One of the
most widely used social
bookmarking services on the
internet, del.icio.us has a very
large member base which actively
tags and bookmarks a wide
variety of websites.
These
webpages are organized in terms
of the number of bookmarks they
receive and the items with the
most bookmarks are listed in the
del.icio.us ‘Popular’ section.
Consequently, these links
receive a lot of web traffic
from the general public and
other del.icio.us users.
The aim of
this article is to examine how
you can get your content listed
as popular items in del.icio.us,
which will ultimately send a
massive amount of visitors to
your blog.
Getting on
the Del.icio.us homepage usually
means that you’ll receive a
fairly large amount of web
traffic from both del.icio.us
and
content aggregators like
Popurl.com. This can mean
several thousand new visitors to
your website within the span of
a day.
There will
also be long term traffic
benefits depending on how your
content is heavily and widely
bookmarked on del.icio.us, which
also has an internal search
engine that lists its search
results according to the amount
of bookmarks for each webpage.
This search
algorithm, along with the use of
‘popular’ tags, ensures that
well bookmarked articles are
always exposed to del.icio.us
users or visitors.
I’ve done a
quick research of all 50 Popular
tags on the del.icio.us popular
pages and made a list of the
type of webpages which receive
the most bookmarks.
There are
obviously a huge amount of
different content types on
del.icio.us so I’m only listing
out the types that you can
easily integrate into a
blog. Also included are
brief examples of each content
type:
- Blog Posts in the form
of Numerical Lists (Top
10 Mac Utilities)
- Web Comic Strips (XKCD,
Dilbert)
- Free Web Design
Materials (IconBuffet.com,
Maxpower.ca)
- Satirical Articles on
Personalities (Secret
Diary of Steve Jobs)
- Detailed How-Tos and
Ultimate Guides (Web 2.0
Design Style Guide)
- Web-based applications
and tools (Zamzar.com,
YouTube Downloaders)
- Interesting Videos (Internet
Pornography Statistics Video)
- Open-Source/Public
online resources (MIT
OpenCourse Ware/MIT World)
- Theme-based Photo Albums
(Flickr Photosets)
- Life and Tech Hacks (Mac
OS X: Keyboard Shortcuts,
Productivity/GTD tips)
- Online Games (Desktop
Tower Defense Scoreboard)
- A Single JPG image on a
website (Flickr,
Imageshack)
While this
list is limited to only to
Del.icio.us, I do think it
provides an indication of the
type of material that will be
popular on other social
bookmarking or voting websites
as well.
In a way, the
structure of these popular
articles can serve as blueprints
from which to develop specific
content that will be
well-received amongst a broad
audience.
Four Ways to Popularize
Your Content on Del.icio.us
While these
four methods focus specifically
on making your articles popular
on del.icio.us, it will also be
useful to view them as a
guideline which helps you to
develop quality content that
attracts links/traffic from
other websites as well.
In this
section, I’m going to cover some
basic content-oriented
strategies for blogs, which will
help you to increase your
potential for being bookmarked
heavily on del.icio.us.
Bear in mind
that coming up with
quality content is a
prerequisite for success,
particularly on del.icio.us
because it is purely a social
bookmarking website that places
all emphasis on your content and
less on the actions of others.
The following
four methods are tailored
towards bloggers and excludes
several methods which are more
suitable for traditional
websites, although some of the
points below can be equally
applied by all.
1. Develop Extensive
Resource Lists which encourage
bookmarks
I’ve already
written about how I think
Resource Lists or a
collection of resources on a
single webpage are the ultimate
linkbaits. They are fairly easy
to create and do not require
much analytical thought,
interesting insights or even
great copywriting.
There is
absolutely no need to create a
compelling article that is
extremely well-written, even
though that will be to your
advantage. Resource lists are
also timeless and their
information or value are less
likely to be diminished with
changes in current events.
The essence
and raison d’entre for
a Resource List linkbait is very
simple: It must contain an
overwhelming and massive
collection of information which
cannot be digested by the reader
in one sitting.
