Using Social Networking Sites to Generate Massive Amounts of Traffic

Written by Mark Knowles from Mark Knowles on February 5, 2008

Everywhere you look, you hear advice from bloggers, would-be SEO gurus and “Internet Marketing Experts,” regarding Social Networking sites as a traffic generator.

Many of them are saying the same thing – “Use social networking sites to generate massive amounts of traffic.”

I have no doubt you have heard it all, so I am not going to repeat the same old stuff. I have experimented with many of these sites. At least all the popular ones such as Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Delicious etc.

But, what many of these experts in generating massive amounts of traffic do not tell you is how to go about actually making the traffic happen. I can promise you that if you sign up to one of these sites and submit a couple of links you will not get massive amounts of free traffic. No siree Bob, there is more to it than that.

The only blog I have seen around that actually gives good advice in this area is doshdosh. Good, detailed advice as to how to get the best from these social networks and a breakdown of what is likely to appeal to a particular sites membership.

But, it pretty much boils down to doing one of two things:

Be an active member of the community

Make a positive contribution to their site. This means doing more than dropping links to your posts at every opportunity. Interact with other members, learn to speak their language and more important – make sure you are speaking to the correct audience. Stumbleupon members are unlikely to be interested in Quantum mechanics.

Write posts designed to attract a particular social networking site

I have written several blog posts aimed at a particular community – these two were written with the express intention of attracting stumbleupon visitors. They have both generated substantial amounts of traffic and continue to do so.

Property Investing

Google Hacks

As for the first approach, I personally have found this to be too much time and trouble for the benefits gained. I very much question the value of traffic from these sites, although I do believe the secondary benefits are worth the effort.

Being naturally lazy, it makes far more sense to me to spend the time creating a blog post that will appeal to a particular group. I have also found that these sites produce far more traffic when a regular user of the site finds your post and submits it themselves rather than by submitting it myself.

Thoughts and comments welcome. Agree? Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in the comments box.

Written by Mark Knowles from Mark Knowles on February 5, 2008 | Filed Under Blogging

14 Responses so far | Have Your Say!

Suzanne Butineau | February 5th, 2008 at 4:45 pm #

Mark! Thanks! Lesson one learned. Speak to the right audience in their language. Regards Suzanne
Mark Knowles (Post Author) | February 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pm #

Thanks. Regards back.
Warner Carter | February 5th, 2008 at 9:44 pm #

I am glad to see you saying it is important for people who want to get traffic from social sites to join and be contributors. I hope the people who want traffic will understand they are being involved in a community and not just pushing their sites on others to get traffic.
jamesj | February 5th, 2008 at 11:34 pm #

Yes, I’m also using rich media and social bookmarking sites to gain a lot of relevant traffic. I used to work on facebook and stumbleupom as major market player.
DannyDouglass | February 5th, 2008 at 11:45 pm #

I agree 100% - without showing that you are someone who’s opinion should be valued you will not receive any following from a random social networking site.

I have two blog posts I’ll link to below that give you different options on how to market social bookmarking sites to your readers…

http://dannydouglass.com/post/2008/01/Add-Social-Bookmarking-Links-To-Your-Blog.aspx

http://dannydouglass.com/post/2008/01/Social-Bookmarking-RSS-Feed-Widget.aspx
DannyDouglass | February 5th, 2008 at 11:52 pm #

If anyone is interested in the plug-in from my previous comment as a WordPress extension just let me know. I’ll figure it out and offer it in a day or two.
Dr. Sandy | February 6th, 2008 at 6:23 am #

I have just started using social bookmarking sites and getting results straight away.
Thanks, as I have learned so much from you.

Dr. Sandy
Blogging Guide
Mark Knowles (Post Author) | February 6th, 2008 at 6:42 am #

Thank you Dr. Sandy.
Mark Knowles (Post Author) | February 6th, 2008 at 8:15 am #

Thanks for those links Danny.
Amanda | February 9th, 2008 at 3:00 pm #

I agree with you wholeheartedly that success in social networking sites is more about being an active and enthusiastic member than simply submitting your own posts! One thing I love is using Stumbleupon and Digg to find great sites to read and link to through my own posts. This way, you can also get to know the type of material which make it to the front page of such sites, and can craft your own posts accordingly.
TrafficGuru | March 11th, 2008 at 1:31 pm #

Good info Danny.Everyone know that SN sites brings flood of traffic.But how to experimentally use is nice.
kevin shearin | April 9th, 2008 at 10:16 pm #

You are right on as usual. You are one author we can all trust to tell it like it is. Thanks