Many bloggers treat social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon as traffic generators, which they can be. However there is a lot more to social bookmarking than just traffic.
One of the biggest advantages in having a post bookmarked is its ability to send the search engine bot to your site to read and index the post that has been indexed. This can often speed up the indexing process by hours, if not days, depending on the frequency of their visits.
More importantly, some social bookmarking sites create backlinks to the post thereby increasing the number of back links coming in to your blog. The back link is a deep link to the post itself as well, not just the front page.
If you use the social bookmarking service in the manner it is intended, that is, to share valuable content with others, and to have others share content with you, it can be a good way to find out what is currently ‘hot’ online. If you generate content based on what is popular, it will naturally create more visitors. Well written and it will generate links organically.
Finally, social bookmarking can be a great resource to help generate ideas to write on, particularly useful if you are having a blank day. Content sent to you by your friends can be just the inspiration you need to create that next post.
As you can see, whilst social bookmarking can deliver traffic to your site, used wisely, it can generate far more. The next time you access a social bookmarking site, think about how you can gain some of those extra benefits.
