I've been using a del.icio.us account for 3 months or so. And, its been one of my best friend in internet surfing (other one being Stumble Upon). I started using it as a way to bookmark sites which seemed "cool" to me. I frequently had problems with my browser which, sometimes, erases all my bookmarks without notice. Moreover, I can access my bookmarks when I'm somewhere other than home.

But, recently I heard that its a really good place to get some link and SEO campaigns going. So, I decided to try out this new thing. Presently, of all the 241 links, only 2 links target to my site. The reason is because I don't view it as a marketing tool. So, I was just wondering if its right to include my links in my page. I mean, wouldn't it be spamming or selfishness ?

If it's good enough as a resource, and you attract at least one of the right people to it, you won't have to...they'll do it for you.

Organic traffic and links are always better than influenced traffic and links.

In other words...worry about your site and the other end will take care of itself. (This isn't me talking out of my a$$ either...this comes from someone who's actually been there, done that.)

Well, ADAM, I always try to avoid posting any links to my site in my del.icio.us account. But a guy told me that I was wasting my possibilities and he said that since I've 250+ links, I should start to post my own links in a ratio which others won't easily find out.

I should start to post my own links in a ratio which others won't easily find out.

Read that out to yourself several times to realise how ridiculous it sounds !!!

Yeah, I had the same reaction as Chris; if you have to do anything to keep other people from finding out, then you shouldn't be doing it.

Also, Adam is right about organic links and traffic. I saw stumbleupon and delicious both show up in my referrer logs. Somebody in Israel loves a couple of my pages. It's funny, though, stumbleupon kept sending more traffic every day until about a week ago, and then abruptly stopped. Without any work on my part, that's a bonus, not a loss.

Whoever told you you're wasting a resource probably needs to check his perspective. Is it costing you anything, are you out something you used to have? Personally, I think you'd be better off spending the time you'd use figuring out your obfuscation ratio and sneaking links in on improving your own site. I've been spending at least four hours a day on mine for a couple weeks ( broke some templates, so improving my design has been page-by-page, by hand ). In the long run I'm sure this will pay off more than any link I can put anywhere.

You're right. That guy was a lamo after all. I think I should do what I do now and hang on it. And, add links only if it would make any kind of use to the visitors. I personally think that my del.icio.us account is more of resource gallery than an SEO godown.

I'm glad you came to the right conclusion. I've seen you rail against spam, so I was a little surprised by your question, especially the way it's worded.

But I have to disagree with Adam, Forest, and Chris. Your bookmark page is yours, right? ( That's a rhetorical question - their terms of service say you own your bookmarks. ) You can do anything you want with it. If it's a list of your bookmarks, and ones you find cool, then, to me, it sounds like your site should belong there. Don't go trying to hide a link here and a link there between the bulk of your other links, just put the good or main or important ones together all in a clump. Don't apologize for it, because you're not doing anything wrong ( if you don't try to hide it ).

Also realize this will have no SEO impact at all. There are two reasons for this: del.icio.us uses rel="nofollow" on all their links, and you del.icio.us page probably has a PageRank of zero and isn't read by anybody, like a blog is. I use del.icio.us myself, and think it's a wonderful thing, really great for keeping track of way too many links, especially on different computers. But I've never browsed anybody else's page.

Now if you were going to create a fake account, that would be another story. If you were going to use math to hide your tracks, that would be bad. But if you're up front about what you're doing, on your own digital space, and using the service the way it was meant to be used ( you do think your own site is cool, right? ), I don't see any problem.

Learning Newbie, that was a really logical explanation and I'm really convinced with it. It had some new stuff for me too. Del.icio.us uses nofollow ? I didn't know that.

And, John (I checked your profile for your name ), you really have a point there regarding the fact that nobody ever visits someother person's del.icio.us page and neither does anyone visit its homepage. The networking facility in the site isn't familiar to many too.

