How to make a great Instructable

Step 15: Popularizing your Instructable

Content is king. None of the tips below will help if your Instructable isn't your best effort. Remember, a great Instructable is about something you are passionate about. It is well-written and spell checked. It has clear images with proper use of macro, if needed. It has an intro step that summarizes the project and explains your motivation.

Now, assuming your content is great, you want to tell people about your Instructable.

1. Email out your Instructable.

Email your friends and family a link to your Instructable with your intro text. If you are sending the link to someone who has never been to the site before, give them a brief introduction. "Instructables is a place where I've been sharing my projects and finding other cool projects..."
You might also tell them how to use some of our features: "To give a project a positive rating, create a free account, and hit the "+" button in the upper right."

2. Add your Instructable to the social bookmarking or news sites.

There are a number of sites that help people find, organize, and rate interesting things on the web. Our favorite site is [www.digg.com Digg], where users vote on new items and there's always interesting things on the front page. If your Instructable reaches the front page of Digg, expect a huge number of people to see it. We've added a "Digg it" button to the upper right corner of each Instructable. Click on this button to submit your Instructable to Digg, or if it has already been submitted, to vote it up ("Digg it").

Here are a number of other sites that often help people to find Instructables:
http://del.icio.us/
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
http://reddit.com/
http://www.metafilter.com/

3. Email bloggers about your project.

If your project fits with the theme of the blog, send the editors a note with a quick description of your Instructable and why you think it fits their theme. Be courteous and concise! Remember, these blogs are usually run by only a few people. Phillip Torrone is really only one person!

Here are some blogs that often link to Instructables:
http://makezine.com/
http://lifehacker.com/
http://consumerist.com/
http://www.hackaday.com/
http://craftzine.com/
http://www.engadget.com/
http://dailydiy.com/
http://gizmodo.com/
http://treehugger.com/

Many of them have email address to send tips, or forms to flll out on their site.

4. Add your project to a group on Instructables.

If you project fits the group, add it. Some of our groups are syndicated across to other websites and other audiences.

Comments

[hermionegranger]

how do you get to the link to make an instructable?

[ewilhelm]

Hit the "Contribute" pull down link in the navigation bar.

[ewilhelm]

Click "submit" at the top of the page in the orange header.

[hermionegranger]

Thanks,guys.Now i can make one ive been trying to make since i signed up!

[micmac]

"Add your project to a group on Instructables." HOW??

[josh92176]

1)join the group that you want to add your instructible to. 2)when you publish your instructible there will be a checkbox to add it to that group. 3)your done :-)

[ewilhelm]

http://www.instructables.com/id/EWRUS0RW6IEZIXBZIA/