I know that more than a few of us here also run our own review sites in addition to posting reviews on MA - let's try to keep the links out of this thread and focus it on tips/tricks so we don't get it closed down (also, I'm sure we all have links in our signature anyways
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I have run my review site since about 2012 and I have to admit that it is challenging to grow things. My own observations from following other reviewers (both text and video) is that text reviews are somewhat of an outdated format, and other than places like MA, they aren't particularly in demand, so there's only so much you can do. I watch a lot of videos by Finn McKenty, who is a sort of marketing guru that has a YouTube channel called The Punk Rock MBA, and he's pretty adamant that people like to connect with other people, so I think being a nameless face behind a screen doesn't help our causes.
As of now, I use Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Instagram gets by far the most engagement (despite having the smallest following for me), but Facebook gets higher quality engagement. Recently, I started using Mailchimp's free service to set up a newsletter, and while it hasn't been around long (maybe 6 weeks), people don't seem to be signing up. I actually really like the idea of it because you can go directly to your audience and quickly let them know what they've missed (as opposed to social media, where posts don't get enough reach). I've seen other people do this and it gets me more interested in their content.
I did promote a post once on Facebook and it had very strong results, but I'm thinking this is more likely because it was my year-end top 30 list. Those are the one post that always does better than everything else because people like lists. I don't really like paying for stuff because the cost alone of keeping a website up is more than I'd like.
Aside from this, I tried ramping up interviews this year, and that has had mixed results. Much like with reviews, bands who have a good following on Facebook and repost it give me good traffic, but otherwise, it seems like a dud.
One thing I am experimenting with a bit is to crosspost some of my reviews here. MA reviews get a ton more traffic, so perhaps if someone likes a review they'll go to the link at the bottom of it, but I'm not sure that will drive a meaningful amount of traffic.
Feel free to use this thread to post tips or tricks. I've tried various other things throughout the years with limited to no success. I have no delusions about monetizing this or having millions of readers, but it would be nice for more than 10 people to read my reviews that bands don't repost themselves.