How do you manage self-promotion in your community?

Paula - we deal with this on daily basis. The best way to deal with self-promotion is to create a separate channel for self promotion. You may add 'noindex' rel tag to all the posts in that channel. We strategically employed this strategy in one of the founders community I helped grow. Here's what we did:

1. We identified that members wanted to promote their businesses.
2. We created a separate channel where members could advertise their business for free.
3. Members actually loved it. It allowed them to advertise their business and connect with each other for trade.
4. We also created an opportunity for paid listings; that began generating revenue through the advertisements.
5. We turned a problem into a revenue-generating opportunity.

The smart way to handle self-promotion in community is to channelise it. Members promote because it's a clear generation of value for them. I hope it helps.

Excellent advice, Kaustubh. I really like the idea of a dedicated channel for handling promotions. A community's job is to create value for the users and if that requires creating a dedicated channel - I'm all game for it.

A caution though: Don't let the promotions channel concentrate all the content. It should be a complementary addition to the community. I mean adding the promo channel shouldn't affect the overall discussions on the community.