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Category: Social media

Social Bookmarking Traffic Results

18 December, 2007 (15:12) | Del.icio.us, Digg, Increasing Traffic, Social media, Technorati | By: clive


Social Bookmarking Traffic Results
By Allan Burns

The results of the social bookmarking experiment I have been carrying out are materialising. There have been some surprising results and some results that have restored my faith in the browsing public. I have been pondering whether or not to release the results as I do not want the spammers to tarnish something that is still relatively pure. But as you can see I finally decided to go ahead and publish.

I have mentioned before that I have been looking at social bookmarking as a way to drive traffic to websites. The idea behind social bookmarking is that you share your favourite bookmarks with others, the idea being that if you found these links useful then others might too. Some social bookmarking sites also allow visitors to rate the usefulness of your bookmarks, this allows the truly useful bookmarks to become the most popular. So in theory spam should be removed by natural selection.
To carry out my experiment I created three articles. Two of these articles were good well researched pieces, whilst the third was self promotional spam, but not too obvious. I posted these articles to twelve social bookmarking sites and then waited for the results. The results were to be measurable traffic to one of my sites.

It was a week ago I started posting the articles so I am still measuring the results but I am able to give you the results as they all point to one conclusion. That conclusion is that social bookmarking to generate traffic does work as long as you are providing genuine, useful, good quality material. If you post self promotional spam no one will read it and it will disappear into the ether where all spam belongs.

Of the twelve sites I posted to the best performing in terms of traffic was Digg. Over a period of several days my site received hundreds of visitors from the good articles and less than a handful for the spam article I posted. Of the other social bookmarking sites the traffic was minimal, even the famous del.icio.us only managed to send a dozen visitors which I was quite surprised at.

The results seem to conclude that Digg is the out and out performer followed a long way behind by del.icio.us and squik. As yet I have had no traffic from the others, that?s not to say that they are not worthwhile as some of the sites were very new. I am going to continue to experiment and will bring you more results as they come in.

Finally I would like to say a big thank you to the guys at Digg for producing such a great site. Not only for the traffic that it produces but for also providing lots of really useful bookmarks. My only criticism is the lack of categories which means that some suggestions are not always well matched although there is a search facility.

Allan is the webmaster at http://www.blogtonomy.com/ where I will show you how to gain traffic to your site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Allan_Burns
http://EzineArticles.com/?Social-Bookmarking-Traffic-Results&id=37362



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3 Websites That Will Drive More Traffic To Your Internet Business Blog

14 December, 2007 (15:24) | Digg, Increasing Traffic, Onlywire, Social media, Stumbleupon, Technorati | By: clive


by Michael Laleye

There are as many ways as there are ideas to get visitors to come to your internet business blog. In this article we'll focus on social bookmarking and news websites. Let's look at 3 and see how they work.

OnlyWire.com
By definition OnlyWire is a social bookmarking service that allows you to submit your articles or blog posts to many social bookmarking websites at once. Social bookmarking allows internet users to classify pages they would like to bookmark with tags instead of keeping them in a bookmark folder on their computer. These bookmarks can then be shared by all online users of the social bookmarking website. The theory behind social bookmarking websites is that if you find something interesting or useful on the web then the odds are high that someone else using the bookmarking website will find it interesting as well.

Social bookmarking websites are very popular with the major search engines, so if your blog posts can be found on these social bookmarking sites they will be noticed by the search engines as well. Additionally, as people bookmark resources that they find useful, resources that are of more use are bookmarked by more users. Thus, such a system will "rank" a resource based on its perceived utility. This is arguably a more useful way to get information than other systems which rank resources based on the number of external links pointing to it.

When you create an account with OnlyWire you'll be initially asked to sign up for all of the bookmarking sites that OnlyWire will submit your blog posts to. This initial effort will allow OnlyWire to bookmark you blogs on 10 or more social bookmarking sites all from a button installed on your browser's tool bar. Once you set up your account and are ready to submit a post you'll simply need to enter the title of the post, a short description, the main keywords that describe your post(tags), and the category that it fits. Over time you will find more and more of your posts ranking in the search engines.

Stumbleupon.com
StumbleUpon works on the same premise as OnlyWire and is also assigned a button on your browsers tool bar for when you are ready to submit your content. The difference with OnlyWire is that there is also a community component so you can add friends to your account and let them see what you've been bookmarking and vice versa. You can form networks of people with similar bookmarking interest, and vote on sites that have been bookmarked.

Digg.com
Submitting your blog posts to Digg.com is a great and fast way for quality traffic. Digg was create for people to share content from anywhere on the web. You can create an account to submit your posts which are then read and rated by it's users. By submitting informative and helpful items you can create popularity and be promoted to the front page. This can create a stream of traffic that lasts a long time and potentially cause your blog to be seen my millions of users. Another advantage of Digg is that all information is equal when it is submitted and only becomes ranked higher by the people who vote for it. If you have a way of tracking the traffic to your blog you will notice visitors from Digg after every submission from people across the globe.

