StumbleUpon, Digg, and Others

Social bookmarking started on very small sites several years ago, but they eventually took off when sites like Digg and StumbleUpon brought the technique to the mainstream internet.  These sites allow users to post links to sites they like, vote on sites that others post, and browse through the favorites of other people.  In essense, you’re sharing your favorite bookmarks with the world instead of just keeping them on your computer.

Because these sites allow practically indescriminate linking, you can add your own sites and vote for them - but there’s a catch.  Because sites are user-moderated, they’re going to get lost in the shuffle quickly if no one else votes for them.  It takes a pretty hefty number of votes to really get a site noticed, so if your site isn’t very interesting, it’s probably not going to get very many votes, which means it’s not going to get a lot of traffic.

One important aspect of marketing on social bookmarking sites is making friends.  Most social bookmarking sites let you have a small to moderate-sized list of friends whose links you can vote for.  If they see you voting for their links relatively often, they just might be willing to vote for yours.  Plus, if you manage to become friends with some “super users” - their votes count more than regular users.  (Note: this doesn’t apply to ALL social bookmarking sites, just some.)  Super users are basically regular users who have done a LOT of voting and have a good mix between their positive and negative votes.

One word of caution: don’t bookmark a ton of pages from the same site on the same account.  This can appear to be spammy to the sites and get you banned, and it’s also rumored to be problematic with regards to search engines who might also feel you are spamming.  Spread links out over multiple accounts, or just stick to bookmarking your very best articles and pages.