41 FREE Sources for Instant Backlinks to Your Content [With Real Examples]

So you just published a new post to your blog and wait for the traffic to flood in..and wait…and wait. The sad news is that if you don’t have an already established blog with authority, you will not see many visitors to your blog unless you get backlinks to your content.

Think of a book writer who needs to pitch to editors and publish houses until he gets his 1st book published and his first fans. It would help if you spent at least the same time you spent writing to promote your content.

In this article, I share with you 41 places where you should add your blog post to grab a back-link and get some targeting traffic (i.e., readers).

1. Social Media Networks

Social Media Networks like Facebook, Twitter, and others are excellent sources of traffic and backlinks.

You can have your content seen by hundreds or even thousands with a little effort. All you have to do is to share the article, add the relevant tags, and mention the persons you talk about in your article if any.

Your Facebook Page [Join Facebook]

If you have a Facebook page for your blog, you should add your just published post there and make it known to your audience.

With all the recent changes in Facebook algorithms, your post’s reach will not be great as it will probably go to only 3-5% of your followers. However, if it is a great post, you should pay to boost it and make it available to your audience.

We have written a Facebook page marketing guide to check if you want to do Facebook marketing like a PRO.

If you have Jetpack from WordPress, you will send your post automatically to your Facebook page. Don’t forget to re-post it 2 or 3 times per month to reach a higher audience. Social Network Auto Poster (SNAP) WordPress plugin does this automatically for you.

We have had it here on monetize.info for three years, and it works like a charm.

Your Facebook profile

Another good place on Facebook where you should add your newest blog post is your public profile. Facebook profiles tend to get a better reach than posts in Pages, and also, you may have another audience there, so don’t forget to add your post to your Facebook public profile.

You will also get a link from Facebook if your post is set to be seen by the public.

Targeted Facebook Groups

Facebook Groups are an excellent way to get backlinks and, most important, traffic to your posts. However, there are some conditions you should follow. The first one is to join only targeted groups. Otherwise, the admin will delete your post; the second one is not spam.

Not only will your post be deleted, but you may trigger some Facebook anti-spam filters that will drastically reduce the exposure of your current and future posts.

The key here is to promote it moderately and use different headlines, descriptions, and links. To tweak your links, you may add HTTP and HTTPS versions or add additional parameters to the end of the link like ?cameFrom=Facebook, ?view=socialmedia, etc.

Tools like MissingLettr or KingPoster can do this for you automatically.

Btw, It may be a good idea to create a Facebook group to amplify your content. Also, check our list of best affiliate marketing groups on Facebook.

Twitter profile [Join Twitter]

Twitter is another good source of traffic, again, if used right. You should add your post here, and don’t forget to mention using everyone you talked about in the post and have a Twitter account. This will improve your exposure because the people you mentioned will retweet your post to their audiences.

Linkedin profile [Join Linkedin]

Linkedin is not only your social media site to hire or get hired. It may help you promote your articles and blog posts as well. Don’t forget to tag all the persons or brands you mentioned in the article and have a Linkedin account.

Linkedin Groups

Just like on Facebook, Linkedin has different groups where you can promote your newest blog post. The main difference is that there is a tight limit of groups you can join – 100 compared to Facebook, where the limit is set at 6000.

I recommend you join several digital marketing LinkedIn groups: Digital Marketing, Digital Marketing – SocialMedia, Search, Mobile, and more, Social Media Marketing, Marketing Pros, and Digital Marketing Professionals.

Instagram profile [Join Instagram]

Instagram is famous for sharing pictures with your social media friends, so if you’re into niches like Fashion, Interior design, Travelling, or Cooking, you should get an account and build your followers base ASAP.

However,  you still can use it is not so picture popular niches like Finances or Digital Marketing. Popular magazines are already doing it and have an excellent follower base.

We have a dedicated Instagram marketing guide you should check. Also, don’t forget to choose popular hashtags.

Pinterest Pin [Join Pinterest]

With 200 million monthly users, Pinterest may not be a social media behemoth like Facebook, but it’s an important social platform with deep penetration into valuable demographics. Half of all U.S. millennials use Pinterest, for instance.

