How to market on r/freelance
Can you promote on r/freelance?
No. The rules ban self-promotion, and posts that sell get removed. What the rules say:
“No advertising or self-promotion”
Rule 1
“No hiring or soliciting work”
Rule 2
The rules
As the moderators wrote them, shortened where they run long.
- No advertising or self-promotionExamples of prohibited content include: your app or SaaS your website or portfolio your profile on a freelance site a blog post you wrote a article that mentions your company your mailing list or newsletter a Slack…
- No hiring or soliciting workUse /r/forhire to look for work or to find freelancers. This includes companies or individuals looking for freelancers, freelancers looking for work, or freelancers looking for partners or collaborators. Note that…
- No surveys or market research questionsThis subreddit isn't your focus group. You cannot use it: to determine interest in your new idea for a freelancing marketplace or service to help with a research project, school paper, or blog article to ask freelancers…
- No referral URLs or shortened linksReferral URLs and other coded links are prohibited in this subreddit.
- No offtopic posts or commentsThis includes: posts/comments not primarily about freelancing posts/comments about hiring or managing freelancers (this subreddit is for freelancers, not the people who hire them) posts better suited to a different…
- No bots or automated users
- Follow Reddiquette
- No duplicate postsDo a subreddit search before creating a post or asking a question.
Full text on Reddit: r/freelance rules.
What people asked this week
92 of the last 185 posts on r/freelance (the past 7 days) asked a question or for a recommendation. Here are 12, starting with people asking for a tool, a service or someone to hire.
- Freelancers struggle to find clients. Clients struggle to find the right freelancer. Why is there still no simple solution for both?r/freelance · 22 Oct
- Power Platform Developer vs. Salesforce Developer — Which career path would you recommend?r/freelance · 21 Oct
- Freelancers, how do you find businesses that might actually need your services?r/freelance · 19 Oct
- Tools or Suggestions for combining social/job site feedsr/freelance · 18 Oct
- Best bank for freelancers, I need to open a business bank account and I don't know what features matterr/freelance · 18 Oct
- How long does it take your clients to give you access to everything?r/freelance · 24 Oct
- How can I start earning money with my AI and IoT skills as a beginner freelancer?r/freelance · 24 Oct
- Is "designbandclub" worth it if you're not in the US?r/freelance · 23 Oct
- How do AI automation agencies find subcontractors for small paid tasks?r/freelance · 23 Oct
- How do I come up with realistic rates as a video editor?r/freelance · 23 Oct
- What’s one lesson you learned the hard way when working with clients?r/freelance · 23 Oct
- What's one thing you refuse to automate, even though AI could probably do it?r/freelance · 23 Oct
How to show up here without getting banned
- Don't post about your product. Answer questions in the comments with real expertise instead. People who find your answers useful check your profile, so say what you do there.
- Be careful with links. The rules are specific: “Referral URLs and other coded links are prohibited in this subreddit.”
- Skip the surveys. They're not allowed: “No surveys or market research questions.”
- Read the sidebar and pinned posts. Moderators often add rules there, and rules change. Check r/freelance's before your first post.
More on how this works across Reddit: Reddit's self-promotion rules, explained and the full Reddit marketing playbook.
Related communities
- How to market on r/Upwork: Upwork freelancers and clients talking about the platform.
- How to market on r/forhire: clients hiring and freelancers offering their services.
- How to market on r/webdev: web developers talking front end, back end and careers.
- How to market on r/web_design: web designers sharing work and asking for feedback.
- How to market on r/Wordpress: WordPress users and developers asking about themes, plugins and hosting.
Questions
Can I post my startup on r/freelance?+
No. The rules ban self-promotion, and posts that sell get removed. Rule 1 says: “No advertising or self-promotion” Answer questions in the comments instead, and let people find your product from your profile.
How active is r/freelance?+
r/freelance has about 581k members and averaged 30 new posts a day over the last four weeks. Of its latest 185 posts, 92 asked a question or for a recommendation.
Does r/freelance allow links?+
With conditions. Rule 4 says: “Referral URLs and other coded links are prohibited in this subreddit.”
What do people ask about on r/freelance?+
Recent examples: “Freelancers struggle to find clients. Clients struggle to find the right freelancer. Why…”, “Power Platform Developer vs. Salesforce Developer — Which career path would you recommend?” and “Freelancers, how do you find businesses that might actually need your services?”. The full list of this week's questions is on this page and refreshes daily.