There is so much talk about social bookmarking and getting traffic from social bookmarking sites these days. Is it true? Can you make a lot of money with traffic you get from social bookmarking sites? I would like to talk about a certain specific aspect of the traffic you might receive from major social bookmarking sites. First of all, I would like to say that I love social bookmarking sites! I spend too much time there browsing, stumbling, and digging. These sites are full of great information and savvy readers. However, in my experience, I have not benefited from the social traffic that visits my blog. I actually have many blogs, but that’s beside the point. All traffic is not created equally. This is a point you must bear in mind if you ever want to convert your traffic into sales. It’s not just about the traffic. In fact, it is not about the traffic at all! It is all about sales and money. No sales, no money. Traffic does not equal sales, as I’m sure many of you already know.
What is the best kind of traffic you might ask? The best kind of traffic is search engine traffic with a need. Someone searching the internet looking for a solution to some problem is the best kind of traffic. For instance, if someone is searching for "How to get rid of zits," then this person probably has a lot of zits that they desperately want to get rid of. This kind of search is done by someone holding their credit card in their hand! This is traffic with a need. Traffic looking to spend money now. That is obviously the best kind of traffic. Would you rather have ten thousand unique visitors come to your site every day and click nothing, or would you rather have one click per day? If you answered 'one click per day,' then you are already thinking like someone who is going to make money online. Money isn’t made from your readers; it is made from search engine traffic clicking your ads because they address an acute problem that they seek a solution to.
This brings me to my initial point about traffic from social bookmarking sites. This is the worst kind of traffic. There are all these products on the market that teach you how to get tons of traffic from social bookmarking sites, but the problem is that the traffic doesn’t convert. Most of the folks who spend their time at social bookmarking sites are internet-savvy people. They have the same ads on their sites and blogs that you have on yours. They like to read, stumble, and digg, but they don’t click! They are not arriving at your blog to click and buy anything. They arrive there simply to read the information. This kind of traffic is extremely low-converting. So I don’t waste my time trying to get this kind of traffic. Having said that, I will also add that I do bookmark my pages often, but only for the anchored links I get in return.
Think about when you purchase something online. Do you go to a social bookmarking site to find what you are looking to buy? Or do you search for it in Google?