So far, we've touched on the basics of commenting, blog marketing and MyBlogLog – now we're going to go into slightly more advanced techniques for garnering readers.
Social networking and bookmarking has grown in popularity alongside blogging and though not all of them are designed to be used with blogging, most of them are. There are four main ones that I always suggest people focus on
http://digg.com
http://stumbledupon.com
http://del.ico.us
http://technorati.com
Being fair, the last one isn't actually bookmarking, but is still, nevertheless, one of the mother lodes when it comes to promoting your blog.
Technorati.com
Technorati is quite literally, an index of all the blogs in the entire world, that it can see. It tracks every blog post, removes the splogs, and then spits out a result based on the tags that people are using. The more people using the tag, the more traffic it gets from Technorati, because in addition to tracking what people are doing, they share what their users are doing.
Technorati is one of the best 'non community' communities out there – you can't really hang out there and talk blogs, not least, you can't talk YOUR blog, like you can on MyBlogLog, but you can see what other people are using similar tags to yours for, and work out how, if any way, you can use that to your advantage. At the very least, its yet another way to find other people's blogs.
Technorati, though not a community where you can talk YOUR blog, is still also a valuable place to get blogging tips as a whole – and find out where the hot trends are – tie them into your niche, and you'll generate more traffic.
Del.icio.us
Del.ico.us was one of the first bookmarking systems I ever used, and its great. It was designed for people, originally, to store the stuff that interested them, and share it with others, and access it 'on the go'. People soon discovered that like most social networking sites, delicious had a huge traffic effect for the sites that were being bookmarked regularly This effect, further exploited by Digg (designed specifically around sharing the 'best of the community) has meant that blog bookmarking sites are gaining in both popularity and spamming. And though del.ico.us is a less effective means of bookmarking than Digg, it shouldn't be overlooked.
Another great use for delicious is to use it to categorise information and links that you want, either from a research perspective, and to offer your readers links that show you are actually involved in your community. Its amazing what a little relevant linking will do – and there's even some commentary that it works in tandem with your Google rank, because though Google looks for the votes to your page, in the form of links, it also looks for the pages you're linking to – possibly as a measure of how much you are involved in the community or niche you've chosen.
With its clean, clutter free interface, Delicious is also a great site in general to use, and was one of the first 'web 2.0' true sites.
Digg.com
Digg is, quite honestly, the mother ship when it comes to generating traffic from social networking – you can be pretty much certain that if anyone makes it on Digg, they'll soon be complaining.
NO server is designed to stream the loads that people see, after becoming a top Digg – its quite likely that though most people hope and dream of seeing traffic like that, you'll experience it once and think twice about ever attempting it again!
Digg is a great place to gain readers from certain niches – its a 'geeky' site, a lot like Slashdot, and is designed to draw attention to the sites that are in those niches, with worthwhile things to say. They do, however, have a business category, which means Internet Marketers, with the right slant, can use Digg for bookmarking.
Digging someone is sort of like saying 'I recommend this' – its a global word of mouth script, and is very, very good. Every time someone 'recommends' or diggs you, you rise back up to the top of the front page, giving you a brief chance in the limelight. If you attract more attention there, you'll be dugg again, and again, and again, or you'll sink til someone else diggs you.
There is no time limit on Diggs – no statute of expiry. So its also a great way to get traffic to older posts – and probably most importantly, you can Digg yourself. You shouldn't use your Digg account only for that, but its perfectly acceptable to submit your own site to Digg, occasionally.
The community can't – really – be gamed all that well, because its so vast, but there are ways to cheat at every social bookmarking site – Digg is SO huge though that many people find they just get...buried.
Like every community, it is, in part about friendships – the gaming effect would be really easy if everyone voted for everyone else, but, to be quite honest, most people vote for the stuff that really interests them. So once you hook them as a reader they WILL vote.
There's also no harm (whatsoever) in encouraging your readership, as it grows, to digg you, to bookmark you on delicious, or to add you to other sites – there are plugins and widgets designed specifically for that purpose – just make sure your traffic is voting for the best of your material, and you'll garner even more readers.
The main thing about Digg is its like a snowball. Gain enough momentum and people will continue to vote for you and you'll keep popping right back up to the top.
StumbledUpon.com
If by its nature, Digg is deliberate and chaotic, stumbledupon.com is just plain chaotic. Its a site designed around the 'random' browsing of most traffic exchanges and the voting of Digg. Stumbled upon though brings a surprisingly steady stream of traffic to most people – you place your site in categories and you are stumbled (randomly visited) from there.
Combine all four (and any others you personally enjoy) with MyBlogLog and there's no reason why you can't gain a couple of hundred readers a month within a few weeks.
Social bookmarking itself is one of the things that is still – pretty much – an unknown factor in traffic generation. Its important to remember that NOTHING is guaranteed, so if you do undertake any work on social bookmarking sites, track your results carefully. If you get a good result, then continue, but remember that if you've only got a finite amount of time to promote your blog, and you have to produce content first, and then drive traffic second, then you should consider cutting 'loose' anything that's hard work.
You CAN take short cuts. Bookmarking demon is one of several pieces of software that allows you to bookmark your blog without logging in, and out of each site and can speed up your time with bookmarking considerably.
