8-minute read
Apart from writing and publishing content, one of the trickiest things a content marketer must do is get people to read the articles. Of course, you can pay to promote your content but aren’t the best things in life free?!
At Linkody, we’ve tried what seems like hundreds of content promotion platforms. Most of them are free, and most of them didn’t drive much traffic.
Of course, not all content promotion sites are created equal. And if you take a strategic approach when using websites I am about to share – traffic awaits you.
Take Quora for example. When I first learned about Quora, it was lauded as an incredibly powerful place to share content.
I literally stopped what I was doing and found questions where to share my articles. Alas, when I checked in a few days, Google Analytics showed me I got precisely ZERO visitors from Quora.
I wasn’t hurt but motivated to learn why and see if I could leverage the site.
A similar thing happened with other content promotion platforms and here’s what I learned.
After some reflection, I finally understood why I wasn’t driving traffic back to my site. I was spamming the community and not delivering real value to Quora’s users.
I’m happy to report that in just over six months of contributing content, I’ve been featured several times in the Quora digest. And man, does that boost your traffic!
This is true across all content promotion sites. As the revered Leo Burnett said years ago
Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.
~Leo Burnett
So let’s get to it - how the heck do I get 10,000 plus views on Quora?
Before I reveal my secrets – let’s look at what Quora as a content promotion platform offers.
Quora is useful not only for asking (2) and answering (1) questions, but it also allows you to create your Quora blog (4) and write posts (3). This advances this platform as a go-to-site for content promotion.
It’s time - here’s my secret Quora sauce.
Eventually, I realized it’s simple - don’t be like everyone else!
When you find a question that has quite a few followers - contribute to say something different. And keep it valuable, easy to read and entertaining. You’re sure to get more upvotes if you make readers laugh!!
See what I mean:
Question - What are your exciting sites for building backlinks?
Answer –
Result?
As a cherry on a pie – here are few things to consider when promoting content on Quora:
What’s different here from other sites like Quora is that you don’t need to grow your community per say.
No followers needed—just great content. And that’s the best thing about Reddit - anyone can strike gold here!
I’ve experienced both failure and success on Reddit.
Some subreddits like it when you share your own articles and others will straight up ban you from their channels. Take some time to read through rules, posts and conversations.
Lurk before you contribute.
Here you can find a list of different subreddits and the most appropriate info you could share over there:
These are the essential subreddits you need to know if you are in the digital marketing and SEO space.
After several months of lurking, testing and optimising, here’s what I’ve observed:
I’m sure you’ve heard of Reddit but ever heard of the GrowthHackers.com community?
If not, you need to go check this site out!
If you’re a marketer like me, this site is packed with useful knowledge and is a great go-to-place for all things growth hacking.
Here’s a summary of all the awesome things you can do at GrowthHackers.com:
This platform shows Sean Ellis in action and his ability to growth hack a business.
That’s also something you can do for your own site if you follow these hacks.
Here are my tested knowledge bombs on how to get your content noticed on Posts, Q&A, and Discussion sections.
AMAs, Growth Studies and Videos sections follow a bit different publishing framework & not everyone can share the content there.
“Never-tell-anyone-super-secret” tips:
Now, once you have a decent sized network, few followers and a “WOW” article to share – give it a go and let us know how it went.
Of course, there is the widely known StumbleUpon.
It works much like Twitter and Instagram – you follow others so others can follow you.
Just with a slight difference – getting followers is extremely difficult.
But the traffic this platform can bring stunned me:
The best part is – we got this traffic within three days.
You can view different articles (1) based on your preferences, follow different influencers and in that way get others to follow you.
To share your article head over to your profile (2) and share your first article.
All you have to do is Add a Page (1), insert the URL (2) and select if it’s Safe for Work? (3).
Then you need to pick the interest (4) whichever suit your article the best:
And add three tags (5):
Then your article is set for success.
The more followers you have, the more people will see your article – simple as that.
It took me a bit more than a month, but this is what I did to strike more than 2 000 page visits:
To start, you should focus on liking other articles and following stumblers – if the first is easy then the later not so much.
So, here are my top three ways to get followers:
The limit you can follow is 50 per day – so you have to make this your habit, like drinking coffee.
And the traffic to your articles will follow soon enough.
Starting is hard!
I get it. There is only one Russell Brunson, and only he has several thousand people on his email list.
So how do you start when you have nothing?
You start by sharing your content on these content platforms, following others, building community. Within time you will have several hundreds of people following you and that’s a lot of traffic coming to your blog each time you share an article.
Once you get them on your blog, it’s up to you how you make them come back – grow your email list, collect web push-notification subscribers or invite them to follow you on social media.
Go, try these websites and I am sure you will win big.
Happy content promotion!