How To Use Social Bookmarking To Get More Traffic

Early in the days of Internet browsing, someone got the bright idea of keeping placeholders, or bookmarks for web sites we've visited and enjoyed. It was a great way to keep track of things. Before long, someone else got the brilliant idea there should be a way to share these bookmarks with our friends. Suddenly, a world of social bookmarking came into existence. But how can you, the internet marketer, tap into this social network? Is there a way social bookmarking can build traffic for your site? This post will discuss a few methods of putting social bookmarking to work for you, bringing new visitors to your site.

Since any web page can be bookmarked, any web page can be shared with friends. This is the premise behind using social bookmarking as a marketing technique. As you may have guessed, the idea is to get people who visit your site to bookmark and share it. Of course your visitors could simply email a link to their friends, but they might not think of that option on their own. It is not only your job then to remind them of this option, but to make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

Fortunately, since the entire blog community has a long and rich history of sharing links, with millions of "check this out" type posts, there have been several tools to help you make it easy for your visitors to share a link to your site. For example, if you happen to build your site on the WordPress blog platform you can find half a dozen excellent programs which provide a "share this" link with every post you make.

Not only will most of these plug-ins allow your visitors to email a link to a friend, they can add your site to the major social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us , Digg , Technorati , and StumbleUpon .

At these social bookmarking sites your visitors can also post reviews and say just what they like about your site, thereby attracting others who find the information.

Now, who is to say that you can't post your own articles, blog posts and web pages to these social bookmarking sites yourself? If you post your entries, you expose it to thousands of visitors at the social bookmarking sites who might be interested in what you have to offer.

If you have an exceptionally interesting post, and place it on a social bookmarking site, you open the door to a viral marketing effect and free exposure you probably could have never otherwise afforded.

Giving Out Free Reports and Build More Traffic

Everybody loves to get something for nothing, don't they? So offering a report or ebook for free on your web site is simply giving people what they want. Oh sure the technique is as old as the hills, give away an ebook or report in exchange for joining your mailing list. But do you know how to get your free report into the hands of people you might never otherwise be able to contact? Do you know how to make people really want to pass your report to their friends? This post will share a few tips and techniques for giving away free reports and ebooks to build an email list of loyal customers.

So you might already understand the basic concept but I'll cover it here briefly. You offer a free ebook on your web site, and all people have to do is add their email address to your list. You post a sign up form to your autoresponder (also called an opt-in form) and setup automatic delivery of the ebook or a download link when someone submits the information. But does it have to stop there? Should you be satisfied with just that one email address? Absolutely not, I say.

Another part of the old technique is you'll include affiliate links within your report. Sure, we all know that; you sign up to be an affiliate for products related to your report, put the link in your report and get paid a commission when people buy those products. This will get you a little further than just a plain old report, but wouldn't you like to kick that process into a higher gear?

What if you give away that same free report with those same affiliate links in it, but make those links customizable? You can use a special software known as "PDF Brander" which will allow someone to change the links you specify, exchanging their affiliate link with yours.

Now you've given that person a real reason to pass your report along, they can make money by doing so. Since that person might not have already been an affiliate of the products you refer to in the report, you could still collect a second-tier commission because they become an affiliate "under" you. Not only that but if you leave a couple of links back to your own web site within the report, you've just gotten your link infront of another potential site visitor.