The only caveat to this is like every other 'auto' posting program, they can get you banned for spamming and should, generally, only be used in moderation.
Social networking and bookmarking has grown in popularity alongside blogging and though not all of them are designed to be used with blogging, most of them are. There are four main ones that I always suggest people focus on
http://digg.com
http://stumbledupon.com
http://del.ico.us
http://technorati.com
Being fair, the last one isn't actually bookmarking, but is still, nevertheless, one of the mother lodes when it comes to promoting your blog.
Technorati.com
Technorati is quite literally, an index of all the blogs in the entire world, that it can see. It tracks every blog post, removes the splogs, and then spits out a result based on the tags that people are using. The more people using the tag, the more traffic it gets from Technorati, because in addition to tracking what people are doing, they share what their users are doing.
Technorati is one of the best 'non community' communities out there – you can't really hang out there and talk blogs, not least, you can't talk YOUR blog, like you can on MyBlogLog, but you can see what other people are using similar tags to yours for, and work out how, if any way, you can use that to your advantage. At the very least, its yet another way to find other people's blogs.
Technorati, though not a community where you can talk YOUR blog, is still also a valuable place to get blogging tips as a whole – and find out where the hot trends are – tie them into your niche, and you'll generate more traffic.
Del.icio.us
Del.ico.us was one of the first bookmarking systems I ever used, and its great. It was designed for people, originally, to store the stuff that interested them, and share it with others, and access it 'on the go'. People soon discovered that like most social networking sites, delicious had a huge traffic effect for the sites that were being bookmarked regularly This effect, further exploited by Digg (designed specifically around sharing the 'best of the community) has meant that blog bookmarking sites are gaining in both popularity and spamming. And though del.ico.us is a less effective means of bookmarking than Digg, it shouldn't be overlooked.
Another great use for delicious is to use it to categorise information and links that you want, either from a research perspective, and to offer your readers links that show you are actually involved in your community. Its amazing what a little relevant linking will do – and there's even some commentary that it works in tandem with your Google rank, because though Google looks for the votes to your page, in the form of links, it also looks for the pages you're linking to – possibly as a measure of how much you are involved in the community or niche you've chosen.
With its clean, clutter free interface, Delicious is also a great site in general to use, and was one of the first 'web 2.0' true sites.
Digg.com
Digg is, quite honestly, the mother ship when it comes to generating traffic from social networking – you can be pretty much certain that if anyone makes it on Digg, they'll soon be complaining.
NO server is designed to stream the loads that people see, after becoming a top Digg – its quite likely that though most people hope and dream of seeing traffic like that, you'll experience it once and think twice about ever attempting it again!
Digg is a great place to gain readers from certain niches – its a 'geeky' site, a lot like Slashdot, and is designed to draw attention to the sites that are in those niches, with worthwhile things to say. They do, however, have a business category, which means Internet Marketers, with the right slant, can use Digg for bookmarking.
Digging someone is sort of like saying 'I recommend this' – its a global word of mouth script, and is very, very good. Every time someone 'recommends' or diggs you, you rise back up to the top of the front page, giving you a brief chance in the limelight. If you attract more attention there, you'll be dugg again, and again, and again, or you'll sink til someone else diggs you.
There is no time limit on Diggs – no statute of expiry. So its also a great way to get traffic to older posts – and probably most importantly, you can Digg yourself. You shouldn't use your Digg account only for that, but its perfectly acceptable to submit your own site to Digg, occasionally.
The community can't – really – be gamed all that well, because its so vast, but there are ways to cheat at every social bookmarking site – Digg is SO huge though that many people find they just get...buried.
Like every community, it is, in part about friendships – the gaming effect would be really easy if everyone voted for everyone else, but, to be quite honest, most people vote for the stuff that really interests them. So once you hook them as a reader they WILL vote.
There's also no harm (whatsoever) in encouraging your readership, as it grows, to digg you, to bookmark you on delicious, or to add you to other sites – there are plugins and widgets designed specifically for that purpose – just make sure your traffic is voting for the best of your material, and you'll garner even more readers.
The main thing about Digg is its like a snowball. Gain enough momentum and people will continue to vote for you and you'll keep popping right back up to the top.
StumbledUpon.com
If by its nature, Digg is deliberate and chaotic, stumbledupon.com is just plain chaotic. Its a site designed around the 'random' browsing of most traffic exchanges and the voting of Digg. Stumbled upon though brings a surprisingly steady stream of traffic to most people – you place your site in categories and you are stumbled (randomly visited) from there.
Combine all four (and any others you personally enjoy) with MyBlogLog and there's no reason why you can't gain a couple of hundred readers a month within a few weeks.
Social bookmarking itself is one of the things that is still – pretty much – an unknown factor in traffic generation. Its important to remember that NOTHING is guaranteed, so if you do undertake any work on social bookmarking sites, track your results carefully. If you get a good result, then continue, but remember that if you've only got a finite amount of time to promote your blog, and you have to produce content first, and then drive traffic second, then you should consider cutting 'loose' anything that's hard work.
You CAN take short cuts. Bookmarking demon is one of several pieces of software that allows you to bookmark your blog without logging in, and out of each site and can speed up your time with bookmarking considerably.
The only caveat to this is like every other 'auto' posting program, they can get you banned for spamming and should, generally, only be used in moderation.
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