You don't need to rely on lures to get extra experience points in Pokemon Go. There are much easier, if sneakier, ways to gain trainer experience points in Pokemon Go.
How can you gain extra experience points in Pokemon Go?
You can gain a lot of extra experience points in Pokemon Go by relying on evolving many versions of common Pokemon like Pidgey and Rattata. Spin every PokeStop you pass, even if your bag is full. Make sure you are hatching an egg whenever possible. Throw your Pokeballs more cleanly. You can also battle at gyms to earn extra experience points in Pokemon Go.
Evolve Common Pokemon to Gain Extra Experience Points
Don't try to make your Pidgeottos into Pidgeots or your Kakunas into Beedrills. Instead, hold onto Weedles, Pidgeys, Rattatas, Zubats and other common Pokemon to evolve into their secondary stage. It may be very tempting to just evolve secondary stages into final stages, or power up evolved Pokemon to their highest possible state, but this will gain you far fewer XP points that evolving Pidgeys into Pidgeots over and over again. Powering up your Pokemon also uses a lot of Stardust without giving you any extra Pokemon Go XP points. You'll be able to make your Pokemon much powerful if your trainer level is higher, so it's better to focus on your level and experience than your Pokemons' CP or HP.
Spin PokeStops to Get XP
You'll receive 50 experience points for every PokeStop you spin, so stop every PokeStop you can. Even if your bag is full, you will receive those 50 points. PokeStops also refresh about every 15-20 minutes, so if you're sitting by a PokeStop, respin it every time it turns blue again.
Gain Experience by Hatching Eggs
For every egg you hatch, you'll receive 200 experience points. You also receive a lot more candies and stardust than you would from catching whatever Pokemon you receive in the wild. As soon as your hatch one egg, put another in your incubator. Once you have more than one incubator, you should be incubating as many eggs as possible at once. You can get a lot of rare Pokemon, experience points, and Pokemon candy by focusing on incubating eggs.
How to Get More Experience Points while Catching Pokemon
To get higher experience points while catching Pokemon, improve your throwing skills. You can get 10 extra experience points for a curve ball or a nice throw. To curve the ball, you move the ball in small circles before releasing it. If you circled to the right, aim to the left, and vice versa. If you manage to catch the Pokemon, it'll give you more points. For "Nice", "Great", and "Excellent" throws, throw your Poke Ball when the colored circle inside the white circle is smaller. A Nice throw will get you 10 points, Great will get you 50, and an Excellent throw will net you 100 extra experience points, doubling your Pokemon catch experience for an already caught Pokemon.
Gain Extra Experience by Battling in Gyms
Battling in Gyms isn't just a way to get free items and PokeCoins. You also gain experience for every Pokemon you defeat. When you visit a gym and defeat a Pokemon there, you will gain an extra 50 points. When you defeat a Trainer, you'll gain 100 XP points. If you leave a Pokemon at the gym, you'll receive 100 experience points for every trainer they defeat as well.