A Pin is any image or video someone chooses to save to Pinterest. For businesses, the link is more important than the image itself: Every pin links back to the source so that Pinterest can be a great source of referral traffic.

Rich Pins are enhanced Pins that use metadata pulled from your site to provide extra information about what Pinners will find when they click on a Pin.

Rich Pins for articles include a headline, the author’s name, the article’s date, and a story description. They also indicate that the link points to an article and includes a call-to-action button saying “Read it.”

XING Post [Join Xing]

XING is a European career-oriented social networking site for enabling a small-world network for professionals. Posting to XING profiles and groups is an excellent opportunity to share news related to a specific business field and reach and engage with target groups.

Post on Reddit

As a social news aggregation platform, Reddit can be an excellent traffic source if your target audience frequents it. You’ll need to join relevant subreddits and then share content with the users there. People will then upvote or downvote your content depending on how they like it. The more upvotes you get, the better your chances are of gaining visibility and website traffic.

Entrepreneurs like Travis Levell have used the platform to generate relevant website traffic. Using only three posts to the right subreddits, he drove more than 1,000 sessions, out of which 96.2% were completely new.

2. Content Networks

There are two main ways you can use the following content networks to gain views and backlinks to your content. You may syndicate the content just as it is or creates a new, different one. Creating new content will take longer, but the benefits are worth it.

Republish on Medium.com [Join Medium]

The medium allows you to republish your existing blog posts. If you use their import feature, they even add a rel=canonical link. You can also use this platform to increase traffic to the full blog posts on your site.

You may post snippets of full blog posts on Medium and then direct users to the full article on their website. If you don’t want to syndicate your blog posts’ entire text, this might be a tactic to try. If you’re getting good traction on Medium, you could mix it up by adding occasional exclusive Medium articles once you’ve built up your readership.

Answer relevant questions on Quora  [Join Quora]

Quora had close to 400 million visitors in May 2017, according to SimilarWeb. And 72.79% of that traffic came from searches. So if you want to increase traffic to your website, you can make the most of this platform by showcasing your expertise.

This will ensure high visibility in searches related to the topic, and you should be able to attract relevant searchers who might decide to check out your link after reading your answers.

Make a list of relevant keywords and then search for questions related to those words. Answer the related questions and use relevant links embedded in your answers. Make sure the answers are helpful and answer the question.

Otherwise, your answers could end up being hidden due to downvotes. Websites like Wishpond have been leveraging Quora to get 9000+ monthly visits.

Republish on SlideShare [Join SlideShare]

SlideShare is a hosting service for professional content, including presentations, infographics, documents, and videos. Users can upload files privately or publicly in PowerPoint, Word, PDF, or OpenDocument format.

You can quickly transform your blog post into a presentation by keeping the article’s essential points, the intro, and the conclusions. Don’t forget to add the images and sources. You can also embed the presentation on the article itself as a takeaway.

This can make a huge difference to your traffic because the website gets 80 million visitors, 80% of which come through targeted searches. So people who happen upon your SlideShare content are likely there because they’re looking for that exact information. And then there’s the fact that SlideShare has a DA of 95. This means that your content on SlideShare has a good chance of ranking the top results in relevant searches.

Republish on Youtube [Join Youtube]

YouTube has over a billion users, almost one-third of total internet users.  According to Wordstream, 59% of executives agree that if both text and video are available on the same topic, they are more likely to choose video.

That’s why you have to create a video after you wrote your article and upload it on Youtube. Don’t forget to include a link back to your article in the description.

Republish on Tumblr [Join Tumblr]

Tumblr allows several different post formats, including quote posts, chat posts, video and photo posts, and audio posts, so you are never limited in the type of content you can share. Like Twitter, reblogging, which is more like retweeting, is quick and easy.

Republish on Scribd.com [Join Scribd]

Scribd is a great site to publish booklets and books. After you wrote a comprehensive blog article, you should convert it into a PDF booklet and upload it on Scribd.com.

Don’t forget to add back-links to the document you upload.

3. Social Bookmarks

BizSugar [Join BizSugar]

BizSugar is a social networking platform and niche resource for small business owners, entrepreneurs, and managers. The platform allows users to share videos, articles, blog posts, and podcasts, among other content. It also allows users to view and vote on submissions by other members.

