Business Online

If you’re reading this post I’m sure that you’ve come across a lot of these kind of posts and you’ve been trying to get your head round these networks, social bookmarking sites or whatever name you choose to call them. I’ve been there, I’ve done that and I’ve got a tee-shirt, and that is why I’ve decided to write this post. If you’re one of the lucky ones who are just starting out running online businesses please read through, you may not know how much this is worth since you haven’t yet wasted useful time chasing after apparitions, but I wish I’d found a post like this at the beginning.

If you have any experience running online businesses ( whether it’s a product or a service you offer, and whether it is a structured business or you just make some change on the side ) you would have noticed that these social bookmarking sites are pretty good - they’ll send decent traffic your way. But there’s that extra special gem to the whole idea, if you can make it to first/front page , you’ll have more traffic ( to the sites where you run your online businesses ) in a day than most sites can hope for in a life time . So what’s the problem with this? Who would complain about that?

There’s no problem with joining these sites to promote your self, your brand and/or any of your online businesses, but if you’re going to aim for frontpage on these sites all in the hope of making it huge there’s only ONE sure way. Please note that I didn’t say there’s only one way, but only only one SURE way. Obviously if you’re site is properly designed and you make use of some of the tips here on this site you can put these sites to really good use and have a huge advantage for free. But do not get carried away trying to make it to the front pages of these sites. Before I get into how to make it to the front page, I’d like to first point out the reason I think its the only sure way worth taking.

• These guys run an online business and therefore they employ the best and the most intelligent: My primary assumption ( and the only reason I’m not calling it a fact is because I don’t want to seem arrogant ) is that the guys that code the algorithms for these sites are intelligent, really intelligent-FULL STOP. They may slip up once in a while but eventually because they’re good at what they do the algorithms get better and better and that’s why …

• It doesn’t pay to keep trying to game the system: One person may succeed, there’ll always be that story of some guru that made millions in a day by gaming the systems but that’s exactly the point. If you follow these stories there’s usually only one person, no one before, and no one after. He/She/They literally open the door , walk through and by the very act, shut it behind them.It’s wiser go treasure hunting based on an old folk-tale ( ‘Benjamin Gates’ comes to mind ) than to spend you’re time trying to learn new ways to game the system. So because of the above two points you should realize that

• It will certainly take time to get there : The algorithms at the very least will be designed to protect the authenticity of the system. There’s no way long term loyalty ( how active you remain on these sites over a period ) is not factored in one way or the other. Somehow your level of interaction with others on the network and your contributions especially the value of those contributions ( how many ’successful’ stories or pages you’ve promoted ) will also be factors. You actually stand a better chance of getting to the front page by taking the time to understand how these systems work.

Having said that, cracking any social bookmarking site will always follow the same pattern, and I’m sorry if you expected it to be a quick and dirty flash-in-the-pan idea because its not. Basically if you follow these steps and pay attention to the last one you are more likely to make it to the front pages than someone dedicated to unearthing some cool black hat loophole in the system. I’m assuming that at this point you’ve registered on one or more of these sites, if you haven’t these are the links to the home pages… stumbleupon, digg:

• First, get a feel of your page: A lot of people simply register and immediately start stumbling and digging and stuff like that, but it is important that you know exactly where everything is, and understand what they’re there for. Click on links and take a look at the pages they bring up. Doing this will give you a better understanding of how the system works and help you achieve your goals. Knowing the fastest way to respond to requests, where to find those requests etc will help you latch on to opportunities once they come up, you’ll also have a better understanding of what the site is about. Reading the ‘about us’ pages can be very useful ( digg - about us, stumbleupon - about us ).

• Second, go ahead and add as many fellow diggers and stumblers as you desire: There are two things to watch out for here, make sure that they’ve been recently active and try to ensure that they would have the same relative interests as you have. This will ensure that you develop an active community around yourself . Without necessarily getting to the front page this is an asset for anyone running online businesses. Be sure to also add most of the top stumblers or diggers, they don’t have to return the favour, you never know it may give you some visibility, and you can learn a coule of things by following their activities.

• Third, get involved by stumbling and digging other people’s stuff: Take the time to go round and offer to bookmark other peoples favorites. Apart from assuring the community that you’ve built that you’re not out to start spamming their boxes with requests this has a second more valuable advantage. Like I’ve said algorithms are designed to promote the authenticity of the web site. With the amount of information that can be gathered by tracking users , this could be a factor in rating members of the community.GET ACTIVE and STAY ACTIVE.

• Finally, Write a compelling and informative article or post related to your products, service or online businesses: Very few online businesses do the extra work it takes to go past mediocrity and draw in clients, customers, subscribers etc. Read it, Re-read it and then Re-read it again. You can read about writing good content for your online businesses here.Take the pain to make corrections, offer useful information avoid vagueness and high sounding words, make it easy to read and learn a thing or two about writing, it may help. Simply put ask yourself, “what would I promote as a digger or stumbler naturally ? ” and write a compelling peice on that. Remember that nothing will sell your article or page more than the true value it adds to its readers. If you’re going to get there you’ll need more than your friends. As a matter of fact simple logic points to the fact that people who aren’t your friends probably carry more weight than friends as far as the algorithms are concerned .

You are not likely to achieve it on your first try, but you’ll gain something very useful - experience. Over time you’ll gain the skillset (and it takes skill ) needed to write this type of pages and articles and reviews and you’ll be able to move your online businesses up a notch. Drop the notion that algorithms are pretty looking flow chart patterns or code blocks , they can really be complicated, and to run a successful social bookmarking site , they have to be.

Hope this article has been useful. Happy Stumbling and Digging, I’m looking forward to to seeing you on front page.