Spicypage Takes Another Step Towards Becoming The Next Digg

For those of you who haven't heard of Spicypage you will be soon. Just recently they released a feature to submit individual articles on the site in addition to the entire website or blog. The major difference is that the articles that you submit are not voted on like digg, but are just sorted by the number of views. You can still vote for the site that the article came from though, so it seems to be a win-win for the author of the site/article!

Spicypage has also added a group feature to the site. This can be another way to promote your website or blog. All you need to do is start a group that revolves around your site. People can join your group and give you feedback on your content, design, ect.

While the site is nowhere near Digg just yet, it is gaining popularity and has a much better layout and more options then Digg gives you. So if you haven't signed up already now is the time... you can learn more about Spicypage here! You can sign up here or view my profile here!

Stumbling Through The Internet

A fun way to promote your website or blog is to submit your content to the website Stumbled Upon. This site is a bit different from any of the other social networking sites out there and seems to be snowballing around the Internet. Basically, as with all other sites the first thing to do is to sign up. Once you do that you should begin to edit your profile, avatar picture, interests, personal info ect. Stumbled upon will download a toolbar that works with Firefox or Internet Explorer which is great for submitting sites, seeing what your friends are stumbling, keeping track of your favorites and for finding new and interesting sites.

Now is also a good time to tell stumbled upon what kind of topics you would like to see. This way you filter out most of the junk that you just don't care about! That is the real beauty of Stumbled Upon! If you are a fan of the next blog button on blogger you will certainly love this as the content tends to be of a higher quality and less spam. For example if you are interested in photography and science then you can choose only to view photography and science sites. Very, very useful as it narrows down the sites you are looking for quite well.

Like other social networking sites it also has groups, friends, networks, forums, and it also saves all of your favorites much like delicious. It acts like a one stop shop for all your social networking needs.

The website Stumbled Upon is also a great way to try and target your exact audience for your website or blog. For instance if you have a site all about poetry you can submit it to Stumbled Upon under the poetry section and watch the targeted traffic roll in. It blew my mind when I saw all the different topics to choose from on the site! Like most other social networking sites, the more people that like the site the more it will be shown.

The site is growing everyday and I have seen the traffic results myself in Analytics. So go sign up and start Stumbling today. You can view my profile here or you can get started here.

Drive Traffic To Your Site With Photos

Do you enjoy taking photos? Do you want to showcase your work and drive traffic to your site? The Nature's Wallpaper network of sites can help... Just send us an e-mail with the picture you would like to have displayed along with a link to the site of your choice. We will take care of the rest!

Soon you will see your picture displayed on one of the sites and the link to the site you requested directly under the pic. We will then e-mail you to see if you would like any changes to be made. Here are the three different sites your work could be displayed on...

The Blog

The Page

The Original

Now sit back and relax your job is done! You can now track the traffic coming in through Analytics or any other tracking program.

Here are some of the sites that are already participating...

A New Day
Norpas
Amazing Stuff
Photoholics Anonymous
Brownies For Breakfast
Better Than MTV
Lynda Walldez

As you can see your site doesn't need to be a photography site, it is all up to you. So what are you waiting for... send Nature's Wallpaper your photos and start driving traffic to your site!

Return The Favor With Technorati

Technorati is a site I have been using for quite some time now... It is somewhat like Mybloglog as you can submit all of your blogs and other individuals can "favorite" your blogs. This allows your fans to track your newer posts, each time they login to Technorati it displays to them all of the recent posts from the sites that they have made there "favorites." This makes for a great way to keep an eye on all of the blogs that interest you or your readers. You can skim through the latest titles of all your favorite blogs all in one place till you find something that catches your eye.

The part that I really like about Technorati though is that once you have submitted all of your blogs, Technorati tracks all of the people that have linked to your blog automatically! This is very useful tool because this allows you to see who took the time to link to your sites, and it helps you to return the favor if you so choose by linking back to their blog. Not only that, but you can sort these links by date or by "authority", which allows you to see the most "powerful/important" links to your site as well. This site also gives you your blog rank which can be a good thing to keep an eye on and will increase with each link to your site.

