I have already discussed the value of social networking websites for getting links to your online projects. I also mentioned other benefits you get using this type of websites while promoting your own:

a. Traffic (it does not turn into cash at a normal rate, but you can monetize it with CPM banners)
b. Branding (your website has a good chance to get noticed)
c. One way links (natural – most valuable links that will result in a better search engine visibility of your website)

My recent experiments prove that one should spend more time to explore these social websites and opportunities they provide for online entrepreneurs. I have realized that I can get traffic, good traffic from other sources besides search engines where it is next to impossible to rank high for popular keywords if your website is new (under 2 years).

What is a social website? It is a public website where its members save their bookmarks that are (as a rule) accessible to other members. Members use keywords to tag their submissions. Other members use tags to search for the information they are interested in.

In fact, it is a new approach of organizing information that is completely different from traditional search engines (Google, Yahoo!, etc). The good news is that the social websites gain their popularity and are likely to shortly compete with Google and other SE in traffic. It makes us less dependent on Google updates and fads.

Three key elements of social websites:

- members
- tags
- URL’s

You should focus on these three elements while seeking ways to succeed with this new source of traffic.

There are new social websites that come online practically on a monthly basis. They are not equal and one can’t keep track of every new service. And I think there is no reason for that. I use the below social websites that are most popular at the present time:

- www.onlywire.com – in fact it is a service that allows you to submit your new entries in seconds to an entire number of social websites (Backflip, Blinklist, Blogmemes, del.icio.us, Feedmelinks, Furl, Linkroll, Looklater, ma.gnolia, Maple, Markaboo, Rawsugar, Shadows, Simpy, Wink). To start with, you need to open an account with every service. Later on you will be able to make submissions to all services via one interface – www.onlywire.com

- www.digg.com

- www.stumbleupon.com

- www.netscape.com

- www.shoutwire.com

- www.reddit.com

- www.coolsiteoftheday.com

There are popular sites that are specialized in particular industries (for instance, www.slashdot.org or www.fark.com). I do nt mention www.myspace.com as I have not so far explored the service to the level I would like it. I have an account and friends, but no successful promotions.

Summary: It takes me in total 10-15 minutes to add my new articles or posts to every service. The result is not always the same and as expected, but I know that I will get a few hundred visitors each day thanks to these websites solely. Plus some possible links, plus branding aspect. It is definitely worth my 10-15 minutes.

These are my first steps with social bookmarking websites and I think that my best posts are still to come. It is not a secret that you can expect 30,000-50,000 visitors per day if you really make it big with these websites. In that case you should be prepared to properly handle that volume of traffic; otherwise the website will go down.

[tags]social websites, traffic, link bait, social bookmarking, web 2.0, domain names, archive.org, adsense, adwords, ppc, text-link-ads, links buying, links selling, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, ebay, google, make money online, work from home, home based job, wikipedia, del.icio.us, technorati, bloglines, duplicate content, links, earn your living online[/tags]

With such a powerful tool as Link Baiting why to bother with searching for any links to your website, adding it to article and general directories, spending money on buying links? Forget about it, get one way natural links that will push your website to the top of search engines and social websites.

So, with link baiting all you need is to create some great content or an online tool, post it on social bookmarking websites: enjoy traffic and generate income.

Social bookmarking – you save your bookmarks to some public website that makes your bookmarks available to other members. You also tag your bookmarks with keywords – relatively new way of information classification. This website members search the information by tags, popularity or person.

Unfortunately, it is not so easy. But let’s start from the beginning.

Rand Fishkin defines link baiting as content targeting link friendly audiences. Very precise definition. Link friendly audiences – who are they? Bloggers and forum posters.

Rand who is one of the best link baiters offers his algorithm to succeed with this marketing technique:

1. Browse popular social bookmarking websites (del.icio.us, digg.com, stumbleupon.com, netscape.com, etc) and research what people tend to bookmark in your niche.

