The Ultimate 15+ Free Ways To Promote Your Blog Like A Pro And Drive Huge Blog Traffic In 2024

If you’re a new blogger who is wondering how to promote your blog for free, you’re visiting the right page.

You’re wondering: what do you do next after hitting publish?

Promote the heck out of your blog post!

But what are the best free places to share your blog posts? You want to know how to get blog traffic for free because paying for ads can get expensive.

Creating fresh blog posts is great for building your blog. However, it doesn’t stop when you publish it.

Much of the work bloggers do is a whole lot of promotion. I would say that blogging is 30% creating content and 70% promoting.

Growing blog traffic is one of the number one concerns for bloggers, as it’s tied to monetization.

More traffic equals more income from affiliate links, digital products you’re selling and ads. It also means the ability to participate in lucrative ad programs such as Mediavine.

So promoting your blog content on key sites and social media channels is a must-do daily and weekly blogging activity.

In this post, I’ll share some of the best places to promote your blog post for free. Some will work for your blog niche, while others may not be as great – you’ll have to test them out yourself!

Develop your promotion strategy to work for you, and so that you don’t waste time!

DISCLOSURE: This post contains affiliate links, meaning if you click on a product or service, and decide to purchase it, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you. All recommended products and services are based on my positive experience with them. For more information, please read my Disclaimer.

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How To Promote Your Blog For Free To Increase Blog Traffic

You’ve just started a blog and launched it. You’re creating content and publishing blog posts weekly. But how do you get people to visit your site?

What are some of the ways to get more traffic?

I’ve used many different sources in the past few years. Good on-page SEO practices have always been a key way to boost traffic.

You can also use social media to promote your blog as well. I use Instagram and Facebook regularly to create interest in my blog content.

When it comes to external channels, I’ve used several.

In this post, I’ll share ways to promote your blog that I’ve used and tried over the past few years.

My number one tip is to work with promotion tools and channels that your key audience uses! Don’t waste your time with a platform that doesn’t get you results.

Choose perhaps three to four channels I’ve shared below and see how they work in boosting your blog traffic.

If they aren’t giving you results, it might be time to change your strategy. At the end of the day, you’ll find what works best for you!

Optimizing Your Posts For SEO Is A Given

You’ll notice one thing in my list below: I don’t reference SEO.

This is because you should be optimizing your blog content before you hit publish – every single time.

What you’ll get below are other ways you should promote your blog AFTER you publish them.

If you want to learn about SEO, read my post on on-page SEO tips for beginners.

Let’s learn how to promote your blog for free!

1. Use Pinterest For Promoting Your Blog

How to promote your blog for free? By using a visual search engine: Pinterest!

Aside from SEO, Pinterest is the second-best way to promote your blog content.

Pinterest is a visual search engine and my second-highest source of blog traffic. For some, it’s the first, depending on their niche and how long they’ve been using it.

Pinning consistently once a day in 2023, along with a few other strategies, has resulted in this jump in outbound clicks for my MargaretBourne.com site (see below).

Remember, blogging tips sites aren’t as popular as lifestyle topics, so this is a huge win!

Although Pinterest loves fresh pins, some of my older pins are still driving huge traffic.

The key thing is to start using Pinterest as soon as possible and pin consistently. It will pay off in the long run with ongoing blog traffic.

Since it’s so important, I have several blog posts that help you get ahead with Pinterest.

• How To Consistently Grow Blog Traffic With Pinterest: My Three Secret Strategies
• How To Create Attractive Pinterest Pins That Result In Link Clicks & Increase Blog Traffic
• 11 Pinterest Tips For Success Based On The New Algorithm Changes

If you’re serious about blogging, a good chunk of your time should be spent on designing and creating Pinterest pins, drafting Pinterest SEO-optimized titles and descriptions, and pinning pins.

If you want to master Pinterest, I’ve created an easy-to-follow course: Pin It Better: A Blogger’s Guide To Pinterest. Learn how you can make it a huge driver of your traffic as well!

