Docs · Earn & grow

Where to promote

Google takes months to trust a new blog. In the meantime your readers are already talking about your subject somewhere: in subreddits, Facebook groups, forums, on Pinterest and on question sites. Where to promote finds those places for you and tells you how to share there without being removed.

1. Make your promotion plan

Open Promote → Where to promote and click Make my promotion plan. It costs a few cents and takes about a minute; you can leave the page while it works.

The AI reads your blog (its description, categories and articles) and suggests about 12 places, grouped into:

  • Communities: subreddits, Facebook groups, forums and Discord servers about your subject.
  • Social networks: the ones that suit your niche. Pinterest is a big one for food, home, travel, crafts and DIY blogs.
  • Questions and answers: Quora topics and other places where people ask what your articles answer.
  • Other bloggers and sites: newsletters, round-ups and directories that link to good articles.

Each place shows why your readers are there, how to share there, how much effort it takes, how often to post, and which of your articles would go down best. Quick ones come first.

Click Find more places at any time for more; new ones are added to the list and nothing you've already seen is suggested again.

2. Join each place (new to it? start here)

Click Open (or Search) on a card to go there. Subreddits, Quora topics and hashtags open directly. For Facebook groups, Pinterest boards and Discord servers the button searches that site instead: the AI can't be sure of their exact names, and big sites don't let fastCMS look them up for you.

Never used the site before? Here's how to get in:

Reddit is a huge collection of forums called subreddits (written like r/Cooking), each about one topic.

  1. Sign up free at reddit.com (click Log In, then Sign Up). Pick a username you're happy for people to see.
  2. Open the subreddit from the card and click Join.
  3. Read its rules: on a computer they're in the column on the right; on a phone, tap About. Many subreddits don't allow links from new accounts, or only allow them on certain days.
  4. Upvote (the up arrow) and comment on other posts for a week or two before you share anything of your own. Reddit trusts accounts with some history ("karma").

Facebook groups are communities inside Facebook.

  1. Log in to facebook.com (or sign up free).
  2. Open the search from the card, pick a group with recent posts, and click Join group. Some groups ask a few questions first; answer them honestly.
  3. Read the group's About section and the pinned post at the top: they say whether you can share links, and when.

Quora is a question and answer site.

  1. Sign up free at quora.com.
  2. Add a short "credential" to your profile, like "Home cook and food blogger at yourblog.com". It shows next to your answers.
  3. Open the topic from the card and click Follow. Find questions your articles answer, then click Answer.

Forums and Discord servers each have their own sign-up. Look for a "Rules" or "Read me first" section, and an introductions area to say hello.

When you've joined a place, click I've joined it on its card. It moves to Your places, and the dashboard keeps count. Save for later keeps a place for another day; Not for me removes it for good.

3. Write a post

Click Write a post on any card. The AI writes a post that shares one of your articles there, following that place's rules. It never posts for you: Reddit, Facebook groups and Quora ban automatic posting. You copy the post and post it yourself.

  1. Choose the article. The ones that suit this place come first.
  2. Choose the kind of post. Only the kinds that suit the place are offered:
  3. A new post, which starts a conversation (with a title);
  4. A reply to a question, or An answer on Quora;
  5. A short post for social networks;
  6. A chat message for Discord;
  7. An email to another blogger or newsletter.
  8. Answering a question? Copy the question from the site and paste it in. The answer is then written for exactly what they asked, which is the best way to share on Reddit and Quora. You can paste the question's address too.
  9. Click Write it. It takes 10 to 20 seconds and costs about a cent.
  10. Read it and change anything you like. The post is written to be helpful on its own. It says plainly that the article is yours, and it leaves the link out where the place doesn't allow links. A tip underneath says how to post it there.
  11. Click Copy and open. The post is copied, and the place (or the question you pasted) opens in a new tab. Paste it there (press Ctrl+V, or Cmd+V on a Mac). Copy the title separately with its Copy button.
  12. Back in fastCMS, click Mark as posted, and paste the address of your post if you like.

Each place keeps a history ("Posted 2 times, last 3 Oct"). If you open Write a post again within a week of posting there, you'll see a reminder to wait: posting your own links too often is the quickest way to get removed.

4. Share the right way

What works almost everywhere:

  • Be useful first. Answer questions, share tips and join conversations for a week or two before you post a link. Most communities remove links from newcomers who only post their own.
  • Share an article when it answers someone. "I wrote a full guide on this" under a real question works far better than posting a link on its own.
  • Follow the 1 in 10 rule. On Reddit and many forums, at most one of every ten posts or comments should link to your own blog.
  • Never post the same link everywhere at once. It looks like spam, and accounts that do it get banned.
  • Be open about it. Say it's your blog ("I wrote about this here").

A few regular places where you're known and trusted bring more readers than dozens of places you post in once.

To share every new article on your own social channels automatically, see Auto-posting.

← Email digest Auto-posting →