Top 15 Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites In 2013

H! Friends, Today i am going to tell you about Social Bookmarking. Social bookmarking mean sublimation of blog or website on Social site where lot of peoples register with particular site. Social book marking is very important tool in off-page SEO, it help you to create back link's as well as grow in search engines. There are million of website in the world for social Bookmarking, but never submit your site on low rank site or low traffic site or immoral site, if you do it google will ban you that why try to use top Social Bookmarking website. Here are list of top 15 social Bookmarking site. 

1  Twitter
15 - eBizMBA Rank | 250,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 30 - Compete Rank | 5 - Quantcast Rank | 9 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

2  Pinterest
31 - eBizMBA Rank | 85,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 42 - Compete Rank| 16 - Quantcast Rank | 36 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

3  Reddit
295 - eBizMBA Rank | 16,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 705 - Compete Rank | 64 - Quantcast Rank | 115 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

4  StumbleUpon
416 - eBizMBA Rank | 15,000,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 950 - Compete Rank | *150* - Quantcast Rank | 150 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

5  Delicious
869 - eBizMBA Rank | 5,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,396 - Compete Rank | *870* - Quantcast Rank | 342 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

6  Tweetmeme
873 - eBizMBA Rank | 5,450,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 1,317 - Compete Rank | 877 - Quantcast Rank | 426 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

7  digg
1,314 - eBizMBA Rank | 4,100,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 3,137 - Compete Rank | 430 - Quantcast Rank | 375 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

8  FARK
1,728 - eBizMBA Rank | 1,850,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,045 - Compete Rank | 1,019 - Quantcast Rank | 2,120 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

9  Slashdot
1,805 - eBizMBA Rank | 1,700,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,335 - Compete Rank | *1,825* - Quantcast Rank | 1,254 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

10  Friendfeed
2,380 - eBizMBA Rank | 1,500,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 4,053 - Compete Rank | *2,400* - Quantcast Rank | 686 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

11  Clipmarks
2,541 - eBizMBA Rank | 1,400,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | *2,800* - Compete Rank | 1,679 - Quantcast Rank | 3,145 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

12 Newsvine
2,544 - eBizMBA Rank | 1,390,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 2,224 - Compete Rank | 2,020 - Quantcast Rank | 3,388 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

13  Diigo
3,078 - eBizMBA Rank | 1,200,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 4,765 - Compete Rank | *2,700* - Quantcast Rank | 1,769 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

14  Scoop.it
5,292 - eBizMBA Rank | 550,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 7,675 - Compete Rank | 7,205 - Quantcast Rank | 996 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

15 Chime.in
8,091 - eBizMBA Rank | 250,000 - Estimated Unique Monthly Visitors | 10,357 - Compete Rank | *NA* - Quantcast Rank | 5,825 - Alexa Rank.
Most Popular Social Bookmarking Websites | Updated 5/1/2013 | eBizMBA

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How to Increase Traffic on Website or Blogger

Before going to discuss how to increase traffic on blog or website you should know the basic fundamental about web traffic. There are Four types of web traffic.

1. Search Traffic
2. Referral  Traffic
3. Piad Traffic
4. Direct Traffic

What is meant by search traffic:

Search traffic mean the user with you earn from search engine's or other searching platform known search traffic. Search traffic are very important for your website or blogger, You will earn traffic at that time when your site will up in search engine otherwise you can not earn this type of traffic.  

How to Increase Traffic on Website or Blogger 

What is meant by Referral traffic:

Referral traffic mean traffic which you earn from linking of your site to other site's simply mean Link Exchange or Back link's. You you have enough back link's of you website then you can earn this type of traffic. This traffic is also very important for you to grow in search engine. you can check how much back link's you have from Alexa

What is meant by by Paid traffic:

Paid traffic mean traffic which you are earning from budget, in simple word's traffic which you are earning from Advertisement on many platform. This type of traffic you can earn from Advertising on Google Adwards, Advertising on Facebook, Advertisement with other website, Advertisement on TV channel's and so many other platforms are available for this type of traffic. This type of traffic is not much important for you website because from advertising you will earn traffic till a specific time not long time.

