Dreamsubmitting Blog

Whether your blog is a space for political discussion or a gathering place for people who raise beta fish, you’ve already realized that the more traffic you can generate, the better! Not only will your blog have an active community, but if you have pay per click advertising on your blog, every visitor is a bit of extra cash in your pocket. There are many ways to generate traffic to your site, and it is just a matter of finding one that suits your site and your personal style.

One innovative way to get the clicks where you want them is take part in a social bookmarking site. If you have not yet heard of the phenomenon, there are sites where you can store your list of bookmarks online. This is convenient for the person who’s always hopping from computer to computer; you’ll always have all the information you need at your very fingertips. Even better, you can make your bookmarks public; you can share things like your favorite news sites, or your top ten favorite web comics. The big advantage to this sort of service comes when you realize that you are an expert. Make a list of bookmarks that feature other sites that are like yours and make it public.

Social bookmarking sites work because of the selection involved. As more people become wise to the concept of search engine optimization, they are a lot more wary of the first ten hits that come up when they check Google or Yahoo. Social bookmarking works because it has the endorsement of another real person. A real community can spring up around the idea of social bookmarking and it becomes a network of people who are trading information. With the right list of bookmarks made public, it will take a very small amount of time before your blog will be getting more hits than ever before.

To get started with social bookmarking, there are a number of sites that you can go to. http://www.technorati.com/ is one of the first sites to take advantage of this phenomenon and the interface is quite usable. You’ll find more technical bookmarked lists here, which is ideal if you have a blog on computers, televisions, or general gadgetry. At http://www.stumbleupon.com/ you will find a more social atmosphere, and there is more of a focus on entertainment. If you have a blog on the latest celebrity doings or even of your photography, this might be the place for you. Though it might look less polished than the other two, http://del.icio.us/ packs a lot punch with a history that goes back almost five years. Del.icio.us is a wonderful place for almost anything you might want to find and more and more people are using it to find the information they need. (more…)

Of course the colossal media attention that Facebook has received - and it’s absurd valuations - coupled with the increasing number of member has certainly been a pull for all sorts of businesses to harness the platform, but the question is? How are they? And how are you - and your business - harnessing Facebook pages?

Have you just reactively just thrown up a Facebook profile without really thinking strategically about what you really want to gain from it? And are you aimlessly collecting friends with no real clue as to how to get these members to your website?

The Facebook business pages go in some way to organize the range of business that currently have traditional profiles by offering an easy to manage template where business owners can include their address, logo and contact details – and best of all they’re free and easy to set up.

These pages are, in my opinion, far sleeker than the “teenage” bedroom walls of traditional pages – with the added difference that “Friends” are in fact “Fans” who are available to post reviews, comments, photos and comments about the company.

But benefiting from Facebook pages is not about just throwing a profile up, so before glancing over the ‘how to’ guide, ask yourself, “why do I need a Facebook page?” Is it for increased visibility? And if so, how do you propose to attract and keep these customers? Or is the objective to be more customer-centric by listening to their recommendations and criticisms in order to add value to your business? And if so, do you have the resource to manage this strategy effectively? (more…)