What is it?

1. 61

   Johanna Andersonposted 13 years ago

   I know this sounds really stupid, but I don't know what a social bookmark is.  Can somebody explain it?
   
   I know that the social bookmarking sites are great places to get back links, but that's all I know.
   
   Thanks,
   Johanna

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   1. 77

      giocatoreposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I barely know myself, but did join Digg and StumbleUpon, and also use IMAutomator, which puts up backlinks for you on various sites.
      
      Go to your account, click on 'earnings' and 'referral trackers'. You can create trackers for different sites you use for backlinks so you can measure their usefulness. Click  on 'share' at the end of one of your hubs, then generate the URL for the story with the appropriate tracker and use that when you put the link on a social bookmark site.
      
      Hope that helps. I'm pretty new myself, and will accept tips from oldtimers! Cheers.

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      1. 78

         WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Trackers don't show you the real value of your backlinks, LoL
         
         Trackers show you how many people click through that link - and how many sign up as your referrals.
         
         However the real value of backlinks is not in traffic clicking them. Google measures a site's quality and authority based on how many people link to it. So if you have a thousand backlinks to your site, Google will rank you higher in SERPs.
         
         And as the original question - social bookmarking is sharing your content on social sites. IMO it's a very low quality and time consuming thing to do. Why?
         
         1. Traffic from social bookmarking sites is ONE OFF in most cases (you might get 2,000 hits in a day then traffic will disappear) and low quality (very rarely will you get sales or clicks from it.)
         
         2. Most of the sites are NOFOLLOW meaning that the backlinks do little or nothing for increasing your position with Google.
         
         3. Many social bookmarking sites will ban you if you continually link to your own content - you're meant to link to things of interest, not blatantly spam/self promote. The general rule is link 9 things by other people, 1 of yours.

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         1. 77

            giocatoreposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I guess I'd better go to my bookmark sites and start to add a lot of someone else's links!
            
            I'm glad I answered this question, because now I've got an answer to a question I didn't know to ask. cheers.

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            1. 78

               WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               The only social bookmarking site I'd use is Redgage.
               
               Otherwise it's a more efficient use of your time to either backlink on dofollow sites and forums or just use good keywords so backlinks don't really matter.

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2. 60

   Mindtrapzposted 13 years ago

   Dont feel bad, I have no idea what a social bookmark is. And with the advent of facebook I bet they will soon be a thing of the past.

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3. 60

   Mindtrapzposted 13 years ago

   Dont feel bad, I have no idea what a social bookmark is. And with the advent of facebook I bet they will soon be a thing of the past.

   replyreport
4. 61

   Johanna Andersonposted 13 years ago

   Thanks for all of the great information, advice, etc.  It sounds to me like social bookmarking isn't a good use of one's time. 
   
   WryLit mentioned backlinking on "dofollow" sites and forums. 
   
   What is a dofollow site?
   
   By forums, do you mean a forum that discusses the topic on which you write?  For example, I write about adoption, so I could find adoption discussion groups and post backlinks to my articles on those. Is this what you are talking about?
   
   Thanks again for all of the valuable input.  I have learned so much over the past few days!
   
   Johanna

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   1. 78

      WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, the best backlinks are from sites on the same topic.
      
      Nofollow links were introduced by Google in an attempt to cut down on the amount of spammers just leaving comments on random sites to get backlinks.
      
      A "nofollow" tag on a link tells the Google bots that the link is very low value and that you don't want to pass on any "Google love" to it.
      
      You can use a free download like SEOquake to see nofollow/dofollow links. Sites like Followlist show you websites where you can comment for a dofollow backlink.

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5. 68

   rLcasaLmeposted 13 years ago

   In a physical actual bookmark, you put it in a page of a book where you have read it last or where your favorite page is.
   
   Social bookmarking sites just lets you add web pages you like in your account so you won't have to look for it again in case you forgot where to find it.
   
   They call it social because you can share those pages you bookmarked with others. I hope I somehow made it a little clearer to you.
   
   Imagine putting your hub there and share it. Kaboom! Traffic!

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