Social Networking Sites - A Great Way to Boost Traffic to Your Blog Or Web Site

Social Networking Internet sites are web sites where people visit to chat, exchange information, discuss topics, share views and see what others are doing. They bring like-minded people together. They are the Internet's equivalent of pubs, clubs, cafés and bars, where people meet and chat together. If you want to popularize your web site and increase the number of visitors over time, these sites are a great way to do it. They allow you to mention your site, leave a link to it, and get people talking about it.

Google counts the number of independent links across the Internet to each site to determine which ones are the most popular. Therefore, by posting an entry on a Social Networking site which links to your blog or web site, you increase the popularity of your site in the Google search rankings, meaning that you rise a little higher. In addition, the more your web site gets mentioned and talked about by others, the more visitors you attract and the more money you can potentially earn.

Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow people to meet and discuss subjects with people who have similar interests.

Once you get known in these circles and start to have a group of friends, coming back and chatting can be very addictive, and people can spend whole evenings chatting to virtual friends they have never met. If you work at this and start to accumulate friends, you can start to mention your web site and tell people what your site is about. Suddenly, you might find that a whole bunch of new people start visiting your site. They start telling their friends about it, who in turn tell their friends, and before you know it, the number of visitors increases.

Alternatively, Social Bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicious, Reddit and StumbleUpon allow people to tell others about interesting sites, especially news stories, which they have found. The idea here is that you can notify these sites about a news item you found particularly good to read, and others can then cast their votes or opinions, and certain news stories subsequently rise to the top as being outstanding or interesting. This means that exciting news stories rise to the top very quickly, and if you subscribe, you get to hear about all the best news without having to troll the Internet looking for yourself.

If done correctly and at the right time (such as when you have an announcement on your blog or web site), Social Bookmarking sites can be an effective way to get your web site more widely known, perhaps even becoming popular across the whole Internet very quickly. A good story on these sites can spread like wildfire, and you might find that your web site becomes one of these success stories.

Google Groups and Yahoo Groups are other Social Networking sites. They allow people to form groups around a particular interest or hobby. They are electronic mailing lists and Internet forums. There are groups for every subject imaginable, and almost no matter what your web site is about, you are almost certain to find multiple groups with interests which coincide with what your web site is about. Over time, you can join these groups, get known, post a few interesting replies, then every so often mention your blog or web site and why people on the group would find it of interest. As long as your site really is of interest, you are likely to get a positive response. The result is that more visitors will come to your web site, thus earning more money for you.

In addition to the above, free, popularity-driven web sites, there are other commercial or semi-free sites. For instance, Zimbio.com is a popular tabloid news site. You can join and potentially submit your blog for discussion for free. Hopefully you will get more links, and attract more visitors over time.

There are many more Social Networking sites on the Internet, but the above are the most popular ones which you should definitely consider. New sites are springing up all the time. If you want to make your web site popular and better known, you need not spend a lot of money, but you do need to invest time and effort. Over and over again, in site after site, in forum after forum, in group after group, you need to keep mentioning your web site, leaving a link to it which people can click on. Steadily you will increase the number of independent links to your site, and you will start to gain a following and attract regular visitors. This all takes time, but it is great fun, and it could lead to your site attracting huge numbers of visitors. As the proverb says, "A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step."

Social Networking is therefore one fundamental plank in your strategy of gaining more visitors to your web site over time. Don't miss out on what these sites can do for you!