Many people asked me previously how I promote my blog posts. So I put together this article for you to show how I use different methods to promote my articles with zero budget. Yes I could pay hundreds of dollars for promoting my new articles but why should I do that if I can get great results with manual promotion as well.
Let me show you how to promote your blog without spending a penny!
1. Facebook groups
There are many Facebook Groups out there for people who are looking for a solution for their problems or just want share their articles and thoughts with each other. It’s a great source that you can use to drive targeted traffic to your next blog post. Head over to Facebook (change the language to english) and use graph search.
Once you are in that group start with a little introduction and later on you can share your blog posts with these people.
2. Twitter automation and timing
With a free version of Hootsuite you can schedule your tweets with two clicks. I use the Hootlet chrome extension where I can put my tweet text, with hashtags and images as well and automate my tweets. Just schedule your next article for a week (in different time zones) two, three times per day.
I use MyTopTweet to find out my best performing tweets. It will help you determine when is the best time to post on Twitter based on my top tweet results. There are other tools that can shows you the time when your followers are the most engaged, but this simple tool worked for me pretty well.
Or you can use Tweroid which will show you when your followers are online.
There is also an option to sync these datas with your Buffer account.
3. Topsy
I use this free tool to find out who tweeted a similar article previously. Lets say I want to promote my article called “22 Practical Pinterest Marketing Tips That You Can Use Today”. I search in Google for “Pinterest marketing tips” and I found this article from socialmediaexaminer.com: 7 Pinterest Marketing Tips to Improve Your Visibility.
Add it to topsy and find out who tweeted the article. Now make a list of people (influential only) who tweeted that article from SocialMediaExaminer and let them know about your article, they might want to read it or share with their followers as well. Head over to your Twitter and just tweet them using @.
4. Popup promotion
If you already have lots of articles on your site that has a decent amount of organic traffic, I highly recommend using this method. Go to your analytics and find out what page receives the most traffic.
Than use your email popup on those pages saying that “Learn 22 Practical Pinterest Marketing Tips Today” and ask for their email address. Of course you have to use YOUR new article headline.
It will do two things:
- Collect their email addresses
- Drive traffic to your blog post
Make sure that you don't show this pop-up on the blog post that you are promoting. :)
5. Comment on popular posts
Let’s stick to the above mentioned example (you can use the exact same method in your niche and article). Find popular posts about your topic and make a list of sites that are allowing comments.
Leave a comment saying that you learned a lot from the article they have put together and you also have some additional tips (make sure that you add value to your comment). These blog posts have a decent amount traffic already and you can generate some clicks as well with this method.
With CommentLuv you can gain do-follow backlinks as well.
Here is how you find these sites:
- Head over to DropMyLink.com
- Create a free account
- Type your keyword
Just play with this until you find a great blog and make sure that you add value to your comment! Don't just say, hey I love your post, bye...
6. Google Plus
This works really well, but you have to pay attention not to be too spammy because people might flag your posts as spam. I recommend to change the text always and use 2-3 different groups.
Just add your topic into the search field and click "Communities":
Find the Communities that you want to join:
Make sure that you follow the rules and you are good to go!
7. Stumbleupon
This can’t guarantee lots of traffic but if you are lucky enough people will find your article useful and upvote it. The more people upvote your content the higher your chance to get tons of traffic. If you have friends using Stumbleupon ask them to “thumb up” your article.
With this upvoting method I generated over 20k + visitors to my niche blog and I also had a success to drive traffic from Stumbleupon to this blog.
8. Quora
Quora is a great place to help out people. Head over to quora.com and find a question where the answer is your new blog post. Make sure that the questions has a decent amount of followers. Answer the question as you would normally do and finish it with “If you want to learn more about the topic read my recent article: [add your link].
Besides that if you are a Quora user you might have some points to spend on pushing your answer.
9. Sumome share plugin
This is a plugin that lets the visitors share your content. It’s quite obvious but I have seen social media plugins on sites that had only a Facebook like button. Likes look good I know but they don’t really help you in getting traffic. So let’s give them a Facebook Share button instead with additional options as well.
It's very simple to setup and you can get customize it as well.
10. Send it to your email list
Alright, this is easy again. If you have a couple of hundred emails in your list already, let them know about your next blog post! That’s why they opted-in, they want to know about your stuff. It’s instant traffic!
