I wasted three months commenting on the wrong Reddit threads.

Every day, same routine. Find a popular post in my niche. Write a thoughtful, helpful comment. Hit submit. Feel good about myself.

Result? Nothing. Crickets. Maybe an upvote or two if I was lucky.

I kept telling myself Reddit marketing didn't work. That the platform was too hostile to promotion. That maybe I should just go back to cold emails.

Then I noticed something weird.

The one lead I actually got came from a random comment I barely remembered making. It was on a post with 4 comments. Not 400. Just 4.

I went back and looked at all my Reddit activity. Every single meaningful conversation - every demo request, every signup, every DM - came from threads with fewer than 10 comments.

The popular threads? Complete waste of time.

The Math Nobody Talks About

Here's what I didn't understand before:

On a post with 200 comments, you're competing with 199 other voices. Even if your comment is brilliant, the person who asked the question probably stopped reading after the first 20 replies. Your helpful insight? Buried at the bottom where nobody scrolls.

But on a post with 3 comments? You're one of four people in that conversation. The original poster reads everything. Anyone who finds that thread later reads everything too.

It's not complicated math, but I completely missed it for months.

Popular ≠ valuable. Popular = crowded.

Testing the Theory

Once I figured this out, I ran a little experiment. Two weeks, same amount of time on Reddit, but with one rule: only comment on posts with 5 or fewer existing comments.

The results weren't subtle.

Week 1 with my old approach (any relevant thread): 47 comments, 2 replies, 0 conversations that went anywhere.

Week 2 with the new filter: 23 comments (less than half), 11 replies, 4 actual back-and-forth conversations, 2 demo requests.

Half the effort, ten times the result. I felt like an idiot for not figuring this out sooner.

The Problem With This Approach

Okay so here's the catch. Finding low-comment threads manually is painful.

When you go to a subreddit, what do you see first? Hot posts. Trending posts. Popular posts. Exactly the ones you should be avoiding.

You can sort by "new" but then you're scrolling through everything - relevant or not. Most new posts never get any traction. You end up wading through garbage to find the occasional gem.

I tried doing this manually for about a week. It worked, but I was spending 2+ hours daily just on the discovery phase. Way too much time for a solo founder who also needs to, you know, build the actual product.

How I Actually Filter Now

I ended up building a solution because I couldn't find anything that did what I needed.

Most Reddit tools are built for scraping data or scheduling posts. I didn't need that. I just needed to answer one question: what posts in my target subreddits have fewer than 5 comments and contain keywords that signal buying intent?

That's it. Simple filter. But it changed everything about how I use Reddit for marketing.

Now my morning routine looks like this: Open tool. Set filters for comment count (0-5), keywords ("looking for", "need help", "alternative to"), subreddits I care about. Get a list. Scan for relevance. Respond to 2-3 posts max. Done in 15 minutes.

The tool is called Reddit Toolbox if you want to check it out. Fair warning - the UI is nothing special. I built it to solve my own problem, not to win design awards. But the comment count filter alone saves me hours every week.

Beyond Comment Count: What Else Matters

Low comments isn't the only thing I look for now. Here's my full checklist:

Post age matters. Fresh posts (under 6 hours) are ideal. You're more likely to get a response, and if the thread does blow up later, you're already positioned as one of the early helpful voices.

Question posts > statement posts. Someone asking "what tools do you use for X?" is actively seeking recommendations. Someone posting "here's what I learned about X" isn't looking for your input.

Specific problems > general discussions. "How do I track mentions of my brand on Reddit?" is a qualified lead. "What do you think about Reddit marketing?" is just chit-chat.

Already has one thoughtful comment. This sounds counterintuitive, but posts where someone already left a good response tend to attract more engagement. Plus you can build on what they said instead of starting from scratch.

The Types of Threads That Actually Convert

After months of doing this, I've noticed patterns. Some thread types consistently lead to real conversations:

"Looking for alternatives to [competitor]" - These people have already decided to buy something. They're just trying to figure out what. If your product fits, this is gold.

"Frustrated with [problem]" - Genuine pain. They're not casually browsing. They're trying to solve something specific right now.

"How do you handle [workflow]?" - Process questions. If your tool fits into that workflow naturally, you can share how you do it without being salesy.

"Anyone tried [category of tool]?" - Research phase. Early in their journey, but open to recommendations.

The worst threads? Hot takes, debates, meme posts, anything with "unpopular opinion" in the title. Entertainment, not buying intent.

Common Objections (And My Responses)

"But won't I miss out on the big threads?"

Probably. But you're already missing out on those. Your comment on a 500-reply thread has basically zero reach. At least with low-comment threads, you're having real conversations.

"What if the thread never takes off?"

Doesn't matter. You're not optimizing for upvotes. You're optimizing for conversations. One person who reads your comment and clicks through is worth more than 100 people who scroll past your buried reply.

"This seems like a lot of work for a few leads."

A few qualified leads are worth infinitely more than hundreds of cold prospects. Every customer I've gotten from Reddit actually understood the product and wanted it before signing up. Zero tire-kickers. Zero "just checking this out" folks who never convert.

My Numbers After 3 Months

Since switching to this approach:

Conversations started: 67 Demo requests: 12 Paying customers: 4 Time spent on Reddit: roughly 30 minutes per day Ad spend: $0

Not world-changing numbers. But for a solo founder with no marketing budget, this is a real channel that actually works.

And honestly? The conversations themselves are valuable beyond just sales. I've gotten product feedback, feature ideas, and insights into how people talk about the problem I'm solving - all from just being helpful in the right places.

Getting Started

If you want to try this approach:

Pick 3-5 subreddits where your target customers hang out
Make a list of keywords that signal buying intent in your space
Set up a system to filter for low-comment, fresh posts matching those keywords
Commit to 20-30 minutes daily of genuine, helpful engagement
Track what actually leads to conversations (not just upvotes)

You can do step 3 manually - it just takes more time. Or use something like Reddit Toolbox to automate the filtering. Either way, the strategy works.

The key mindset shift: stop chasing popular threads. Start finding the quiet corners where real conversations happen.

That's where the customers are.

Why Low-Comment Reddit Threads Convert 10x Better (And How to Find Them)