Janice Wald
High PR social bookmarking sites.
I bet you’re wondering what they are and why you need them.
You’ve come to the right place.
Social bookmarking sites are content curation sites.
There are many advantages to social bookmarking sites:
- Your work is saved so you can easily return to your posts later.
- You find other people’s posts and can use them as references in your articles.
- You find like-minded content creators. This enables you to network with people in your niche.
- Your traffic rises. When other people find your work at these social bookmarking sites, you get traffic when they click your links.
- Since you’re seen as an authority in your niche, you boost your brand.
The social bookmarking sites described in this post are special. They are high PR social bookmarking sites due to the massive traffic they can bring to your blog or website.
By the time you’re done reading this post, you’ll know how to use Flipboard, Quora, Zest, and Post Planner as high PR social bookmarking sites.
This post includes evidence in the form of screenshots and testimonials that these sites dramatically boost your website’s social traffic.
Let’s dive in.
Bookmarking sites are sites where you save your content and other people’s content to return to later.
Just like you return to a page you bookmark in a book, you return to these sites to review or find content.
They are also called curation sites. Just like a museum curator collects artifacts to place in a museum, you collect content and keep them at these websites.
These content curation websites are high PR social bookmarking sites due to the huge traffic they generate to your blog or website.
High PR Social Bookmarking Sites
What is Flipboard?
Flipboard is a magazine-making site.
You make virtual magazines and curate, or collect, articles to keep in those magazines.
The magazines can contain articles on the subtopics in your niche or any topics. I even have several “read later” magazines.
Look:
This is an excerpt from my Blogging Tips magazine.
There are three kinds of magazines:
- Your personal magazines. You curate articles in them that you want to read later.
- Collaborative magazines you share with others. When you share to a collaborative magazine, the other users are notified your article was placed there. Talk about exposure!
- Smart magazines. Flipboard curates articles it thinks you’ll be interested in for you.
There are many benefits to using Flipboard. First and foremost, you have enormous potential for traffic generation at Flipboard.
These screenshots show my Flipboard stats.
As you can see, since I started blogging, Flipboard is my third-best generator of social traffic behind Facebook and Twitter. I am not counting StumbleUpon since the site folded.
Flipboard Strategy
What did I do that helped me generate this traffic?
- I followed people.
- I joined a now-defunct Flipboard Facebook group where we followed each other.
- I searched #MagMakers on Twitter and followed the account holders.
- I went to Flipboard and followed people there.
- I imported my contacts from Twitter and Facebook to Flipboard.
- I subscribed to the #FlipBlogger blog to get Flipboard tips.
My experience generating Flipboard traffic is not isolated.
Consider these comments:
“Hi Janice. I was in shock about Flipboard.
I just created my website some days ago and it has only 2 articles. I created an account on Flipboard just for backlink and social brand, then I posted one of my article to my magazine.
After 10 hours I saw some users on Goolge Analytics real-time report. At first I thought it was spam. Then I checked where this traffic was coming from.
Guess what? 1500 visitors for a new account (in about 10 hours). Then I did research on how to get traffic from Flipboard and came here. Thank you for your article. I think I just discovered a gold mine.”
Additional Testimonials about the Power of Flipboard
“I became acquainted with Flipboard a couple of months ago and it is really starting to pay off. I’ve gotten more exposure from there than I have any other social platform.” from LeTara
“I had my own brush with fortune some time back on one of my websites. I used to flip my posts and one such post suddenly brought in about 200 odd visits to a site which had not seen more than 100 visitors to it. So Flipboard works, but blame it on a lack of strategy that we tend to ignore the platform.” from Dilip
“This post has amazing timing! Today, out of nowhere, Flipboard is my top referrer. Guess it’s time to join!!” From Brianna
“Really, it’s the perfect thing for bloggers! Great traffic, and you don’t have to spend all day working with it.” from Stephanie Bledsoe
“You don’t even need to be on Flipboard to reap the benefits of traffic from Flipboard. Hugh, from Hugh’s Views and News, reported, “I’ve seen a big upsurge in traffic to my blog from Flipboard, Janice. Somebody, somewhere, is flipping my posts.”
Of all the high PR social bookmarking sites described in this post, I’ve used Flipboard longer than the others. The site has longevity and continues to grow (Source).
Hugh Roberts and I report having the same experience: When we actively engage at Flipboard, we see a boost in traffic.
