Promoting your content is only part of the equation.  It is, however, a very fun and juicy part of the equation.  Promoting your articles on websites helps increase its exposure (exposure: how many people see the article), resulting in more clicks to your articles.  More clicks = bigger performance payments.

Posting your content on relevant websites without spamming can also increase the article’s rank on Google.  If your article is ranked on the first page on Google when typing in relevant keywords–say, typing in Twilight bookmarks if you’ve written an article titled “How to Make Cheap Twilight Bookmarks”–you’re going to gain more page views.  But if it’s on page 12, you’re not going to get many clicks.

If your Associated Content article is already up and it’s not on the first page of Google, it’s time to promote.  You’ll need to spend some time doing this, but the increase in page views–and how much you make from those page views–really makes it worth it in the long run.

Remember, though, that promoting does not replace well written content filled with relevant, strong keyphrases.  If your work isn’t good, no amount of promotion will make up for it.

How to Promote, Not Spam

There is a very fine line between promoting and spamming.  Violate it and you could gain a bad reputation in the Associated Content community, and even be banned from some websites.

If you want to promote without risking being banned because of unintentional spamming, keep these three rules in mind:

• Keep it informative. If you’re going to throw up a link on a website, make sure to include some information about why it is interesting and relevant to that website.  Don’t make it out to be the greatest article ever written, unless it really, really is.
• Keep it short. Don’t promote on the same website more than once a week.  If you need to promote it more, promote it on different websites.  Also, check with the website to see how many times you can post the same link.
• Stay involved. Don’t promote and forget about the website.  Be an active member of the community.  Promote other articles not written by you.  If you stay involved, people are less likely to think you’re just using the website for your own personal gain.

Using websites effectively means not abusing its tools just to gain more page views.  If you stick with a couple of websites and stay genuinely interested in them, you’re also more likely to make friends and become more popular.  Being genuine in your actions goes a long way, and you’ll see the difference in your page views.

This article is a part of the AC Tutorials series on WJR.  To view all of the articles included in this series, visit the AC Tutorials section.