r/coldemail: rules, karma requirements and posting culture

Q: How much karma do you need to post in r/coldemail?

The number is not published. AutoModerator filters posts from accounts with too low comment karma and says to message the mod team if the post is legitimate, and they will approve it as they see fit. Comment in existing threads first to build some history.

Q: Can I promote my cold email tool in r/coldemail?

The rules say no. Posts or links promoting a business, website or any commercial interest will be removed unless the mods approve it in advance, and referral links are banned outright. Tool posts do appear and often stay up, but readers are hostile to disguised pitches. If you mention your product, say it is yours and make the post useful without it.

Q: Why was my r/coldemail post removed or not showing?

Most likely a filter, not a moderator. In our sample about 15% of posts were removed by Reddit's own spam filters and about 6% were held by AutoModerator, which filters low comment karma accounts and holds some other posts for review. Moderators removed about 0.5% by hand. If your post is legitimate, message the mod team.

Q: What kind of posts work in r/coldemail?

Text posts with real data. Write-ups of what you learned from sending a large number of emails, cost comparisons of tools you paid for, and honest requests to diagnose a campaign that failed get the most replies. Links, images and video are not part of the format here.

Around 86,000 people who run cold outreach, talking deliverability, lists, copy and tools. Text only, helpful to beginners, and crowded with vendors.

Cold Email · Open on Reddit

Members: 86k
Created: 2016
New posts a day: 42.7
New posts removed: 21%

The short answer

r/coldemail filters posts from accounts with too little comment karma. The number is not published, and no account age rule is stated. Every post is a text post, about 77% stay up, and Reddit's own spam filters take most of the rest. The rules ban links and anything that promotes a business, but tool makers post here constantly and readers are quick to call a pitch a pitch. Bring real numbers from your own campaigns.

Who posts here

Knowledge levelBeginner to intermediate

Plenty of posts come from people on their first campaign asking whether warmup is necessary or why 1,000 emails got no calls, and they get patient, detailed answers. The replies assume you know the basics: SPF, DKIM and DMARC, inboxes per domain, sequencers, reply rate. A very basic question is answered, not mocked, though the rules do ask new people to search first.

Founders and solo operators doing their own outbound for a SaaS or service business.
Lead generation and cold email agency owners, and people who want to work for or start one.
SDRs and growth hires who have been handed outbound and need to set up infrastructure.
First timers a few weeks in, asking for copy reviews and diagnosis.
Tool builders and vendors: sending platforms, warmup, data and inbox providers, some open about it and some not.

Karma and account requirements

What it takes to get a post through in r/coldemail.

Karma	A comment karma minimum exists and the number is not published. AutoModerator filters the post and tells you to message the mods if it is legitimate.Mods' wording: “because this account has too low comment karma”
Account age	Not stated publicly.
Post format	Text only in practice. Every post in our sample was a text post. Flair is not used.
Links	Links that promote a business, site, channel or account are against the rules. The submit page tells you to read the rules twice if your post has a link.Mods' wording: “IF your post includes a link, read the rules again.”
Referral links and surveys	No referral or affiliate codes. Posts that collect data, emails or survey answers can be removed and the poster banned.Mods' wording: “Do not post any referral codes or affiliate links.”
Reposting	Posting the same or a similar thing repeatedly gets removed. New people are asked to search before posting.Mods' wording: “Mods will remove posts they deem to be an excessive repost.”

What AutoModerator says

The moderators' bot leaves these messages on posts. They are the closest thing to an official statement of the thresholds.

Hello there! To avoid spammers, the automoderator has filtered your post on /r/coldemail because this account has too low comment karma. If you have a legitimate post/question, message the mod team and we'll approve it as we see fit.

Your post has been filtered for review. If this is a legitimate post, message the mod team and we'll approve it.

What you can post

Post type	Subreddit setting	Share of recent posts
Text	Allowed	100%
Link	Allowed	0%
Image	Allowed	0%
Video	Allowed	0%
Poll	Allowed	0%

Post flairs in use

Discussion <1%

What happens to a new post

Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.

Stayed up77%
Removed by Reddit's filters15%
Held by AutoModerator6%
Removed by moderators<1%
Deleted by the author2%

Reddit counts a removal by the subreddit's own AutoModerator rules as a moderator removal, so that share is not all human. Held by AutoModerator means the post is waiting in the mod queue.

