment.

TikTok uncertainty (potential US ban situation) is pushing creators to diversify to YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels, which honestly might be better for monetization anyway.

The channels winning now are the ones adding personality - reactions, commentary, hot takes. Pure AI-voice-over-gameplay format is saturated.

If you're starting out, pick a specific niche within Reddit stories rather than trying to cover everything. Wedding drama. Workplace revenge. Dating nightmares. Own that category first.

Got questions about finding Reddit content or the tools I mentioned? Drop a comment or reach out - always happy to chat about what's working.

How to Find Viral Reddit Stories for Content Creation (AITA, Revenge, and More)