SocialMarkerI just found an awesome new tool called SocialMarker. Social Marker allows you to quickly submit your articles to over 30 social bookmarking and social news sites. I have tried others in the past like SocialPoster.com, but I am finding SocialMarker to be even better. SocialMarker greatly speeds up the submission process. I can now submit an article to all of these sites in about 10 minutes.

Why would you want to submit your posts to over 30 social bookmarking sites?

  • Google Indexing – I find that when I submit my articles to a lot of social bookmarking sites, my articles get listed with google very quickly. Additionally, the social bookmarked pages also rank very high in google.
  • Traffic – I get some nice traffic from each social bookmarking site.
  • Backlinks – Many of the social bookmarking sites that you submit your articles to will give you backlinks. This is an often underutilized strategy among bloggers and internet marketers.

How does SocialMarker work?

  1. Place SocialMarker Bookmarklet onto your Firefox toolbar
  2. Go to the article you would like to submit and click the SocialMarker Bookmarket
  3. Edit the Bookmark Details Box to include a description of the article, tags, title and url. The title and tags should already be filled in by SocialMarker.
  4. Sign in to the first social bookmarking site and submit your article.
  5. Then hit the “Next” button to move onto the next social bookmarking site.

Here is a list of all of the social bookmarking sites currently available through SocialMarker.

21 Sep, 2007  |  Written by Fred  |  under Social Networking

Are you using Sphinn? If you are a blogger, Internet marketer, technology enthusiast or person seeking to make money online there is no better place to find the best articles on the net about these topics. Sphinn is like Digg except it focuses specifically on these niche interests. This is the future of social news sites and social tagging sites.

Sites like Digg and Netscape (now Propeller) are great, but you are interested in only a very small percentage of the topics. That is why a social tagging site like Sphinn is so great. Because Sphinn focuses on a narrow niche, it acts as a hub for bloggers and Internet marketers. We are starting to experience an explosion of social tagging sites cloned off of Digg. For those trying to compete with Digg head-to-head good luck. However, there is a great opportunity for the social tagging sites that focus on a specific niches.

Guide to Using Sphinn:

Topics: Sphinn has three preset tabs to display the current Hot Topics, the newest topics (What’s New), and the most popular stories of all times (Greatest Hits). This is a great way to navigate through the stories being posted on Sphinn.

Categories: As mentioned above, Sphinn focuses on a limited number of categories. Each of the eight Categories is broken down into subcategories. The categories are as follows:

  1. Google which is comprised of Google SEO, Google AdWords, Google AdSense, Google Searching, and Google Other
  2. Yahoo which is comprised of Yahoo SEO, Yahoo Paid Search, Yahoo Publisher Network, Yahoo Searching and Yahoo Other
  3. Microsoft which is comprised of Microsoft SEO, Microsoft adCenter, Microsoft Searching and Microsoft Other
  4. Search Marketing which is comprised of SEM, SEO, Paid Search, Link Building, SEM Industry, In House SEM, and Other Search Marketing
  5. Social Media which is comprised of News Sites, Bookmarking, Networking, Blogging, and Other Social Media
  6. Online Marketing which is comprised of Web Analytics, Contextual Ads, Affiliate Marketing, Display Advertising, Usability, Domaining, and Other Online Marketing
  7. Searching which is comprised of Ask.com, AOL, Local & Maps, Mobile Search, Video Search, Tips & Tools, and Other Searching
  8. Other which is comprised of Sphinn Zone (information and articles related to Sphinn), Jobs Wanted, Jobs Offered, and Water Cooler

Sphinn Live: One a my favorite features of Sphinn is the Sphinn Live tab. Sphinn Live show you the posts that are being Sphunn and commented on in real-time. This is a cool way to see which article are up and coming.

