How to promote your product on Reddit without getting banned

Most founders arrive on Reddit with a finished product and a link, and the platform is built to catch exactly that pattern. Communities are run by their own moderators, and a link from an account with no history looks much like an advertisement from a bot.

You can still reach Reddit's audiences. It takes the opposite order of operations from a launch post: contribute first, and let the product come up when it answers a question somebody asked.

What Reddit counts as spam

Reddit defines spam by behavior, not by whether a product is mentioned. Conbersa's summary of the policy says Reddit does not explicitly ban self-promotion, and defines spam as repeated, unwanted or unsolicited actions. The same page says that an account whose only activity is sharing its own links is treated as spam regardless of content quality, so the quality of the product page does not rescue the account. (Conbersa (accessed 2026))

Redship, summarizing Reddit's own Reddiquette guidance, puts the mental model this way: it is fine to be a redditor with a website, and not fine to be a website with a Reddit account. Reddit's own help pages could not be loaded when this article was written, so those two statements are reported as the third-party pages give them. (Redship (accessed 2026))

The 10% guideline, and what it is not

The 10% guideline says that if more than about 10% of your activity is submitting your own material, you are probably a spammer in Reddit's eyes. Redship traces it to the Reddiquette, and Conbersa calls it an unofficial guideline that remains relevant while enforcement varies. It is a useful warning light and not a quota that earns you permission. (Redship (accessed 2026); Conbersa (accessed 2026))

Counting is easy and gaming it is not. Look at your last hundred posts and comments and count how many link to or promote your own product. If the share is high, the answer is to contribute more, not to pad the count with throwaway comments, because the point is a history that shows real participation.

Read each subreddit's rules before you post

Every subreddit writes its own rules, so a post that is welcome in one community can be removed in the next. Redship's guidance is to always read the subreddit rules before posting, and notes that each community keeps its own rules in the sidebar. Conbersa adds that some communities require flair on self-promotional posts or an affiliation disclosure in comments. (Redship (accessed 2026); Conbersa (accessed 2026))

Automated moderation widens the gap between subreddits. Reddifier reports that moderators can filter on user karma, account age, flair and more, so a post can disappear without a message. The cutoffs are set by each community and are rarely published, which means a removal on a new account may say nothing about whether your content was good. (Reddifier (accessed 2026))

Tactics that hold up with moderators

The approach that works is to be useful where you are already allowed to speak, and to mention the product only when it answers the question in front of you. Conbersa advises disclosing your connection whenever you mention your product, and says Reddit punishes perceived deception harshly. Say that you built it in the first sentence, and let the answer carry the comment. (Conbersa (accessed 2026))

• Answer questions in your area for weeks before you mention the product at all.
• Disclose your connection every time, in plain words such as "I'm the founder".
• Use the communities' own formats for projects, such as show-and-tell or feedback threads, where they exist.
• Ask for critique, not clicks. A thread that asks what is wrong with your approach starts a conversation.
• Keep one reply per question. Pasting the same comment into several threads reads as spam.

Sheevook's Community screen supports this habit rather than automating it. It tracks the share of your logged activity that is genuine contribution, warns and never blocks when your next promotional post would push the share past its target, and shows your account's karma and age beside the subreddit's posted rules as a labelled heuristic, not a known threshold.

A shadowban is different from a removal

A shadowban is invisible to the person it happens to, which is what makes it dangerous. Reddifier describes it as a ban where the user is not aware they have been banned, with the account looking normal to its owner. It lists posting too many links too quickly, especially to the same domain, and a new account that posts frequently as classic triggers. (Reddifier (accessed 2026))

To check, log out or open a private window and load your profile page. Reddifier says a page-not-found result suggests a sitewide shadowban, and that r/ShadowBan can confirm. A second source, Auditsocials, describes ordinary moderation as a separate path: a removal, then a warning, then a three-day suspension, then longer ones, ending in permanent suspension. Both are third-party descriptions, so treat the exact steps as likely and not guaranteed. (Reddifier (accessed 2026); Auditsocials (accessed 2026))

Hacker News has stricter, written rules

Hacker News states its rules plainly, and they are tighter than Reddit's. Its guidelines say not to use the site primarily for promotion, to use the original title unless it is misleading or linkbait, and not to solicit upvotes, comments or submissions. Occasional posts of your own work are allowed, and the guidelines say the site's main use should be curiosity. (Hacker News Guidelines (accessed 2026))

Show HN has its own rules. It is for something you have made that other people can play with, which means things people can run or hold, and the project must be something you worked on personally and are around to discuss. Landing pages and fundraisers are not allowed, the project should be easy to try, ideally without signups or emails, and asking friends to upvote or comment is not okay on HN. (Show HN Guidelines (accessed 2026))

A routine to run before every post

Run the same short check each time, because the failures come from skipping it on the day you are in a hurry. The routine below is short enough to run every time.

1. 1

   Read the community's rules and recent posts

   Open the sidebar rules and scan what the moderators have actually left up. Note any flair, disclosure or thread requirements.

2. 2

   Count your own activity

   Check your last hundred posts and comments. If most of them promote you, contribute elsewhere first and post later.

3. 3

   Write the post for the room

   Lead with what you learned or what the reader can use. Put the product after the substance, and say that you made it.

4. 4

   Disclose and link once

   State your connection in the first lines. One link, to the page that helps, with no tracking tricks or shortened addresses meant to hide the destination.

5. 5

   Stay and answer

   Reply to the first comments yourself. A post you leave alone reads as a drive-by, and answering is where the credibility is earned.

6. 6

   Check your profile logged out

   A day later, confirm your post and profile are visible without signing in. If they are not, stop posting and ask the moderators.