The Final Push: Social Bookmarking
In my journey to learn how to earn passive income online, I am quite honest about my “experiments” here. The goal is to learn as much as possible, see what works for me and share it with as many people as I can. While it’s my intent to bring as much attention to Experiments In Passive Income, my #1 goal is to make money online by other means, mainly through mini-sites offering affiliate products. So far, this has been challenging. I have managed to earn a few dollars from eHow, $18 from one commission through EIP, and have three mini-sites up: two mini-sites promote affiliate products and one is to test Google ads. None of these three mini-sites has earned me anything.
Ezine Articles Stats
That is hard the truth. Let’s take a look at how many backlinks I have created through Ezine Articles:
I have managed to create two YouTube videos for mini-site #1. However, I have a feeling I need to create probably 20-40 links for each of these mini-sites. Once I’m in California, I’m sure I could create 1-2 videos for the other two mini-sites. Will these links count, as they’ll be in the description part of the videos? I plan on answering that with time.
I believe I am done with article marketing for now. If I must push through, I could probably create a total of 20-30 articles for collectively for the three mini-sites. Naturally, my next question is, “I’ve created backlinks using YouTube and article marketing… what’s my next step?”
What Is My Next Step?
That’s a great question. With the ranking algorithms being secretive, no one has an exact formula. Perhaps to rank a website or blog high in Google, you need to have a balance of a good number of quality backlinks, maybe some video love, and why not some social bookmarking thrown in? Each search engine uses its own algorithm and there is no way to know for sure.
I have a social bookmarking software that automates the process of creating accounts and will bookmark your URL to the selected amount of bookmarking websites. Sounds awesome, saves you hours and hours of work, so what’s the issue?
The issue is that it feels a bit “spammy” to do such a thing. I could create a good ten accounts and have them each bookmark my three sites and a couple of non-spammy ones so the accounts seem legit. Is this wrong to do?
Let me play the devil’s advocate as well. Is this really spammy when all you’re doing is bookmarking websites? Don’t you have a separate YouTube account to release your mini-site videos? So how is this any different? You are not creating a junky website to scam people out of their hard earned money. All you are doing is bookmarking your site, only in bulk. It’s not as if I’m luring people to click on my link at a forum. “Where’s the harm again?”, asks the little devil on my right shoulder.
I have been quite patient with these experiments and have been taking the most “ethical” route possible, especially when it came to creating backlinks. However, social bookmarking sites could be the missing puzzle piece. I will leave the “ethical” debate for another day. Now it’s time for “The Final Push”.
Uhhh… “The Final Push”
God Father style, folks! No, not really. I’m not sure if it’s the final push, but my next step will be to use a bookmarking software to create a nice number of links over the next month. I’ll be quite busy with the move but I’ll be doing some of this work the second half of June.
My purpose in creating this post was to ask you, dear reader, when it comes to boosting your search engine rankings, what route do you take? Do you use bookmarking software? Do you have multiple YouTube, Vimeo, or social bookmarking accounts? Do you think this is an “unethical” route to take when trying to establish passive income? These questions do not apply to your blog but your other businesses online, like a dedicated site promoting affiliate product(s) and such.
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24 Responses to “The Final Push: Social Bookmarking”
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ryan Biddulph, moon hussain. moon hussain said: The Final Push: Social Bookmarking >> http://bit.ly/c5UKW7 What do you think? [...]
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[...] to share my progress so that I’m not disillusioned with it. Following my own advice regarding social bookmarking, I started using an automated social bookmarking tool last week. Either this is having no effect on [...]
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Hey Moon. The first thing I say in response to your question is that it depends on the business model. Ethically there is nothing wrong with using tools to generate as much link love as possible. The only thing this does as you pointed out is reflect badly on your brand as you ‘spin’ an article 500 times to get links. That’s why I do this specifically for my niche sites and not for the alexwhalley.com brand that I am building.
I use Unique Article Wizard, create 2000 articles and drip feed them to the directories at a rate of 25 per day for a 4 week period (any faster and Google sandbox you for being too aggressive with your link building) after this I have so many backlinks its hard NOT to rank.
I dont use video submission services or videos at all yet, but will certainly look into this.
I like how you are laying everything out here Moon and will certainly do nothing but increase your overall value over time.
Good luck and enjoy the experimentation.
You go GIRL
Alex´s last blog ..SMART Goals, Small Wins, & Coconuts
Alex, I appreciate you going into detail. I wouldn’t spin any articles for EIP here, but building quality links takes a WHILE. I’ll have to give social bookmarking sites a whirl, give it a couple of weeks, and then maybe even try Unique Article Wizard (or similar tool) to do what I need to do. Time for me to step it up!
Deep down I realize it’s not exact “un-ethical”. It’s pure link love, and it’s not something being shoved into peoples’ faces or scamming their money. Have to climb the search engine tree.
Hi Moon,
Wow, some of Alex’s secrets are surfacing! I’m going to check out this Unique Article Wizard myself.
I know what you mean about feeling spammy which is why I won’t back-link some of my own sites to myself! hehehe
I have 2 Twitter accounts, but one remains unused.
Sounds like you’re working hard! Very impressive!
Scott Barron’s last blog…Was It Good For You?
Hi Moon,
I used to have multiple twitter accounts but over the past few weeks have decided to stick to one.
That being said I don’t think having multiple accounts is unethical at all. In my view unethical would focus more on moral choices. If anything people might look at multiple accounts as spamming, but one person’s spam is another person’s steady stream of content is another person’s goal mine. It’s all in the eye of the audience.
My strategy is to provide unique content and tweet and FB the heck out of them while promoting others. So far, so good.