Merely by thanking people for likes and reflips and flipping, I would see triple-digit Flipboard traffic.
Why Should You Use Flipboard?
- You can use Flipboard to generate mass traffic.
- Group Magazines add to the potential for traffic generation.
- You can connect Flipboard to your WordPress blog.
- The articles make great references in your blog posts. Use the site for research.
- Flipboard is free to use.
- You can find like-minded content creators.
- Flipboard has a technology podcast called Tech Briefs.
- YouTube tutorials exist if you need them. However, Flipboard is user-friendly.
- Flipboard has a browser extension. This makes curating from around the web easy for you.
- You can view Flipboard in dark mode.
- Should you need help, you’ll find support all over the internet. For example, the support staff over at Flipboard are helpful. Also, there are Facebook groups devoted to Flipboard. You can also get help from Flipboard support on Twitter.
- Flipboard has an app. This makes reading on your phone easy.
- You don’t need a blog to use Flipboard. Anyone can learn from the articles at the site.
- You add still images and videos to Flipboard. Note: So far, I have only added articles.
- Flipboard has integration with other social media sites. For example, people can add articles from Viral Content Bee to your Flipboard magazine.
Group Magazines
Flipboard has group magazines.
I bet you’re wondering what a group magazine is.
It’s like a group Pinterest board. You get more exposure since the people sharing your magazine see your articles. If they flip them, your exposure increases as does the probability of Flipboard traffic for you.
The difference between your personal magazine and a “Smart” magazine:
Your magazines are curated by you with your Flipboard app or web tools and a Smart Magazine is private to you.
Quora Spaces
People ask, “Is Quora a social bookmarking site?”
Quora is a question and answer site.
Are you using Quora?
If not, you’re missing out on an enormous opportunity for traffic and branding.
As you can see from the screenshot, I boost my reputation in the area of social media management by answering questions at Quora and in other content areas as well.
People always ask if you can blog at Quora.
The answer is yes! One of the many functions of Quora Spaces is to create original blog posts.
Primarily, Quora is used to share work composed on your website. You can also answer questions without sharing links to your work.
Quora Spaces are communities within the larger Quora community.
I started a community called “Blogging Janice.”
I share my blogging tips posts to Blogging Janice and other Quora Spaces that Quora recommends to me.
By using Quora Spaces, you boost your brand, your exposure, and have an additional opportunity to boost your traffic.
In-depth information about how to write Quora answers can be found here.
Zest
Zest is one of the high PR social bookmarking sites for serious marketers.
You’ll learn a great deal about content marketing, social media marketing, and affiliate marketing, just to name a few of the topics you’ll find there.
Articles need to be approved at Zest. For this reason, you can be sure you’ll only see the best marketing articles the internet has to offer.
You can pay to promote your content at Zest resulting in even greater visibility for you.
As you can see from the screenshot, I received 200 pageviews from Zest. Even over the holidays, when blog traffic is typically reduced, Zest was my second-highest referrer of social traffic behind Facebook.
Look at the high energy notification you receive when you submit to Zest!
If you can pass the strict scrutiny of the powers that be at Zest and get your post accepted, you’ll be considered a serious marketer. Therefore, Zest helps your branding in addition to your traffic.
Buffer Alternatives
Buffer is my go-to tool to automate my social media posting during optimal times. Are there Buffer alternatives?
Post Planner
Post Planner is revolutionary. This website is both a social media scheduling tool and a content curation site rolled into one. How unique!
The folks over at Post Planner believe the key to social media engagement is variety of content. They provide the social media content for many industries and purposes.
Talk about a time-saving method! Post Planner’s strategies recommend mixing up the kind of social media content you post at different social media sites.
This saves you time since the service creates all this social media content for you:
- photos
- videos
- text
- quotes
All you do is choose the social media content Post Planner provides. Then you add the content to your scheduler. Post Planner ensures you post a mix of content so your readers stay engaged with your account.
I paid $3.00 to join believing you can’t go wrong for $3.00.
$3.00 is the cost of the basic plan. A $3.00 experiment? Hey, I’m there. Note: Post Planner costs $3.00 a month.
Read Post Planner admin Celine’s quote to ascertain what’s different about Post Planner from other content curation sites.
According to Celine from Post Planner:
“Engagement really takes time as you need to know your audience and how to get their attention on your posts.