  

What is meant by by Direct traffic:

Traffic which come's on you website/Blog by direct access not from any other platform, usually direct traffic on websites are low because no one will remember you domain name. 

Now,  How to Increase Traffic on Website or Blogger 

There are lot of ways to increase traffic on you website or blog, we will discuss all the ways step by step.

• Your website or Blog should Unique

• Your Website or Blog contents should Unique

• Use image or video with you articles 

• Use Social Sharing widget on website or Blog

• Keep in touch with your reader by comments

• Your Website or Blog Look Should attractive by using Themes/Template  

• Use social sharing button e.g ShareThis, AddThis

• Use Related Article widget LinkWithin

• Keep in touch with you reader's by reply of comments

• Share your Contents on Social Websites e.g Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest 

• Use Back link's Strategy

• Post Relevant Information or website

• Give importance to feedback of you reader

• Use Best Title for you Post 

Here was few quotations to increase traffic on Website/Blog,you will adopt these strategy hope you will enjoy traffic as well as earning. Hope you like this article, If you have any query in your mind you are most welcome leave in comments.

Please don't forget to share with you friends 

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How to Change Your Blogger Background Image and Color

Designing your blog is a crucial factor and it will helps you to impress your readers at first sight. There are many options you can follow such as using a custom templates, customizing elements, use of effects on images and more if you consider attractive designing for your blog. However design itself not enough for your blog. So you should work on content to be qualitative too. When it comes to designing, how does your blog background aids in impressing 
readers? You may not care about it, but your blog background which spread over large amount of area could be able to convey what type of blog and what kind of personality you have. Would you like to give more color to your blog with different background image and colors?

As you change templates, you might see different backgrounds native for them. It could go with your blog and content. It may be your favorite choice. If you have type of common background image, then readers may not impress with your design. Also if it doesn't work out or seems odd for you, then you might seek a way to make use of another background image or background color. So you wanna change background image with a one suitable for your theme. As another reason, sometimes they will find your background color is buggy when they reading your blog. You know, background color and content color should be matched and readers should be able to read them easily without finding any friction for them. So in such a scenario, you have to change your background color to make it more convenient with a new look to your readers. Let's take a look at customizing your blogger background.


Steps:

1. Go to Blogger Dashboard.

2. Click on your Blog Title.

3. Now navigate to Template tab.

4. Click on Customize button beneath your live blog preview.

Change Background Image

i. Click on Background on left pane.

ii. There you can find heading Background image and click on the image box below the heading.

iii. Either you can select background image provided by Blogger or use Upload image menu item to upload you own image.


Remember: Blogger allows you to upload only JPG, GIF or PNG or any Picture files and size should be equivalent or below to 300 Kilobytes. It recommends to use images with 1800 x 1600 or greater dimensions.

iv. Click Done button after the completion of upload.If you Like this Post then please must leave comment & Share with you friends.
Change Background Color

i. Navigate to Advanced menu item.

ii. Find and click Backgrounds sub menu item.

iii. Change Outer Background, Main Background or/and Header Background color as you prefer.


5. After making necessary changes, click Apply to Blog button to commit your changes.

Hope you like this post, If you have any query in your mind you are free to leave comment.
Don't Forget to share with you friends....Thanks

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How to Customize Fonts and Colors in Your Blogger Template

How much do you care about your blog design? Do you design it by yourself or use a custom template designed by someone else? However it's up to you to decide whether to use official Blogger templates or custom templates. The look and feel of your blog goes with your taste and creativity. Even though you satisfies with your template, later on you may wanna make some changes to enhance your blog design and to give it a new look. For example, assume you wanna change page text and its color. In such a situation, do you wanna contact your template designer to make these changes for you?

