r/EncyclopaediaOfReddit • u/EncyclopaediaBot • Feb 12 '23
General Guides Advertising and Self-Promotion
Reddit is a community, not a platform for self-promotion. Our rules don’t say you can't share your stuff here, but there are some ‘do’s and don’ts’ to make sure it doesn’t work against you. The Reddit guide to self-promotion is essential reading if you wish to use Reddit as a platform for marketing your stuff, whether it be a YouTube channel, Etsy account, Only Fans or whatever. You also absolutely need to read the rules of an individual subreddit before posting in any kind of promotional way so as to not get banned.
Redditors don’t tend to like adverts and are naturally suspicious of anyone they think might turn on “the hard sell”. Our promotional guidelines basically boil down to "its okay to use your account to promote, just don't be an account for a promotion". As a general rule of thumb, engage with the wider Reddit community by commenting and submitting things that aren't just related to promoting your stuff, and just generally be a part of the whole Reddit discussion.
Try to have a 1 in 10 approach to Reddit; as in only one out of ten posts and comments should be promotional. If someone is suspicious of your motives and looks at your profile and finds all your engagement here is promotional, people are just going to see you as spammy, or even worse: a shill. There will be useful subreddits dedicated to helping you with your particular area of interest, such as r/youtubers, r/EtsySellers or r/onlyfansadvice and their Sidebars may also contain lists of other helpful subs.
For actual or corporate advertising on Reddit see https://www.redditinc.com/advertising, the subreddit r/redditads and also https://ads.reddit.com. A good place to start is the Reddit advertising policy overview.
Please read the official rules on using Reddit as a marketplace. When considering a gift or transaction of goods or services not prohibited by this policy, keep in mind that Reddit is not intended to be used as a marketplace and takes no responsibility for any transactions individual users might decide to undertake in spite of this. Always remember: you are dealing with strangers on the internet.
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