In the meantime, get my FREE Pinterest pin templates for Canva:

Using Tailwind For Pinterest Promotion

Another place to promote your blog posts is Tailwind.

Blogging takes time, and Tailwind is a time-saver for many new bloggers.

When I started MargaretBourne.com, I was automating my pins and boosting re-pins through Tailwind Communities. This is good for a period of time, especially when your focus is developing content.

You need to automate and batch your promotional stuff to save time for content generation.

Try Tailwind with a free trial and see if it helps you free up your time.

You can try my tips on how to use Tailwind wisely and see an immediate boost in blog traffic via Pinterest!

| RELATED: My Tailwind For Pinterest Review And Guide

2. Promote Your Blog On Your Blog’s Facebook Page

One of the easiest ways to promote your blog is on your blog’s Facebook page.

It’s yours, so you control what content appears on it!

This is where people who are interested in following you are likely to engage with your content.

Here’s how I share my content: I click on the Facebook icon on my post’s share button and post it directly from there.

To keep things interesting, sometimes I’ll add a quote or question that relates to my blog post.

PRO TIP: You can also post to your personal timeline among your family and friends. This is an easy way, but don’t overwhelm them with ALL of your posts. Share only the ones you think they would really find interesting and useful.

3. Post Your Blog Posts To Your Facebook Group

One of the easiest ways to promote your blog is through Facebook groups – whether it’s your own, or through ones to which you belong.

Promoting With Your Own Facebook Group

With your own Facebook group, you’re in control, so it’s easy to share your latest post. Start a Facebook group today, and build it over time, attracting the right people.

My top tip is to make it relevant to what’s going on – e.g. seasonal, or a key issue that everybody is facing.

For example, before the Fall season begins, I will promote my Fall blog post ideas blog post to inspire my Blog It Better Society members. This always gives my site an extra boost in traffic.

Feel free to join my Facebook group today!

| RELATED: How To Grow Your Facebook Book Into A Successful Community

4. Promoting Your Blog Posts In Facebook Groups Other Than Your Own

When it comes to other Facebook groups, there are a few rules that apply to how you promote your blog posts.

• Follow the group rules – share your links in threads that are specific to blog post promotion (e.g., click-through posts, sharing the post on social media, Pinterest pin promotion, etc.)

• Reciprocate! Don’t just drop a link and “run”. You may get booted out of the group if they’re strict about reciprocation. Be nice and give the same attention to others’ posts and you’ll get the same back.

• Don’t focus on only one blog post. Try to change it up with a new one and older ones each day. This way you get varied blog traffic, reviving old posts as well.

• Be careful to not go overboard on how many groups you participate in each day. I limit myself to a maximum of 4 to 5 a day because you need to reciprocate usually in 24 hours. Some of the threads can take some time. So make sure you can fulfill the reciprocation requirements in a timely fashion.

• Be relevant! For example, don’t promote your posts on food when you’re in a niche Facebook group for parenting topics – unless it’s recipes and food tips for parents and kids.

JOIN my Facebook group for new and growing bloggers: The Blog It Better Society! Want to know my favourite Facebook group for bloggers? Read on!

| RELATED: 5 Smart Ways To Give Your Blog A Quick Increase In Traffic

5. Use X (Twitter) To Promote Your Blog

Is X (formerly Twitter) still one of the best ways to promote your blog?

For some, it is. For some, it’s more valuable as a tool to build awareness and your position as an expert.

Generating blog traffic through X will require:

• Building your profile as a niche expert through your posts and valuable tips
• Following others in your niche and actively engaging with them (so that they follow you)
• Sharing your content with keyword-optimized posts that include one or two relevant hashtags

Although X used to be amazing for many bloggers as a source of link clicks, it’s become more of a news source for many.

However, if you have a great community of people following you for your niche, you can still get some traffic from X. This is why it’s on my list of places to submit blog posts for more traffic.