There are many, many other tools that Technorati offers like Tags, Blog Search, and WTF as well. What is your favorite part of Technorati? Did I miss any useful tools? Let me know, and if you still haven't signed up for Technorati you can here or you can check out my profile here!

Time To Say Thanks Again

Well I figured it was about that time again... I just want to tell everyone that has commented, visited or linked to my sites a big THANKS!!!!

And in no particular order

My View Of It who actually just link to Are We Overheating about 5 minutes ago... I do appreciate you helping to spread the word : )

Serenity Quest who has link to this very blog, and certainly has a way with words... Thanks for all your help and keep on entertaining and informing us all!

My View On The News this individual just linked to three of my blogs... unfortunately I cannot speak German if that is in fact what this sites language is... none the less they obviously have great tastes...

Photoholics Anonymous this is a project that I am working on with another photographer and I just want to give props...

My Quest To Make Money On The Internet sounds very tempting doesn't it... go ahead and take a look... They have linked to this blog and google power and I certainly appreciate it!

Talk Vids who is another recent linker to my nothing but videos site... Thanks and I wish your site the best of luck!

Brownies For Breakfast good old Texas Dave check out his growing number of blogs... I believe this one was the first!

I am sure I forgot a TON of people and for that I do apologize... Let me know in a comment and I will be happy to feature you in the next post.

THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE!!!!

Simply Del.icio.us

Another great way to help promote your site is to use the site del.icio.us, especially if you have multiple sites/blogs. This is one of the original sites that started to use "social bookmarking." This simply means you post your bookmarks/articles and share them with people in your network on del.icio.us. This might not seem like much, but it is a great way to get a few eyes on your work.

Delicious also keeps track of all the people that bookmark your posts, so you can check out their work/bookmarks as well, and best of all you can access these bookmarks anywhere in the world from any computer. Like a lot of other sites nowadays Delicious uses tags, so you can easily sort your bookmarks. For example, "blog" or "photography" or "funny" or "scary" could all be useful tags. They are a great way to help organize your website/blog and these bookmarks as well.

My favorite part of Delicious though is the "linkrolls." This is a very useful tool if you have multiple blogs like me. Basically, it is a list of the most recent posts to Delicious from any blog/site. You can add these linkrolls to any of your sites, Delicious writes the HTML for you all you need to do is cut and paste it into your template. You can see an example here below this post on this blog or here very near the bottom. This is a great way to promote all of your posts from different sites in one handy dandy list that is automatically updated every time you post another bookmark. Pretty cool! Plus you can also direct people to other sites besides your own that you think will interest your viewers. This is a great way to keep your links looking fresh and new and help cross promote your sites. So go check it out and start keeping viewers on your network of sites longer. Sign-up here or you can check out my delicious profile here.

Track Visitors To Your Website Or Blog With Analytics

Now that we have explored a few ways to promote your website or blog, you might be wondering if all of your hard work is really paying off. Well, if you aren't using any tracking software yet, my recommendation would be to use Google Analytics. It is very easy to use, and has more information about your visitors then you would ever dream. To get started you need to sign up for this FREE service. If you already have a google account you can use this to sign in or if not all you need is an e-mail address to get your Analytics account.


Once you have signed up you need to "create a website profile." Analytics will ask you for the URL (website address) of the site. For example, this site would be promotingyoursite.blogspot.com yours could be www.yoursite.com Once you have entered the address you will need to choose your location and time zone. Then you would click the "finish" button and wham, Google produces a little piece of HTML (website code) near the bottom of the screen. All you need to do now is copy and paste this HTML into your site.

If you are using blogger you need to go to your template and hit the edit HTML button. Then scroll down all the way to the bottom of the code... you should see < /body>. You want to paste the code directly before this < /body> and save the template.

Now back in Analytics hit the done button, this will bring you back to the main page. You should see your site listed here followed by "Tracking Not Install" and "Check Status." You want to click on the "check status" link. If you installed your HTML correctly Analytics will tell you that "Tracking has been installed" and "Waiting For Data." Congratulations, you will now be able to track every visitor to your site.

Please note you need to wait a couple hours before you will see results. So when you log back in just hit the view reports link and this will take you to all the information that has been collected from your visitors. This includes, but is not limited to the number of visitors, page views, new/returning, geo location (city/state/country), length and depth of visit, top entry/exit points, referring sources, what people are typing into search engines to find your site... I could go on and on, but that sounds like another post.