What happened when we posted here

We have posted here ourselves. This is how our own posts and comments fared.

Stayed up: 100%
Removed by Reddit's filters: 0%
Removed by moderators: 0%
Period: September 2025 to May 2026

The rules, in the mods' words

1
No Links or Spam
Posts or links promoting businesses, websites, events, people, blogs, youtube channels, social media accounts or any commercial interests will be removed. The exceptions may include local events open to the public, charities, holiday events, community building events. These are examples of posts that MAY be allowed at the discretion of the mods, message the mods to get approval before posting. OPs prior activities in the sub will be considered.
2
Stay on the topic of cold email, email marketing, or related types of cold outreach and sales.
Please keep posts and comments on topic. This includes cold email, email marketing, cold outreach that begins with email marketing and other forms of cold selling that are closely related to cold email marketing.
3
No reposting the same topic (spamming your posts)
Mods will remove posts they deem to be an excessive repost. We welcome everyone to create a new post, but please use the search bar, especially if you're new. This rule is mainly to combat people who repost that exact same or similar thing multiple times to try and get attention.
4
No links that contain referral/affilate codes, tracking, surveys, contests, etc
Do not post any referral codes or affiliate links. Posts collecting data such as surveys, collecting email addresses, or other info will be removed and users may be banned. Contests or other events that might be beneficial to the community MUST be cleared with mods before being posted.
5
No harassment, racism, sexism, name-calling, or bigotry.
This rule is straightforward: Absolutely no harassment, racism, sexism or any other bigotry allowed. Disagreements, arguments, gripes and concerns can all be accomplished without direct attacks on our users.
6
NO posting of personal info / doxxing.
Do not post personal or personally identifying info. This includes photo, license plates or any phone numbers, email addresses, home/business addresses, or other personal identification, whois info, etc.

These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.

The culture

r/coldemail is a practical room about one channel: sending email to people who did not ask for it and getting replies. It runs at about 43 posts a day, all text, with a typical post around 120 words. A third of titles are questions.

Two kinds of post make up most of it. The first is the question from someone stuck: replies dried up after two days, which infrastructure provider to pick, whether an opt-out line hurts deliverability. The second is the playbook: someone who sent a large number of emails writes up what they learned, with reply rates, costs and the sequence they used. The playbooks are what rise to the top.

The fault line is trust. The subreddit is full of people who sell cold email tools, and many comments recommend a product by name in a way that reads like marketing. Regulars notice. Recent well-received posts include one exposing a ring of accounts pushing a single data vendor and one warning that the subreddit is being poisoned, and commenters now mock the standard story of paying too much for a tool and building a cheaper one. A second, quieter argument runs under everything: volume against targeting, and whether the list matters more than the copy.

What lands

A numbers-first playbook from your own sending: how many emails, what reply rate, what you changed, what it cost.
A cost or tool comparison from someone who paid for all of them, such as a breakdown of every infrastructure provider a team uses.
An honest failure with the details, like a thousand emails and zero calls, asking what went wrong. These get dozens of replies.
A beginner posting their full setup and asking if it is right.
Calling out spam and fake recommendations. Posts that protect the room from astroturfing do well.

What gets removed or ignored

Posts from accounts with too little comment karma. AutoModerator filters them and asks you to message the mods.
Posts or links promoting a business, website, blog, channel or social account, which the rules say will be removed.
Referral and affiliate links, surveys, and posts that collect email addresses or other data.
Reposts of the same topic to get attention.
Moderators remove very little by hand, about 0.5% of our sample. Most of the 21% that disappears is taken by Reddit's filters (about 15%) or held by AutoModerator (about 6%).

The unwritten rules

Put the numbers in the post: volume, inboxes, domains, reply rate, niche, tool stack. Vague posts get vague answers or a product plug.
If you built the thing you are mentioning, say so. Hidden affiliation is the fastest way to get piled on.
A neat story that ends with your product is a recognised template now. People will say it looks AI written.
Comments are longer than on most subreddits, about 32 words, and roughly 9% carry a link. Weigh tool recommendations in replies accordingly, and expect yours to be weighed the same way.
Do not post your email address or anyone else's contact details. There is a rule against personal information.