Absolutely not. Blogger has extended its template design capabilities for you and made it further more simple. Blogger let you customize fonts, colors and backgrounds of your blog easily via a single interface - Blogger Template Designer. So even if you have no HTML or Cascade Styling Sheet (CSS) knowledge, still you can create the perfect look for your blog. Blogger expanded capability of customization and breaks the limitations. Now it includes wide range of stylish font selection to make your blog design more stylish and modernize. Blogger Template Designer Advanced settings allows you to customize page text, backgrounds, links, tabs, titles and other elements in your template.
Steps:

1. Navigate to Blogger Dashboard.

2. Click on your Blog Title.

3. Navigate to Template from left pane.

Note: Before editing your template, you may want to save a copy of it.

4. Now click on Customize button underneath your blog preview.

5. Now you will be directed to the Blogger Template Designer. Then jump to Advanced section.

6. Now here you can customize fonts and colors of different elements on your blog. Below you can find the description for each page element.
Page Text

Here you can change the font used in the blog and color of the text. However this doesn't affect for your text in posts.

Backgrounds
Here you can change background colors of your template - Outer background, Main background and Header background. If you wish to change your background image, read How to Change Your Blogger Background Image and Color.

Links
This section will allows you to change the font and colors of links displayed on your blog.

Blog Title
If you are not using custom header, here you can change the font and color of your blog title displayed in the header.

Blog Description
Your blog description displays along with the blog title on header if you are using standard blog header. So here you can change color of the blog description shown below the blog title.

Tabs Text
Here you can change font and colors of the text displayed on the tabs.

Tabs Background
You can change the background color and selected color of your tabs here.

Post Title
If you wish to change the font of post titles, here you can manage it.

Date Header
If you displaying date header on top of list of posts within the day, you can change font and color of date header.

Post Footer
Here you can manage the properties of post footer such as text color, background color and shadow color.

Gadgets
You can change title of gadgets aka elements here.

Images
Here you can manage borders, background and caption of images used in your blog.

Accents

Here you can change separator line color and tabs border color.

Add CSS Code
If you are familiar with Cascading Style Sheets aka CSS, here you can add custom CSS snippets to override existing styles of your blog.

Remember:
* As you change each values, you can see the live preview of your changes on below view pane. Whenever you select an element, the affected area will be shown by a red dashed line.

* If something goes wrong, you can revert changes to default with the help of link displayed at the bottom of each section.

7. If you are not happy with live preview, click View Blog link on top bar to view your blog with the changes you have made in a different browser tab or window.
8. Once you are comfortable with changes you have made, click Apply to Blog button to apply changes permanently.
Hope you like this post, If you have any query in your mind you are free to leave comment.
Don't Forget to share with you friends....Thanks

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5 Reasons Why Should We Blog

Blogging is a business for those who can write and share knowledge about a specific filed. It could be technology, social media, internet or blogging. If you can write and share then you can start blogging, however you must know that why you should start a blog and not any other online business. Before going in details, let me describe blogging in a few lines.

Blogging is business where you provide knowledge and information. In return you get readers and advertisers. Your readers are basically your customers and advertisers are those who provide you revenue channels.

As you can see now a days a lot of students are joining the blogging industry and there a are few reasons why they jump into it.

1. Earning Money

The first and common reason of blogging is to earn a few bucks and live a independent life. Even some bloggers have taken blogging as a career and they are now earning huge amount of money. Basically for every blogger it is the money that motivates them and forces them to join it. You can earn money by using Ads of diffrent companies Like Google Adsense & so many others.

2. Learning Knowledge

The second reason why you should start a blog is to learn. As you will be writing different articles in your blog, thus you will learn and your knowledge will increase. If you are writing on technology, then every day you will know about a new software, way and process. For me blogging is a very informational way to learn knowledge on internet about the latest technology stuffs.

3. Interaction with Others

If you want to interact with people around the globe then blog is a best tool for you to keep engaged with the whole world. That is why a lot of people has jumped in this field just to interact with others and build online reputation. Although the motive can be business or any other, but if you want to interact with the world then blog is a great tool.

