I came across this post when I was reading another article, that had good discussion in the comments. Good discussions in the Internet are rare, but then I saw your advertisement of this article. It had nothing to do with the discussion that was going on. The only reason I originally came to see this article was to downvote you.

Now that I've read your article and the comments, I will not downvote you. I think you just made an honest marketing mistake, and happened to create some good discussion on what is or isn't ok in Steemit. It is allright to promote your own posts, it just needs to be done so that it adds value to relevant conversations.

Good luck with your balloon project!