11. Sniply
Snippy is my new favorite tool to drive traffic to my new posts or my eBook that I would like to share with people. What it does? Attach a call-to-action to every link you share. It’s free! Give it a try folks!
If you are using Hootsuite + Hootlet you can auto schedule your sniply.
12. Pinterest community board
If you are a Pinterest fan and you use this social media site in your online marketing arsenal I recommend you to try this right now. Use boardeckhqand search community boards in your niche. Ask the admin to give you permission to add you to the board and be a contributor. Make sure you follow the guidelines.
These community boards has lots of followers and you will get the chance to make your image go viral.
13. Ego Bait
This is one of my favorite and it is used by all the marketing pros out there. Let’s use this example: you want to write an article about the 10 influental people in your niche. Lets make a search in Google and find previously published articles. Alright lets say we have Top 8 and Top 10 list posts about this topic.
Let’s make your list better! Top 30 Influental people that you should follow on Facebook if you want to learn online marketing. Write your article and let them know via email. :)
Since it’s good for their ego they will share the article on their social media sites as well and you will end up with a lots of traffic.
You can ready my previous article about Hello Ego Formula.
14. Facebook fan page post
Use Facebook wisely and post articles when your followers are there. With a built in “tool” you can find out when you should update your feed.
Then just click on posts and you will see what is the best time to post.
Use these insights when you post your next post on your Facebook Fan Page.
15. Email signiture
How many emails do you send on a daily basis? Just change your signiture and notify people that you have a new blog post. The traffic depends on the number of email you send out I know, but hey, it’s free and it takes 2 minutes to set it up.
- Open your Gmail (if you use Gmail)
- Go to Settings / General
- Scroll down and you will see the signiture box
16. Ask your friends
You gotta ask as Noah Kagan said in one of his video. Ask your friends and your “online friends” to help you in promotion. For them it takes one tweet, one Facebook share but for you it can make a huge difference.
17. Use auto tweet DM
This might be a little bit old school and some people say “David it’s so spammy” but it can work. So let’s say that you are experiencing 5-10 new Twitter followers on a daily basis. Let them know about your new article! You can test it with bitly and check how many clicks do you receive.
For this auto DM message I use a tool called CrowdFire.
18. Pinterest and Instagram seeding
Promote your visual content using this free tool. So if you are a Pinterest or Instagram fan you might want to give this baby a try.
It's basically working with a point system and you can earn “seeds” if you follow or engage with other Pinners pins (same with instagram). Upload your own link and let people share your content.
I am not saying that this can drive you thousands of visitors to your site but 1. it’s super easy to setup 2. people who has lots of followers will share your pin… and at the end you might end up with a decent traffic.
Make sure that you have a well designed image optimized for Pinterest or Instagram.
19. Find similar blog posts and linkers
Head over to Google and try to find similar articles that you just finished. Open ahrefs.com and copy paste the URL of that post. You will see many sites that are linked to that exact article... this is where you need to take action.
Make a list of these blogs and find their email address. Cold outreach to them and tell them that you loved the article that they've written and share your recent blog post with the blogger and ask them for a share.
20. Roundup posts
Roundup posts often appear weekly or monthly and will be themed around a particular topic such as SEO, content marketing, social media marketing, blogging, business, or email marketing.
Google search: roundup “YOUR KEYWORD”
When you have a list of these sites just write them an email saying that you loved their article and it has tons of value and they might want to add your blog post or promote it on their social media sites.
21. Reddit
Head over to reddit and find a subreddit in your niche using the search field. Add your text and link and ask 1-2 of your friends to upvote it (please note that asking for upvote is against Reddit's policy but 1-2 is completely fine).
You can also use redditlist to track the top 5000 subredits.
22. Change your tweet's text
Use at least three different tweet text when you promote your blog post.
Here is an example:
- How I Drove 250K Visitors To My Three Weeks Old Viral Website
- Learn How To Drive 250K Visitors To Your Viral Blog
- Let Me Teach You How To Drive 250K Visitors To Your Viral Website
There you have it. If you use these above mentioned tips I am sure that you are going to have some great results. Do you have any other good technique that you use for promoting your blog post? Let me know in the comment section, I want to hear about that.
source http://www.turninbound.com/how-to-promote-your-blog/
source http://www.turninbound.com/how-to-promote-your-blog/
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