There are five main categories: Marketing, Finance, Management, Technology, and Startups. All with subcategories. BizSugar submissions are moderated, so they will not appear instantly.

HackerNews [Join HackerNews]

HackerNews is a tech community similar to Reddit and GrowthHacker. Founded by Y Combinator, HackerNews features different content focused on IT, computer science, and entrepreneurship. Still, I’ve also seen unrelated articles that got many votes. Does every hacker deserve a break, doesn’t he? 🙂

ManageWP.org [Needs Replacement]

If you write about blogging, marketing, or programming, especially WordPress, you should bookmark your blog posts on ManageWP.org. After registration, fill in your profile details and ask for posting privileges to the admin’s email address.

Zest.is [Join Zest. is]

Zest is a relatively new place I’ve been visiting to find and share content, but I think it has enormous potential.  Zest. is having people submit content suggestions to a team of reviewers who decide if it’s right for the community of Zesters.

To be able to submit content and see other people’s content, you need to install Zest.is Chrome Extension. Out of 3 articles I’ve submitted so far, only one got approved. It was our longest one that goes in-depth, so if you want to get accepted, make sure your content is stellar.

Flipboard [Join Flipboard]

Flipboard is another traffic machine that can make your site crash. You create related boards and submit your articles. Other users will see them while flipping around. Users can add your content to their boards and vice versa.

One thing to note about Flipboard is the strict guidelines. One of my accounts has been blocked since I only shared my content repeatedly. It’s suggested to keep a proper balance and share others’ content before sharing yours or following the popular 80:20 rule.

3.6 SlashDot.org [Join SlashDot]

4. Other People’s Sites

Blog Commenting

I’ve recently written an extensive guide on finding blogs to comment on and what you should do to make sure admins approve your comments and secure a backlink.

Would you please give it a read here: How to earn backlinks through blog commenting?

If you’re planning to leave a blog comment, thoroughly read and understand the post. Then thank the writer for the tips and insights. Follow this up with a brief mention of what you think regarding the topic and then talk about a relevant article from your blog or mention your tool/service when appropriate. In other words, your comment should add value to the conversation instead of blatantly promoting yourself.

You can start by picking out a few relevant keywords and reading the top blog posts in the search results. And then, follow the tip above to write valuable and insightful comments while linking to a relevant page of your website.

Guest Posting

You’re probably familiar with guest posting and may have even written a few guest posts before. But if you wish to drive more traffic to your site, you must take your guest posting strategy to a new level. It should become a vital part of your content marketing strategy. Not only should you submit guest posts to other websites, but you should also start accepting guest posts on yours.

When you submit guest posts to relevant and reputable websites, you’re building high-quality backlinks for your website. Since a good link profile can improve your ranking, you will increase visibility and drive more traffic to your site.

Plus, you’re proving your credibility to the website’s audience, who might decide to visit your site after reading your guest post.

In other words, submitting guest posts can help you garner traffic in more ways than one. A case study on The HOTH found that links from guest posts drove a significant amount of traffic to the Ninja Outreach website. In two years worth of referral traffic, 5.47% came from websites on which they submitted guest posts.

Forums

Forum Marketing is an effective way of getting quality traffic and backlinks to your site. Unfortunately, very few marketers use forum marketing effectively.

If you do it properly, you will be able to leverage, to your advantage, a method that marketers have neglected nowadays that will bring you both visitors and backlinks.

Check our tutorial on how to get targeted traffic and backlinks to your newly published blog post from forums.

Conclusion

There you have it. Forty-one websites where you can send your blog post and get an instant backlink and, of course, readers. It can take up to 3 hours to publish everywhere, and you should do it only when you have stellar blog posts. But you will get visitors for years to come.

As you can see, there are a wide variety of options, whether you’re a startup, a small business, or a large organization.

Among these options, you’ll find ones that require a bit of financial investment. But most require just a bit of effort with little to no additional finances.

Remember that you should invest in content promotion at least the same time you spent writing it, if not even more. Your job is not done after hitting the publish button, especially if you build an authority website and expect to make nice profits.

Did you find these tips helpful? What other places do you send your content to?

Share them with us in the comments, and I will add them to the list.