A lot of people are using the Web for a number of reasons. Some use the Web in order to find certain information that are related and relevant to their field of expertise and specialty, while others merely just search for particular subjects that they want to save for themselves, which could later on be viewed again, and maybe be used for whatever purpose that the user had in mind. You can even get the information that you are seeking from e-mails of other people, or from subscribing to several newsletters, as well as use search engines to uncover the resources that you may need.
Back then, people would organize their bookmarks of online resources using folders in the Web browser, an inefficient way of organizing since people may need to save a resource that is relevant to a number of categories, thereby saving the bookmarked online resource in a number of different folders.
This can be a bit difficult to handle, especially if people need to find the references that they have saved in order to send it to other people through e-mail. Now that social bookmarking is possible, people are now able to create a web of resources and connections without being limited in its applications and operations in the same way as people would be when they did not use social bookmarking.
Social bookmarking, in this case, allows its users to easily and efficiently direct people to the resources or references that they have been able to search, locate, tag and saved. By using only relevant keywords, the user who was able to tag the social bookmarked website can direct people to the website or Web page that they have saved and bookmarked just by looking at the keywords used by the user.
Social bookmarking has been developed based on the bookmarking capabilities of certain websites, thereby making it a whole lot easier for people to not only organize information and categorize resources, but also make social connections with other people who may be interested in the topics or subjects that they have tagged and bookmarked for themselves.
In social bookmarking, people can see who created each bookmark on a particular topic or subject in a particular Web page or website, as well as allows the other person to have easy access to that other person’s bookmarked resources or references. Aside from this, its users can also see all the other users who have used a particular tag or keyword, allowing them to search for all relevant resources and references about the same topic or subject.
Social bookmarking opened a lot of doors for its applications. Nowadays, people not only use social bookmarking for saving and categorizing resources and references, but they take advantage of social bookmarkings web of social connections, using it as a vessel for online marketing for a lot of online businesses, which is proving to be a very effective tool. People also use social bookmarking as a means to improve and boost their site’s traffic, as well as a way to improve their ranking in search engines.
Vanessa Arellano Doctor
http://wirefan.com
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Most people that have websites know that one of the best ways to market it is by back links and social bookmarking. By definition, social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of meta data. The concept of shared online bookmarks dates back to April 1996 with the launch of itList the features of which included public and private bookmarks. Within the next three years, online bookmark services became competitive, with venture-backed companies such as Backflip, Blink, Clip2, ClickMarks, HotLinks, and others entering the market.
One of the main advantages of SMB is the fact that a lot of these social bookmarking sites have a lot of regular users and traffic which means that information on them tends to get better positioning. Also, links to your own website or blog when posted to a site like MySpace creates back links. Obviously search engines really value links to your site and it’s an indication of the popularity of your site. This also allows you to have a higher PR (page rank).
So how is something like this achieved? Well you could do it manually, one site at a time, over a period of time, but this can be quite time consuming! Another terrific alternative would be to get social bookmarking software which would pretty much automate every aspect. This would not only be easier but also less time consuming. A sort of, set it and forget it deal. This software not only automates social bookmarking but also automates other things such as news postings and video postings. It allows you to have complete control over the entire process without getting “slapped” on the wrist by Google. It does this by setting your back links at a “human” pace which is absolutely essential if you don’t want to raise red flags with Google!
For the amount of back links you would ultimately get with a piece of software like this, the price tag is well worth it. This isn’t saying you are going to have to pay hundreds of dollars for it however. So far, I’ve seen sites offering this software for around $197, which in my opinion is a really nice price for what you get. Remember, you won’t have to sit there for hours on end anymore, and you can simply set it and forget it!
If you would like more information on this type of software or more information about social bookmarking it’s a good idea to visit the following websites:
Wikipedia
Social Marker
YouTube
Top Rank Blog
Social Marking
If you would like to read some books, you can also visit places like Amazon and look into some titles, such as these:
- The Truth About Profiting from Social Networking (Truth About) by Patrice-Anne Rutledge
- Plug Your Business! Marketing on MySpace, YouTube, blogs and pod-casts and other Web 2.0 social networks by Steve Weber
- Social Marketing Success in Under 30 Minutes a Day by Andrea Kalli
- 7 Smart Ways to Use Social Bookmarking by Online Business Institute
- MySpace Marketing Secrets! by Rodney D. Jones
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If you are new to Internet marketing you might not be aware of how much social marketing sites can do to boost the traffic coming to your Internet marketing start-up business. You may not even be aware of what social networking and social bookmarking sites are, or how to utilize them.
