Do you want to know a creative Halloween costume for bloggers?
Places Where You Can Promote Your Blog Posts (and Not Look Like a Spammer)
- Quora.com is fun, fast, easy, and allows for self-promotion. People write in and ask you questions about your area of expertise, the niche that you blog about. You explain the answers. If, while answering a question, you post a link to an article you’ve written on the topic, that is perfectly fine with the folks over at Quora.
- Facebook groups exist that allow you to post your links. For example, the Promote Your Posts group allows you to leave a maximum of five posts per day. That is their only rule–no more than five. There are many groups like Promote Your Posts that allow you, even encourage you, to leave links to your articles.
- Meet and Greets exist for the sole purpose of self-promotion. Bloggers like Meet and Greets, so they normally get good turnouts. The whole point is for you to leave a link. Most don’t care if you self-promote your link, your entire blog, your About page… the point is you are asked to self-promote. I have started a Community Bulletin Board, so bloggers know which bloggers are holding Meet and Greets and when.
- Weekly Roundup Posts appreciate link submissions. My article How to Significantly Rise in the SEO Ranks  explained how to find Weekly Roundups in your niche and how you can get a link from an authority site.
- Guest Posting Some guest hosts won’t let you embed any links to your articles, others don’t care at all, while others have a two link maximum. Guest posting is a great way to get new eyes on your old articles, but make sure you know the rules of the host blogger.
- JustRetweet is a site that allows you to leave your link if you pay the other members enough earned credits to promote your link for you on Twitter.
- ViralContentBuzz also allows you to link drop once your link is approved by the administration. The principal is the same as Just Retweet. You allot earned credits and make a budget. Other bloggers are paid credits for promoting your links until your budget is expended.
- Blogging Directories allow you to leave links to your blog. Often, your blog must be approved first.
- Follow to Follow Directories Michael Rios and I each have one.
- Flipboard. My article How to Get Swarms of Free Blog Traffic With Flipboard explains how to use this content curation site to add your links to magazines. When others read your articles and magazines, you have the potential for massive traffic.
- Twitter. Twitter allows you to leave your links, and if you use the right hashtags, others can find your articles.
- Tumblr is one of the social sharing buttons that WordPress offers. I have received traffic before from leaving my links at Tumblr.
- Linky Parties are named linky parties since you are expected to leave your links to your posts.
- Blog Shares work like linky parties except you are expected to share the link to your entire blog.
- Google+Â allows you to leave your links on your home page or in a relevant Google+ community.
- StumbleUpon allows you to leave your links. However, if you want to get any real traffic from StumbleUpon, you are expected to stumble 30 other articles for each one of your own that you leave. (Note: I have recently started a StumbleUpon group for subscribers of this blog. I will happily stumble your articles for you. Other members of the group are doing the same as well.)
- Reddit is the elephant in the room. Famous for its reputation for rejecting bloggers, you should be suprised to see it in this list.
Consider this comment:
I really mistrust Reddit. Totally my fault – I didn’t understand the rules when I first got on there, and when I shared a post (or five if I’m being honest) I received a ton of abuse and sarcastic comments… I need to get into it because it sent an epic amount of traffic to my blog, but the abuse made it completely not worth it!!
Mithra (TheBubbleJoy.com) wrote an entire article about the time she was banned from Reddit for doing something completely innocuous.
So, why is Reddit included in this list?
First, not all Reddit subgroups reject bloggers.
- Reddit has a Follow Friday thread where you can leave your Tweets containing your links.
- Not all Reddit groups consider you spammy especially if you’ve interacted first. For example, I’ve never had a problem with the Pinterest subreddit, and I’ve enjoyed traffic from it. The trick is to find a subreddit you feel comfortable in.
(Note: Michael Rios has started a Reddit group and will gladly add your links to Reddit for you if you still have reservations about trying it.)
Conclusion
In conclusion, many people have been called spammy.
[bctt tweet=”If you have been labelled a spammer, don’t feel bad. You are not alone.”]On the other hand, many people don’t care if they are considered spammy. However, if you do care, take the tips in this post. You can still promote without feeling like you’ve done something inappropriate.
Readers, please share, so other bloggers know where they can promote their links.
Did I miss any? Can you recommend other sites that allow self-promotion? I look forward to your views.
Update:
Since writing this post, Reddit added a subreddit that allows self-promotion.
Related Posts:
How to Grow Your Blog While You Guest Post
3 Guaranteed Ways to Get You More Online Attention