Thanks for sharing your strategy Moon.
Ryan
Ryan´s last blog ..What’s The Best Way To Start Your Day Afraid, Angry And Anxious?
You’re exactly right Ryan. I feel okay with my decision to go ahead and use a bookmarking software and will definitely reveal the results here. I wouldn’t do that for EIP, of course
My strategy is similar to yours, Ryan. Thanks for the RT’s, btw.
May i ask what is your youtube account so i can check out your videos. I just finished launching a mini site a few days back so your new experiment is really inspiring.
Edwin´s last blog ..Free e-Books
Edwin, glad you found my experiment inspiring. I realize that you’re coming from a place of curiousity, but I can’t reveal my Youtube account, as it’s for my online businesses. Others may look at the account and will probably realize what exact products/niches I’m targeting. Feel free to ask if you have any questions!
You may find a lot of help by setting up linkwheels in combination of distributing your content to additional networks.
Take a video you’ve created, make it into an audio podcast, turn it into an article, convert to PDF for sites like Scribd and the list goes on and on.
Interlink each of these and you’ll definitely see improvement in your placement.
Hope this helps
Murlu´s last blog ..How To Make An Extra $20 Online Today
Murlu, love the idea of linkwheels. I think that’s the direction I’m heading in naturally… plus interlinking as you mentioned. Thanks for the ideas.
I use an automatic tool too – it does feel a bit spammy, but its effective and the content I use it for is always good quality
Anthony´s last blog ..Simplify Your Existence in 3 Easy Steps
Sweet Anthony. I know what you mean by ‘spammy’. I have to keep in mind that as long as I’m spreading good information, it’s alright.
Hi Moon, I don’t know if I’m qualified to answer your question because I’m not a social media expert like you, but I think whenever you want to boost your search engine rankings, getting as many valuable links to your website is very important. When you are bookmarking, I think if you have a link out there and many people click on it, then that makes for a more valuable link compared to other spammy links out there. Having many of these valuable links in essense will help you boost search engine rankings, and it’s same with what you are doing at Ezine Articles with the click through links. Hope you’re having a good weekend and thanks for another insightful post Moon!
Hulbert Lee´s last blog ..Greg Blencoe – Hydrogen Car Specialist, Law of Attraction Coach, and Blogger of Positive Waves Baby (Interview)
In response to having multiple video accounts (Youtube,Vimeo, etc.), I believe you should only use one service. If you post to multiple websites, Google may call it “duplicate content”.
Also, it takes time to upload every video and manage them. It’s just not worth it.
Hey Moon,
I’ve never done much in the way of social bookmarking. I’ve tried it several times, and usually make every attempt possible to look as little like a spammer as possible (usually I bookmark 10 “legit” pages for every page of my own), and I still eventually get my accounts yanked. I’ve all but given up on it.
That said, I have noticed a huge response when I Digg a new site. The traffic isn’t all that great, but the backlink power is awesome. It’s not uncommon for me to get a site indexed within an hour of Digging it.
I’m excited to see how your experiment turns out. If you get the results you’re looking for, I might have to revisit my self-imposed Social Bookmarking strike.
Rock On
Lee
Lee | Search Engine Viking´s last blog ..Your Brain Needs A Vacation
Hi Lee,
I also agree with you about Digg. I’ve noticed that sometimes when I Digg something, it outranks me!
Though lately, I’ve been able to outrank Digg and stay 4 titles ahead. Took awhile though.
I’m still trying to figure out how to rank #1 in Google for my name. True, I have a common name, but this famous soccer player seems to be everywhere…Uggg.
Scott Barron´s last blog ..Disappointed with Senate
Or you could just become a world famous soccer player and make it work to your advantage
Lee | Search Engine Viking´s last blog ..Oh, Apple: Why Must My Computer Suck So Much?
I’m not about to start on that career path
I’ve just started my new site and at the moment I’m just providing good content so that I get indexed etc.
I have just started using Twitter though and am following the advice from one of your previous posts.
I really want it to be a success but only time will tell how many visitors I get.
Adem´s last blog ..Toga Party Poster
A friend of mine told me that Google shut down 80,000 adsense accounts for those sites that have nothing but stuff designed to link build. Just a thought.
Matthew Needham´s last blog ..5 Books for Father’s Day 20th June
Hey,
I have only recently tried experimenting with different ways of getting back links. In terms of social bookmarking I haven’t much experience. I joined Digg a day or two ago, and have yet to go back.
I do try and publish my new articles to my twitter or facebook accounts. Just simply to get some visitors that I already know. I have also found commenting on blogs increased by traffic quite a bit.
I’ll be interested in hearing your progress. I’ll try and write an article on my own!
Good Luck,
Mark
Mark´s last blog ..Building my website
Hi Moon,
A very interesting topic and I’ve learned a lot, especially from some of the comments. I don’t have a lot to add because this is not my area of expertise, but I will say that I am learning so much from you and that I really appreciate your transparency with the experiments.
I’ve had some success with EzineArticles and backlinks to my site. I’m not using it to make money but to increase the spread of my brand. I should be checking out some of the other strategies posted here.
Re: ethics. It’s a personal choice and as long as you feel that you are being ethical, then I wouldn’t worry about the automation factor. Technology is there for a reason and I would take full advantage of it.
Karen´s last blog ..Increase Your Negotiation Skills- Is Win-Win The Best Tactic
Karen, thanks for dropping by. I’ve been really happy lately with the quality comments I have been receiving on my latest blogs. I have found quite a few that are shaping my so-called experiments. I’m glad that you’re finding beneficial information here.