4. Promotion of Business

Companies have also started a blog for there company and they are now writing different articles in there blogs to attract new customers. No doubt that blogs are now one of the best and working platform to popularize a business. In term of SEO blogs are the most effective tool to attract search engines and ultimately customers. Thus this is also a reason you can also start a blog to promote your own business on internet. Best place to promote you business free of cost.

5. Hobby

If you love fashion, music, sports or any other activity you can popularize your self using the power of internet in shape of starting a blog. Blog will help you to visible your talent to the whole world. As I said in the beginning you can use blog to interact with peoples around the globe, thus you can easily popularize your self using blog channel.

Blog can be used for different purpose and it depends on your motive. If it is money, then that�s great, if you want to learn then that is better. It is a very quick platform for you to join the online community.

Hope you like this post, If you have any query in your mind you are free to leave comment.
Don't Forget to share with you friends....Thanks

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Improve your Adsense targeting

One of the most common complaints about Google Adsense is that the ads are not relevant to the website�s content. Non-targeted ads can drastically reduce your earnings since visitors of your site will not necessarily be interested in ads that are not closely connected to the topic that they were looking for in the first place.

There is a very simple way to improve your Adsense targeting, and it is called section targeting. There is no trick behind this technique, and Google itself incentive users to use it, here is a quote from the Adsense Help Center:

Section targeting allows you to suggest sections of your text and HTML content that you�d like us to emphasize or downplay when matching ads to your site�s content. By providing us with your suggestions, you can assist us in improving your ad targeting. We recommend that only those familiar with HTML attempt to implement section targeting.

So how do you implement section targeting? All you need to do is to place the following tags before and after the content that you want to get targeted:

<!-- google_ad_section_start -->
Content to be targeted here<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

You can use as many sections as you want inside your page, and you can also place them on the header of your page so that meta keywords will be included. Bear in mind that it might take up to two weeks before you see the results of the section targeting.

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Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design

The Useit website has a very interesting collection of yearly �Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design�� lists. According to the site the lists include �the ten most egregious offenses against users, (�) web design disasters and HTML horrors��. The lists are organized by year, and below you will find the latest update, check it out because most of (if not all) the points apply to blogs:

1. Bad Search: overly literal search engines reduce usability in that they�re unable to handle typos, plurals, hyphens, and other variants of the query terms. Such search engines are particularly difficult for elderly users, but they hurt everybody.

2. PDF Files for Online Reading: users hate coming across a PDF file while browsing, because it breaks their flow. Even simple things like printing or saving documents are difficult because standard browser commands don�t work.

3. Not Changing the Color of Visited Links: a good grasp of past navigation helps you understand your current location, since it�s the culmination of your journey. Knowing your past and present locations in turn makes it easier to decide where to go next. Links are a key factor in this navigation process.

4. Non-Scannable Text: a wall of text is deadly for an interactive experience. Intimidating. Boring. Painful to read.

5. Fixed Font Size: CSS style sheets unfortunately give websites the power to disable a Web browser�s �change font size� button and specify a fixed font size. About 95% of the time, this fixed size is tiny, reducing readability significantly for most people over the age of 40.

6. Page Titles With Low Search Engine Visibility: search is the most important way users discover websites. Search is also one of the most important ways users find their way around individual websites. The humble page title is your main tool to attract new visitors from search listings and to help your existing users to locate the specific pages that they need.

7. Anything That Looks Like an Advertisement: selective attention is very powerful, and Web users have learned to stop paying attention to any ads that get in the way of their goal-driven navigation. (The main exception being text-only search-engine ads.)

8. Violating Design Conventions: consistency is one of the most powerful usability principles: when things always behave the same, users don�t have to worry about what will happen. Instead, they know what will happen based on earlier experience. Every time you release an apple over Sir Isaac Newton, it will drop on his head. That�s good.

9. Opening New Browser Windows: opening up new browser windows is like a vacuum cleaner sales person who starts a visit by emptying an ash tray on the customer�s carpet. Don�t pollute my screen with any more windows, thanks (particularly since current operating systems have miserable window management).

10. Not Answering Users� Questions: users are highly goal-driven on the Web. They visit sites because there�s something they want to accomplish � maybe even buy your product. The ultimate failure of a website is to fail to provide the information users are looking for.

