Famous Bloggers: “The Art of Social Bookmarking!” plus 1 more

Posted: 02 May 2011 10:59 AM PDT

Several years ago, social bookmarking was all the rage, and people were bookmarking en masse trying to out-SEO their competition. And it worked – social bookmarking was a viable traffic getting strategy for several years.

But then things changed, and Google started weighing results a bit differently. Not only that, but there are now so many social bookmarking sites that it's hard to keep up. Yes, there are sites that help you cover more ground, but they are becoming less and less prominent.

So, what do you do? How can you use social bookmarking in a way that helps you build SEO and traffic – today?

To answer the question, we'll have to dive into why people use social bookmarking, and in doing that, I think you'll get the answers you are looking for.

The Purpose of Social Bookmarking

Why do people use social bookmarking today? They use it mostly to remember links so that they can go back to their favorite sites. They also use it to share with friends. One service that works really well for this is Trunk.ly, which automatically stores the links you share on Twitter and Facebook in an easy to search format.

If you share good links, people will likely follow, and if you don't, they won't.

So, we have these two dynamics at play:

People use social bookmarking as personal bookmarks.
People use social bookmarking to share.

What people don't use social bookmarking for is to share sites that suck, and it's because of this that many marketers go wrong. Let's talk about that next.

Becoming Valuable in Social Bookmarking

Let's use the previous example of Trunk.ly. If I want people to follow me there, then the best way to do that is by generating great content. I can't do that by spamming every blog post I've written, but by sharing good content all over the web.

The same goes for sites like Tumblr, which is more popular now than it was in the social bookmarking heyday.

Value = Traffic

The surest way to drive traffic is by sharing only the best of what you write and find, not in sharing everything that comes your way. This means no obligatory sharing between friends, and preferably, content that is tailored to a specific audience.

For example, instead of creating an all-purpose account, why not create an account for each niche or sub-niche? You could create an account for running links, and another for playing guitar, etc.

Bottom line – be interesting, relevant, and valuable.

How to Get People to Your Site

Some people might find your site from blog posts you've bookmarked, but most will find out about you from a bio on a social bookmarking site first. In today's world of blogs and Twitter profiles, people often read about the person behind the profile before they take the profile seriously, and if you ask me, this is your ticket in.

If you share great links, and craft a stunning bio that people can't help but to click through and check out your website, then you've won. In today's world of information overflow, this is the surest way to traffic and a solid reputation that sticks.

What do you think? Is value and reputation overrated? Weigh in below.

Meet The Traffic Generation Contest Judges Team

Posted: 02 May 2011 02:38 AM PDT

It has been a crazy week here! Today I was working on getting the results from our Judging team, and finally we’ve got all the results from 6 independent judges, means they are not part of sponsoring or organizing the traffic generation blogging contest. And before we pronounce the winners, we would like to mention the Judges Team.

The Judges have told me they found interesting traffic generation resources in the contest entries, two of them actually shared these interesting articles on their blogs along with their views and thoughts about it. Alex Whalley published The Jury's Still Out on Traffic Generation, and Ingrid Abboud published her Traffic Generation Showdown, really nice of them to share their thoughts about the entries.

Who are the Judges?

Here are our judges!

Alex Whalley

@buildrankprofit

Alex Whalley is the owner and founder of Build | Rank | Profit: The no. 1 Resource for anyone looking to build a fulltime income with niche sites and affiliate marketing. He is also the Principle SEO Consultant at BuRP! Consulting, a Search Engine Marketing Company offering link building packages from as little as $170 a month! Connect with Alex at the official Build Rank Profit Blog and learn EXACTLY how to make money with Affiliate niche sites today!

Mark Bell

@markbell10

Mark is a research engineer by profession, with a passion for helping people succeed. He is a self-taught web developer. At his personal website, Mark blogs openly about his efforts to realize the “internet lifestyle”.

Ingrid Abboud

@nittyGriddyBlog

Ingrid Abboud aka ‘Griddy’ is a whole lot of things with a ridiculous amount of interests. For one, I’m a Social Media enthusiast with a tremendous passion for writing and blogging. I’m also a pretty cool Copywriter but a more serious MarCom Consultant. But most of all, I’m the proud owner and driving force behind nittyGriddy.com – A Kinda Social Media Journal with Net News & more.

Marlee Ward

@MARLdblE

Marlee Ward is an online business and marketing strategist on a mission to help you unlock the entrepreneur within. Covering topics like online entrepreneurship, marketing, and personal development, Marlee helps new entrepreneurs create online businesses based on their "sweet spot" at Metamorphoself.

Jerry Thor

@jerrythor

Jerry speaks on topics such as social media in higher education, community outreach, developing personal brands, leading productivity practices, and much more. While he earns a living online, Jerry also has experience consulting with Fortune 100 and government agencies on commanding attention and creating engagement with college students. With College Mentor, Jerry seeks to empower student leaders to make the most of their college years.

Benjamin Lang

@entrepreneurpro – Facebook

17 year old founder of EpicLaunch.com and co-founder of MySchoolHelp.com. Entrepreneurial journey began at age 14 when he started his own eBay business, which immediately received media attention and was featured on Channel 12.

I really would like to show my appreciation to the team for their time and effort, I know this wasn’t an easy job! Many thanks to everyone!

We will pronounce the winners in the coming 24 hours, probably we will publish it at comluv.com, so stay tuned everybody, and good luck!