NETWORK WEBSITE

Social Network Sites Can Drive a Flood of Traffic to Your Site

by Alan Mater

Not long ago the internet was full of websites that had no interaction with each other. Nothing was connecting the various websites, even if they had the same goals and ideas. Webmasters and website owners did not gather together in one place on the web to collaborate with each other, other than forums.

Today, a new age of the internet is here, and social network sites are everywhere. It is now common to have online communities where thousands of website owners go to share ideas, meet new people, and network with others like never before.

Forums have been around for a long time, allowing others to ask questions and get responses, and interact with other users. Forums are still pretty much the same today as they were back then. Forums were the beginning of a growing interaction between fellow internet users and like minds. They gave them a place of belonging where they could share opinions and express themselves and get feedback from others.

But still, something was missing. Forums were only a small portion to the type of networking that would drive thousands upon thousands of users to gather together. Someone saw a need to create social networking web sites where users would be able to share more about themselves in a visual way, and not just a picture and a few short sentences about themselves.

In the United States, the most commonly used social network sites are MySpace, Facebook, Squidoo, and also Bebo, while other countries may prefer a different outlet, such as Asia's Friendster or Germany's Hi5. The power of social networking web sites cannot be underestimated. In fact, social network sites are some of the most visited sites on the entire internet.

Social networking allows people to interact with each other by the use of forums, instant messaging, videos, pictures, and a lot more. Users are able to post a profile that contains information about themselves, pictures that they want to share, videos that they find interesting, games, etc. Users can send friend or contact requests for others to add them to their list. People can post bulletins, message someone on their friend or contact list or someone who isn't, tag other people's pictures to their profile, interact through forums and much more.

Aside from the personal power of social networking web sites, they are of great interest to the online marketer, as well as the brick and mortar store. This is a new phenomenon that is just now beginning to appear more commonplace. This is what we now know as Web 2.0. The best part about social network sites is that you have the ability to post ads on your profile. This can be used to promote your business.

Bulletins and messaging and also forums can be used to market your business. The more friends or contacts you build and network with, the more people you can market your business opportunity or affiliate program to. There is so much untapped traffic potential with these kinds of sites. Bottom line... if you're not using social networking web sites to drive traffic to your website, you should be.

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