I'm actually a little difficulty to call it Web 2.0 or social media since the whole system isn't much social. Mybloglog, Orkut and Myspace and clearly social media. But, I don't know about this one.

P.S : John, do you maintain a website, I would be delighted to know. Please post link in the sig.

I think I should do what I do now and hang on it. And, add links only if it would make any kind of use to the visitors.

And this is the right way to any kind of linking.

And John I don't think you do disagree with me, It's not the use of the page for links I would object to, it's the dumb idea that somehow you should pretend you're not doing what you are actually doing (see This Post )

This is the kind of thing that gets all SEOs a bad reputation. The incompetent SEOs have to meddle and end up destroying what has the potential as a good resource for natural linkage by real people for the internet community as a whole.

You know, I have to admit, Newbie's analysis has me convinced, too. ( Although, for the record, there are two r's in my first name, like the "box of chocolates" guy. ) A compelling argument.

I tried delicious a while ago, and it's a neat ideal, although I turn to Google when I want to find something, so I don't really use d's service. I thought it was kind of interesting they tell you how many other people have a given page bookmarked. But that's a double-edged sword. Somebody in the Middle East has one of my pages marked; either he thinks he made a discovery, or realizes I'm still working my site's way up to popularity. I'm thrilled to have fans, but worried that "3 other people have bookmarked this" casts me in a bad light.

I'm right there with Chris about the few bad apples theory. I'm trying VanGogh's advice with a new page for a photo I shot last night ( http://forrestcroce.com/Photos/World...nter-West.html ), to put hyphens in the file name so that Google will see the keywords a words, instead of one big one. I've seen so many spammy, made for adsense sites do this that I'm a little worried about people throwing me in that bucket.

Anyway, it looks like this is all worked out, I just wanted to chime in and give credit where it's due; there are some bright people in here.

To throw in my $0.02.
Is it spamming? well, yes (but not really in a bad way).
Is it a big deal? no. Will it help your traffic? barely.
One of my pages was bookmarked by 47 people on it, quite a few others are fairly heavily bookmarked as well but, I maybe see 2 or three visitors a day from it. I don't think anybody has actually found my site through del.icio.us.

I like del.icio.us mostly just to see how many people found the content useful enough to bookmark. I've marked my own site in it just to make it easier to pull up specific pages when I am on a friend's computer.

Well, del.icio.us is not that great for bringing traffic to a site. Maybe it can help in link building, branding etc. But, Social Media traffic isn't useless. See this post by Rand.

Originally Posted by astrojith

I've been using a del.icio.us account for 3 months or so. And, its been one of my best friend in internet surfing (other one being Stumble Upon). I started using it as a way to bookmark sites which seemed "cool" to me. I frequently had problems with my browser which, sometimes, erases all my bookmarks without notice. Moreover, I can access my bookmarks when I'm somewhere other than home.

But, recently I heard that its a really good place to get some link and SEO campaigns going. So, I decided to try out this new thing. Presently, of all the 241 links, only 2 links target to my site. The reason is because I don't view it as a marketing tool. So, I was just wondering if its right to include my links in my page. I mean, wouldn't it be spamming or selfishness ?

well, it looks like. why you dont try to link exchange to some related site. or make directories submission. cheers

It is right to include links in your page but if you do it everday it is spamming. But you need to post fresh and quality content to a social bookmarking site that will increase traffic to your site.

Originally Posted by astrojith

I've been using a del.icio.us account for 3 months or so. And, its been one of my best friend in internet surfing (other one being Stumble Upon). I started using it as a way to bookmark sites which seemed "cool" to me. I frequently had problems with my browser which, sometimes, erases all my bookmarks without notice. Moreover, I can access my bookmarks when I'm somewhere other than home.

But, recently I heard that its a really good place to get some link and SEO campaigns going. So, I decided to try out this new thing. Presently, of all the 241 links, only 2 links target to my site. The reason is because I don't view it as a marketing tool. So, I was just wondering if its right to include my links in my page. I mean, wouldn't it be spamming or selfishness ?