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Tips To Get Success Through Guest Blogging

You might be reading everywhere that the guest blogging is one of the great ways to attract traffic for your blog or site. Even I think the same because it is one of a proven ways to get huge visits on your blog as well as building quality links for your blog. I have also started guest blogging but due to time constraint I cannot do much but trying to do more to build quality links as well as get traffic for my blog. I have learned few things which can be helpful to perform better in guest blogging and  So I am here to share those tips with you that will give you success through Guest blogging.

As everyone knows that time is the most precious thing of the world so we need to do everything after making a strategy, means we need to do planning before starting anything new. Same in case of guest blogging. If you are thinking to start guest blogging then you might want to get positive results from it, isn�t it?
I think you all would say �Yes, we want the positive results�. I hope your expectations are valid because if you are writing for other�s blog instead of writing for your own blog then you must expect the positive results from it.

Make List of Nice Blogs

I suggest you to make a list of nice blogs for which you want to do guest post before you start the guest blogging . It will be a good strategy to have the list of blogs for which you want to write. Always try to write for the blogs with same niche and make sure they have better positions in SERPS than your site.

Write An Amazing Author Bio

The first thing you need to think is all about your Bio that will be published with your guest post. If the reader reads you post then he/she must read the author�s bio and if you bio is not so attractive then I don�t think he/she will going to click on your website link. So my suggestion is to write a very nice and attractive author� bio for yourself which should contain your areas of knowledge, your expertise, a line that describe about your blog/website and ofcourse a link of your blog/website there. Be sure that your bio provide a meaningful information.

Write a Killer Post

The second and most important thing you have to do is to write a quality post because it reflects your knowledge about the topic and your writing skills. These things attracts readers mind to read your blog too. Also If you deal with freelance writing job then here your writing skill can give you clients too.

One more thing if you are writing for big blogs then you your writing skill must be killer because they approve only those posts which have the best quality. So you need to show your quality in the post.

Attach Images In The Posts

When you submit a guest post to a blog then you might attach the images in the post. So many guest bloggers are here who doesn�t attach images in the post and I think this puts a negative impact on the blog admin at the time of approving that post. So attach images in the post for sure. If you have to email the guest post to the admin then send the images in the attachments.

One more thing, The image is the important part of any post so be sure the image must reflect the content. It should not be misleading.

Write The Posts In Points

Try to write the post in points because it looks professional. Whether you can use numbers or bulleted list or heading to separate the points(as I did in this post). Readers love to read such kind of post because even they don�t have much time to read the whole post then they can read the points only to understand the story. Paragraphed post looks a bit lengthy to readers. They don�t want to read them most of the time.

Reply To Comments

After a guest post on a blog your work has not end here. You need to reply to the comments on that posts because it gives you more recognition among the readers of that particular post. Also the admin of the blog will give you preference when you write a next post for his/her blog.

So these are the tips to get success through Guest blogging. Its my thinking But there are lots more tips on this subject too so I will be very happy if you guys share your own views and suggestions via the comment form.

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8 Tips To Get Traffic From Online Forums

Forums have been around since the earliest days of the Internet, and people have been using them ever since to drive traffic to their websites. While they�re not hip and sexy Web 2.0 darlings like Twitter or Facebook, forums are still a great way to drive targeted traffic to your blog. Below are 8 things you need to keep in mind when using forums as a traffic driving strategy.

1. Pick the right forum

Choosing the right forum(s) to participate in makes a big difference. Hopefully you�re already an active member of a forum or two. If not, hopefully you�re at least aware of some of the popular forums that cater to your niche. If that�s still not the case, Google �YOURNICHE forum� or check out Big-Boards.com.

If there are multiple forums in your niche, you should focus on being active in just one forum at first. You don�t want to spread yourself too thin, and you want to be sure you become a prominent member of the community. That�s hard to do when you�re trying to post in half a dozen different forums. Once you�ve become established in one, then you can determine whether joining another would be best for you.

