The How To On Social Bookmarking

What Is Social Bookmarking?

The process involves saving bookmarks to a public directory or website. Then, once saved there, you tag them with specific keywords relevant to the topic of the website. This is different from ordinary bookmarking in that you do not save the url of the website you want to visit on your computer.

In order to start your compilation of social bookmarks you will need to register at one of the many social bookmarking sites out there. Once registered, the sites will allow you to store, tag, and share bookmarks.

A visitor to a social bookmarking site is able to search through the site either by keywords, the name of the person, or popularity of the site.

How Did it Get Started and Who is Doing it?

Social bookmarking started with sites like Furl, del.icio.us, and Simpy and has grown exponentially from there. Some notable social bookmarking sites that have sprung up since have been Digg, StumbleUpon, and Reddit. When collecting resources from one particular niche, such as a website, social bookmarking can help channel a lot of traffic to the site. The great thing about social bookmarking is that anyone can participate.

How does Social Bookmarking Work?

Each bookmark is assigned a tag or keyword that describes the niche of the bookmark. This opens many doors to a new way of classifying information. Users can make social connections easily with other people interested in the same topic because the social bookmarking sites show who created each bookmark and lists that person's other bookmarks. This allows people to find and connect on almost any topic they please.

Users are able to see all resources that have been assigned a tag. For instance, if you were to make a blog about fishing, then you would use tags, or keywords, such as "fishing", "types of fishing poles", "fly fishing", and so on depending on how far into the niche you want to go. People who are looking for information on types of fishing poles would then type in "types of fishing poles" into a bookmarking site and they would then be directed to every site that has that particular tag attached to it.

The Significance of Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking allows people to convey a different perspective on a specific niche. The uses of which can lead to significantly increased traffic to your website if done right. It allows people looking for specific information to find one another.

On the bookmark creator side, he can use his website to sell a product or service or just blog on about the niche. This allows the site owner to increase his traffic without having to spend money. Social bookmarking is a great way to advertise your website without spending money on PPC or Adwords.

The Downsides of Social Bookmarking

As mentioned earlier in the article, social bookmarking is done by amateurs. As a repercussion, it can lead to an inconsistent use of tags. An example of this inconsistency is if a user saves a site based on black labs but only tags the site with "black lab" and not "dog". The information may not be found by people looking for certain breeds.

Another thing that can be perceived as a disadvantage is having another place to maintain. This can lead to losing your information if you misplace or you have a computer crash.

The Top 5 Social Bookmarking Sites

1. Digg.com - This site has a page rank of 8 and has over 16 million visitors monthly. There are over 117 million inbound links in the Digg.com database. Digg.com has an Alexa ranking of 98.

2. Technorati.com - This site also has a page rank of 8 and has over 3 million visitors monthly. There are over 75 million inbound links in the Technorati.com database. Technorati.com has an Alexa ranking of 216

3. Del.icio.us - This site has a page rank of 8 and has over 1.5 million visitors monthly. There are over 170 million inbound links in the Del.icio.us database. Del.icio.us has an Alexa ranking of 248.

4. Propeller.com - This site has a page rank of 7 and has over 1.4 million visitors monthly. There are over 950,000 inbound links in the Propeller.com database. Propeller.com has an Alexa ranking of 2,308

5. StumbleUpon.com - This site has a page rank of 8 and has over 1 million visitors monthly. There are over 19 million inbound links in the StumbleUpon.com database. StumbleUpon.com has an Alexa ranking of 300.

Suthan M is a social book-marking fanatic and reveals some of his most guarded secrets to making the best out of it on his site http://www.bookmarkfrenzy.com