This is my guide to promoting and sharing your writing. It is based on what I do and what I have had success with. It is not exhaustive but it is enough to keep you going with I am sure.
Places to Share Your Work
Facebook
Share all your writing through your Facebook account. If you don't want to bore family and friends you could open up a separate Facebook account . Join writing groups, blogger groups and other groups where you can share your writing, tips and expertise with other online writers.
If you have a particular interest or expertise you could start a page- having a page to go alongside your website is a good idea. Then you can post links to all your online content to the page and your followers will see it. You can also pay money to have Facebook advertise your page.
Twitter
If you haven't got a twitter account you really need to get one- get one twitter account for every area of expertise you write about then use choose a username that gives people an idea what you write about- this means like minded people will follow you. You can then tweet links to all your online writing. To get followers on twitter follow people with similar interests and tweet could interesting stuff- not just links to your own work. Try to participate in the twitter community by commenting and re-tweeting every now and again. Use # to index your tweets. So if I am tweeting a link to an article I wrote about Islam I would use the following hashtags- #Islam, #religion and so on. If your link is very long it won't leave you much space in your tweet to say anything else- If this is the case go to Bitly and shorten your url. It's free and you can log straight in via facebook.
Pinterest
Pinterest is great if your written content has good pictures in it- Pinterest works on images and a good image is more likely to be repinned than a crappy mobile upload. Pinterest is more suited to certain areas like crafts, fashion or food but you can use it for anything so give it a go. To get followers on Pinterest pin good content regularly and not just your own stuff. Pin from around the web on to well named, well organised boards. Pin about stuff that is linked to your writing areas so when you also pin your own stuff it wont look spammy or out of place.
Stumbleupon
Stumbleupon is a bit like Pinterest but instead of showing users thumbnails linked to a webpage it shows the actual webpage. Adding a page to Stumbleupon is a bit more complex than simply pressing a Pin It Button if there isn't a stumble upon button on your writing. Again as before add your work to Stumbleupon and use the stumble tool on the actual website to stumble through other pages. When you see something you like you can give it a thumbs up and if you really like it you can add it to one of your collections. Follow lots of people and regularly update your stumbles to gain followers yourself. Because Stumbleupon shows the whole page and not just an it is good for people who write about things that aren't necessarily eye-catching like fashion and baking etc. I like using Stumbleupon to find good writing advice.
Instagram
Instagram is a phone app that lets you upload and share images with your followers. It is good for anyone writing about health, fitness and food especially. You will have to upload good images or inspirational or funny quotes seem to do quite well as well. If your phone camera is not very good there is a way to add photos straight from your computer. See here for directions. Again get followers by following like-minded people. You can search for # or usernames to help you find kindred spirits. When you add a picture you can add a comment and hash-tags. Unfortunately you cannot put direct links to your work but it can still help you brand yourself and get yourself known.
Use a Ping Service
Once you have written content, either for your blog or for a revenue sharing website you can ping your work to all the search engines. I use MyPageRank. It is quick and simple, and of course free, to use. Simply paste your url, write the title and enter the code and there you go- all the search engines know about your work.
Redgage*
Redgage allows you to create an account and add links to all your online content. You can make friends and get subscribers who will see everything you put up. You can easily create groups to organise your content. The added bonus? You actually get paid by Redgage when people look at your content. It's not a great deal and you have to reach a certain amount before you get paid but considering it's driving traffic to your writing then you can't complain.
* Redgage are currently trying to sort a few things on their website out so at present they are not accepting new users.
Google Plus
You can also share your writing with your circles on Google Plus. This is usually as simply as clicking the G+ Button. You can also join like-minded communities on Google Plus and post links to your content their. So if you write about health you can join the Health communities and link your work. Be careful- some communities stipulate that you are not allowed to post links to your own sites but most will let you if it is relevant. Again though- keep it to one or two a day- you don't want to spam the board or you'll start to annoy people.
So as you can see there are plenty of free places online that you can share your content.
Stumbleupon
Stumbleupon is a bit like Pinterest but instead of showing users thumbnails linked to a webpage it shows the actual webpage. Adding a page to Stumbleupon is a bit more complex than simply pressing a Pin It Button if there isn't a stumble upon button on your writing. Again as before add your work to Stumbleupon and use the stumble tool on the actual website to stumble through other pages. When you see something you like you can give it a thumbs up and if you really like it you can add it to one of your collections. Follow lots of people and regularly update your stumbles to gain followers yourself. Because Stumbleupon shows the whole page and not just an it is good for people who write about things that aren't necessarily eye-catching like fashion and baking etc. I like using Stumbleupon to find good writing advice.
Instagram is a phone app that lets you upload and share images with your followers. It is good for anyone writing about health, fitness and food especially. You will have to upload good images or inspirational or funny quotes seem to do quite well as well. If your phone camera is not very good there is a way to add photos straight from your computer. See here for directions. Again get followers by following like-minded people. You can search for # or usernames to help you find kindred spirits. When you add a picture you can add a comment and hash-tags. Unfortunately you cannot put direct links to your work but it can still help you brand yourself and get yourself known.
Use a Ping Service
Once you have written content, either for your blog or for a revenue sharing website you can ping your work to all the search engines. I use MyPageRank. It is quick and simple, and of course free, to use. Simply paste your url, write the title and enter the code and there you go- all the search engines know about your work.
Redgage*
Redgage allows you to create an account and add links to all your online content. You can make friends and get subscribers who will see everything you put up. You can easily create groups to organise your content. The added bonus? You actually get paid by Redgage when people look at your content. It's not a great deal and you have to reach a certain amount before you get paid but considering it's driving traffic to your writing then you can't complain.
* Redgage are currently trying to sort a few things on their website out so at present they are not accepting new users.
Google Plus
You can also share your writing with your circles on Google Plus. This is usually as simply as clicking the G+ Button. You can also join like-minded communities on Google Plus and post links to your content their. So if you write about health you can join the Health communities and link your work. Be careful- some communities stipulate that you are not allowed to post links to your own sites but most will let you if it is relevant. Again though- keep it to one or two a day- you don't want to spam the board or you'll start to annoy people.
So as you can see there are plenty of free places online that you can share your content.
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