>Seems like it is getting harder and harder to promote original content on the web without being considered spam

That's a pretty good summation of my experience marketing. I don't know if there is a solution to it though...

I forgot to mention it in the article, but I actually did look into ProductHunt. To keep spam out they have some criteria that you as a user have to meet before submitting something. I had only every been a lurker there so I did not qualify.