Recently, a page on one of my websites was bookmarked or listed
on Digg, a popular social bookmark site. It gave me the perfect
opportunity to study and analyze the traffic coming from these
social media sites. Read to discover the advantages and
disadvantages of social bookmark traffic and how it can be
applied to your own online marketing or site.
Is Social BookMark Traffic Useless? First, we must make the distinction that no traffic is useless.
Any visitor to your site is a good thing and should be welcomed.
However, all traffic is not created equally, there are great
differences in the sources of your traffic. This article takes
a close analytical look at social bookmark traffic from an
internet marketing perspective. In case you haven't noticed, right now social bookmark and media
sites are all the rage on the web. Social bookmark traffic comes
from such popular sites as Slashdot, Digg, Stumbleupon...
basically these sites are driven by their users - that is, users
or members pick and bookmark the content they want to view and
discuss. These social bookmark sites are extremely popular; they command
the high traffic numbers most ordinary sites can only dream about
obtaining. But is this social bookmark traffic useful? Is it worth your time? Should you be actively promoting to these
social media sites? Should you concentrate your online marketing
efforts on these types of sites? More importantly, what are the
benefits and disadvantages of getting a front page listing on a
site like Digg or Stumbleupon? As a full-time online marketer I wanted to know the answers to
those questions. Moreover, I wanted to discover how or if I
could use these sites from an online marketer's advantage; i.e.
how can they help me create more online income. Recently, the Digg listing gave me a first-hand opportunity to
really study these sites. Of course, nothing happens without a reason... I did actually
court these social bookmark sites by placing the free
Addthis.com bookmark on all my pages. You can do the same. Just
use this simple bookmark to attract these sites. But be careful; getting your site featured on the front page of
these sites can drive 100,000's of visitors to your site
immediately, so much traffic that it may overtax your server
and crash it. So be warned; if you're actively promoting to these social
bookmark sites just make sure your servers or web hosting is up
to the demanding task of handling all these sudden visitors. In my case, it didn't crash my servers but unfortunately, the
page/link in question featured an old poorly written article I
did on the history of the Internet. Why it was even featured on
Digg is a puzzle and beyond me. But still I am not one to waste an opportunity, so I put my
Google Analytics into overdrive and starting analyzing these
visitors and social bookmark traffic. It pointed out some very interesting factors about this
bookmark traffic. Most of this traffic will: * simply bounce back
* very few visitors will spend much time on your site * very few visitors will even venture into your site * very few will sign-up to your newsletter * very few will enter your marketing follow-ups/funnels (The unknown variable here being the content on your site,
how good it is? How well does it perform?) Regardless, one common problem with traffic from these sites is
that it's very temporary traffic. The high volume will only last
a few days... until your item is moved back from the front page. These visitors will not stay on your site long and most are gone
within seconds, never to be seen again. A few may sign up to your
newsletter or venture to other areas of your site but not many. Social bookmark traffic is very fleeting, like customers in the
drive-thru section in a fast food restaurant. They grab the
content and surf back to the major linking site very quickly and
surf on to the next item.
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The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous
websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. For the
latest web marketing tools try: http://www.bizwaremagic.com
For the latest Internet Marketing Strategies Go here:
http://www.marketingtoolguide.com
2007 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if
this resource box stays attached.
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