The sitewide spirit
Reddit’s content policy and its self-promotion guidance boil down to one idea: contribute far more than you promote, and be transparent when you do. The platform rewards users who participate genuinely and penalises those who use it as a megaphone. There is no exact legal threshold, but the 90/10 ratio is the community’s accepted shorthand.
Always disclose affiliation
When you mention your own product, say it is yours the first time. Undisclosed promotion — pretending to be a neutral happy customer — is one of the fastest ways to get called out, downvoted, and reported. Disclosure costs you nothing and earns trust; concealment is the actual violation.
Subreddit rules override everything
A subreddit can forbid promotion entirely, confine it to a weekly thread, or allow it freely. Those local rules always win. Posting a link in a normal thread of a sub that only allows promotion in its weekly thread will be removed even if your 90/10 ratio is perfect. Read the sidebar before every promotional post.
What is never allowed
Some things are off-limits everywhere: vote manipulation, multiple accounts to push the same content, buying upvotes, and unsolicited promotional DMs. These are sitewide violations that lead to suspensions, not just removals — and no tool that does them on your behalf is safe to use.