Ways to get more views on website/blog

You have put a lot of time and effort into creating and designing your blog, writing posts, and uploading content. However, your work is not done yet. To get the most out of your posts and to drive traffic to your blog, you must promote it as much as you can. We will cover several ways that you can promote your blog (the majority are free). Treat this as a check-list and with a little work, you will get the most leverage out of your blog posts.

Bookmarking Sites

• Create an account on StumbleUpon.com and start stumbling your posts.
• Reddit.com is one of the most popular bookmarking sites, be on it.
• Submit each post to Digg.com so that they can be shared with others.
• Help others find your posts when you submit them to Delicious.com
• Being on Technorati.com is a must as it is the top search engine for blogs (even Google says so).
• Triberr.com is a great site to promote your newsest blog posts and get social shares from it.

Social Media

• Add your recent posts to your personal and blog Facebook pages.
• Tweet about your latest posts at least once a day.
• Create a board on Pinterest for you to pin all of your posts to.
• Share your posts on Google+ for additional SEO perks.
• Instagram an image from your latest blog post to grab your followers attention and let them know that you have new content.
• Share on your LinkedIn profile and relevant groups.
• Bloglovin is becoming more popular as Google Reader is going away. Plus, they will drive traffic to you the more followers you have.
• Tumblr is a microblogging site that is perfect for sharing niche-based content.
• Empire Avenue combines social media and networking tools to help you drive network engagement to your blog.
• Quora.com is a question and answer based community. Perfect for your how-to posts.

Your Community

• Add your latest blog posts and URL to your email signatures using WiseStamp.
• Add your blog posts to your email newsletters.
• Share your posts with people in groups or forums that you belong to. Have you submitted your post to be featured as ourFavorites of the Week or to our Favorite SHOP Reviews?
• Submit your posts to RSS directories. Your published posts will be published on other blogs automatically.

On Other Blogs

• Comment on other relevant blogs. Be sure to include a link to your blog or include a link to a post.
• Ask influential bloggers to link to your posts.
• Guest blog on other relevant blogs to capture a new audience.
• Join a blogging community and exchange links with other bloggers.

SEO

• Use Google Keywords to promote your blogs via SEO. Their Keyword Tool helps you to search keywords and see how many people are searching for particular keywords and how competitive they are.
• Look in your Google Analytics to see how people are finding your blog now. If it is a specific post, you may want to revisit that topic.
• Add relevant keywords in your image “Alt” tags. Images can be searched for too.
• Link to other posts within your site. This helps to build authority for your posts and keeps your readers on your blog longer.

Ways to Promote Your Facebook Page Without Spending Money

by Jim Belosic
In Facebook How-to, Facebook Marketing Tips

My company helps businesses build custom apps for their Facebook pages.

So I often hear feedback from our users about the step that comes after they launch their fan page app:

How to promote it?

Plenty of businesses use Facebook advertising to promote their page apps, but the majority do not.

If you’ve built an app that is unique & interesting to your fanbase — and has built-in sharing features as well as an awesome incentive (a prize, access to exclusive content, etc.), then you’re halfway there.

And the truth is, you don’t need to spend money to get the word out about your cool new app.

7 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Page Without Spending A Dime

In this post I’m going to cover how your business can promote your business’s app to existing fans & people outside of your Facebook network, all without spending a dime.

Tips to promote your app to current fans

1. Post multiple status updates about your new app

I’m going back to the basics with this first tip. If you want fans to know about something, you have to tell them — and keep reminding them.

For example, if you just launched a contest app, make multiple Facebook announcements during different times of the day & throughout the week (or during the period of time the app is running).

Also, don’t forget to use an eye-grabbing image for your posts. The more attention your status updates receive, the better it is for the promotion of your app.

2. Update your cover photo

Recently Facebook kicked in the door for how businesses can use their largest piece of Timeline real estate — the cover photo. According to their new promotion guidelines, calls-to-actions are now allowed in the copy & design of cover photo images.

This is a total game-changer!

Draw attention to apps by using arrows or other illustrations, like the cover photo below, that point to your Timeline’s apps.

Tips to promote your app to non-Facebook networks

1. Send a message to your email list

Whether your list includes 50 or 50,000 subscribers, send an email to your list asking them to check out your new Facebook app.

For example, if you’ve created an app for a giveaway, make sure to let everyone on your email list know to check it out for a chance to win!

2. Use Twitter for personal outreach

I have a Twitter rockstar on my team who uses this tip. Rather than tweeting out generic updates like, “Check out our new app for a chance to win!” it’s more effective to tweet at individuals who you think would most likely share news about your app with their communities.

You can also test using a specific hashtag in the tweets you’re promoting your app — this will help your company keep track of what users are saying.

3. If you have a blog, write a blog post

If you have a company blog, use it as a platform to talk about your newly launched custom app.

For example, at ShortStack our blog is Socially Stacked. Every time we launch a new app for our Facebook Page, we write a blog post about it (like this one) & link our readers back to the app.

Because we get a decent amount of traffic to Socially Stacked, this approach works really well for us.

Tips to promote your app to people outside of your network

1. Issue a press release

In business, writing a press release has long been a best practice for making company announcements. When your business launches an awesome new app, it’s news! So go ahead & write a press release about it.

Most apps, especially contest & promotion apps, anchor a company’s overarching campaign. Use the press release to talk about the campaign, then provide a call to action & a link to your app.

If your company isn’t already signed up with a press release distribution company, this option will cost you (about $99 to distribute one press release, to be exact). Although, in a lot of cases, it’s worth it.

PR Web, for example — the service I use at ShortStack — makes it super easy to get your release out to search engines & major news sites like Yahoo News. However, if your company wants a free alternative, check out this post for a list of free press release distribution sites.

2. Make an announcement in your store

Okay, you got me. This last tip may cost you a few cents for printing paper, but I think it’s worth mentioning anyway.

If you own a brick-&-mortar business, create signs and/or add a line to receipts reminding customers to visit your Facebook Page to check out your new app. You can also print a reminder on the bottom of receipts.

If your third-party app provider supports mobile, add a QR code to your in-store signs. A QR code lets your customers easily navigate to your app from their smartphones.

This tip is especially great for apps that host a promo code! Shoppers can visit your app while they’re in the store & use the promo code to get a discount on their purchase. Customers love this & businesses benefit because it encourages a sale.

You Don’t Need to Break the Bank!

It’s not necessary to spend much (or any) money to promote your app—use Facebook’s features, tap into your existing networks & leverage traditional PR & marketing efforts to give new exposure to your app.

These seven tips are just the tip of the iceberg! In the comments below, please share your other zero cost or low cost options businesses have for promoting their Facebook app.