Author: Nancy McCord

I am very closely taking a look at social bookmarking this month and will be writing a piece and possibly a white paper on it this month. You can click my post title to subscribe to my e-newsletter which goes out once a month so you will be sure to have first review of the article.

Social bookmarking has been around for about two years or so but has really caught my eye this last year as a way to drive more website traffic and to create a viral component for new products and services. It is not a silver bullet for traffic and possibly even search engine placement, but it does hold strong consideration and review for use on all new websites.

Right now I am reviewing just how a site should use social bookmarking and how traffic can be driven to a site. I am evaluating Digg and Del.icio.us – (gosh that is a hard name to remember where to put the periods) and will be reviewing numerous others as well. If you have a comment or a social bookmarking site that you like, just click comments and let me know in the meantime. I have embedded a YouTube video that I thought was particularly well done that very clearly explains social bookmarking using Del.icio.us as an example.

I read about a young woman today in the Washington Post who had posted her picture with a friend on Yahoo’s Flickr. The photo was in turn used by Virgin in a text messaging ad without her consent. Her friend was cropped out, but clearly her image was used. Well that’s a law suit right there! The parents say that they are suing.

I have blogged about this before, but it needs repeating – Everything on the Web is copyrighted by someone! You can not just right click a picture and use it on a commercial website. In some cases you can use images that you find on the Web for personal use, but never oh never for a commercial use. You are just setting yourself up for a suit when you do that. The bigger company are the more you will be a target and so need to stay squeaky clean on that issue.

There are some terrific photo sites where you can buy a one time one use image for as low as $1 so there is just no excuse for snatching photos from Google images, from someone else’s website, or from a place like Flickr.

I blog professionally for a living and also employ about five writers to blog for me for a variety of clients so I’ve seen it all and have experienced many blog related problems for myself on my own blog.

One of the big problems that I have experienced is loss of readership in 2007. Readers simply want to keep tabs on blogs that are updated frequently. This past year, my own blog readership has suffered due to my own posting inconsistency. My business grew tremendously in 2007, I had personnel problems, and I posted on a very inconsistent basis on my own blog. As a result my website traffic dropped significantly in 2007 and most of my decrease in traffic came from my lack of blog activity.

It is a very tough thing to keep posting to your own business blog when you are busy or have a limited amount of time. I have seen this first hand. Although I still write my own blog and am working to keep it updated this year, it is tough. This is our value for own clients, we do the heavy lifting for them on their blog. Really I should have taken my own advice shouldn’t I have, and employed one of my writers to ghost blog for me instead of stopping. :0)

Blogging on a consistent basis can be very tough, but it is a time tested fact that good blogging done on a consistent basis will bring a website more overall traffic, improve stickiness, and may add to the authority of a website overtime improving organic placement. This has been my own personal winning combination.

So how do you keep blog subscribers happy?
1. Post on a regular basis
2. Post at a regular time – for me this is in the morning
3. Post at least three days a week – for me I shoot for five, but three should be your minimum
4. Write information that is helpful and targeted to your readers
5. Provide interesting content but not too long or a dissertation. 250 to 350 words is best