Faced with
this overwhelming collection of
interesting information,
visitors usually have three
options:
- Bookmark it using an
online social bookmarking
service like del.icio.us
- Bookmark or save it
locally on their computer
browser
- Subscribe to the site
feed in order to have access
to it through a feed reader
All of these
actions reveal one thing: The
intention to revisit the content
and consume it in another
sitting. This is the direct
cause of bookmarking any
specific webpage.
Resource
lists are simply very effective
means which provoke the
bookmarking response. The very
large number of resource
list-style articles I’ve
encountered on social
bookmarking and voting websites
attests to their success and
attractiveness.
If you’re
interested in a step by step
guide to creating your own
Resource List article, please
visit my article on
how to build your own Resource
Linkbait.
2. Market Your Content:
Social Website Channeling &
Email Pitches
Now that
you’ve produced a definitive
resource list or ‘Ultimate’
guide, you’ll need to market it.
The biggest obstacle most
bloggers face is that they do
not have a large bookmarking
audience which will naturally
propel their blog posts unto
del.icio.us Popular pages.
To counter
this, you’ll need to get your
article out in front of as many
people as possible so they will
consider bookmarking it. There
are two main ways of doing this
and they include using
social voting websites
as well as targeted
email pitches.
An article
that is made popular on other
social networks like Digg or
Reddit is very likely to be made
popular on del.icio.us itself.
This is particularly true when
you have a truly impressive blog
post that begs to be bookmarked.
You actually
don’t even need to be hit the
front page of these social
voting websites to see an actual
effect, even though it would be
an ideal scenario.
Your goal at
this stage, is to get your blog
post to be viewed by as many
people as possible. Social
voting websites are absolutely
the fastest way to accomplish
this.
Depending on
your article’s success in these
social voting websites, you’ll
definitely pick up some
bookmarks and new readers as
well.
Sending
emails to larger blogs or
websites in your niche is also a
very useful way to pick up links
and traffic. A link from a
website with a large readership
ensures that your article is
well-exposed to many readers and
hence, increases its potential
to be bookmarked.
3. Seed Your Bookmarks
Bookmark
seeding simply refers to the
practice of getting people you
know to give your article a push
by collectively bookmarking it
in their del.icio.us accounts.
Usually
several bookmarks (perhaps
upwards of 15) are needed before
your article starts to be
noticed on del.icio.us, which
will then send visitors to your
website. These referral visitors
may choose to bookmark your blog
post as well.
After you’ve
done all the initial marketing,
consider asking if some of your
friends to give your blog post
an initial boost by bookmarking
it. Some webmasters I know will
go out of their way to
aggressively trade del.icio.us
bookmarks, which I think may be
too excessive.
This
artificially inflation in
bookmarks is limited to your
online social network and will
eventually be unable to move
beyond a certain point. I do
suppose that the articles might
even be eventually pushed off
the popular pages over time.
I don’t
recommend putting any energy or
time in aggressive bookmark
seeding because the returns are
usually higher if you focus on
writing high quality content and
promoting them effectively to
targeted websites and social
voting platforms.
4. Social Media Optimize
Your Content
After you’ve
finished the three steps above,
you can revisit your article and
perform some
social media optimization.
This simply involves making your
blog post easy to bookmark by
including bookmarking icons or
links and encouraging your
regular visitors to bookmark or
vote for your post on social
websites.
If you’ve
noticed that your blog post has
been submitted to social
websites like Digg or Netscape,
put up a smart badge which tells
your on-site visitors that they
can vote for it if they are so
inclined.
If you are
focusing on a specific social
website, you can include the
specific icon or badge more
prominently on your blog post
page and also personally call
for more supporting votes.
For instance,
if you noticed that your article
is receiving traffic from
del.icio.us, it might be useful
to insert a simple one-liner
with a text link which
encourages and reminds users to
bookmark the article for future
reference.
I’ve included
social media optimization as the
last step because I think the
other three steps should have a
higher priority. Doing this at
the last step will also allow
you to gauge the response of
social websites to your article
and react accordingly.
Have
you been Del.icio.us-ed before?
Has any of
your articles ever gotten
popular on del.icio.us?
I’m always
fascinated with the value and
amount of traffic sent through
social bookmarking websites so
do leave a comment if you have
any insights to share.