If you�re not already active in a forum and you have multiple forums to choose from, there are a couple points to consider. How large and active is the forum? You won�t get much traffic from a forum that has 30 members and the last post was six months ago. Do you like the look of the forum? I�ve chosen to participate in certain forums because I just like the way they�re designed. Does the forum allow signatures? Some forums don�t allow signatures, which will make it harder for you to get traffic (see the �Put a link in your signature� section below). And finally (and perhaps most importantly), do you like the community that has built up around the forum? You�re going to be spending a lot of time there, so make sure you like the kind of discussion that�s going on.

2. Choose your username carefully

Your username is your brand out there on the forum for everyone to see, so it needs to be chosen carefully. Ask yourself what message you want your username to send. Using your name as a username gives your interactions with others a more personal feel than if you just used the name of your blog or business. It�s important that you username fits in with your niche and the forum. For example, if you�re posting to a realty forum and the forum community you�re posting to has a very professional feel to it, you�ll obviously want to steer clear of usernames like �xfallenangel1987x.�

3. Put a link in your signature

Your signature is the couple lines of text that appear below each one of your forum posts. Putting a link to your blog or to a particularly good post is the backbone of any solid forum-based traffic strategy. This is how you�ll get the majority of traffic out of the forum.

A standard signature will include the name of your blog and maybe your blog�s tagline or what your blog is about. Linking to an especially informative or interesting post can also be a good strategy if you want to drive traffic to certain parts of your blog. Remember that you can also link to a newsletter signup page to help grow your list.

4. Craft your profile carefully

Your profile is what people see when they click on your username, and it usually consists at least of your avatar, a short bio, and a link to your website. Most often, your avatar should be a picture of you. We like to know that we�re interacting with a real person, and a photo gives a face to the name and helps create a more personal interactive experience. If you prefer anonymity, then use anything you want as long as it fits in with 1) the feel of the forum, and 2) the image of your blog or business. Using the realty forum example again, you wouldn�t want your profile pic to be a funny animated .gif of a guy getting hit in his private parts with a baseball. Likewise, you wouldn�t want to use a serious, black and white photo of yourself if you�ve got a fun and colorful blog about funny YouTube videos.

Your bio should include relevant information about you. Again, make it professional, but don�t be boring and one-dimensional. Sure, talk about how much experiences you�ve got in your particular field, but also talk about any other interesting information about yourself. If you�re on a rock climbing forum, you could state that you�ve been rock climbing for 12 years, that you are an avid backcountry skier in the offseason., and that you love watching Lost. Give people more reasons for them to interact with you.

And while we�re on the subject of getting people to interact with you, be sure to include a line in your bio (preferably at the end) that you welcome people to contact you with any questions or comments. This can help people feel comfortable about coming to you for any additional help or information beyond what you provide in your forum posts.

Many forum profiles have a space for your website�s URL or the URL of your favorite website. Be sure to put your blog in there!

Finally, take advantage of any other profile features your forum might have. Some forums let you enter your Twitter handle, for example. Others let you enter your other interests. Use these elements to further differentiate yourself from others, to establish yourself as an expert in your field, and to set yourself up as a person people want to interact with.

5. Don�t be spammy

When you�re networking with people in person, you don�t shake their hands and immediately stuff a business card down their throats. You want to get to know the person a little bit before interacting with them on a professional level. To put it another way, you wouldn�t go all the way on a first date, right?

Sure, you�re using the forum to promote your site, but that shouldn�t look like the main reason you�re there. Stick around the forum for a while before you start promoting your blog openly. No one likes it when the forum user�s first and only post is, �Hey guys! Check out my sick awesome new blog!�

6. Provide quality content

We�ve all heard that �Content is king� for getting traffic to your blog and getting people to subscribe to your blog. The same applies to forum posts. For example, don�t just respond to a question by saying �Yes� or �No,� but justify your response with a clear, well-thought-out, informative, helpful reply. Provide the best content you possibly can. Link to other resources both inside the forum and elsewhere online to provide even more helpful content.

