From the guidelines doc:
Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity.
People do a Show HN for their business or product often.
For articles / blogs, good question. I just posted -- one minute before I saw this in new! -- an article I wrote. I think it's interesting to the HN audience, so I posted it. Now I wonder if that's okay to do.