Farming Reddit Accounts for Affiliate Marketing

Reddit, like any other (almost) free traffic source, is constantly improving its anti-fraud systems and tightening the screws on affiliates. If previously you could buy a warmed-up aged account and immediately post 50 messages a day, now such an approach will most likely lead to a quick ban.

In this article, we’ll share recommendations on how to properly start working with Reddit to minimize the risk of a ban: correct profile setup in an anti-detect browser, account warming, and explanations of what reCAPTCHA v3 and CQS (the profile rating system) are.

How the Profile Rating System Works

Not long ago, Reddit introduced the Contributor Quality Score (CQS) — a profile rating system. It was implemented to detect spammers and users who don’t contribute any value to communities with their messages. It helps subreddit moderators understand what category a new user belongs to.

Each user is assigned a specific rating. There are five levels:

• Highest
• High
• Moderate
• Low
• Lowest

CQS allows subreddit moderators to automatically filter out users whose rating doesn’t meet their standards. For example, they can remove comments and posts from users with the lowest ratings — Low and Lowest — in one click.

Experienced Reddit users agree that a profile should have a rating of at least Moderate.

How to Check a Profile’s CQS

Checking your profile’s rating is fairly simple. You just need to follow a few steps:

1. Go to a subreddit designed to check CQS.
2. Create a post with the word “Test” and publish it.
3. Refresh the page and filter posts by “new.” You’ll see your profile’s current rating under your post.

Tips from Redditologists: How to Quickly Raise Your CQS to Moderate

Let’s go over a few simple steps that can help you raise your account rating within a few days:

1. You need to understand that any post in a subreddit can both increase and sharply lower your profile’s CQS. The latter is much more likely, so during the period when you’re trying to increase your rating, it’s better to avoid posting.
2. Reply to other users’ comments. Your goal is not just to respond with a couple of words, but to write a detailed, on-topic comment of several sentences — you need users to upvote them.
3. Increase behavioral metrics — browse subreddits on various topics, subscribe to them, visit other users’ profiles.

If you notice your account’s rating has suddenly dropped, it’s better to stretch the recovery process over several days. Let’s look at this with a concrete example:

• Each day, go to the recommendation feed and subscribe to at least 2–5 subreddits;
• Look for posts that have gained 100+ upvotes within a few hours;
• Choose comments from the top of the thread — the logic is that the higher the comment, the more likely other users will see and upvote it. This positively affects your account’s rating;
• Post about 5–10 detailed comments per day. If you manage to get 20–30 upvotes in total, there’s a high probability your profile will be pushed higher in the rating.

Overall, these actions take no more than 30 minutes per day. If repeated for several days, the account will likely receive a decent rating boost.

What Is reCAPTCHA v3 and How It Works on Reddit

Reddit actively collaborates with Google and quickly implements new technologies to improve its anti-fraud system — identifying spammers, multi-accounting, and bots.

One such technology is the use of reCAPTCHA v3. It helps the platform quickly detect and block accounts with suspicious activity.

This technology helps distinguish real users from bots and spammers in real-time. Reddit has integrated it into every page load on its platform. This system:

• Analyzes all your actions: Each time you visit a page within the platform, Reddit sends all data to Google via an operation called CreateCaptchaToken;
• Detects bots constantly: Unlike the old CAPTCHA that required solving puzzles, reCAPTCHA v3 operates invisibly. It sends a report about your every action directly to Google, which then automatically determines the trust score of your profile;

How to Increase Your Account’s Trust Score

To reduce the risk of getting banned, you should follow specific rules when operating an account:

• Don’t log in to Reddit from completely clean profiles. Even if you purchased an account with cookies, it’s best to visit several popular websites beforehand and build up behavioral history — YouTube, Twitch, Threads, etc.
• Visit external websites before accessing Reddit every now and then.

According to experienced Reddit users, your reCAPTCHA rating should be at least 0.7 — you can check it on this website.

