I have recently found a lot of places that you can use to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. They are bookmarking sites, with a little bit of a social networking twist. It has been fun getting to know these websites, so I thought I would share them with you.

The sites I have found are:

StumbleUpon!
Kirtsy
Delicious
Digg
Technorati

While I recently have become a member of Kirtsy, Delicious, and Digg, I have had a Technorati and StumbleUpon for awhile.
A lot of times when we find new sites like these we feel a little overwhelmed with getting your page set up and then figuring out how to use the site. Well I have been going through those above sites quite a bit and have figured out how they manuevere, so you can sign up and start your social bookmarking fast!
I am going to try and explain how to use these sites. If after reading my article and getting any of these services, you run into some problems or get stuck, I would be happy to help you figure them out. You can leave me a comment or email me.

StumbleUpon
Signing up on SU and getting everything set up is pretty easy. When you get your account set up, you can personalize the way your SU page looks, you can choose your interests and favorites.
Now to Stumble an article is pretty easy too. When you first get your SU account, you will have downloaded the Mozilla or IE toolbar. I use FireFox, so that is what I am going to explain to use. I am assuming that they are very similar in the way to use them.
You will use the toolbar to Stumble. There is a button you can click to go to an article that someone has Stumbled. You will never know what is going to come up, so Stumble with caution. There is also a thumbs up or down buttons. Use those to Stumble an article. When you click either up or down, you will get a pop up window. If you highlight a part of the article before you thumb up, then it will put the highlighted part in the review of your Stumble. Select a category, then add some tags and VOILA! You have just Stumbled!
We have found that SU is a great way to get people to articles. My Mama stumbled a post of hers a while back, and she had over 200 people within an hour! That will vary though, because I have been stumbled and not had that result.
There are other features of SU too. Like you can see Stumblers in your area that are online, or recently Stumbled websites. There is also a place on your page where it will show you recent visitors. You can also add friends. My link is in the first SU link above if you want to add me to your friends.
While I haven’t figured out precisely how to use their buttons, I have gone about it the cheating way. Go to the bottom of the page, click on buttons. You can put the SU button on your articles, so that there is an easy access way to Stumble your article. I haven’t found out how to put the button in the template, so that it picks up the new article url, but what I have been doing is copying and pasting the button to each new article and putting the link in the coding on my post. I am still trying to figure out how to get it to do it itself!
Pretty much SU is a pretty easy site to navigate. I have had a lot of fun getting to know this site!

Delicious
I had a little trouble with figuring this out, but I think I got the hang of it. Simple sign up. Pretty much like any other place. When you sign up, you will download a new toolbar, so you can bookmark easily. The toolbar is a little confusing, so take a little time to get to know it. Depending on which buttons you’ve added to your browser, you can click the “Tag” or “Bookmark this on Delicious” button to save a new bookmark. When you click one of those you will be taken to a page where you fill out some forms about whatever site you want to bookmark. Pretty easy to do.
You can also add people you know to your network. Find a friend, then on the right sidebar you will see a link titled: “Add a user to network”. Click that if you have found a friend to add, then confirm the addition, and you have become friendly! After you have some network friends, you will be able to click the tab at the top called: “People” and you will see what your friends have bookmarked.
If you want a button for your blog that tells people you are on Delicious, go to Settings, then scroll til you come to Blogging. Under that you will see there are different badges or rolls you can get for your site. Check which items you want on your badges, grab the code and put it in your template. Easy as pie, but it despite its name, it doesn’t taste as good as pie!

Digg
I thought Digg was fun to set up an account. Simple and easy and I really loved the different gender selections. I choose Belle for mine!
Same type of principle as the other sites I have explained. To submit a site, click the Submit New, put in your link in, give a little description of the article, then they will check to see if the article is original, then you have just dug a new article!
You can search for friends and add some if you find any. There is also a shoutbox and a place to leave comments on sites you have ‘dug’.
To grab a button, scroll down to the very bottom of the site, under Digg Tools & API, click on Digg Badges. Choose which button you want, grab the code, put it in your template, and you are dug!
All in all, digging a site with this site is a lot easier than digging a hole for a plant or tree!

kirtsy!
This site was a little tricky at first. Took me a bit to understand figure out how to work it. You have a profile, you can have friends, and it gives you stats. This is much like the other sites. This site is different from other sites, because it is just for women. There are just for women type categories too. I thought the description of why its called Kirtsy was cute. I do not like all the ads on this site though.
Simple set up, simple to bookmark pages too. Hit the Submit A Story tab at top, put in the site info, confirm your suggestion, and you have just kirtsied!
To get a button, scroll down to the bottom to kirtsy tools, then click the add kirtsy to your site. You can choose which button matches you best, then what type of site you use, get the code and put it in your template. You can also hook up Kirtsy to your Feedburner.
While Kirtsy was a bit tricky, it was easier than learning to dance and kirtsy!