Self-promotion

The rule is strict on paper: posts or links promoting businesses, websites, blogs, channels or any commercial interest will be removed, with exceptions only by asking the mods first, and your past activity in the subreddit is taken into account. In practice a lot gets through. Our sample has founders asking for beta testers, tool launch stories and product walkthroughs sitting in the feed, and moderators removed almost nothing by hand. What stops promotion here is the audience. A post that teaches something with real numbers and names its author's product once is tolerated. A pitch gets sarcastic replies and no clicks.

How people write here

Typical post length: 118 words
Typical title length: 10 words
Titles phrased as a question: 34%
Typical comment length: 32 words
Comments that include a link: 9%
Posts that carry a flair: 0%

When people post

0:00 UTC, 6
1:00 UTC, 6
2:00 UTC, 7
3:00 UTC, 8
4:00 UTC, 12
5:00 UTC, 15
6:00 UTC, 14
7:00 UTC, 17
8:00 UTC, 26
9:00 UTC, 12
10:00 UTC, 26
11:00 UTC, 20
12:00 UTC, 27
13:00 UTC, 25
14:00 UTC, 15
15:00 UTC, 20
16:00 UTC, 19
17:00 UTC, 20
18:00 UTC, 26
19:00 UTC, 19
20:00 UTC, 24
21:00 UTC, 16
22:00 UTC, 11
23:00 UTC, 9

New posts by hour of day, UTC.

The regulars

The accounts that showed up most in our sample. Worth reading before you post: they set the tone, and they are usually the first to reply.

Most active posters

u/Mundane-Ebb-73313 posts
u/Murky_Explanation_737 posts
u/buildingwithashrith6 posts
u/Ok_Job78935 posts
u/dikshant_gajera4 posts

Most active commenters

u/jtxcode19 comments
u/dikshant_gajera13 comments
u/Ollie_17511 comments
u/SchniederDanes10 comments
u/LeftLeads6 comments

Top keywords

The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/coldemail.

cold 166 posts
email 194 posts
cold email 112 posts
emails 128 posts
sending 82 posts
outreach 71 posts
deliverability 41 posts
inboxes 43 posts
reply 65 posts
reply rate 33 posts
send 73 posts
campaigns 49 posts
warmup 28 posts
replies 47 posts
inbox 43 posts
leads 56 posts
cold emails 32 posts
domains 44 posts
domain 48 posts
instantly 39 posts
campaign 45 posts
outbound 43 posts
apollo 30 posts
copy 44 posts
lead 52 posts
smartlead 20 posts
spam 34 posts
list 53 posts
volume 41 posts
rate 49 posts
dmarc 19 posts
prospects 27 posts
linkedin 39 posts
agency 40 posts
google 55 posts
bounce 23 posts
scale 36 posts
gmail 21 posts
emailing 20 posts
saas 41 posts

Recurring topics: ai, email, cold email, cold, outreach, emails, looking for, reply rate, tools.

Posts that did well

0 clients to 9 in 90 days using nothing but cold outbound40 upvotes · 23 comments
I've been running cold email for a B2B SaaS for a year. Here's the 5-step email sequence that built $600K in pipeline.40 upvotes · 40 comments
these cold email templates get me way more replies than anything else36 upvotes · 20 comments
How I went from sending 50 desperate cold emails a day to landing high-ticket clients in 4 hours a week (No ad spend, no bullshit)34 upvotes · 8 comments
sent 124,000 emails in the last 3 months. here's everything I wish I new starting out34 upvotes · 36 comments
Cost breakdown of every Email Infrastructure Provider we use34 upvotes · 46 comments
A cold email to an agency founder in Brazil turned into a $2K/month, 200-seat white-label deal in under 3 days.31 upvotes · 29 comments
What actually makes someone reply to a cold email - from someone who has been on both sides28 upvotes · 27 comments

r/ColdEmailMasters
r/Coldemailing
r/b2b_sales
r/b2bmarketing
r/MarketingAutomation
r/salestechniques
r/emailmarketingnow
r/LeadGeneration
r/GrowthHacking
r/AskMarketing

Common questions

How much karma do you need to post in r/coldemail?