Here’s how you can do it:

• Share your link (your image will appear)
• Add a little bit of your commentary before the title that’s relevant to the day (e.g., if it’s National Waffle Day, before the post title of your Best Waffles Ever Recipe, write something like – “Guess what we’re having today? Our scrumptious waffles!” This entices the reader to find out more.
• Always use two relevant hashtags. More than two and it’s cluttered and spammy.

PRO TIPS: Repurpose your blog post content for X threads. Also, use hashtags to follow others in your niche. Engage with them and grow your following.

6. How To Promote A Blog For Free Using Instagram

I’ve found some great success with Instagram. It’s one of the top ways to promote your blog, share your content, and increase your blog traffic!

With Instagram, you have an excellent opportunity to promote your blog among interested followers.

1. Make sure your Instagram feed is for your blog and not a personal one with family photos, etc. (unless you’re a parenting blogger).
2. Create a page on your blog that includes all of your links for the relevant posts you share on Instagram. Here’s an example of mine with blog links posted on Instagram.
3. Once you have this done, add the link to your profile. You can add up to five links, and one of them should be the page where you reference blog posts. See mine:

This is ideal, as every time somebody clicks on your profile link, it’s one extra pageview on your site, increasing YOUR blog traffic.

Since you’ve got your links on that page, any time somebody clicks a link from that page, they’re creating even more blog traffic for your blog and lowering your bounce rate. A win-win situation!

How To Promote Your Blog On Instagram

So what are the ways to promote your blog on Instagram?

• In your posts and captions: post a relevant image for your desired blog post, and include a call-to-action in your caption to encourage Instagram users to visit for more information. I like to make this call-to-action stand out with CAPITAL LETTERS. Make sure you update the Blog Links page on your blog with the relevant blog URL.

• Your stories! Alert your readers about new blog posts (best is with a screenshot of the post or a related image) and a call-to-action to click the profile link for more information. Use the LINK sticker to add a direct link to a blog post or blog page.

• Do a brief video in your stories on one of the things you speak about in your blog post. The call-to-action entices viewers to the blog post. Point out that it’s only one solution/idea and more are found in your blog post early on in your video. Not everybody watches to the end, so you want to get that message out early on.

• Reels: This is a super hot, trending way to promote your content! Take a few points from your blog post and do a post that answers the question. It’s a fun way to announce a new blog post or upcoming post.

7. Get Free Blog Traffic With An Email Newsletter

This is one of the BEST ways to promote your blog since you own your email newsletter list.

Your email newsletter is your ongoing source of communication with an interested group of followers. They want to hear more from you!

You can promote your posts in several ways:

• A weekly round-up of your latest blog posts
• Give them a behind-the-scenes with relevant links to your posts
• Speak to a timely topic, and sprinkle your related posts throughout the newsletter
• Do a what’s trending: share which blog posts are trending in pageviews

How you communicate with them is important.

PRO TIP: Include your best blog posts in your welcome email series.

How Often Should You Send A Newsletter?

I don’t like receiving more than one or two emails a week from bloggers.

If I’m getting every notification when you post a blog post, I’m bound to unsubscribe from that newsletter. It’s cluttering up my inbox!

Nor is it wise to do a monthly newsletter. If I’m not hearing from you regularly it’s going to be “out of sight, out of mind.”

Weekly email round-ups of what you’ve been working on and posted are much better.

If you haven’t posted any new content, you have to promote older content that’s relevant to your chosen newsletter topic.

While I’ve got your attention, you can sign up for my newsletter too! Here’s a helpful brand standards printable checklist to make it easy to reference your brand palette HEX #s, etc.

| READ MORE: How To Grow Your Blog Email List Using Freebie Opt-Ins

8. Promote Your Blog Content On LinkedIn

One of the best free places to share blog posts is LinkedIn if you have a business-to-business blog.

If your blog posts can be helpful to professionals, share them on LinkedIn! Sharing relevant blog posts on a topic you are an expert in, to your network of followers in the same niche field is a no-brainer.

