In an earlier article, I listed the five ways that webmasters can profit from social bookmarking and the increased presence it can bring. I explained exactly how their websites can benefit from:

* Repeat visitors
* Viral social bookmarking
* Viral linking
* SEO-friendly links (from social bookmarking sites)
* SEO-friendly links elsewhere (as a result of links on social bookmarking sites)

Now let’s look at what you, as a webmaster, can do to increase your website’s benefits from social bookmarking.

MAKE IT EASY for your visitors to social bookmark your website.

This means offering them as many options as possible. You might want to use a multi-bookmarking service, such as the free script that I developed called TheBookmarketer.

It also means making the bookmarking links easy to find, usually at the top of the page or at the base of an article. You can see this in action at the top of http://www.thehappyguy.com/stop-bad-breath.html or at the bottom of http://www.wv-travel-directory.com/directory/0-world/185-airlines/view.html.

BOOKMARK YOUR OWN PAGES. This one is just sooooo obvious.Yes, this means signing up for accounts at several bookmarking services. Choose as many or as few as you wish, but remember that when it comes to marketing your website, the more venues the better.

Do I have to remind you to call your mother? This would be an excellent time to ring her up…”Hi mom, How are you doing? Yes, I know it’s been a few years…by the way, do you Digg?” Don’t be shy; ask family and friends to social bookmark your pages, too.

SWAP BOOKMARKS with others who also want their pages bookmarked. For instance, if you search Google for “Grab The Bookmarketer For Your Site”, you will find other websites that are actively courting social bookmarks. All you have to do is offer to bookmark some of their pages if they bookmark some of yours. It’s a lot like a link exchange, except that it plays out on other websites. Now some social bookmarkers look askance at such joint ventures, and some even think that webmasters should not be promoting their websites at all.

PARTICIPATE in the social bookmarking site. There are some services that don’t feature much participation; others are very participatory. Searchles offers one of the highest levels of participation. Where you have the option, develop a large friend’s list, so that you can easily share bookmarks. Bookmark, tag or comment on others’ bookmarks. Being a good citizen gives you credibility in the community…even the online community.

BOOKMARK OTHER PAGES that already link to your website. Don’t just bookmark your own pages; bookmark those that link to yours. Choose especially pages that are relevant, that do not compete directly with yours and that list very few of your competitors. Let’s face it, if traffic to all those pages goes up, so does traffic to your website. And if link value goes up to all those pages, so does link-value to your website.

IF YOU HAVE A LIST, ask them to bookmark any new page on your website that you want to generate traffic to. And speaking of new pages…

HAVE OUTSTANDING CONTENT. If your content doesn’t stand out, the best you can do is your own contrived bookmarking. Sure, that can help, but it’s nothing compared to the power of thousands of people bookmarking your web pages because they think it’s just awesome!

All the social bookmarking and SEO tactics you employ can massively help to market your website, but without great content your chances of success are pretty slim. Put up the content, make it easy for people to social bookmark your website, bookmark some of your own pages and encourage anybody you know to bookmark them , too..

About the Author
David Leonhardt is “The Happy Guy”, a respected SEO-SEM marketing consultant. Read the David Leonhardt SEO blog, specifically the blog post about social bookmarking from which he expanded this article.

Social bookmarking is a phenomenon that has caught on like wildfire, yet there are still many website owners who have no idea what it is, let alone how you can use it to increase your website leads, sales, subscribers and even your repeat visitors. Get ready to ride the next wave of Internet marketing.

Everyone knows that a bookmark is a piece of paper that marks a page so you can find it easily again. Most people know that a computer bookmark is a link on your computer that marks a web page so you can find it easily again.

A social bookmark is a link that marks a web page so you can find it easily again, but also so you can share it with others (that’s why it’s called “social”, usually by posting it to one of several dozen social-bookmarking websites.

Social bookmarking is all the rage these days, with websites like Del.icio.us and Digg and Dzone and Reddit and Furl and, well dozens if not hundreds of others commanding a presence among the top traffic generators on the Internet. People like to bookmark their “finds” and they like to show off their “finds” to others. Hence bookmarking, hence social bookmarking.

Webmasters hoping to capture the attention of today’s Internet user should heed the signs and recognize the phenomenal opportunity presented by social bookmarking. In a follow-up article, I will explain the “how-to”s, but here are five types of marketing advantages ofsocial bookmarking.

REPEAT VISITORS: Considering that many people do not buy/register/contact/take action on their first visit to your website, repeat visitors are a necessity (not to mention laser-targeted prospects!) You can get more repeat visitors to your website if they can find your website again. That means getting them to bookmark your website, either on their computer or on the social bookmarking site of their choice. The more bookmarking options you offer, the more visitors are likely to return. The easier you make it for them to bookmark your site, the more of them will. However, you really must have quality content, or nobody will want to bookmark your page.

