So your author website or blog is finished and online, live for the world to see. Now you can just sit back, and wait for the page views to roll in! Of course, you know that’s not true. You know you need to promote yourself, but you don’t have the first clue where to start. Neither did I. So who am I, and why can I help you?

I began designing and promoting websites in the late 90s. From 2007-2009, I wrote over 200 articles for Associated Content, later called Yahoo! Voices. I continued to profit for five years after that--until 2014, when they went out of business. That means I have no proof of any of this (except IRS records that you will never see), and you’re just going to have to trust me when I say that I rose quickly to the highest possible rank and paygrade by mastering both SEO writing and self-promotion. The editors offered an average of $10 upfront per piece, which I usually tripled with page views.

I am not selling anything. I’m also not here to tell you how to make money off your writing. I am here to tell you how to drive internet traffic to your author website or blog, step by step, so that you can turn those page views into profit--either through ads or book sales. Most importantly, I’m going to tell you how to do it easily and without spending a dime. The only thing you have to invest is your time. You need to spend at least as much time promoting your website or blog as you did creating it.

First of all, if your web address is anything other than some variation of “yourname.com,” then I urge you to register a domain at GoDaddy.com for approximately $6 a year. They make it easy to point a domain to any author webpage or blog address. Domain names make you seem more professional and successful, and they are easier for fans to remember. The surest sign that you’re a penniless, two-bit author is not having a domain name. They don’t know if you can’t afford it or if you just won’t pony up the funds, but either way, you’re getting judged. Hard.

But you’re here for the free shit. I know, I know. Today I am going to cover three of the most effective, free ways that you can promote your site or blog: bookmarking, social media, and SEO writing. They are not the only tools you need, but they are the most powerful ones in your kit. They got me millions of page views, and it was easy. Self-promotion is as important as writing. Getting people to your author page or blog can get them to the Amazon checkout page.



Bookmarking

Bookmarking allows you to submit your site to a collection of sites, categorized by hashtags. Every bookmark is another access point to your site, sending readers to you. It takes a few minutes to sign up for a free account at each place, but after that, submitting a link takes no time at all. Bookmark every individual page of your website, every link on every page that points to another page of your site. This includes blog posts. You need to have the mindset that you are not done writing a blog entry until you have bookmarked the new post at least five times. Bookmark everything everywhere--your Amazon author and book sales pages, your Goodreads bio and reviews, etc. More bookmarks, more traffic.

Start with Google+ and the other services described here , followed by the popular bookmarking services listed here , many of which I have used successfully in the past. When you finish, here is an expanded list . It is commonly said that a writer should write everyday. A writer should self-promote everyday, until every resource is exhausted--then they should Google “bookmarking services,” and keep at it. Warm up or wind down writing sessions with self-promotion, or set a goal just as you do with writing--30 minutes a day, two pages submitted to five sites per day, 25 bookmarks a week, etc. Bookmarking is free and easy. It just takes time.

Social Media

In the words of the wise Roy Daman and talented Rebecca Church, “We must social the medias! All the medias." Build an online presence everywhere you can: Google+, Twitter, Pinterest , Facebook, LinkedIn, Goodreads, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit, o r forums related to your interests. Research how to make the most of each site. Share anything related to your writing, and hashtag it--pictures of your covers or professional selfies, videos of you reading excerpts from your stories, character inspirations, plot maps, etc. Be creative, and pair visuals with writing to attract the most people.

Have conversations. Make friends. Join groups where you can share your writing and links. Don’t just join writing groups. If you write about parenting, join parenting groups. Share your writing where it is relevant in a discussion. Being an interesting, friendly, helpful person is publicity, so put yourself out there. Encourage visitors to leave comments on your site or blog, and respond to them promptly. How users interact with your site helps determine its rank in Google searches, so get conversations going.

SEO Writing

Google’s algorithms for website indexing changed dramatically in 2011 with the release of Panda, designed to eliminate content farms and produce higher quality search engine results. It was a devastating blow to SEO writers across the internet, who watched their page views and earnings drop overnight. I was lucky enough to escape the initial onslaught, but subsequent updates to Panda knocked me down 50%. SEO writers everywhere had to adapt and master the trade anew. Google Panda, Penguin, Pigeon, and Hummingbird are designed to your detriment. Research how to use them to your advantage. More care is needed when selecting tags now, but the skill of SEO writing is fortunately still easy enough to learn.

SEO writing stands for “search engine optimization.” In short, it’s lacing targeted phrases throughout the text content of your website that will hit in a Google search. Think of them like keywords. These phrases need to be repeated multiple times to be effective, at least thrice per page and once every 150 words. You don’t need to do this to every page, every blog post, but as with bookmarking, the more you do it, the more traffic you will get. Doing it well, so that you don’t sound like a robot, takes practice and time. Even then, it will feel trite, and it will feel like shitty writing.

Don’t worry. Any decent publisher should understand marketing enough to recognize SEO writing and see it as a positive, not a negative. You are showing off a different skillset, demonstrating that you know how to write appropriately for different mediums. Most importantly, you are showing that you are independently proactive about self-promotion and know the game. Publishers love that as much as they love great writing. You do not want a publisher who thinks your SEO website or blog reflects poorly upon your skills as a fiction writer or poet. They can’t sell your writing as well as a publisher who knows the hustle.

SEO works best when your phrases are laced throughout a page or post, beginning, middle, and end. It is easier to “hide” them this way, camouflaging them with your context so that the repetition is less obvious and sounds natural. You can limit it to your introduction and conclusion if you up the density. I may use the phrase once in a paragraph if I am lacing it throughout, but if I am only using it at the beginning and end, I will use it two or three times in those paragraphs to ensure it hits. If you post a poem or short story, introduce it with a short, dense SEO paragraph, and sign off with one. You still have the freedom to show off other writing skills in the meat of the post.

So what phrases do you use? You will have to use your judgment and do some research. You can choose one specific phrase to repeat or several vague ones, or you can employ a blend of both. A searchable phrase is something that a user would type into a search engine. Some authors make the mistake of ensuring only that a search for their name returns results. Most users out there don’t even know your name, though. It doesn’t matter that your name returns search results if no one is Googling your name. Your name needs to pop up when they search for other things.

What would a user who would be interested in your blog type into the Google search bar? Think about how you find things on the internet. Let’s say I Google “fantasy stories.” Of course, this returns all kinds of results--tales of dragons, mermaids, and even gods. I’m in the mood for fairies, though, so I’m not too likely to click on most of those links. Instead, I’m going to narrow down my search to “fantasy stories about fairies.” These results will be more relevant, and I will be more likely to click them. If one of your pages or blog posts is targeting a phrase, you’re more likely to show up in the results. You want to show up somewhere whether users are vague or specific. You will hit higher in searches when you use more specific terms.

This link is an excellent resource on SEO writing that covers how to choose and even track search phrases, and here is one on SEO writing in the age of the Google birds . You only need a few pages/posts targeting a phrase. Don’t target the same one in all of your content. Vary them from page to page, post to post, using keywords that make sense for that piece. Google is constantly crawling the web with bots that index new pages and update with changes. It can take up to a week for your content to appear in a Google search. If you’re still not finding it after that, you should probably step up your SEO density. That means more repetition or more effective keywords.