r/automation Self-Promotion Rules & Posting Guide
r/automation is where people share workflows, scripts, and tools across Zapier, Make, n8n, and home automation. The mods are strict about self-promotion — share your tool the wrong way and it's removed. Here's what's actually allowed before you post.
How to Share Your Automation Tool Safely in r/automation
Read the self-promotion rule first
Check r/automation's sidebar and wiki for its current self-promotion policy. Like most of Reddit, it leans on the 9:1 guideline — the vast majority of your activity should be helping others, not promoting your own tool.
Lead with the workflow, not the link
Posts that teach a useful automation — the steps, the trigger, the gotchas — are welcome even if you built the tool. Posts that exist to drive clicks to your product are not. Make the value standalone and disclose that it's yours.
Verify with the risk checker
Run your draft through the promotion risk checker to catch affiliate links, link-only patterns, and phrasing that commonly triggers removal in automation communities.
Key Self-Promotion Rules for r/automation
Follow the 9:1 self-promotion ratio
Reddit's site-wide guideline applies here: for every post about your own tool, you should have roughly nine genuine, non-promotional contributions. Accounts that only show up to promote get filtered fast.
Disclose that the tool is yours
If you built or work on the automation you're sharing, say so up front. Undisclosed self-promotion reads as astroturfing and is a fast path to removal and a ban.
No affiliate or referral links
Links that pay you per signup or per click are treated as spam in most automation subreddits. Link to a clean, non-affiliate URL — or to the workflow itself — instead.
No link-only or low-effort posts
Dropping a link to your product, blog, or YouTube video without a substantive write-up is removed. The post body has to stand on its own as useful.
Posts must be about automation
Content needs to be genuinely on-topic — Zapier/Make/n8n builds, scripts, RPA, home automation, and the like. Generic marketing or off-topic SaaS pitches don't belong.
No surveys or 'validate my idea' spam without approval
Market-research surveys and idea-validation posts generally need moderator approval. Repeated low-effort 'would you use this?' posts are treated as spam.
Your overall account history matters
Mods look at your whole Reddit footprint, not just one post. An account that posts the same tool across many subreddits will be flagged even if a single post looks fine.
Common Reasons Posts Get Removed
Common Self-Promotion Mistakes in r/automation
Leading with the product link
Even relevant tools get removed when the post is built around a link. Teach the automation in the body and mention your tool once, with disclosure, at the end.
Using an affiliate or UTM-stuffed URL
Tracking and referral links signal a marketing motive and trip spam filters. Use a plain link, or skip the link and describe the setup.
Cross-posting the same pitch everywhere
Blasting one tool across every automation subreddit in a short window is the single fastest way to get shadowbanned. Space it out and tailor each post.
Skipping the disclosure
Pretending you 'found' a tool you actually built erodes trust the moment someone checks your history — and mods do check.
Frequently Asked Questions
Promote in r/automation Without Getting Removed
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