VIRAL BOOKMARKING: When somebody bookmarks your website on their own computer, they share it with, well, themselves. It’s a private thing. But when they bookmark a web page on a social bookmarking, it’s more “social”. Other people will see it. Other people might share it. Other people might even bookmark it. Websites like Del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia and SpicyPage are ideal for this. In fact, many of the biggest users of a social bookmark website are often users of several. However, you really must have quality content, or nobody will care that somebody else has bookmarked your page.

VIRAL LINKING: When somebody sees your link at a social bookmarking website, they might bookmark it…or they might add it to their own blog or portal or fan site. Suddenly one person’s bookmark becomes several links to your website, presumably from reasonably well-targeted sources of traffic. However, you really must have quality content, or nobody will want to blog somebody else’s bookmark.

SEO-FRIENDLY LINKS: Many of the social bookmarking websites offer no direct SEO value. The links might feature the NoFollow attribute. Or the mea robots tag might be set to NoFollow. Or your bookmarks might not show on unique URLs. Os the links might use a redirect script that search engine spiders don’t follow. But there are some social bookmarking websites that offer SEO-friendly links.

SEO-FRIENDLY LINKS ELSEWHERE: Even if a link from a social bookmarking website is not SEO-friendly, don’t underestimate its SEO potential. There is a whole industry growing just to game Digg and Del.icio.us, knowing that if a website’s bookmark can stick on the home page for an hour or two, it will mean dozens or even hundreds of inbound links from reasonably relevant blogs and portals and fan sites. And this is natural linking, the kind that search engines love! However, you really must have quality content, or whose going to post a link to your website just because they found it bookmarked?

About the Author
David Leonhardt is an effective SEO writer and SEM consultant. Read the David Leonhardt SEO marketing blog, specifically the social bookmarking blog post that inspired this article.

I meet a lot of different people both socially and professionally. Being self -employed, I’m at many business mixers and networking events. Whether for professional reasons or casual conversation, the question “What do you do?” comes up. The answer is usually your 30-60 second elevator speech… Hi, My name is …. I work for/my company is ….. I help people…….Sometimes the response goes on for more than 60 seconds.

Last week I was at a mixer and was called over by a colleague to meet a gentleman to whom she was speaking. With my name tag on, I walked over and extended my hand. Next - the question ” So what do you do?” I have several short responses that invite questions if people want to know more. He didn’t. My turn came up to ask him the same question. After learning about his profession (financial services) in about 6O seconds, I asked him a question to learn more about who he was. His answer was to tell me about how good he was at his job, how happy his clients were with his services and so on for 10 -15 minutes. I stopped hearing him after the first few minutes as I looked for a polite way to excuse myself. Know what I mean? During the entire conversation he never asked me anything that showed any curiosity in knowing who I am. It felt more like listening to an advertisement instead of having a conversation. It was all about HIM! Then he gave me his card, asked for referrals and said he’d get in touch with me. It was a total turnoff. Sound familiar?

Here’s my 64 cents. People like to be talked to not talked at. If your focus in networking is only to get clients to build YOUR business, that’s what people will pick up. That may work with some people. Remember, the first thing people buy is you not your product or service.

Have you met people who have shown a genuine interest in you/your needs? What was that like? Did you feel a connection or want to affiliate with them? Would they have been people you would want as friends? And if that person had a service or product something you needed, would you want to buy from them? If your intent is to forge strategic alliances and build relationships with people, take a look at the way you’re coming across and the agenda (expectations, desired results) you bring in meeting people in any situation. Creating connections naturally opens the door to referrals. If you knew of someone great who would be of help to folks in your life, would you keep that person a secret? This is Attraction not a technique to be more effective in business.

Three Attraction Tips:

– Be real - be yourself with people. * If you don’t know who you are or how to be real, contact me. I’ll help you figure that out!

– Be genuinely curious in learning about people in casual or business situations. Listen for how many times you make “I” statements to draw the focus consistently back to you. Good conversations have a back and forth flow vs. being a captive audience.

– Really listen by staying present to what’s being said. Practice active listening. Asking question that refer to people’s comments invites conversation.

Three Networking Tips:

1. Only offer your card when someone asks for it. Ask for their card if you want it.

2. If you want to give your card but haven’t been asked - you can say ” May I give you my card?”

3. When given a card, hold it in both hands and say something about the card ( I like the color, very striking) before putting it in your pocket or purse.

– If you meet someone you’d like to know better, invite them for coffee!

Last comment…..I’m a big believer in forging relationships and building a community of support. You can quote me - “What we can do alone is nothing compared to what we can do together” - Lorraine Cohen

About the Author
Lorraine Cohen of Powerfull Living (http://www.powerfull-living.biz) is a Business Coach and Life Strategist and Team Member of Solo-E (http://www.Solo-E.com). Lorraine Cohen is a Business Coach & Life Strategist who brings more than 25 years of experience in life coaching, counseling, and sales. She helps people through career change, life transitions, and the process of breaking through FEAR and removing barriers to success.