OVBlogger: Blogging and SEO

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Jack Humphrey, who in my humble opinion is one of the best bloggers on the planet, wrote a post last week about the best social news sites online. And here’s the deal… At some point, I think that what people want and enjoy are going to supersede what the search engines think we should want. I could be wrong there, but consider the explosion in popularity for Web 2.0. Is it a fad? Hmm…

I don’t think so.

When I joined Twitter, there were hardly any Twitterers. It was just a few savvy marketers like Brad Fallon, who encouraged his list to join and why I was in so early, and now… I have like 80 people following my stuff. That’s pretty cool, and I’m following a bunch of other people. Plus, it’s just fun. If you’re not “tweeting,” you need to get on board.

But I digress. Twitter has become enormously popular in just a short time. And look at You Tube and then, we come to the social new or bookmarking sites. Which ones should you bother with? Hmm…

Jack has given a list in his post:

http://www.jackhumphrey.com/fridaytrafficreport/social-networking/top-10-social-news-sites/

I’ll share the top 5 with you, but you’ll have to read Jack’s post for the rest of the social news sites chosen by Google.

Number one is…

Drumroll please…

Digg! Well, who didn’t know that? Just remember that if you’re in the Internet marketing, you’ll not be totally welcomed if you throw a bunch of spammy plugs into the mix. So, don’t just go to Digg and plug your own stuff. Plug anything you think is cool, and give people a reason why. That’s how it’s supposed to work, and you should totally follow that mindset. Just Digg stuff you like or “Bury” stuff you hate.  It’s a totally audience driven milieu.

Number two is…

Propeller! Now, this is a surprise. Propeller used to be Netscape, but last year, Netscape changed the name to Propeller. I’ve been using this site for what feels like ages, and it’s pretty sweet. You can include video content there as well. Why I’m surprised is that when it was Netscape, it wasn’t terribly popular. Now, you give it a snappier Web 2.0 name and bingo! Propeller rules.

Number three is…

Reddit I like this site and you can get a lot of traffic from it, if you remember to use it for content. If you’re plugging a post, it should be a post with some great content, definitely not a sales page. And don’t piss the Reddit regulars off. You really don’t want to do that and be a reddit castaway.

Number four is…

Newsvine Wow! You know, I have to admit that this is one I’ve missed. Newsvine, huh? I totally have to get an account there and check it out.

And number five?

Fark Well, hell, you have to join that site just for the name alone. But you can rate your plugs from “Interesting” to “DumbAss” OK… That totally rules.

All of these sites are free. Use them and you’ll see your traffic build, especially if you’re in a niche.  If your niche is Internet marketing, be careful to follow the rules and to never make your plugging spammy. Once you lose the respect of one of these communities, it will be very hard to regain. Just check out my post of last year about Scribd. It was a very bad year.

So, I encourage you to go over to Jack’s blog and read his post in its entirety. And if you haven’t signed up for the Authority Black Book and The Friday Traffic Report, you’re missing tons of great stuff.

I’ve said that before, but Jack’s “Link Building and Blog Marketing” emails are in the class “Open now and read immediately” for me. I really enjoy them and learn a lot.  Get on the bus!

Hey, I’ve heard that somewhere before. Har.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Over at Search Engine Watch, Marty Weintraub posted about the “diehard members of social communities who want to keep marketers at bay.” There are? Whoa.

I’ve been doing StumbleUpon posts for more than a year now for Tellman’s stuff and my own. I never had anything like that happen. But here’s the thing… If it’s so bad for marketers to post at StumbleUpon, why then, is there a category for marketing? Doesn’t make sense, does it?

I was told to “gtfo” at reddit once. But that’s pretty mild compared to the stuff that Weintraub talks about. The post was about a sale I had for people to join Blogging4BoomersinBusiness.com and the headline was a bit spammy, I suppose. “Get $20 off today only” Well… I should have seen that one coming, right?

But I’m still of the opinion that if you post to social bookmarking sites with some meat in what you’ve written, and not just sales pitch, you won’t run into trouble. Or, maybe I’m asking for it by making this post. Weintraub says that he fell into bad graces with StumbleUpon long-time users because he posted in a search blog about how much he “loves” StumbleUpon.

Heavens!

Well, it is more serious than you may think. He had to call in the local FBI.

My advice to you is that if you’re in Internet marketing and you want to use StumbleUpon, only do it as Don Crowther says for your “best” stuff. Don’t bookmark every post you make, unless it’s got some real meat to it. Otherwise, you are spamming and that just sucks. Nobody, not even we marketers like spam.

Use the social networking and bookmarking sites wisely and you can do very well in terms of getting traffic and of building a relationship with a market.

Popularity: 45% [?]