How to Write Articles for Social Bookmarking Sites

The traffic that social bookmarking sites are able to send make them extremely powerful tools when to comes to developing a blog or site, or trying to monetize an online promotion. But of course there are tricks and tips on how best to use social bookmarking sites.

One of the most important factors to consider when you are looking to gain traffic from such sites is the content of the article you are bookmarking. How it is written, what it is about, how it is laid out – all can play a big part in how successful it is on the bookmarking sites.

People who like to use bookmarking sites have, even if they don't know it, certain expectations and preferences when it comes to the sort of article that gets bookmarked, and if you are able to live up to those then you stand a much better chance of getting the sort of traffic you want to the site – or possibly far more!

Tips on How to Write for Social Bookmarking Sites

First of all you have the writing that goes on in the bookmarking site itself.

Headlines

If you want people to click through to your article and read what you have to say then you need an eye catching headline. It is this that first attracts people, before they even read the description. If you want any attention at all your headline must stand out.

Tip: Basic copywriting rules work wonders here. 'How to' headlines, '5 ways to' type headlines and anything that makes people stop and think for a moment.

Description

Most bookmarking sites allow you to give a description of the article. It is here that you set expectations as to what is contained, and entice those that have been captured by your headline to read the article.

Tip: Give them an overview of whats contained, but tease a little... don't give any definite facts but hint at them and how they will find the article useful. Make them WANT to read it.

Obviously it is not just the writing within the bookmarking site that matters – that just gets people reading the article. The article itself can really be optimized to get the best reaction possible from social bookmark site users.

Opening Paragraph

This has to hook the user, draw them in and make them read. If they don't like the opening paragraph they will simply click away and you will lose them before you get going.

Tip: Give them a surprising or controversial fact early on, shock them into reading further – or tease them by outlining the article again, let them know what is to come.

Layout

People who read these articles like to scan them to be able to pick the information they want and decide if its worth reading in between. So layout needs to be easy to scan and read.

Tip: Use lists, bullet points, subheaders and small paragraphs. Avoid large blocks of text.

Vic Carrara
Masterwebsoftware.com

Writing for Bookmarking Sites: The traffic that social bookmarking sites are able to send make them extremely powerful tools when to comes to developing a blog or site