Getting Bookmarked by Discovery Sites

What: Get your books and blogs noticed by discovery sites like StumbleUpon, where people bookmark interesting content for the attention of other users. Use the curious and sharing nature of the online community to create buzz around your books.

Discovery sites like StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg Pinterest, and Squidoo make use of the highly valued Word-of-Mouth Marketing element. Each community has its own ranking/rating system and general web-surfing flow, but encourage users to find interest groups or topics that appeal to their online curiosity.

Why: Becoming a user of these sites serves a dual purpose. You, as an author, market your sites, blogs and interests, and simultaneously, you are a member of the community, discovering sites that may serve to inspire you, broaden your own interests, and seek out similar communities in other sites. Discovery sites can help you generate traffic and get feedback on what you post.

How: Each site has its own feel, so the best method to get started is jumping right into a service of your choice. The sites we mentioned, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Digg , Pinterest, and Squidoo are some of the better-known sites; but there are new sites popping up every day, each with their own angle on content discovery. Let us know what works best for you; we’re always collecting data on what’s most convenient to authors.

No matter what service you’re using, these are the basic steps:

• At the homepage of most services, find the option to join and create a user profile. Keep your profile simple, but make sure you include a link back to your author website.
• Discover sites and posts that you like and create a personality for yourself by rating them. This will allow others with similar interests to start linking you and your submissions will become more visible.
• Start posting and submitting links. Generating some link heat isn't too hard, especially if you're participating in community forums, posting submissions, and performing your own searches.

How Much: Completely free. Although these services can quickly eat up your time, joining the communities is free of any charge.

Help:

• 10 Simple Steps To Increase Blog Traffic Via StumbleUpon

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1Ca1fo/www.howtomakemyblog.com/stumbleupon/10-simple-steps-to-increase-blog-traffic-via-stumbleupon

• Quick Tips To Help You Drive Traffic From Digg

http://winninginteractive.com/small-business-seo-web-design-blog/quick-tips-to-help-you-drive-traffic-from-digg/

• How to Use Reddit to Drive Huge Traffic to Your Blog

http://techbloggerbd.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-use-reddit-to-drive-huge-traffic.html

• 14 Ways to Drive More Website Traffic from Pinterest

http://socialmarketingwriting.com/14-ways-to-drive-more-website-traffic-with-pinterest/