As part of my continued efforts to drive visitors to DavidWalker.tv ahead of the Alex Jeffreys traffic competition closing on Friday, I am excited to report that one of my blog posts made the front page of Sphinn, a niche social bookmarking website! While my server didn’t melt from the influx of new visitors it goes to show how powerful using social bookmarking websites can be to drive both traffic and backlinks to your content.
Two days ago, my blog post about 10 steps to creating an authority blog was submitted for inclusion in Sphinn, a search engine / social media orientated social bookmarking site.
To my knowledge, Sphinn is quite strict on the content which is submitted there and neither the moderators nor community will accept anything that does not fit the criteria. This is probably why there are not hundreds or thousands of submissions every day like there are on some of the bigger social media sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and Reddit.
But, even though there is less competition it was great to see yesterday afternoon my post had received enough positive votes (or “Sphinns”) to make it “go hot” and adorn the front page of Sphinn.
What this means is my blog post will remain on the front page until it is pushed off by newer articles which have also gone hot and if I am really fortunate, it could stay there for a week or even a little longer!
Being featured on the Sphinn front page has already increased my traffic and provided me with my busiest day so far – a total of 342 visitors according to my AWStats program:
I had not actively promoted my blog on the day and may have had around 150 visitors without the help from Sphinn – almost 200 more visitors than I would have received!
Plus, today’s traffic is also higher at the time of writing than it would normally have been. I have not actively promoted my blog today but should easily get more than 200 visitors thanks to the additional traffic from Sphinn.
I plan to get involved more with social bookmarking for both traffic and backlink purposes and it is encouraging to see the positive difference just one site can make.
One other thing I like about Sphinn is there is always lots of awesome content on there which compliments the internet marketing niche.
So, by visiting and voting on the blog posts which have been submitted there, I won’t be short of ideas for new post material of my own or commenting opportunities either!
Is anyone else having good experiences with social bookmarking? Please leave your comments below.
well , i think people all over the place are having good experiences with social bookmarking .
it does take a lot ( and i really mean ) a lot of work … but , if done well , an active profile on a social bookmarking site will be the only step you need to make to promote your blog ( of course , assuming that you provide quality content ) .
the rest … will simply follow without any work on your side .
Hi there,
Thank you for your comment. I am going to try and be active across several bookmarking websites but I won’t be active enough to become a “power user”. However, if I can make my presence felt enough then I should be able to get a lot of traffic.
David
David
Glad to see that you are starting to get some good results from the bookmarking. I’ve been impressed with your knowledge and expertise on the topic in the MWA2.0 forums and looking forward to working with you.
Speak soon
Tom
Hi Tom,
Thank you for your comment. Keep an eye on my blog as I will write about further experiences, good or bad, that I have with social bookmarking.
David
Twitter: JamesHoward1
August 14, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Hey David,
I’m not on the course, wishing I was though as I am following a few of you who are on the course and it seems to be doing wonders for all of you. It’s great news getting up there in sphinn, I heard it was pretty tough to do.
Nice work,
James
Hi James,
I wish you were on the course with us – it would give you a lot more direction and focus to take your own business forward. I would class myself as quite experienced at this sort of thing but it has helped me a lot!
Sphinn is one of the easier social bookmarking sites to get a front page but your content still needs to be good enough to get voted on so I was pleased I made it!
David
Hi David,
Congrats on gettin on the front page. I’m very new to the social bookmarking thing but am looking forward to, with your guidance by the way, using it regularly to help me and other Aj students to build up a following. As we see from James’ comment above other people are seeing what is happening and wanting to be a part of it.
And thanks again for the help you are giving us all on your blog and in the forum to learn new techniques. I’m really getting used to seeing your face everywhere I go.
To your success.
Andy
Hi Andy,
Thank you for your comments. I will do what I can to bring using social media and social networking to other other marketers who are not familiar with it because it is such a powerful method to build your brand and drive traffic.
You should count yourself fortunate you are on the course because the stuff being taught is THE way to make money online. All of the big name marketers went through this process in some shape or form before they “made it” so it will only be a matter of time for us all before we get rich, haha. Well, time and a lot of hard work in between.
David
I didn’t find the post you’re referring to through Sphinn, but I found it via InboundMarketing.com where it also hit the front page. Competition is really small there and so is the audience but I know you get really good quality of visits from there (they don’t bounce so easily).
BTW. Why do you use AWStates? Why not Google Analytics?
Hi Toni,
Thank your for your comment and also bringing to my attention InboundMarketing, I had not heard of that site before. It has given me a little traffic so I am glad my post made it there as well!
I use both AWStats and Google Analytics.
David
Man, Sphinn seems awesome but it’s not working for me. It keeps telling me that I need to upload a custom Avatar in order to Sphinn a post. I have uploaded my Avatar and re-uploaded my avatar. It still doesn’t want to work.
Cool Post!
Matt
Hi Matt,
A few people have had that problem now. I have had a Sphinn account for some time so it has not affected me. Contact their support team and let them know about it. They were really quick to reply to me when I wanted to change my username.
David
I use Spinn since it was created, not often but still. I like Sphinn policy to remove all bad articles and I understand that they are getting slammed with black hat’s, make money fast, “boost” your traffic and other articles.
Sharing my experience… I am getting about 300-400 hits when I make it to the frontpage. Not bad. Also, Sphinners are active as well and they always comment on my blog.
Hi Sergey,
I like Sphinn, it’s easy to find lots of great content so I applaud their strict policies.
I had some good traffic from my article hitting the front page and I hope some of the regular Sphinn members liked what they saw when they arrived here!
David
Fantastic achievement, David. Congrats! ^^
Personally, I have strong faith in what social media/bookmarking sites can do to a blog. I remember there was a post I did about ‘The Best of Twitter Desktop Clients – Secrets Revealed!’ and it got tweeted by Loic, went viral and I had nearly 300% increase of traffic on that particular day. I was shocked and amazed. As of today, SU is one of my favorites and so far it has continuously helping me to drive in new visitors. Haven’t really give Sphinn a try, but your post certainly motivate me to do so.
Keep up the good work. The ’10 steps to creating an authority blog’ is indeed an enlightening read.
@wchingya
Social/Blogging Tracker
Hi Ching,
Thank you for leaving me a comment and I am glad you like what I am doing here!
I need to use StumbleUpon more as well, so thanks for reminding me about it!
David