Sure, social sites give you a lot of interactivity and allow users to personalize their sites, compile a list of favourite links, videos, music, photos, documents and share it all with friends and visitors, but how exactly does that help you develop your Internet marketing start-up business?
Above all, you should be aware that social media marketing sites fall into two basic categories, bookmarking sites and networking sites, so you need to be clear about what you want to do?
Social Bookmarking Sites
Social bookmarking sites allow you to build and organize your favourite links (i.e. bookmarks) AND you can choose to restrict them to selected friends or make them public and share them with everybody on the Internet.
The big advantage of social bookmarking is that your favourite links are no longer tied to one specific browser accessible from just one computer in one location.
Social bookmarking services enable users to save bookmarks on a remote web server which can be accessed anywhere where there is an online connection.
Social bookmarking sites usually categorize links with a “tagging” system which allows users to choose keywords with which to “tag” their bookmarks. Sites can then be retrieved via the tags.
You may invite visitors to bookmark your posts. You can do this by adding a button to your page that links through to Stumbleupon, or Digg, or TwitThis and so on.
However, there are so many social bookmarking services, that if you added all their buttons you’d end up with more buttons than content on your page! Instead, use a service like addthis.com, which places one button on your site for a wide range of social bookmarking sites.
Social Networking Sites
Social networking sites offer a convenient method of connecting with people who share similar interests to you.
Sites like Facebook and MySpace allow you to post your advertisements and promote your products, as long as you do not simply (and stupidly) send out spam. Traffic will build on any site that has original, good quality, regularly updated content.
MySpace or Facebook?
It has recently been noised abroad that MySpace is no good for Internet marketing, but that is not so. It was simply a case of too many Internet marketers not knowing who their audience was.
The point is that MySpace tends to attract a younger age bracket with less money to spend than does Facebook. Get to know the sites and adapt your content to each one, don’t simply post the same stuff to both.
One other reason why social networking sites are sometimes dismissed as not being any good for business is that some people do little more than set up a profile. Then they get stuck, don’t know what to do, do nothing. Merely being there is not enough! Find ways to communicate with the people who are there on their terms, not yours.
Go careful, though, that you don’t go overboard with the crazy applications and the “late night partying confessions” stuff if it is not the sort of thing you want your clients to see!
Whereas social bookmarking sites are simply sites for you to collect and organize your favourite links, social networking sites, being more sociable, require more time and regular fresh content updates. With social networking sites you have to work on your image!
Search Engines Love Web 2:0!
Another reason why Internet marketers should build a presence on both social bookmarking and social networking sites is because search engines LOVE them!
Links posted on such sites are regularly followed by search engine spiders. So, by building up your links on these sites, your website backlinks will grow, and so will your search engine rankings, which is what you need if your Internet marketing start-up is to survive, grow and thrive.
If you found this article helpful you might like to visit http://grasp-the-nettle.com for more free articles on Internet marketing to help you master the net. You might also like to sign up to my FREE Internet Marketing Start-Up newsletter, which comes complete with a library of Internet marketing ebooks (worth a total of $136.75) for you to download free of charge. David Hurley lives in Japan, where he works as an English language consultant, editor, and Internet marketer.
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Social bookmarking has been around for as long as the Internet has existed. If you found a website or resource that you really liked and wanted others to know about it, you told your friends. The quickest way to tell them was to send them an email or post a message on a forum containing the link to that website so they could look at it and add it to their browser favorites list.
This marked it so it could be found again in the future. That was the old way to spread the word about the things that were new or exciting on the Internet. Now, there are some easier and much more effective social bookmarking tools you can use to get the word out about new things.
Social networking involves “tagging” a website of particular interest so that it can be easily accessed. The tag shows up in two places; one being the user’s profile or website, the second being the original homepage of the tagging bookmark. The tag can appear on a list of favorite websites posted on a blog or website, or it can be a special website designed specifically for these tags, called a bookmarking network. Examples of popular bookmarking networks are twitter, facebook, squidoo, flikr, and wetpaint.
Visitors to those sites can then rate the URL value according to how often a search occurs or that link is clicked on. Popular bookmarks remain at the top while less favorable links and spam are lost to new searches. Social bookmarking can be monitored for trends in the market and is used to introduce new and better products and ideas.
Many consumers, whether they realize it or not, use social bookmarking everyday to decide what products are worth investing in, where to shop, where to eat and other consumer decisions. This is because when they do a search online, the most popular searchable things that have had multiple tags come up first in the list. Tags can be a good way for consumers to gauge whether or not a product or company is legit by who manages the feeds and how often the website is tagged.