Another tactic you can use is writing content especially for the forum. Think of it like guest posting for the forum: you provide your own content for free to the forum, and in exchange you get more exposure for your blog. At the end of the forum post, you can include a line of text that says something like, �This was written specifically for the Whatever Forum. If you found this information useful, check out my blog at WhateverIsAwesome.com.� You�re adding value to the forum while at the same time giving people a reason to check out your blog. Win-win!

Having said all of that, not all of your posts need to be long and epic. Quality content can be as simple as posting a funny YouTube video that a lot of people in the forum community can enjoy.

7. Start new threads

If someone opens up a thread to read it, that person is obviously going to read the first post in the thread, right? The first post in a thread gets read more than any other, so being in that position is a great way to leverage your forum posting.

It�s important, however, that you start the right kinds of threads. If you�ve got genuine questions about something, then by all means ask about it. If you don�t have any questions, a great way to go is to ask people�s opinions on a topic that they all can have input on. If you�re posting to a mountain biking forum, for example, ask people what they�d do if they had $5000 to spend. Would they spend it on a new bike? Upgrades to their current bike? Travel to that place they�ve always wanted to ride? More examples can be asking people on a Corvette forum to post sweet pics of their ride, or encouraging members on a photography forum to post links to their portfolios.

8. Post often

Forum posting isn�t the best passive traffic strategy. You can�t just spend a week posting multiple times a day and then sit back and expect the traffic to roll in forever. The threads that you spend all that time and effort posting in will eventually be pushed further and further down the page until they disappear from page 1. It�s sad, but that�s just the way it is. Participating in � and getting traffic from � forums is very much an active process. To get the best results, you really need to commit to it and make it a regular part of your blogging process.

Above all, just try to enjoy the experience. Hopefully you�re talking about things you like, and you might as well be building blog traffic while you�re at it, right? In addition, forums are great way to get post ideas for your blog, so keep your eyes peeled.

Pick a forum, do your best to become part of the community there, apply the above 8 points, and you�re sure to see the traffic start to come. Good luck!

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How Do I Monetize A Classifieds Website?

I�d like to setup a classifieds website for a fairly large community. The community actually had one, but the person running it moved away and shut down the site. People keep asking for a new one so I think it�ll be a good opportunity.

My question is how can I fully monetize the opportunity. I was thinking of charging local businesses to place small ads on the site similar to your sponsors section. Any other thoughts?

There are several ways to monetize a classifieds website, and the best model will depend on the nature and size of your website. Here are some examples:

1. The Traditional Model: Classifieds emerged in newspapers and other print publications. The model was to charge people who wanted to place an ad in the classifieds (usually according to the length of the ad, with options to highlight it). This model can work on the Internet as well, but you would need to have a very specific focus and a large audience to showcase the ads, else advertisers would not get a good return on their investment.

2. The Craigslist Model: Craigslist revolutionized the classifieds industry because it created a really popular classifieds website where posting ads is essentially free. You can browse through different categories and cities, and the volume of ads you�ll find is always amazing. How do they make money? By charging money for ads in very specific categories (e.g., job postings and brokered rentals). The model is quite effective because they only charge people who have a lot to gain from using their services, and hence are willing to pay for it.

3. The Inverse Model: Depending on the nature of the ads being placed on your website you could actually make the viewers of the ads pay. For example, there are freelancing job boards that charge for people who want to see the contact information of the job seekers. The advantage of this model is that posting an ad becomes free, and it increases the overall activity on the website.

4. The Sponsorship Model: As mentioned in the question itself, another possible model is to let everything be free, while getting sponsors who want to showcase their products and services to your audience. This model works well if your website has a local focus. For instance, if the classifieds website is for your local soccer community it wound�t be hard to get a sports store to sponsor it.

Keep in mind that you can also experiment with two models at the same time, and that you can also start with one and migrate to another one over time. For instance, I would definitely start with the last model, making everything free. This is to make sure that people would join and participate on the website. Then once you reach a critical mass of users you could consider start charging for specific parts of the website.

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