2. Brainstorm for 10-15 ideas for content or tools. They should be unique and appealing to your niche users. It is the hardest part: how to know that this information will appeal to link friendly audience? Answer: by trial and error

3. Develop a catchy title

4. Add web 2.0 look and feel features

5. Remember to add viral elements: ‘e-mail your friend’, ‘add to a bookmarking website’

6. Test if everything is fine and add the link bait to social bookmarking websites (list of most popular social bookmarking websites)

7. Be prepared: not every piece of your work is likely to become a true link bait. Also expect some criticism from community – there will be some persons who are likely to discover some weak points in your work.

I have been testing the algorithm for a few days. I did not make it really big, but a simple post ‘where to buy domain names’ brought me alone about 1,000 unique visitors a day. It is a record for my website. The visitors neither clicked AdSense ads nor were interested to buy any products/ services displayed at the website, but it is great from branding point of view. And it is time to turn to ‘old and good’ CPM advertising (CPM – banner impressions).

Summary: I have really experienced the power of bookmarking websites: they bring you traffic, generate new links (not yet any evidence in my case), a great branding tool. They make you less dependent on natural search engine traffic. And it is the greatest advantage to new websites that endlessly complain of Google sandbox.

It is not that simple to create a working link bait, but it is a much easier task than to get your website to Google top 10.

[tags]link bait, social bookmarking, web 2.0, domain names, archive.org, adsense, adwords, ppc, text-link-ads, links buying, links selling, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, news aggregator, ebay, google, make money online, work from home, home based job, wikipedia, del.icio.us, technorati, bloglines, duplicate content, links, earn your living online[/tags]

I have started a free link popularity service that should facilitate webmaster’s search for permanent one way links.

Links are harder to obtain that it used to be. Websites need one way links from relevant websites to improve their search engine rankings, permanent links are preferable. Our free service offers webmasters and all those who do business online to get FREE RELEVANT & PERMANENT ONE WAY LINKS.

The basic idea of the service is that most webmasters and seo’s run more than one website. So, they can give a link from one website and get a link to another website of their own. As a result, both webmasters get relevant one way links.

FOR EXAMPLE:

I have a website on online business. At the moment I work at my new project and need relevant and permanent one way links to my website on education.

So, I offer a link on my online business website in exchange for a relevant link to my education website.

I place a post in the forums after selecting an industry for my online business website:

SUBJECT: site on online business, PR4 (I state PR of the page I will place my partner’s link on), 15 mo (website age), Alexa: 650,000, .com (website extension), 10 OBL (number of outbound links on this page), single page (link placed on a single page: opposed to a site wide link)

BODY: would like to get a permanent link from auto, cooking, humor websites.
Min PR…
Min age…
Min Alexa…
Single page/ site wide

So, a final version of this post will look like this:

SUBJECT:

online business, PR4, 15 mo, Alexa: 650,000, .com, 10 OBL, single page

BODY:

I would like to get a permanent link from education, also (as I have websites in these niches): auto, cooking, humor websites.

Min: PR4

Min age: 1 year

Min Alexa: 700,000 or higher

Single page/ site wide: single page

Please, pm me if you have something to offer

URL’s are not listed in the posts (for confidentiality reasons) and disclosed to interested parties only in the process of message board negotiations.

The members browse the listings by industries, scan post subjects and open those posts they are interested in.

If a person is interested to obtain this kind of a link and he has a website to offer, he contacts the poster via private message board and discusses the details of the link deal. If he does not have websites in the industries the poster is interested in he can search for a third party among other posts and arrange a three party deal.

E-mail addresses in the messages are not allowed – all negotiations are held via private message boards.

ALL links obtained through the service should be permanent.

After the deal is closed it is recommended that the members rate each other (Feedback system): black listed or white listed members and reason why.

Use our new service and contact me with your feedback and feature requests.

[tags]link popularity, link building, permanent links, free link service, links buying, links selling, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, ebay, google, make money online, work from home, home based job, wikipedia, del.icio.us, technorati, bloglines, duplicate content, links, earn your living online[/tags]