Keep about 90 percent of what you do on Reddit as real help and no more than 10 percent about your own product, and put in weeks of help before the first mention. By the end you will have a ratio counter, a 3-week plan, a rule for every type of thread and a script for when a post gets removed.
Count your last 20 items before you post anything
The most quoted rule is 90/10: about 90 percent of your activity is genuine participation and no more than about 10 percent mentions your own product or content. The way it gets enforced is simple. Moderators routinely open your profile before they decide to remove a comment, and a history made of product links gets flagged fast.
So make the rule countable. Before every post or comment that could mention your product, do this:
- Open your profile and count your last 20 posts and comments.
- Count how many mention your product or link to it.
- If it is 2 or fewer, you are inside the line. If it is 3 or more, mention nothing until it drops under 10 percent.
Example: say you open a new account and want to mention your app on day one. Your ratio is 100 percent promotion, so the answer is no. To get to one mention you need roughly 18 helpful comments sitting in your history first (18 helpful to 2 mentions is 90/10). That is a method I would test and adjust, not a law.
Treat 10 percent as a ceiling, not a target. Some subreddits enforce something closer to 99/1, where any hint of self-promotion in your history gets a comment removed. In those, your number is zero.
Spend the first 2 to 3 weeks only answering questions
The advice across the top guides is the same: this takes weeks, not days. Here is a schedule that fits around a day job. It uses a 20-minute daily box, the same idea as in the schedule for shipping side projects while working full time.
| When | What you do | Product mentions |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Pick 3 subreddits where your buyer already asks questions. Add one built for founders to share their work. Copy each sub's self-promotion and link rule into a note. | None |
| Week 1 | 20 minutes a day. Answer questions only. | None |
| Week 2 | Same. Start noticing which threads ask for a tool. | None |
| Week 3 | Same. Count your last 20 items every time. | At most 1 or 2, only where a thread asked and the rules allow it |
For the founder-friendly sub, r/SideProject and r/IndieBiz are named as places built for founders to show what they are building, and r/startups allows promotional posts within specific guidelines and has weekly threads for product sharing. Read the current rules in each before you post. They change and each sub sets its own.
Decide by thread type, not by mood
This is the part most guides skip. Use the table every time you are about to type your product name.
| What you see | What you do |
|---|---|
| The thread asks for a tool like yours and the sub allows mentions | Answer the question first. Name your product once. Add a one-line disclosure. |
| The thread did not ask | Answer without the product, even if it fits. Or skip it. |
| There is a weekly self-promo thread or a "share what you built" sub | Post there, not in general threads. |
| You have no history in that sub | No mention at all. Help for a few weeks first. |
| The sub is strict about self-promotion | Never mention it. Join the discussion only. |
| You cannot tell what the sub allows | Read the rules page. Message the mods before you post. Do not guess. |
One more habit. If you do share a link, put it in a follow-up comment rather than the title or the opening post. Where links in comments are discouraged, just name the product and let people find it from your profile.
Run a 5-minute check before every post
Tick these off before you hit submit:
- I read the sub's rules and found the line on self-promotion and links.
- I checked the sub's wiki, if it has one, for "promotion".
- I read the last 10 threads that mention a tool and noted which ones stayed up.
- My last 20 items include 2 or fewer mentions of my product.
- My comment answers the question without the product. The product comes last, and only if the thread asked.
- If the product is mine, I said so.
The steps come from the rules in Redship's guide to Reddit self-promotion and this self-promotion framework. The 5-minute box and the order are mine, so adjust them after a few weeks of running them.
Disclose in one line, with no pitch
The guidance is to use Reddit primarily as a redditor and to disclose your affiliation when you talk about something you are connected to. It also gives you the line to remember: it is fine to be a redditor with a website, it is not fine to be a website with a Reddit account.
Use this wording and stop:
Disclosure: I built this, so weigh my view accordingly.
No adjectives, no discount, no "check it out". If the sentence before it does not answer the question, the disclosure will not save the comment.
If a post is removed, stop and find the rule
Do not repost it. Do not argue in the thread. Re-read the sub's rules, find the rule that applies, then decide whether to message the mods.
Keep a three-column note: sub, date, the rule you broke or think you broke. After two removals in the same sub, stop posting there. If you run several products, put the log in the same place as the rest of your weekly checks, like the one in how I run a portfolio of small apps with a team of AI agents.
Then work out which kind of problem you have, because the fix is different:
| Problem | Who decided | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Banned from one subreddit | That sub's moderators | Reply to the ban notice by modmail |
| Platform suspension, or your posts and profile vanish for others with no notice | Reddit itself | Log in on a browser, open Reddit's appeals page and submit the form |
A quick test for the second case: open your profile in a private window while signed out. If your recent comments are missing, treat it as a flag, stop posting and appeal. That test is a method to try, not a guarantee.
For the modmail, appeals that take responsibility and reference the specific rule have the highest success rate. Keep it to about four sentences:
Hi mods. My post [title] was removed. I read rule [number or name] and I see that my post broke it, because [one plain reason]. I should have checked the rules first. I will only [answer questions / use the weekly thread] from now on. Thank you for your time.
Calm, short, no excuses, and no word about how good your product is.
Skip the shortcuts that turn a sub ban into a Reddit problem
A founder on Indie Hackers describes getting 4 accounts banned before working out the pattern. Starting a second account after a ban is the move to avoid. Reddit's Content Policy asks you to post authentic content into communities where you have a personal interest and not cheat or engage in content manipulation, including spamming, vote manipulation, ban evasion or subscriber fraud. A new account to get around a ban and friends upvoting your post both sit on that list.
The other common way to get flagged is posting repeated links to your own blog, product or service without taking part in the discussion. That is a common reason for removal. Your 20-item count is the cheap way to catch it before a moderator does.
Do this in the next 10 minutes
- Open your Reddit profile and count your last 20 items.
- Pick 3 subreddits where your buyer asks questions.
- Copy each sub's self-promotion and link rule into one note.
- Set a daily 20-minute reminder and write today's date as day 1 of the 3-week plan.
Then answer one question, with no product in it.
Want a hand automating the boring parts?
I run a few small apps alone with a team of AI agents and write down what works so you can copy it. If there is a manual task you keep doing by hand, email me and tell me what it is.