If you are posting a lot of your niche, your audience may find it repetitively or boring so you will need to mix in your posts sort of like an ice breaker, to get their attention and start liking your posts.”
Post Planner is designed to boost your social media success.
Here’s how Post Planner works.
Post Planner works in 3 easy steps: Find, Plan, Post.
Post Planner pulls from my Facebook RSS feed so I can add my content. You will see your content when you click “My Content.”
However, in her Post Planner review, Beverley Theresa recommends not planning to post your own content.
She advises you to use Post Planner to post other people’s content. You are looking to attract new audiences on social media, after all.
To be clear, this post is about the benefit of using high PR social bookmarking sites. Post Planner is a social bookmarking site. The advantage comes in finding other people’s content to post on your social media accounts.
When you are done planning content, click Post, and this is what you see.
These are the next three entries in my queue. You can tell by the icons, I have an image post and two link-based text posts scheduled to go out on Twitter.
How to use Post Planner:
Step 1: Click Find.
Look:
Your social media content is already created for you in all these popular categories!
Which should I pick? Which category would you pick?
To recap: The goal is to mix up the type of social media content I post to reignite my followers’ interest and attract new followers.
Since “marketing” is my niche, I post marketing content frequently.
Since I’m trying to engage my Twitter followers, I’ll choose “Engaging.”
Notice at the top of the screenshot you see Photos, Articles, and Statuses. Some categories only have link-based articles and text-based statuses.
There are FAR more choices than this. That’s all that would fit on my screen.
Click your choice. With so many link-based Tweets, I decided to post a photo. Notice, you could also choose to post text or status updates.
Click the center of the photo to post.
Notice from the top right on the screenshot, I chose a 4-star image. Post Planner actually tells you the popularity of the content. Post Planner strategists advise only posting 4 or 5-star content.
I did add my link to the tweet since I have an article that relates to the music image I chose.
Now look:
Notice my image post is scheduled for tomorrow.
Important Note: My link is now live. This is important in case you want to use Post Planner for traffic generation purposes.
You will be like a kid in a candy store with Post Planner’s choices. I know I am.
With so many choices in each category, you’ll never run out of new social media content to post.
You can save content you find for posting later while you’re browsing.
Let me show you the content premade for the Industries Category:
Is your industry here?
How is my $3.00 experiment working out?
I am still new to Post Planner.
It is too soon to tell whether Post Planner results in a boost in social media engagement.
However, I’m having fun, it’s saving me time, and I get to give back to the blogging community by resharing other people’s content.
For now, I will continue to use Buffer to post my blog promotions on Twitter. Along with Buffer, I plan to use Post Planner to schedule other people’s content which will give my followers variety and help me give back to the blogging community.
Blogging and social media use is definitely about reciprocation. Are these things worth $3.00? For now, absolutely.
Wrapping Up: High PR Social Bookmarking Sites
In closing, this post gave you exposure to four high PR social bookmarking sites: Flipboard, Quora, Zest, and Post Planner.
These websites have many benefits for you.
Flipboard, Zest, and Quora serve as traffic generators.
Post Planner functions to eliminate your social media creation and speed up your social media promotion.
All these high PR social bookmarking sites extend the reach of your content marketing.
Since you’ll be seen as an authority in your niche at all these sites, you boost your branding in addition to increasing traffic and social media engagement.
We bookmark to save our place so we can come back to quality content. After all, isn’t that what a content creation site is all about? Returning later?
You’ll return to these high PR social bookmarking sites often.
Readers, please share so bloggers discover these content curation sites. Many people have never heard of them. Have you?
I look forward to your answers in the comment section. Do you have any familiarity with these sites? What are your experiences? Are there any additional high PR social bookmarking sites you can recommend?
Related Reading
How to use high PR social bookmarking sites like Pinterest to make money
Janice Wald is the founder of MostlyBlogging.com and co-founder of the Mostly Blogging Academy. She is an ebook author, blogger, blogging coach, blogging judge, freelance writer, and speaker. She won the Best Internet Marketer Award and the Best Blogger Award at the 2021 Infinity Blog Awards. Wald was also nominated as 2019 Best Internet Marketer by the Infinity Blog Awards and in 2017 as the Most Informative Blogger by the London Bloggers Bash. She’s been featured on Small Business Trends, the Huffington Post, and Lifehack.
