Nowadays if you know how to promote yourself on the Internet, you can get a following bigger than it's possible in Real Life. But the Internet is a big place so it can be difficult to get noticed. Nonetheless, every freelance writer should know how to promote his or hers work, especially since doing it online costs little or is completely free.
On sites like Helium and Associated Content, page views matter, because they influence the amount of money the writer will receive. Therefore it's in writer's best interest to get as many readers as possible.
How to promote your writing?
*Websites and Blogs
Every writer should have their own website or at least a blog. If you don't have one, you are missing on a lot of potential. It's a great exposure. Good website or blog can earn you additional money, yes. But what's more important, it can earn you new readers, who will come back for more of your writing, later.
Getting a website or a blog is easy. All you need is a webhost (there are a lot of those and some of them offer to host your website for free, or you can buy some space on a private server, depending on how much money you want to put into it) and a domain and you're set. With blogs it's even easier, because you can use one of already established blogging platforms like Wordpress, Blogger or LiveJournal.
Add a permanent link to your portfolio somewhere in the navigation bar. This way all the new readers will have easy access to all your writing. If you write for more than one site, put all the links in one place.
Blog about new articles you publish. Link to the new stuff; write an introductory post telling your readers what the article is about. If you feel inspired, you can also link to relevant material you posted in the past or to other writers work. Not to mention that if you publish a book (or an ebook, or release a new product), you have a ready platform where you can advertise that.
*Social Networking Sites.
Sites like Facebook allow their users to add various items and links. Writers should take advantage of those features. Banners on MySpace profiles, joining groups and communities related to topics you write about can help you as well.
Also, from my own experience, Twitter is a very useful tool, when it comes to promoting your articles.
Post the title of your article and a link to it. And if you add a keyword at the end, accompanied by a hash mark (#), the keyword will change into a link and your Tweet will show up on a completely new twitter side for people interested in that particular category. For example, if you add #writing at the end of your tweet, people interested in writing will see your tweet even if they aren't following you.
Believe me; the exposure you'll get from this simple action will not be limited to your followers.
*Forums
There are two ways of promoting yourself on discussion boards. Using your profile and using your signature.
I would suggest linking to your main website or blog in your profile. This way all the possible readers will be able to actually get the most information about you. And that is the purpose of a profile.
At the same time, you should link to something relevant in your signature.
And by relevant I mean something connected to the general topic that is most popular on the discussion board you frequent. That way, you should be able to boost page view of one of your articles by getting readers you know are interested in that particular topic. And I want to stress the fact that relevant links in your signature are a key. Relevant articles can convince the new readers to stick around and check out your other content. Articles not connected to the subjects discussed on the board will only irritate people and won't encurage them to see more of your writing.
*Guest Blogging
Doing guest posts on other people's blogs and websites is a very good way of getting new readers. Every guest post means a short introduction of the author (at the end or at the beginning of the post) and a link to their website.
Often, people after reading your guest post will want to learn more about you. This of course means visiting your website or blog and maybe reading more of your articles.
And if the guest post was interesting, they will definitely want to know more about the author. My advice on the subject, think through the topic you want to write about and pitch it to the blog/website you read frequently. Don't be afraid that they have way more readers than you. Reach for the starts and if you put a lot of work into the guest post, you will get more out of it than just page views.
Finally.
Remember that there are other ways to promote your writing on the internet. Some will give you more exposure and some will barely work. But you shouldn't give up easily. On the contrary, you should try those you think will work for you, get a feel of how things are done. With just a little practice you can discover ways to promote your work that will bring you a lot of money. Good luck with that.