To grow on Reddit within the rules, treat every subreddit as a community first. Read its rules, complete any verification it requires, post mostly content that stands on its own, keep self promotion to a small share of your activity, and never spam the same link across subreddits. Route interested viewers to a compliant link in bio, not to a paid page.
How Reddit views promotion
Reddit is a community first and a marketing channel a distant second. Its content policy treats spam, defined as repeated unwanted or unsolicited self serving activity, as a removable offense, and the platform actively detects coordinated promotion. The old 90 to 10 guideline, post nine times for others for every one time for yourself, is no longer an official rule, but many moderators still use a similar ratio in their heads. The practical takeaway is unchanged: if your only activity is dropping your own links, you read as spam.
If your participation adds value to the community, promotion is welcome. If it only serves you, it is spam.
- Lead with content that stands on its own, even if a viewer never clicks your profile
- Keep self promotion a small share of your total activity in any community
- Post original content to each subreddit, not the same link copied everywhere
- Engage in comments as a real member, not only when you are dropping a post
- Route interested viewers to your link in bio, never to a paid or explicit page directly
Pick the right subreddits
Reach in the wrong room is worthless. Find subreddits where your audience already gathers and where promotion is explicitly allowed, since many communities ban it outright. Read the rules before you post, not after a removal. Smaller, active, on topic subreddits usually convert better than large general ones, where your post vanishes in minutes.
- Read the rules in the sidebar and the pinned posts before your first post
- Confirm whether the subreddit allows promotion at all, and on which days
- Complete any verification the subreddit requires before posting
- Check whether links in posts or only in comments are allowed
- Look at what already performs there, and match the format
Verify properly
Many creator friendly subreddits require verification before you can post, to confirm you are the person in your content. Follow each subreddit posted process exactly, since requirements differ. Verification is a trust signal that protects you and the community, and skipping it is the fastest way to get your posts removed or your account flagged.
The posting ratio
You do not need to count posts to a strict formula, but the spirit of the old ratio still holds: most of your activity should be genuine participation, and only a small part should point at your own work. Comment as a real member, upvote, answer questions, and post content that earns attention on its own. When you do promote, make it one good post in a community you actually take part in.
What gets you banned
The fast ways to lose your account: posting the same link across many subreddits, promoting where it is not allowed, ignoring verification, and doing nothing but dropping links. Reddit runs site wide spam filters and can shadowban, where your posts are hidden without telling you. If your posts stop getting any engagement, open them while logged out to check whether you have been shadowbanned, and ease off promotion if so.
A weekly cadence that works
Pick three to five subreddits, learn each one well, and show up consistently. A workable week looks like several genuine comments and one or two original posts per community, with promotion clearly in the minority. Tie it together with a clean link in bio that converts so the traffic you earn actually lands somewhere useful.
- Community first. Pure promotion reads as spam and gets removed or shadowbanned.
- Read each subreddit rules and complete verification before you post.
- Keep self promotion a small share of genuine activity, and post original content, not copied links.
- Send traffic to a compliant link in bio, never to a paid or explicit page directly.
More in this path: the Growth and Marketing hub, how to grow a creator audience from zero, and social media funnels for creators explained.