You can track up to 50 sites for free!!! What are you waiting for go sign-up here or you can read even more about Google Analytics here.

Is That A Spicy Page?

Ok, so you have heard of Digg, Netscape and Reddit but have you ever heard of Spicypage.com? Chances are you haven't just yet, but the site is really starting to gain traction. Spicypage works in a lot of the same ways that digg does. Users vote on content whether it is a thumbs up or thumbs down and can comment on the sites as well. The part that I really like about Spicypage is that it is the entire website or blogs that is voted on, not just an article from a site. Users of this site can also submit websites that they do not own or operate like google, yahoo, or youtube, all three are all ready in the top 100 list on the site. Spicypage also has the social aspect to it like mybloglog! You can send messages to one another and gain "friends" through the site as well. Now like I said in the beginning, this place is just getting started so now is the best time to submit your content (less competition.) So what is it that you are waiting for go sign up and start voting... you can sign up here or you can view my profile here. Tell them the 1greenthumb sent you : )

Mybloglog The Social Traffic Exchange

Mybloglog.com is another useful way to promote your sites with a nice social twist to it. Basically, you sign up first, then I would suggest adding your different blogs/sites to your profile. Once you hit the "Add site" button Mybloglog will take a snap shot of your site, you then add in a description and you are all set. Your site is now called a community according to mybloglog.



People then can sign up for your "community" and become readers/fans of your site. They track all of the people that sign up for your sites so you can also visit their blogs and check out who is in fact looking at your website or blog. You can also post messages to users or just to their communities, this is were the social aspect of it comes in. You can actually put a face to these blogs that you are reading. They also have widgets available that you can add into your sites to track stats on your sites including links in and out and the number of readers on your site!

As you may know though it was just bought by Yahoo so I hope they don't mess up a good thing... while I am still relatively new to Mybloglog I can already see serious results in Google Analytics! So what are you waiting for you can sign up here or you can check out my profile here.

Reddit And Netscape Better Than Digg?

So I am sure you heard about how I made it big on digg.com, so I decided to search out sites that were similar to digg. The two sites that I see that have the most promise are reddit and netscape, yes I said netscape. I was surprise to find out the old netscape is rising from the dead and is looking quite a bit like digg. In fact the only real difference I see between the two of them is that netscape has a lot less users. Reddit on the other hand is a very primitive site, but still has the potential to draw traffic to your site. In Reddit you simply submit the url of the page and nothing else, not even a description. Since there is no description at all your headline becomes very very important. So got out into the brave new world and submit your stories/article to digg, reddit, and netscape and watch the traffic pour in... By the way, I had even more success with digg when I submitted this story, watch out though it appears to be a very dangerous topic, but it did get over 2000 diggs...

Using Digg.com To Generate Traffic

So I finally hit it big on digg.com, I have been posting there for a while and I would get a few diggs, but nothing like this. First let me give you a little background of what digg is. Basically, digg.com is a site where users can submit their articles/videos about anything from politics to comedy. Once it is submitted users can "digg" them or bury them if they so choose. The site keeps track of all the diggs that you get on your article/video. The more diggs you have the more chance you have of making it on the main "popular stories" part of digg. You see when you first submit the story it goes into a "upcoming stories" section of digg, then once you receive many diggs they upgrade you to the "popular stories" part of digg. Once you make it there you can sit back and watch the traffic jump, it was really amazing.

When my story made it I had over 12,000 hits in one day alone, which is pretty impressive for sites like mine that are still in their infancy and don't have any real page rank. You can see all of my stories that I submitted to digg here and you can see the story that gave me the 12,000 hits here.

The beauty of digg is that the stories are chosen by the viewers and not some editor so everyone has a chance of making it big. So what are you waiting for go sign up and starting digging, it is a great way to promote your site. Who knows maybe this article will be the next to make it big... hmmm diggers digging a site about digg, I guess it makes sense.

