Originally Posted by CS3D

Because I can see the huge amount of work they do. All the content. All the crossposts. Amazing work.

And if you use the OPs logic.. he made $42 over 6 months for 42,000 page views (7k x 6months) you can easily see how a real subreddit can generate income/traffic.

And as far as growth goes.. they do grow organically. The OP claims he doesnt have to post in his 16k subreddit - but there cant be much user added content or it would have more traffic.

This is my largest subreddit: https://prnt.sc/2230av2 Gets between 8-10 user posts a day. No need to do a thing. Pin 2 messages with my links to the top. Put banners on the side. Add menu links. And it just generates traffic and adds 10k users a month. https://prnt.sc/2230j26

A busy subreddit is a great source of traffic.

Edit: And those Screen shots are Page Views/Uniques/New Members