Look out Klout, Reddit adds partner perks for Reddit Gold subscribers

Reddit is well on its way to becoming the Costco of community news sharing sites — minus the requirement of membership, of course.

Yes, I realize how crazy that might sound, but consider that both companies treat their employees well, offer you great products without much hassle, and now Reddit has even partnered up with others across the web to make your premium subscription membership more valuable.

Today, the company announced that it’s Reddit Gold subscribers will now have additional perks when they buy things from a select number of online merchants and services. The first of these deals emerged last month when it began offering three months of free service from online backup service Backblaze. I also recall Reddit’s general manager Erik Martin hinting that the company has wanted to do something like this for a while now. The move is sort of like what Klout is doing with its Klout Perks feature, except Reddit has already qualified everyone who uses the site as a premium member.

Previously, Reddit Gold membership (which is $4 per month or $30 per year) allowed users to access beta features on the site before they launched to everyone, such as the most recent Gold feature multireddits, (as VentureBeat reported on back in May). But beyond that, Gold memberships were a way for diehard Reddit users to provide the company with more money to keep the site going while it figured out how to monetize itself better. And since Reddit Gold is part of that monetization strategy, it makes sense that we’d see it improve through partnerships.

“The response [to Backblaze] was so impactful that we’ve been steadily hearing from more and more companies who want to give gold members new perks,” wrote Reddit community manager David A. Croach (aka Dac/Dacvak) in a blog post. “We’ve handpicked the best ones, and we’re looking for feedback on what you think.”

Here’s a list of the perks Reddit Gold Members are now getting (via Reddit’s blog):

• Backblaze – 3 months of unlimited backup and cloud storage from our World Backup Day buddies.
• Urbilis – $10 off any $50+ purchase. Elegant gardening solutions, and some radical obscure stuff, too.
• Empire Mayo – 15% off all purchases. This is mayonnaise fit for the royalty of reddit gold. Seriously, who doesn’t want a BBLT?
• Goldbely – $20 off any $50+ purchase. Goldbely is all about sending legendary local gourmet food straight to your door. They will literally ship you edible, gold-plated bacon.
• Uniqlo – We’re trying something interesting for this one. Once a week, a randomly-selected reddit gold member will receive a private message (so keep an eye on your reddit mailbox) in the form of a “Golden Tikkit”. (See what we did there?) That user will have 24 hours to claim their prize, which will always be something really cool and totally free. This week, Uniqlo is offering a small token of their appreciation to one lucky goldie, but we won’t know what it is until they get it! (Hopefully they’ll post it to /r/goldbenefits!)

Illustration by Tom Cheredar