Just don’t share irrelevant topics with others:

E.g., 10 Tips On How To Change Your Baby During A Flight when you aren’t a parenting expert, but rather a customer service rep for a radio station.

See? They don’t fit.

If you have a blog post on “10 Ingenious Ways To Deal With Tough Customers”, then yes, post it to LinkedIn. Your tips would be helpful to your customer rep followers.

9. Using Threads To Promote Your Content

Facebook’s alternative to X is a new place to promote your content.

However, it’s being used less to promote blog posts and more to position yourself as an expert and to have conversations with others.

Here’s mine at @margaretbournemedia.

If you’re going to share a post, be smart about your caption. You’ll need to hook your audience in to click to read more.

Threads still has a long way to go before it becomes a powerful tool for blog promotion. Nevertheless, start experimenting with ways to promote your blog content on this app.

10. Use Quora To Promote Your Blog For Free

Quora is a site dedicated to questions. On all topics!

It’s worthwhile exploring and some swear by it as a resource. Like Reddit, it’s a place to get information.

However, it’s like the Wild West of “Q & A” sites these days.

I’ve noticed that many TOP experts are hijacking the site and re-posting a complete blog post with links to their site, images, and all that jazz to answer.

However, this is an opportunity to succeed if you approach this site genuinely, positioning yourself as an expert. Give genuine, real answers to questions Quora users have.

You’ll get questions to answer, so take your time to respond well. Here’s an example for my account:

As established, well-known bloggers are dominating the platform, you need to work hard to make a mark.

This means that less well-known bloggers and those starting out need to really step up their game and SUPER WOW Quora users with responses.

So in my opinion, unless you have a niche blog and you can thrive as an expert, dabble in Quora. For others, perhaps look at better, lower-hanging fruit options to grow blog traffic.

11. Repackage Blog Content On YouTube

Have a YouTube channel? One of the best ways to promote your blog posts is to take some of the content and repurpose it for a tutorial, or a walkthrough video.

You can add the link in the description. Include a call-to-action at the end of the video to learn more by visiting the link.

People are searching for tips and solutions on YouTube every day.

12. Boost Your Blog On Medium

A growing number of bloggers are saying that one of the best places to share your blog posts is Medium.

Many swear by Medium, however like Flipboard it takes a long time to build relationships with influencers who may want to collaborate and share your posts. I’ve dabbled in it, but don’t have the time to dedicate to working on it. It’s not for everybody.

A great breakdown of how to get Medium working for you comes from marketing and blogging guru Neil Patel.

How do you do it?

Write original content, and add links to your blog post links!

This is the best way to not only get backlinks but also grab the interest of your readers.

Like with your blog, understand your audience. Figure out who is using Medium and attract their interest.

13. Use Reddit To Give Your Blog A Boost

I have a love-hate relationship with Reddit.

It takes time to build up Reddit credibility. You can’t just drop your links and run. It takes time to build Reddit Cred (Reddit credibility).

Since the majority of my audience is women bloggers, Reddit is also somewhat of a strange place to promote my knowledge and work. It’s dominated by young males. However, there is a quieter group of Millennial women who use it as well.

How To Use Reddit As A Blogger

The best way to build your credibility on Reddit is to answer questions related to your niche topics. If you’ve got a thread going, drop a relevant link after a while of sharing tips and information.

Find your niche topics on Reddit and follow the group, answer questions and engage.

Always follow the rules of the board to ensure you aren’t kicked out. Some are notoriously strict about bloggers using their subreddit as a place to share their blog posts. Balance it out by sharing links to other resources – this makes you look less self-promotional.

14. Be A Guest On Podcasts

It doesn’t cost you anything to be a guest on most podcasts.

Most podcasts will introduce you and permit you to promote your blog or free offers.

The challenge is to get yourself invited to participate. The best way to do this is to start building blogger friendships with those who have a podcast.