Here is a list of some great social bookmarking tools you can use today to boost your website visits and get the word out about new items of interest:
Twitter. Do you twitter? This seems like the most asked question recently by social networking people. This free social networking site works by people who become members and post short updates as they wish on anything in general. It’s advertised as a “service for family, friends and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick , frequent answers to the questions; What are you doing” (Twitter.com) The update feeds can then be posted on the person’s blogs, websites or anyplace else where they want people to know about what they’re doing and talking about. People often post their articles or other tidbits about their businesses with links included to get others to visit their website.
Facebook. This is an international social networking site whereby members sign up free and can post messages and updates whenever they wish. If they include links to their websites or other online items, members can go there to read more about them. Feeds are then available for adding to blogs or websites for real time updates. Facebook is growing in popularity among people who were typically participating in other social networking sites like MySpace, but its attracting more career- and business-oriented people.
Squidoo. This neat little social bookmarking site has nothing to do with sealife. In fact, not only is it a great way for people to interact and post updates, but it allows users to create simple websites called “lenses” for others to read about their special interests or topics. So if you are promoting a certain niche interest, an idea or something related to your business, you can create a page to promote this idea and include links back to your sites. Squidoo offers its members additional tools like forums to come up with ideas to promote their pages and highlights popular lenses all over the Internet.
Flikr. If you’re into sharing more than words and like to include images as part of your networking efforts, then you may like Flikr. This social bookmarking site allows users to post images for others to review. Users can also talk about their experiences by joining either private or public groups. So families can use Flikr to share personal photos, or public groups can share images and talk about things of interest. Each photo is assigned a tag which can be placed on user’s websites and blogs. Flikr rates images according to how many times they’ve been viewed and this list is posted on the community section for all to see.
Wetpaint. This is a Wiki format social bookmarking site that allows members to create a website about anything they are interested in or want to promote. It’s a similar concept to Squidoo, except that it is expanded to include the ability to integrate popular feeds into both your Wetpaint site and your blogs or other websites seamlessly. Wetpaint is supported by not only all the major search engines, but also by all primary news feeds and searches conducted by Internet users. This opens up the possibility that someone who may just be doing a general search will land on your Wetpaint site.
There are so many great tools out there that you can use to get the word out about your ideas and share your blogs and websites more effectively. In just a few minutes, you can be signed up and hooked into the best of what the Internet has to offer. Be sure to check out the above social bookmarking sites to get the most out of these services and increase your website’s searchability.
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With the popularity of social networking sites, there has been a surge of social bookmarking sites too. Social networks revolve around the maintenance of relationships between members of the community. Social bookmarking, on the other hand, is responsible for connecting content that are made by its members. Because of its connectivity function, social bookmarking sites provide another business tool for site owners.
It is no longer uncommon to see icons at the bottom of blog posts and articles. When you hover the mouse, website names like Technorati, Digg, Furl or Delicious pop out. These are social bookmarking sites. A social bookmarking site is pretty much the same as an actual bookmark. Bookmarks are made to indicate a page or passage so it will be easy to locate. The same purpose goes for social bookmarking icons. A website can be marked for convenience. Others can also be directed to a site using a social bookmark.
There are many forms of social bookmarking sites. Squidoo deals with creating lenses that highlights a particular niche of the lens owner. Flickr’s specialization is on photos and images. Others deal with movie or music reviews.
For the business owner to utilize social bookmarks there is a need to choose the appropriate site. Always remember that traffic to the business site is the number one purpose. The content or information that is placed on the social bookmarking site should be interesting enough to let readers click on the website URL. The objective is to have the readers mark your page and make comments or inquiries. People will be interested in updates because they are informative and useful.
Content is very important. A business owner can have a following of readers and even have a higher search engine ranking because of the traffic. In order to have good content, visit popular bookmarking sites and observe the most popular sites that are being viewed. Analyze what others are reading and why they find the sites interesting and informative. Visit competitive sites and investigate how they are doing content and presentation. Be observant on what readers are commenting and what type of information that they are asking for.
With the use of social bookmarking sites, a business owner can increase visibility and makes it easy to get prospective clients. By adding social bookmarking icons to blogs or websites, it is an effective way to bring traffic to the business website and a strong possibility that the reader will add the URL to the favorite list on the browser.
Therese Prentice is a Social Networking Expert, Joint Venture Broker, Certified Marketing and Business Coach Tools and Resources for Lifestyle Entrepreneurs… http://www.socialnetworkingqueen.com http://www.inthelivingroom.com http://www.theoutsourcesquad.com
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