Account Preparation

In this section, I’ll give recommendations on how to properly prepare your accounts so they last as long as possible:

• Proxies: It’s best to use mobile proxies because they are more resistant to blacklists. Mobile IPs are shared by millions of users, so most websites don’t block them right away.
• Anti-detect browser: It doesn’t matter which one you use — Linken Sphere or AdsPower — just keep it updated. Each update is released for a reason, their main goal is to fix vulnerabilities and improve security.

Best Anti-Detect Browser Setup for Reddit

Let’s go over how to properly configure your browser using AdsPower before logging into Reddit:

1. Set the browser core to SunPower;
2. The profile system should match your native OS;
3. Use the latest version User-Agent;
4. If you purchased an account with cookies, don’t forget to load them — this will immediately boost your reCAPTCHA v3 score.

System Fingerprint Configuration:

• WebRTC – disable
• Canvas – enable noise
• WebGL – also enable noise
• Click “New fingerprint”

You can see an example of a correct configuration in the screenshot below.

Profile Anonymity Leak Check

Experienced affiliates strongly recommend making it a habit to check each profile in your anti-detect browser daily before logging into Reddit. As mentioned earlier, Reddit has significantly improved its anti-fraud systems in recent months and now closely monitors these aspects.

If the algorithm detects that you’re using anonymization tools, your accounts will most likely be shadowbanned.

You can check this here. The result should look like the one in the screenshot below.

DNS leak is also a common reason why accounts end up shadowbanned. You can check this directly on Reddit — link.

Warming Up Anti-Detect Browser Profiles

Never log into accounts using clean profiles — as mentioned earlier, Reddit uses the reCAPTCHA v3 system, which will instantly recognize you as a spammer. Let’s go over the steps that will immediately help increase your reCAPTCHA v3 score.

Visit Google, Twitch, YouTube, and Threads. Scroll through each platform for several minutes, accept cookies, bookmark sites, and watch content. Try to mimic the behavior of a regular user as closely as possible. Occasionally vary your activity pattern so it doesn’t look like automated behavior. This warm-up stage should last at least 2–3 days.

Warming Up the Account

Once all the steps are complete, it’s time for the most important phase — warming up the account. This applies to both karma accounts and zero activity aged accounts.

Day 1: Log in and build up Reddit cookies — browse subreddits, posts, and profiles. Don’t upvote anything on the first day. Spend about 15–20 minutes and then let the account rest for a day.
Day 2: Check Pixelscan and BrowserScore. Do the same actions as on Day 1, but now add 1–2 upvotes to random posts.

Each day during warm-up, perform all the previously described steps. From here on, we’ll list only the new steps added on top of the previous ones.

Day 3: Leave 1–2 comments after scrolling Reddit for 10 minutes. Wait 5 minutes between comments. Ideally, comment on posts in NSFW subreddits to prepare the account for nudity content.
Day 4: Subscribe to 2–3 subreddits where you plan to publish posts later.
Day 5: Increase the number of comments to 4–6 — this helps improve the account’s CQS.
Day 6: Add a bio (profile description).
Important: Perform the new actions in addition to the previous steps.
Day 7: Publish one post in a small NSFW subreddit with light moderation, which you’ve already joined earlier. A few hours later, return to Reddit and post in a completely unrelated subreddit.
Day 8–10: Repeat all actions from the beginning.
Day 11: You can now post twice in NSFW subreddits, with a 10-minute interval between them.

Quick Checklist

As you gradually increase the number of NSFW posts, make sure to follow these steps:

• Ensure browser profile security
• Scroll through Reddit feeds
• Comment on others’ posts
• Publish in non-NSFW subreddits
• Make a few upvotes per day

The main goal of warming up is not to get traffic but to build a posting history. Once you have more than 50 posts, your account will gain high trust in Reddit’s eyes. This will allow you to stop daily behavioral farming and begin full-scale traffic campaigns.

Conclusion

Reddit has seriously tightened the screws on affiliates in recent months — introducing CQS and reCAPTCHA v3, both of which we’ve covered in this article. But there’s a silver lining — the better the anti-fraud, the fewer competitors left on the platform.

We’ve shared insights from top affiliates who’ve been working with Reddit for a long time and know how to adapt to these rapid changes. If you apply them in practice, your profit won’t be long in coming.