# Publishing checklist — community posts

## Day 0: account prep (do this 7+ days before posting)

Most subreddits have a karma floor or "brand-new account" filter. The
goal is to look like a person, not a marketer.

For each Reddit account you'll use:

- [ ] Account is 6+ months old
- [ ] At least 20 comments in the target subreddit's history
- [ ] At least 3 comments in the last 30 days
- [ ] Bio is short, no link, no product name
- [ ] Profile pic is a real photo, not a logo
- [ ] Comment history shows genuine engagement — short answers,
      questions, links to *other* people's work

For the IndieHackers account:

- [ ] Profile pic is a real photo
- [ ] Bio mentions "building OutlineAI" or "outlineai.dev"
- [ ] Have posted at least 2 milestone posts in the last 60 days
      (so the build log isn't the first thing people see)

## Day 1: IndieHackers build log

**Time:** Tuesday or Wednesday, 8-10am US Eastern.
**Why:** IndieHackers is a weekday tool, US/EU traffic peaks morning
ET, and Tuesday/Wednesday avoid the Monday rush and the
Friday-afternoon attention drop.

Steps:

1. Open the IH account in one tab, draft the post in another.
2. Read the draft end-to-end once. Cut anything that sounds like
   marketing. The IH community punishes "Look at my SaaS" posts.
3. Publish as a "My Build Log" post (not Milestone). IH build logs
   are the right format for a 12-week retrospective.
4. Reply to every comment within 4 hours for the first 24 hours.
   Even "thanks" comments. The IH algorithm rewards engagement.
5. The 14 KOL emails reference the IH post — send them the day after
   the IH post is live so the link is one click away.

## Day 2-3: Reddit r/SaaS

**Time:** Tuesday, 7-9am US Eastern.
**Why:** r/SaaS has the highest "Show & Tell" tolerance. Avoid Friday
— Friday posts get buried over the weekend.

Steps:

1. Open the post draft in Reddit's markdown editor.
2. Read the subreddit's rules in the sidebar. Many subs have
   specific "self-promotion" rules, "no link in title" rules, or
   "tag your post" requirements. Follow them all.
3. Add the post body verbatim from `posts/reddit-saas.md`.
4. Title matches the title in the draft, character count ≤ 300.
5. Flair is set correctly.
6. Submit. Watch the post for the first 2 hours — reply to every
   comment, even critical ones, within 30 minutes.
7. **Do not edit the post after submission.** Reddit penalizes
   edited posts in user rankings.

If the post gets removed by a moderator:

- Check the removal reason in modmail.
- If the reason is "too promotional", repost without the link in
  the body. Add the link in a top-level comment with a sentence
  of context.
- If the reason is "wrong subreddit", do not repost. Move to
  the next subreddit in the schedule.

## Day 4-5: Reddit r/SEO

**Time:** Wednesday or Thursday, 7-9am US Eastern.
**Why:** r/SEO is more technical than r/SaaS and rewards
schema-level questions. Mid-week is best.

Same steps as r/SaaS. The post is more technical — emphasize the
schema questions, not the marketing. If a moderator removes it for
being "self-promotional", edit the post to remove the link and
put it in a top-level comment.

## Day 6-7: Reddit r/Blogging

**Time:** Friday morning, 7-9am US Eastern.
**Why:** r/Blogging is more permissive but the audience is less
technical. End the week with the post that requires the least
schema knowledge.

Same steps. The r/Blogging draft is the friendliest in tone —
keep it that way. r/Blogging tolerates self-promotion if it's
genuinely useful to bloggers.

## Things to NOT do

- Do not post the same content to multiple subreddits on the same
  day. Reddit's spam filter will catch it. Space them 24+ hours
  apart.
- Do not post to r/SaaS, r/SEO, and r/Blogging in the same week
  if the post is mostly the same text. Each draft is intentionally
  different — use the version tuned to that sub.
- Do not include a Gumroad link in any post. The post body links
  to https://outlineai.dev/r/{slug} and *only* to that. The
  pricing CTA is on the page they land on.
- Do not argue with critical comments. Reply once, briefly, then
  move on.
- Do not edit the post after submission. Reddit penalizes edits.
- Do not use multiple accounts to upvote or comment. This will
  get all accounts banned.

## Tracking the results

Every tracked link in every post uses the per-platform slug:

- IH post → `/r/ih`
- r/SaaS post → `/r/saas`
- r/SEO post → `/r/seo`
- r/Blogging post → `/r/blogging`

Check `https://outlineai.dev/api/stats` 1h, 24h, and 7d after each
post. The `referrals_24h` map will show per-platform click counts.
Compare click-through rates:

- High click-through, low signups → the post is good, the landing
  page needs work.
- Low click-through → the post is getting downvotes or the title
  is wrong.
- High click-through *and* high signups → repost in adjacent
  subreddits (r/startups, r/Entrepreneur for IH-style; r/bigseo
  for SEO; r/BloggingForMoney for Blogging) using the *same* post
  body, only retitling for the new sub.

## 7-day review

After 7 days, total the results across all 4 posts. Decide:

- If any post hit 100+ upvotes → repurpose the post into a Medium
  long-form (canonical to the IH post, not the other way around).
- If the IndieHackers post got 5+ comments → reply to each, then
  DM the 2-3 most engaged commenters with a 6-month Pro offer.
- If any Reddit post is still on the front page of the sub at 24h
  → screenshot it for the next cold-email round.
- If nothing broke 50 views → the next soft-launch wave (week 3)
  should be paid. 30 days of organic-only is enough signal to know.