Sphinn Feeds: I love the Sphinn Feeds features. Sphinn allows you to subscribe to various feeds so that you can see the posts in your RSS feeder. If you are a blogger like me who is always looking for topics to blog about, Sphinn Feeds is a great way for me to quickly browse stories being written by other bloggers. Sphinn has the following feeds:

  1. Hot Topics Feed – This feed is for all of the topics that make it to the Hot Topics section
  2. New Topics Feed – This feed is for all topics as they are posted
  3. Comment Feed – This feed allows you to subscribe to all of the comments that are being left on topics

In addition to these feeds, Sphinn has promised additional feeds in the future to all you to subscribe to your friends’ feeds and feeds based on specific topics.

How to Use Sphinn:

  1. Sphinn Others’ Articles – Become and active member of the community. When you find an article that you like, tell your fellow sphinners that it is a good article by Sphinning it.
  2. Submit Articles – Have you read a great article that you think other Sphinners would like to read, then submit it. These sites are only as good as the information being submitted.
  3. Comment – Start a dialogue about a story. This is a feature under utilized on Sphinn.

Here are some other great guides on Sphinn:

19 Sep, 2007  |  Written by Fred  |  under Social Networking

propellerAs was reported several weeks ago, Netscape decided to close its Digg clone at Netscape.com.  Well, it is back, but this time at Propeller.com.

You would think that Netscape would redirect the netscape.com url to Propeller, but it doesn’t.  You have to use the url propeller.com.  Be careful not to type in propellor.

Many people were critical of the Netscape site, but I am glad that it has been reborn.  I feel like one of the few who really liked Netscape.

If you are anything like me, then I guess the answer to that question is YES!!!  However, now with CoComment there is no reason ever to forget which blogs you have left comments on.

It is very easy to join CoComment.

First, go to CoComment and register.

Once you have registered then, either install the Firefox extension, which I highly recommend, or install the bookmarklet.

The last step in the setting up process is to go to CoComment’s test site and verify that CoComment is working.  Once you enter your comment on the test site, you can go to the “My Conversations” page and see your comment that you left on the test page.  Now everytime you leave a comment on a blog CoComment will record that comment in the “My Conversations” page and you can go back and check to see whether anyone has responded to you.

Here is a screenshot of my “My Conversations” page.

Like any good online service today, CoComment also has some very good social networking features.  You can join groups to share common interests and share conversations that you have found interesting.

8 Sep, 2007  |  Written by Fred  |  under Blogging, Social Networking

Che GuevaraYes, that is right, if you are reading this post, you just might be a revolutionary.

Bloggers and social networkers are changing the world as we know it. Don’t kid yourself, many around us don’t like what we are doing. Many have built multi-billion dollar industries designed to sell you products and services through your television and your newspapers. However, you, the revolutionary, are destroying the society they have created. You are stealing their treasure and destroying the value of their property. Through your use of blogs, websites, podcasts, home videos, etc. you are engaging in economic terrorism of the likes that has never been seen before. Be careful, be very careful. The mass media industrial complex will try to crush you!!

Ok, well that might be a little dramatic, but you are experiencing a revolution and you are a participant. We are all participants.

Newest on the Net’s primary purpose is to discuss the newest innovations involving the Internet. At this time, I feel that blogging and social networking are most revolutionary and most profound innovations of our life time. Blogs are changing the way we communicate. Never has it been easier or cheaper to share ideas with the world. Blogging platforms like Wordpress, Vox and Blogger and video platforms like YouTube make it almost free to disseminate information. With only a computer anyone can become a journalist, novelist, political theorist, satirist, editor, or educator.

While blogs have removed the barriers to entry for publishing, social networking has allowed the mass dissemination of this information. A revolutionary is just a crackpot if no one listens to him. But through the use of social networking sites, it has become much easier to find people to read your writings, to listen to your podcasts and to watch your videos. Blogs are the guns of this revolution and social networking is the gun powder.

Thankfully this revolution is non-violent and I can participate while sitting in front of the computer in my underwear!! You can thank me later for not uploading the picture.