How do you get your blog noticed outside of your own website without being an annoying pest?
If there’s one thing the internet hates it’s seeing people promote their own content within forums and comment sections.
That’s why in this post, we’re going to cover a few different methods you can use to promote yourself without annoying the very audience you’re trying to attract.
Why you need to promote your blog
Here’s the gist of what happens when you start a blog: you do everything you need to do to configure your blog, start publishing content, and then wait for Google to index your pages.
Unfortunately, this is a lengthy process, and it might take months before you start seeing any traffic from Google.
But whether you’re a large blog or just starting out, relying on Google as your only traffic source isn’t recommended.
While search engines like Google are fantastic sources of traffic, they’re also unpredictable.
Every other blog in your niche is trying to rank for the same keywords as you, so there’s far too much competition. You run the risk of receiving less traffic for keywords you once ranked perfectly fine for before.
Plus, Google makes some pretty big changes to their algorithm a couple times a year, which can also cause your rankings to drop unexpectedly.
Finally, building authority in your niche simply takes too much time.
This is why it’s important for you to find other ways to promote your blog, such as social media.
What is self-promotion and how is it different?
You might have a clear idea of what self-promoting your blog looks like, or you might be wondering how it differs from regular blog promotion at all.
The simple explanation is this: regular promotion is “passive” while self-promotion is “active.”
With passive promotion, you promote your content to a broad audience and hope it reaches your target audience.
Take social media, for example. Sure, you may have your own following, but the majority of engagements from viral posts come from accounts who aren’t following you.
This is why we use relevant hashtags and optimized captions, follow social media accounts in our niche, and comment on relevant content. It helps our own content reach our target market much more efficiently.
When you actively promote your content, you’re promoting it directly to your target audience.
A couple examples of self-promotion include leaving links to your blog posts on forums and tagging influencers who have little to do with your content.
It’s frowned upon and seen as rude. In fact, many forums have a “no self-promotion” rule these days.
But all is not lost. There are a few ways to promote your own content without getting yourself booted off of every platform on the web.
Here are the self-promotion methods we’re going to cover in this section:
- Create engaging content across all social media platforms.
- Publish articles on current events in your niche.
- Use email marketing.
- Post on forums carefully.
- Tag relevant influencers and experts the right way.
- Join or start a Facebook group.
- Guest blog strategically.
1. Create engaging original content everywhere
This method is time consuming, but one of the most effective ways to promote your blog on the internet is to do so to a space that’s already familiar with you.
And if you’ve been blogging for a while already, you already have a ton of content ideas.
Start this process by finding out which social media platforms your target audience uses the most. Just search for content related to your niche, and see if anything comes up.
Follow accounts related to your niche, and watch their content. This is the best way to get to know the ins and outs of each social media platform you want to post content to.
Then, start turning your blog content into original social media content.
You’ll gain a following over time and will find it much easier to promote your blog.
2. Publish articles on current events in your niche
Even if you don’t have a following on social media, you can still use your blog to get attention in your niche.
One of the best ways to do this is to cover trending topics.
Because keywords and search engine results for trending topics are so new, they’re easier to rank for. This makes it more likely for your blog to be discovered.
Try gaining a following by covering current events in your niche, then use this next method to leverage that following.
3. Email marketing
Email marketing is probably the best and safest way to self-promote your blog because your audience has to opt in to receive your emails.
When you promote yourself on social media, your audience may come across your posts just by scrolling through their feeds. If they find your content or self-promotion annoying, they may block you to prevent your content from appearing in their feeds in the future.
Therefore, the best way to self-promote new content is to do so to an audience you’ve already built.
You can do this by building your email list.
How to grow your email list
We have a whole article on how to grow your email list, but we’ll summarize the best methods to use here.
The most effective way to get more email subscribers is by attracting them with lead magnets.
A lead magnet is an incentive you offer to convince a visitor to subscribe to your email list. The visitor will receive the incentive after they subscribe.
Here are a few common lead magnets:
- Ebook
- Checklist
- Template
- Downloadable
We have a guide on lead magnets if you need a few more ideas.
One of the most effective ways to use a lead magnet is to offer it as a content upgrade within your blog post.
For our post on lead magnets, we could offer a content upgrade in the form of a PDF that features real-world examples of lead magnets, why they work and step-by-step instructions on how to recreate them.
Since this lead magnet is related to the article it’s being offered on, our visitors would be more likely to subscribe to receive it.
Other ways to grow your email list involve using multiple opt-in form types on your site and placing them in key areas:
- Blog post pages
- Dedicated landing pages
- Homepage
- About page
- Footer
- Sidebar
- Dedicated newsletter page
How to promote your content to your email list
Email your audience whenever you publish a new post.
Optimize your email subject lines, and use storytelling in your emails to connect with your subscribers before you ask them to click.
Just make sure to keep your emails short at the same time.
You should also work on segmenting your email list. This will help you make sure you’re promoting the right content to the different sub groups that make up your audience.
4. Post on forums
This is one of the most infamous ways to self-promote your blog.
A lot of new bloggers grow impatient and try to skip over the long process of growing a blog by posting a link to their latest post on forums, especially Reddit.
What you should do instead is create professional accounts named after your brand name for every forum you want to post to.
You should also look up forums that are specific to your niche.
With your new accounts, respond to and create new posts as any other forum user would, but remain professional.
Create new helpful posts as well, but never use a link to your blog as the only solution.
Give full answers in forum posts, but say something along the lines of, “I have an entire article on this on my blog if you want an in-depth take on this topic.”
5. Tag relevant influencers and experts
Again, a lot of new bloggers grow impatient and try to get themselves noticed by influencers and experts in their niches.
This is probably one of the quickest ways to get yourself blocked by some of the most influential voices in your niche.
To do this correctly, stitch or duet the influencer or expert you want you want to get noticed by, or create content that’s inspired by them and tag them in that.
What we mean is, if an influencer or expert in your niche talks about a certain topic you have opinions for, respond to their own opinions in your own video and tag them in that.
You can also try to recreate a content format an influencer in your niche uses, and tag them in that as well.
Here’s an example of how a Reddit user self-promoted themselves to an influencer.
They reviewed a movie and tagged two cast members when they promoted the review on Twitter. The Redditor said:
“They both retweeted, liked, replied and the writer/main actor even kindly pointed out where I’d credited the wrong actor to a character right at the beginning – so they even read it!”
6. Join or start a Facebook group
Find or start a Facebook group related to your niche.
Choose a topic to focus on for your group rather than simply naming it after your business.
Just like with forums, focus on providing helpful information within the group and posting interesting content.
Use your brand name, but don’t simply use the group to promote blog post links.
7. Guest blog strategically
When you make guest post pitches, don’t ask to include a byline link that leads to your blog’s homepage.
Pitch a topic that’s directly related to a topic on your blog, then ask the blog you’re pitching to if you could add a link to your post in your guest post so long as you link to the guest post on your own blog.
This is a much more beneficial approach for both blogs.
Final thoughts
Self-promoting your blog is a crucial step that you’ll need to take if you want to grow your blog.
When done right, you’ll get more eyeballs on your blog without annoying the internet.
If you need more help, be sure to check out our in-depth guide on how to promote a blog.