As you can see, there are many ways to get free traffic to your internet business blog. These methods don't take much time at all and can have a long lasting effect on your blog traffic. Social bookmarking websites are also significant to the search engines which is where most websites and blog traffic comes from. Becoming consistent at using these sites every time you make a new post is the technique will work to get some good traffic to your internet business blog.

Michael Laleye Is A Plug In Profit Site Member As Well As An Authority On Developing Home Based Internet Businesses. Get more Information On How To Build Your Own Internet Home Business. For Internet Business Opportunities To Make Money Online, Visit: http://www.MyAffiliateStarter.com

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The Race Is On For Social Media And Search Engines Rankings

12 December, 2007 (11:49) | Increasing Traffic, Search Engine Optimization, Social media | By: clive

By Gillian Meier

Don?t be fooled into thinking that the new consumer has no relevance to your business? reputation. Today?s Internet user is an experienced on. Your reputation on the Internet should be one that users want to blog about. It?s no longer just up to Search Engines to get you those top rankings? if you want to succeed on the Internet, you need to consider the importance of both Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as well as Social Media Optimisation (SMO).

We have barely digested the term SEO and already we?re hearing new jargon such as SMO (Social Media Optimisation) creeping in. Don?t be fooled into thinking that this is simply a preview of things to come on the web. It?s already here and pioneering companies have already grasped the concept and are ensuring that their internet marketing strategy extends beyond traditional e-Marketing and into the area of Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Advertising and Social Media Optimisation.

Pioneering companies will win: Sadly, few South African companies realise the significance of optimising their websites for top search engine rankings and social popularity. There are many extraordinary looking websites being launched onto the Internet daily, yet their splashy entry pages and dazzling creative?s seldom does the company any good. These websites occupy space on the web; however they are by no means optimised to attract the correct target audiences. Few web designers are taught the skill of optimising the websites that they design for search engine rankings. From the start of the web development project, companies should commission experienced search engine marketers or analysts to be involved in preparing the website brief for the developer by defining the essential elements that should be incorporated, if the website is to be positioned anywhere of significance on search engine results pages.

There are more than a hundred varying criteria that search engines include as part of their ranking algorithm. Website owners, web designers and marketers should take cognisance of the fact that it is simply not good enough to publish a fancy looking website onto the Internet and expect it to start attracting and converting customers in the hope of producing income from its online presence. It takes skill and careful planning to create a website that will be recognised by search engines as relevant enough to rank in the top ten results, and then to take this one step further by ensuring that the user experience is one that will convert a researcher into a customer. And remember the modern customer is one that is in control.

Today?s consumer is in control: The new consumer is actively participating in social networks, they are bookmarking websites on social search engines and they are blogging about you. Ensure that your website is optimised to generate publicity through social media, online communities and social networks. There are websites that consist of user generated ranking systems. Make sure that your website can be bookmarked, linked to and tagged easily enough by the user. Create a company blog or user community within your own website. If you create something that allows your user to engage with you, and it is compelling enough for them to spread the word and to bookmark you then you are half way there.

You can?t fake it until you make it: Getting ranked highly on search engine results is not a quick fix. It is a process that requires a great deal of planning, editing and monitoring in order to first climb into the top ranking positions and then to try to remain there. With the algorithms changing at will, there is no one technique ?cast in stone? that will guarantee top rankings. If you want to reap the rewards, you need to invest time and effort into properly researching your competitor?s position, and then carefully plan a strategy that will hopefully outrank them, while at the same time attracting the long tail. Beware of companies promising to have websites ranked in the top ten results pages within weeks. Although some websites do rank much faster than others, those companies practicing spamming techniques may get websites ranking in a matter of weeks but, in return they can expect to be dropped from the rankings ? or even worse, be blacklisted by the search engines within as little as six weeks.

Companies should be careful to approach search engine optimisation from an ethical ? spam free ? perspective if they want to thrive in this very competitive environment. Until such time that a website ranks highly, there certainly is a place for paid advertising (pay-per-click).

Blue Magnet has launched a one day Search Engine Marketing training course that teaches the skill of SEO and SMO. Blue Magnet Web Intellect is an Internet Marketing Training and Consulting company, specialising in Search Engine Optimisation, Online Copywriting, PPC Campaign management, Web Design and Project management and Internet Marketing Strategies. Visit http://www.bluemagnet.co.za

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Using Social Media Marketing To Promote Your Specialist Information Website

10 December, 2007 (19:36) | Blogging, Increasing Traffic, Social media | By: clive

By Miles Galliford

Before I get started, it is worth defining social media. It has become a widely used and abused term that means different things to different people.

My definition of social media is:

?online technologies and practises that people use to share their opinions, insights and experiences with each other. Information can be shared as text, images, audio or video via blogs, message boards, wikis, RSS, podcasts and social networking sites?.

At the heart of social media is the ability of individuals to interact with other people so that they feel involved and part of a community. A big part of this phenomenon is the activity of finding, sharing and recommending products, services, events and experiences to like-minded people. This is where social media crosses over with marketing.

Social media can be a great way to have your website promoted by word-of-mouth.

