How to Use a Social Bookmark Site

Social bookmarking sites are a great way to promote your blog, articles of interest and websites. A social bookmark site allows you to set up an account and keep track of your favorites and "tag" them by keyword or subject as you go; after that, you can share them with friends, family and co-workers to build lists of interesting finds on the Web. As more sites are indexed and shared, you can start searching for niche topics and subjects with a simple search on each social bookmark site. Here's how to get started with social bookmarking sites.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Set up your account on each social bookmarking site; this will include a public user name, password and maybe a website as part of your profile.
2. Download the buttons. These are typically available to all users so that you can add them to your blog or website and encourage other visitors to bookmark your posts.
3. Create your lists. You can arrange lists of specific information for each submission. This will help you keep everything organized and makes it much easier to share information with niche groups.
4. Submit a URL link to the site and fill out the description box, tags, keywords and subject, if needed. This is how you "index" your articles, posts and submissions.
5. Continue submitting URLs through the system and categorizing them accordingly to build your list. Provide valuable content at all times so you are not labeled as a spammer.
6. Start networking. Branch out to other people in the community who have created lists with similar topics and keywords. This is how you can start promoting your list and URLs, and it helps you become an active user.
7. Visit your major sites every day. Maintaining a steady level of activity makes it easier to find quality information and connect with other users.

Tips & Warnings

• Digg, del.icio.us, Furl and Yahoo are the leading social bookmarking sites on the Web (see Resources below).
• Social bookmarking sites are a great way to promote your blog, articles or URLs with the right community. Use social bookmarking search features to track down groups of interest.
• It's easy to lose track of time using all the social bookmarking sites; pick only the most popular or relevant sites to your niche to maximize your time.
• You shouldn't have to pay a fee to use social bookmarking submission sites if you're using the sites as a marketing tool.
• If you're using social bookmarking sites as a traffic-generating tool, you need to become an active user of the sites to really make an impact!