Affiliate marketing on Reddit without getting banned

Reddit doesn't ban affiliate links sitewide. Many subreddits do, by name.

r/Frugal, r/personalfinance and r/sidehustle all list affiliate or referral links in their published rules. In r/sidehustle, the same rule says posting ads gets you a permanent ban.

Here is what Reddit's rules and real subreddit rules say, why the links get removed, and where affiliate marketing on Reddit can still work, in 4 parts, with 3 things you can copy.

Save this. Read it before you paste your next link.

Short answer

Reddit's own rules allow links to things you earn from, but treat repeated or mass posting for money as spam, and ban disguised links. Subreddits go further: many ban affiliate and referral links outright, and some allow them only with disclosure. New accounts get removed fastest. To do affiliate marketing on Reddit without getting banned, take part first, link only where the rules allow, disclose every time, and keep links rare.

Key takeaways

• Reddit's spam policy counts mass posting for financial gain and link-masking as spam.
• Many subreddits ban affiliate and referral links by name. Some ban the poster permanently.
• A few rooms allow affiliate links in posts with full disclosure, and still remove them from comments.
• Links from new or low-karma accounts are the first thing filters and mods remove.
• The safest affiliate comment is the one that helps without a link.

1. Does Reddit allow affiliate links?

Sitewide, Reddit doesn't ban them, but it watches how you use them. Its spam policy covers mass-posting repetitive content for exposure or money and link-masking. If most of what you post is links to something you earn from, Reddit asks you to post less often or buy its ads. Each subreddit then sets its own rules, and many are much stricter.

Reddit's spam page says it plainly. People whose contributions are mostly links to a business they run, own or benefit from should be thoughtful about how often they post, or consider Reddit's self-serve ads. It also says community mods decide what counts as spam in their own rooms.

Reddit's guide for moderators on spam adds the other side. Promotional content isn't spam by default, some communities ban it entirely, and others follow the 10% rule: no more than a tenth of your history in that community should be self-promotion.

And Reddit's AutoModerator page lists removing links to sites that don't fit the community, "such as affiliate links", as one of the things the bot is for.

So affiliate links are allowed on Reddit the way a sales pitch is allowed at a dinner party. Nobody throws you out for one. You just don't get invited back.

What gets you invited back is an account with a real history before any link. Rankhog warms up accounts you own, slowly, in your own browser.

2. What do subreddit rules say about affiliate links?

The money and shopping subreddits are the strictest, because referral spam is what they fight most. Some ban affiliate and referral links outright and ban the poster for good. Others allow affiliate links in posts with full disclosure and remove them from comments. Always read the rules of the exact subreddit, because two rooms on the same topic can disagree.

Here is what six subreddits' published rules said when Rankhog last checked them. Copy the table and add the rooms you care about.

Each guide links the subreddit's public rules, so you can check the current wording yourself. Rules change, and mods enforce the version on Reddit, not the one in my table.

Two patterns stand out. Comments are the strictest place for affiliate links, even in rooms that allow them in posts. And the rooms where people talk about affiliate marketing, like r/juststart, are for learning the trade, not for promoting your own site.

If affiliate rules are only one of the things you need to check, the Reddit rules that get marketers banned covers the rest.

3. Why do affiliate links from new accounts get removed?

Because every filter that catches spam leans on the same signals: a new account, little karma, a link, and a domain the mods don't trust. AutoModerator can check account age, karma, karma in that subreddit and the domain of a link before anyone reads your post. Reddit also rate limits new accounts with little karma. A fresh account with an affiliate link trips all of them.

AutoModerator runs the subreddit's own rules the moment you post. It can remove a post for an account under the age or karma minimum, for a link to a listed domain, or for words in the title or body. Why AutoModerator removed your Reddit post explains how to tell which one caught you.

Mods are the second filter. When you post in a subreddit, its mods can see your full history for 28 days, according to Reddit's profile settings page. An account whose history is a string of links to the same store reads like a store.

The fix is the same one that works for any account. Comment in small subreddits, earn some karma, and let the history show a person before any link appears.

4. How do you do affiliate marketing on Reddit without getting banned?

Take part for weeks before you link anything. Answer questions in full without a link. When a room allows affiliate links and someone asks for a recommendation, link once, disclose it in the same comment, and name a free or non-affiliate option too. Never shorten or disguise a link, never post the same link in several places, and keep links a small share of what you post.

Where it never works: rooms whose rules ban affiliate or referral links. No disclosure line saves a link a room has banned, and in some of them the first one gets you banned from that room for good.

Where it can work: rooms that allow disclosed affiliate links, in a post or comment that answers the question on its own. And on Reddit's ads platform, which Reddit itself suggests for people whose posting is mostly business links.

Here is a disclosure line you can copy, for rooms that allow affiliate links.

Heads up, that's an affiliate link, so I earn a small cut if you buy through it. [Non-affiliate option] works too if you'd rather not use mine.

Naming the other option is what makes the disclosure believable. It shows you answered the question first and linked second.

And here is the pre-post checklist. Copy it.

1. This subreddit's rules allow affiliate links, in this kind of post or comment.
2. The account has weeks of normal comments in this subreddit or rooms like it.
3. The post answers the question even if nobody clicks.
4. The disclosure is in the same post or comment, not in my profile.
5. The link is the real URL, not shortened or redirected.
6. I haven't posted this link anywhere else this week.
7. Links are well under a tenth of what this account posts here.
8. The draft went through the Reddit post checker.

If the account is new, start with how to warm up a Reddit account, and read how to get karma on Reddit for the minimums. The Reddit marketing guide covers the same take-part-first approach for products of your own.

What I don't know yet

• I don't know how Reddit's sitewide filters weigh affiliate domains. Reddit doesn't publish it.
• My table covers six subreddits on the dates shown. Rules change, and plenty of rooms I haven't checked have their own versions.
• I have no data on how often disclosed affiliate links survive in rooms that allow them. I would expect fewer removals with disclosure, but I haven't measured it.

Who this is not for

If your plan is to post the same affiliate link in many subreddits, nothing here will make that work. Reddit's spam policy is written for exactly that.

If you only recommend things you don't earn from, you don't need a disclosure line. Just read each room's rules on links.

What to do next

Today, in this order:

1. Pick the one subreddit where your recommendations would actually help.
2. Read its rules for affiliate, referral and link rules, and note the check date.
3. If it bans affiliate links, plan to help there without them.
4. If it allows them, write the disclosure line into your notes.
5. Run your next draft through the pre-post checklist and the post checker.

Read. Decide. Help. Disclose. Check.

Thanks for reading. If your account needs history before any link goes up, that is the job I built Rankhog for. Rankhog warms up accounts you own, slowly, in your own browser.