If you can get people to talk about and recommend your services to their peers, it is more powerful than any marketing you can buy. So how can you get started?

How Can You Make Social Media Work for You?

The good news is it is easy to start the process of using social media to promote your website.

1) Create a MySpace Page

MySpace (www.myspace.com) is the largest and best-known social network. Individuals create profiles about themselves and then invite similarly minded people to become their online friends. When someone becomes a friend, you can communicate with them and subtly direct them towards your own website.

Setting up your own page is simple and free. Go to www.myspace.com and follow the instructions. Put up a brief description about yourself and a link to a more detailed biography page on your own website. Remember, the goal of this page is to drive people to your own site so make sure you get plenty of links included without overtly promoting your website.

Spend an hour every week developing your site and building your list of friends. Invite relevant people to comment about your website.

2) Add Bookmarking Links to Your Article Pages

A big part of the social web is the ability for people to build lists of their favourite sites or articles. People with similar interests can then share their lists and benefit from other people?s recommendations. If your website has free content, you should make these articles easy to bookmark or add to favourites lists. There are a lot of internet sites that now host and share bookmarks. You can add links to these sites to your article pages.

There are two ways of doing this. You can go to each of the leading bookmarking sites and download their code and links onto your site. The ones that you should include are:

? Digg – www.digg.com

? Technorati ? www.technorati.com

? Del.icio.us ? www.del.icio.us

? Reddit ? www.reddit.com

However, if you go this route it can be time consuming and you will omit many of the potential bookmarking sites. The alternative is to put a link to AddThis.com (www.addthis.com) on the foot of each page. This gives your users access to over 30 bookmarking sites.

3) Add an RSS Feed

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Syndication, depending on who you ask. RSS allows people to be notified every time new articles are added to your website so they can keep up to date with your content.

Ask your developer to create some RSS code for your website and then put a link on all of your pages to the RSS code page. The link should be a small orange rectangle with the letters RSS in white.

Publish your RSS feeds at Feedburner (www.feedburner.com) to encourage distribution and interest.

4) Email to a Friend

Enabling people to easily email an article to a friend is not typically bundled under the heading of social media marketing, but in my view it is another way to encourage people to share and recommend your content. Add an ?Email a Friend? link to all of your content pages.

5) Add a Forum

Having a Forum on your website is a great way of building a community around your subject area. Monitoring the forum will both give you a chance to understand what people are discussing and promote your expertise by adding your own comments.

The downside of a forum is it does need to be carefully managed. You need to allow people to make negative comments so they don?t feel they are being censored, but you have to stamp out aggressive behaviour, personal insults, spam and meaningless rubbish. This can be time-consuming work, so don?t bother with a forum unless you have the time to do it properly.

Non-technical people can pay to use vBulletin (www.vbulletin.com). More technical people can use a free opensource solution such as PHPBB (www.phpbb.com).

You can register your forum with BoardTracker (www.boardtracker.com) to make it easier for people to find.

6) Create How-To or Product Review Videos

It has never been easier to create short videos that can demonstrate your expertise. How-to videos are very popular. For example, if your website is about Making Money on eBay, you could create a short video on ?How to Take Perfect Photos for Your eBay Listings?. Make sure you have your website URL on the opening and closing sequence of your video to promote your website.

Post your videos on YouTube (www.youtube.com) and Google Videos (http://video.google.com/). Give it a catchy title and teaser to get people interested. Also link to the videos from your own website.

7) Share Your Photos

If you have photos related to your subject area, post them on photo sharing websites such as Flikr (www.flikr.com) and PhotoBucket (www.photobucket.com). For example, if your website is about steam trains, take a camera to your next steam train show and post the pictures on these sites. People searching for steam train images are likely to try these sites. They can then follow the link on the photo to your website. P.S. Remember to include links back to your own site from the images.

8) Create a Blog

Blogs are very simple content sites where short articles are listed one after the other on the home page. They are usually used to write about current events or comment on news.

Some successful content websites are blogs. Some are much more like magazines with feature articles. If your site is more feature-based, consider starting a separate blog that can be more informal and brief. Update the blog every day even if it is with just one- or two-sentence comments. Blogs that are infrequently updated quickly lose their audience.

Use the blog to drive traffic to your main website.

You can get basic blogging software for free. Try Wordpress (www.wordpress.com) or Blogger (www.blogger.com). For a managed service, try Typepad (www.typepad.com).

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In many ways, today?s social media technologies are still fairly primitive, but I can say with confidence that the phenomenon that they have created ? of customers taking control of the buying process ? is here to stay. Customers will continue to get stronger, so publishers, manufacturers and anyone else with customers better start listening to what they are saying.

One last point before I finish. It?s really a word of warning. Once you adopt the social media marketing techniques, you are inviting people to comment about your service. You must be ready for negative as well as positive feedback. Good companies listen to the feedback and make positive changes. Poor companies ignore it or worse still, call their lawyers to fight it.

If you jump into the social media world, be ready to participate, listen, learn and take action.

SubHub provides an all-in-one solution to enable you to rapidly design, build and run your own content website. Publish for profit on the web. Website: Subhub website

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