If you are serious about self publishing and are looking to make a living with ad revenu and/or non-exclusive licenses, promoting your brand is often more important than promoting any individual game.

When contests sites request that you not release a game until they have published it, it essentially gives them the first opportunity to prmote the title via media sites like Digg and StumbleUpon.

While your game will certainly get exposure, you have more opportunity to promote your overall brand if you can Digg your own web site without competing with larger sites for the media attention.

Like Chris and Adam said… always look at the overall numbers and think long term!