I have been active on Reddit for 100 days straight now. Mostly in specific SubReddits, with the occasional random shit, you can dive into forever and endless browsing.
Before I launched The Super Hustle, I never thought about getting involved in certain niche communities, but here we are.
I am on Reddit for a few reasons:
- To take notes for future inspiration (topics)
- Provide somewhat insightful feedback for those with legit questions
- Acquire some traffic to my blog content and free guides.
Of course the last one matters because I want to make this concept and website succeed.
It’s currently the 14th of September 2024 and I am on track in content production. This week, I finished the V1 version of my free dropshipping guide for beginners and shared it once in a while in some replies with additional context.
Everyone, especially beginning dropshippers, love free info to get started so I found it valuable to write a guide based on my experience that is easily readable for beginners.
Except, this one guy.
He currently blocked me and I am unable to see his replies or posts but some of the key takeaways are:
- Shouted at me for selling courses
- Shouted at me that the mentorship & guidance is selling a course (wtf?)
- Tried to be fancy and questioned why I didn’t add SEO, Marketing, Social Media in this guide
- Kept telling me that what I wrote is plucked from IG ads (wtf?)
- Repeats every comment that people should learn on Coursera (great platform)
- Repeats every 2 comments against others that he has 30 years of experience with multiple successful businesses
- Goes against anyone that doesn’t agree with him, refers back to his experience
But he kept targeting me.
Context
There was an individual that was looking for help as a beginner and feedback. Which I gave but also pointed out the free guide I wrote to draw some additional inspiration.
Which I believe is fair to do since I never really sell coaching or consulting on Reddit. But rather share the free guides or blog posts in between comments.
The OP of the post appreciated the share, but then out of nowhere, this one guy out of nowhere with a fairly new Reddit account marches in.
His first interaction with me was that he questioned the guide and that it’s incomplete with no SEO strategy, social media marketing or marketing, business plan etc included.
I calmly pointed out that each of those subjects deserve their OWN guide because the subjects are too big to cover in this particular guide.
I highlighted that the dropship guide was to emphasize the level of difficulty attached to starting a dropship store and I mapped out some of the most common mistakes, budgets needed (averages), and the difference between niche and industry.
The goal was always to give a beginner’s perspective. Not to teach an entire masterclass in one go.
But he couldn’t accept that. Started shouting at me that I should stop promoting paid courses…
Joke’s on him because… I don’t have any paid content by the time of writing?
Besides, even if I have, there is a big difference for me between courses and guides.
I consider guides more loose and compact and I prefer to keep them free.
A course is something far more structured with more detailed insights that can be free or paid.
Tried to explain that, but then he tells me that 1:1 mentorship is the same as a course.
Which by the way is not specifically targeted for dropshippers. I focus on a few particular brackets.
Which in my opinion is still very different. Unless I live in a different world where those words have the same meaning?
Defended it again, but he couldn’ see it. Especially when I never hardcore promote any of that on Reddit.
My goals with The Super Hustle by the time of writing was to build a baseline of content, add enough free guides and take it from there.
Then I knew, it was a lost cause. It was just a straight-up hater.
It was leading to the point that I was labeled by him as a fake guru, like Madison CEO of a public company that doesn’t exist.
He wasn’t willing to give me the benefit of the doubt either. Straight up hatred.
But anyone that reads a couple of blog posts of mine knows that I emphasize the difficulties in entrepreneurship and talk about failures more than wins.
Realization
Even when he doesn’t give me the benefit of the doubt, I will.
Because I realize that a SubReddit like /dropshipping is filled with:
- People that had bad experiences in mentorship
- People that got burned too often in buying courses (even though mine is free)
- Bad experiences from YouTube Fake Gurus
I realized that it’s a terrible industry to navigate in. Unlike my free guide about freelancing, I only got praised with no questions asked.
I realize how bad it can look for some people when someone is dropping a free guide into a forum that’s had nothing but painful experiences.
Even if my intentions are pure, you will always receive a level of skepticism that can lead to blind hate.
Not that he threw me off balance, but still made me think for a split second.
Are we heading in the same direction as affiliate marketing ? Which got a bad reputation over the years and was practically forced to rename it publishers/publisher marketing.
Is sharing free guides already an immediate blocker because there’s this fear that there’s more behind it with an upsell because fake gurus have mastered the art of sales funnels?
None of it matters for me. I mapped out my reasons very clearly why I started this and I am going to stick with it.
But hey, it’s a win I guess? Acquiring your first hater on Reddit is a milestone I won’t forget!