Technorati
Getting a Technorati account is pretty simple too. You have a bio, a picture and you can claim blogs that are your own. To claim a blog, you just hit the blog tab in your account, put your url in, then grab their code to put on your blog, so that Technorati will find your page, release the spiders, then your blog is claimed! When that is done, you can give a description of the site, add some tags and choose which language you use. There are also buttons you can grab for your site, so that other Technoratians can favorite your site.
Technorati has a widget for your blog too. You can add a load of things on it, or make it simple. You just check the things you want, grab the code, and put it in your template.
Now there is no toolbar, so you will just have search blogs on Technorati to find ones to favorite. This site is a little different than the others.

A lot of sites now have the options to use one of the above sites to bookmark a post you are reading. HSBA has this option. You can see the small icons at the bottom of the entries. Same basic principle using those to bookmark posts. Just fill out the information!
I hope this has helped you gain a better understanding of social bookmarking sites. They are really fun and easy to use! If you get any one of these sites, I would like to add you to my friends.

Also, there is Twitter. While its not necessarily a bookmarking site, it is a social status site. I really love Twitter. You can bookmark sites, but the main thing you can do it ‘tweet’ something you are doing or looking forward to or anything! Its a neat place where you can sorta im with your buddies. I would really check out this site if I were you! It is really fun!

OH! And you really have to check out the Blogging series that our very own Sprittibee and Miss Dawn are doing! It is so informative and with those gals, its funny too! Head over to Blogging for Dummies to get some great information!

Better Blogging to you!

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Recently a new blogger and friend asked me how he could get more hits to his site. Being the blogger who loves blogging so much and wants to share that love with others, I quickly compiled a list for him to go off.

Here is that list of ways I found that are great to get more hits to your blog.

#1: Get your name and url out there. Go to people’s blogs. Leave comments even if you don’t know them. Comment on their post, then kinda introduce yourself.

#2: Get things like mybloglog. When I see a new face on mybloglog on my sidebar I click it, and then go to their blog. If they are savory!

#3: Get on blogrolls. There are a couple blogrolls on the bottom of my right sidebar, you could consider joining.

#4: Get on stat counters. Counters like Homeschool Gold and Blog Statter.

#5: Send out blog alerts. When you send them out, people will see it and click it and read.

#6: Blog often. I try to blog on Saturdays and Wednesday, but usually end up posting more. I think that a blog receives more attention when it posts often. I would try to post more than once a week. If your friends know that you blog alot they will come and visit to see if you updated.

#7: Blog about many topics. The more things you blog about, the more searches your url will come up on.

#8: Blog about what you know. You don’t want to sound high and mighty, but you want people to know what you believe or what you have learned. I try hard not to talk about things that I don’t know about. I would go and post about how you can be an astronaut, because I don’t know much about it. Talking about things you don’t know about turns people off.

#9: Exchange ads and links. Talk to your friends about exchanging links and ads. I have an ad that people can put on their sidebar that links to me. If you don’t have an ad, you can email my awesome sister and she can come up with something that is totally you!

#10: Contribute to carnivals. Carnivals are a GREAT way to get your link out. I mostly participate in The Carnival of Homeschooling and The Homesteading Carnival. You can go through a list of carnivals at Blog Carnival.

#11: Enter contests. When you enter a contest, not only do you have a chance to win something, but you also get your link out.

#12: Hold giveaways. This goes hand in hand with entering contests. You can give away something that you won in a contest, if you don’t want it.

Comments:
When I first started, I commented all my friends. I got to know them. I made sure they knew me and would come and comment me back. Now I just comment people who comment and every once in awhile I comment people who I don’t normally comment.

Now if you want some things that will show you where people are coming from and things like that, I would get a Sitemeter for sure and probably a Feedjit.
I would get a Stumbleupon. My Mama has one and she blogged last nite and put it on her stumbleupon and had almost 200 people within less than 2 hours! After I saw that, I got a stumbleupon. lol!
Here is another article you should read about Feeds and Readers. That gives great advice on how to get them and what they do.

Pretty much the biggest thing is to get your link out! And also to get to know bloggers you want to be friends with. Make a relationship with bloggers. Another thing is you don’t just become a superblogger over nite. It does take time!
One thing to remember, blogging isn’t about getting people to your blog and getting a bunch a hits. It’s about relationships and about what you want from your blog. Mrs. C did a wonderful article about Better Blogging: The Purpose-Driven Blog. If you didn’t have a purpose for your blog when you started, maybe its time to think if you have one yet.

Better Blogging To You!

↑ Grab this Headline Animator