Be ready to promote yourself as well, as you’ll need to provide a profile description as a niche expert.

| READ MORE: Why It’s Important To Work On Your Personal Branding As A Blogger

15. Drive Traffic To Your Blog Through Your Email Signature

The final place to promote your blog posts is in your email signature.

If you’re emailing brands and others often, ALWAYS update your email signature to include your latest posts or your best posts that make you look like the superstar that you are!

This works very well if you have a cornerstone blog post or one that’s promoting a freebie offer.

How To Get Blog Traffic For Free: Other Honourable Mentions

There are many more ways to promote your blog for free. I’ll add a few honourable mentions here:

Using Flipboard To Promote Your Blog

I had a blog post go viral on Flipboard, so the opportunity is there!

There are some bloggers who have harnessed the power of flipping. Flipboard is a platform where you can publish your own magazine and “flip” your blog posts to it.

Here’s one of my magazines – for Blogging Tips & Social Media.

It drives anybody who clicks on your flips to your blog post, giving you some amazing coverage.

But you need to do some work in building an audience. The best way to do this is to follow people in your niche and to comment on and “heart” their posts. The hope is that they will notice you and pay attention to what you’re adding to your magazines.

A few key tips:

• Create magazines according to a niche – e.g., “Blogging Tips” or “Parenting Life”
• Flip your blog posts into your relevant magazines
• Post your old blog posts that are performing well
• Remember to populate your niche board with relevant content from others too!

There are some Facebook groups that also do threads for Flipboard follows. They’re worthwhile for growing your following as well.

You can follow my Flipboard profile and magazines!

Get Free Traffic To Your Blog With TikTok

TikTok isn’t for everybody – the audience is mostly younger (Millennials, Gen-Z and younger), and certain niches work better than others.

However, it’s on my list of ways to promote your blog.

The format is great for building your personal brand, and thus attracting others to check out what else you’re creating – ie. your blog.

As such, it’s important to speak to your TikTok audience.

You’ll need to “hook” your audience fairly early in the video (literally in the first few seconds).

Tell the story – give the context of the problem and one way they can solve it. Grab attention within the first 2 seconds before the user scrolls away.

Always add a call-to-action to check out more tips for this problem on your blog. Have your blog URL in your link.

Caption your video, to make it easier to understand what you’re saying. This is key for accessibility reasons.

Get Blog Traffic Through Forums

Forums have been around for many years, but will probably be seeing a greater resurgence in the next few years.

There are forums for niche subjects that you can join that work well for specific blog topics. They can help get visibility for blog posts. So, do your research. Check them out to see if you’re allowed to share links.

Join relevant forums and groups and share your content in a way that follows forum rules.

Use Mix To Generate Free Blog Traffic

This is one of the new growing places to share your blog posts for free. Bookmarking sites are places to promote your blogs for the opportunity to get seen.

Remember Stumbleupon? It used to be a huge driver for bloggers.

Mix is the new Stumbleupon.

Mix is like Flipboard married Stumbleupon and they had a baby.

Although it hasn’t taken off as Stumbleupon did with driving traffic, Mix has the potential to drive traffic for you. What I’m finding is that click-worthy blog post titles get the most eyeballs.

Get the Mix extension for your browser and “Mix” your blog posts into the right collections you’ve created. Consider creating your collections as you do with Pinterest boards. Organize them!

When you click on “For You” in Mix, you get to see posts from others based on your topic preferences. This is where posting your blog posts to a correct collection helps as well as the use of keywords in your own post.

Here’s an example of some of my collections:

If your topic is parenting tips, for others whose interest is parenting, the blog post that you “mixed” can potentially show up in their “just for you”.

Promote In Places That Work For Your Audience And Niche

These are just some of the ways to promote your blog. There may be others that work for you!

There are also SEO, networking, and other activities for promoting your content.

However, when you publish a new post, these are some of the best places to promote your blog and your blog’s fresh content.

Now you know how to get blog traffic for free. Start experimenting and see what works for you.

Don’t forget, that you can do the same thing when you update your old blog posts!

QUESTION: What ways to promote your blog do you use?

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