Blog Soldiers

It really seems like there are quite a few sites traffic exchanges out there like blog explosion, blogmad, and blogazoo. The latest one that I have come across is Blog Soldiers. It works like the others as you can surf other blogs in their directory to gain credits. So far blog soldiers offers me three blogs that I can submit into their directory. It is becoming increasingly difficult to choose which blogs to submit. (I think I have about 11 now!) You can also pay them for extra credits and to "upgrade" your membership. As with the other traffic exchanges, you can assign the amount of traffic that you would like to go to each site. For example 50% to my Natures Wallpaper site, 30% to celebrating music and 20% to the world's funniest videos. While these sites are rather tedious to maintain your credits, they do provide results! Has anyone else out there used blog soldiers? Let me know what you think.

A Big Thanks!

This post is going to be dedicated to all those people out there that have linked to any of my sites.

Dave operates the following blogs, check them out they have a lot of great pictures and useful info you can access his other blogs from the blogger profile...

http://blogs-apart.blogspot.com/
http://waterfallsuplift.blogspot.com/

Isa operates the following blogs, check out her unique writing style available in English

http://isa-urban.blogspot.com/

or Spanish

http://www.luna-de-dia.blogspot.com/

Tanya's blogs include spectacular sunset photos submitted from people all around the world (including me) She is working on producing a silent film so if you have any sunset photos you would like to contribute....

http://sunlightsilentfilm.blogspot.com/

Impman has linked to my overheating site a few times check his site out and leave him a comment if you so choose...

http://impysview.blogspot.com/

Paul has a few different blogs out there you can check them out at the following address, you won't be disappointed....


http://amazingstufftome.blogspot.com/
http://advertisementsthatihate.blogspot.com/


Thanks to everyone who has promoted or linked to my blogs out there I do appreciate it. I am sure I have missed a few, just let me know and I will feature your blog in future articles.

Blogmad

I have found another very similar site as blogazoo called

http://www.blogmad.net

It works like blogexplosion and blogazoo as far as you earn credits by surfing other blogs, which in turn you can use to generate traffic to your site. You can create advertising banners and text link that you can "buy" with these credits that you earn by surfing in their directory. Blogmad lets you have only two different blogs though. Has anyone else seen results from

http://www.blogmad.net or http://www.blogazoo.com

Generate Traffic From Surfing Blogs

For all of you out there that are addicted to the next blog button, I have found just the site for you. It is blogazoo.com, it works a lot like blogexplosion.com as in you can receive "credits" that you can apply to your blogs to drive traffic to your site. You generate these credits by simply surfing blogs in their directory. They make you wait about 20 seconds and then you click on a number to prove you are not a "bot" and it takes you to the next blog. I have already racked up a few credits just by surfing for about a half hour. Once you receive these credits you can apply them to any of the blogs that you have in your profile. Check it out, and let me know what you think. If anything, it's another listing that you can add your blogs to.

Check out our Google Group

The Importance of E-mail Signatures

Don't forget to put your blog or website address in your e-mail signature. Pretty much all of the e-mail programs out there have the option for this "signature" at the bottom of all the e-mails that you send out. It works just like a footer as you do not have to type it every time it is stored by your e-mail provider. That way every time you send an e-mail out to someone it will contain the link to your site that they can click on directly inside the e-mail. Very useful, I have seen the results for myself in Google Analytics.

You can do the same thing in Google Groups only you have to type in your URL every message. It just gives your audience another easy way to reach your site.

Using Link Exchanges

Link Exchanges can be a very useful way to promoting your site and improve your page ranking. I have yet to find a link exchange program that really works. I don't really click on any of the link exchanges as most of them are just spam. I have found that the best way is to join places like Google Groups and Blog-Explosion and simply ask people if they would like to exchange links.

Also you need to think about outbound links to improve your page ranking. Simply download the google toolbar which has a built in page ranker. Then you can go to sites like eBay or Amazon and you will see that their page rank is very high. These are the types of outbound links that you want if you would like to raise your page rank.

So basically, you want quality outbound and inbound links if possible.

Hey if anyone is interested in a link exchange or knows of any quality link exchanges out there, just let us know. Here is the one that I have designed to exhange pictures for a link.

In The Beginning

This blog will be dedicated to discovering the numerous way to promote your site. We will discuss link exchanges, groups, e-mail signatures, videos, technorati, blog explosion, comments, and the other ways to drive traffic to your site. Any suggestions would be helpful!