How to grow your blog quickly, especially without spending money? Every single starting blogger asks this question, and I was no exception. If I were now to give an answer in one sentence, I would say, “through lots of hard work and creativity”. But that’s not what you came here for. Because I want to help you, I want my answer to be thorough and of value. There are, after all, a couple of things that you can do to make the process much faster. Enjoy!
1. Guest posting
Guest posting is arguably one of the most popular ways to grow your blog without spending money.
In the blog post “3 Unexpected Lessons Learned in 3 Years of Blogging”, I mentioned that, in my opinion, guest posting isn’t as effective as some people claim it to be. I assume that its effect has diminished over the years due to people paying for backlinks and buying sponsored posts. Moreover, there really is no way to measure your success with this method.
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Nevertheless, one of the main ways that Google and other search engines measure your blog’s authority and reputation is through the number of (quality) links pointing back at it. So for example, if some really big website, like Wikipedia, links to your blog, that automatically tells the search engines that your blog somehow deserved that link from Wikipedia and therefore is of quality. The search engines will then make sure that more people will find your blog by ranking it higher in their search engine results.
Obviously, it’s not that easy to have Wikipedia put a link pointing back to your blog. What isn’t so hard, though, is to have another news outlet or blog do it. In exchange for that link, you will have to provide something up front. In most cases, it’s a well-written, well-researched, original blog post. That is why the method is called “guest posting”.
To guest post, search for blogs and websites that have a similar niche to yours. Look for a section called “write for us” or “contribute”, or contact the website owners directly through email if you can’t find those sections. Keep in mind that most big websites won’t reply because of how many guest posting requests they get daily, but don’t let that discourage you. Just keep trying. At some point, you will receive a response and you will have your opportunity.
I have personally been rejected hundreds of times with guest posting, but I have also often been accepted. I got to write for many different websites, including big ones like HuffPost and Lifehack.
Click To TweetAsk and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. – Matthew 7:7
2. Facebook groups
Another tip on how to grow your blog without spending money is through Facebook groups.
Facebook has many problems, in my opinion, but one thing that I love about it is that you can find a community of like-minded people pretty much around any subject. Blogging is not an exception.
There are groups around blogging that are more general, such as this one. There you can get help, have your questions answered and can probably even find someone to partner up with. Partnerships and collaborations can be used to grow your blog way faster than if you would be doing it on your own. You and your blogging partner can hold each other accountable, share strategies and guest post for each other.
Then there are also the more specific blogger groups aimed at growing your blog. In groups like this one, people exchange blog comments, page views, visits, etc.
When your blog doesn’t have much popularity yet, it’s good to get some external visits, even if they are from people that you know. Google and other search engines see that your traffic is growing, and therefore begin to rank your blog higher in their search engine’s results.
3. Quora
The third tip on how to grow your blog without spending money is through Quora.com.
Quora has been a lifesaver for me. Out of all the methods described here, Quora has been the most consistent at bringing in a good portion of my traffic. This is especially true for the times when I had zero organic traffic (people naturally finding me through Google’s search engines results). If not Quora, who knows if I could have ever grown my traffic this fast.
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Quora is a website for people to ask questions and have them answered. Every time I write a new blog post, I go to Quora and I answer questions related to that blog post. At the end of each answer, I leave a link to that new blog post, as well as the YouTube video that goes along with it.
In my Quora profile, I also have links pointing back at my blog, so that people could easily find it.
Keep in mind that in order not to get banned from Quora, you must write thorough answers, and not just have 2 lines of text followed by links. Quora does not like links in answers, but if your answers are good, they usually don’t care.
Also, try not to write quickly many answers in a row. Quora’s algorithms may pick it up as spam and block you. I once had my account suspended this way, but managed to get it back after doing some explaining. I really-really wanted the account back because of how good it was for my blog’s success.
4. Reddit
Reddit is one of the biggest internet forums on the planet, which makes it valuable for us – bloggers. It’s very similar to Quora, although I must admit that Reddit, as a source of traffic, used to be better in the past.
Reddit is made out of “subreddits”. Each subreddit is basically its own niche with its own set of rules, which you should follow if you don’t want to be banned.
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To get traffic from Reddit, simply write into Google’s search bar something along the lines of “reddit self-development” (replace the “self-development” word with whatever you are looking for). Then, inside of that subreddit, you begin adding value in the form of questions and answers, and having your link added somewhere within those answers.
Alternatively, if the subreddit allows you to do so, you can create a post directly in the form of a link. However, make sure you read the rules regarding “blogspam” prior to that in order not to get banned.
As mentioned, Reddit used to be better as a traffic source in the past. This is because once you had something posted, most people would see your post immediately. Nowadays, only the “hot” (trending) posts will be seen by default. If someone wants to see the post you just published, the “New” post, they will need to sort their list. As you can imagine, most people don’t sort, and most of your posts won’t fall into the “Hot” list. Essentially, you are left unseen to most, which is quite unfortunate. Nevertheless, it’s still a good source of traffic for me.
5. Social network channels
The last but not least tip on how to grow your blog without spending money is through social networks.
It’s not a secret that most of the daily internet users are registered on one or many of the social networks, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Ultimately, this also means that they consume information from those social networks. Therefore, your goal, as a blogger, is to be present on as many of the social networks as possible.
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Not only must you be present on those social networks, but you must also be active, posting daily on each one of them. Because of how much competition there is, you want to be seen on as many of the social networks as possible, as often as possible. Yes, this requires time and effort, but if your goal is to grow your blog’s traffic quickly, this is just another one of those things that you must do. The great part about this is that it’s completely free, unless you want to buy ads, but that’s a topic for another time.
When your following grows on social networks, your daily blog traffic will grow proportionally as well.
In conclusion, I want to add that the best approach to understanding how to grow your blog quickly, is to take 2 or 3 different methods, and to experiment, to stick with them. I could have listed 10 other methods, but I don’t want you to be all over the place. Trying to use all of them will confuse and exhaust you. I have given you those that have worked for me. If you follow these instructions, you will see that it is more than enough for your blog to get traction quickly. Though remember, consistency is key.
Feel free to leave a comment below if you have a question or feedback. I welcome and appreciate both.
Thank you for stopping by and good luck!
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