Humans are fickle and what attracts them today may not attract them tomorrow. There are however some things that will always be attractive if presented in the right manner. To gain traffic from social bookmarking sites is not always that difficult – we just have the wrong expectations.
Many website owners, and more so bloggers, expect every page submitted to a social bookmarking site to suddenly get traffic. It’s never going to happen. You can however encourage a regular readership by using these sites appropriately.
Humor and controversy along with shock are the types of content that never seem to die. However it still comes back to the magnets that will draw individuals in and they are the oft repeated trio:
Killer title
Good first paragraph
Great content
You have read it a million times and the reason it gets repeated is because it’s true. Think of your own experiences, the title sparks your inquisitive nature, the opening paragraph sucks you in and from there before you know it you have read the whole article.
The key to attracting traffic from the social bookmarking sites is to understand the climate of each site. Some topics and genres work well on one site and not on another. Pick the right sites and promote your content there. When promoting, you are often better off submitting your pages to sites over a period of time rather than just mass submitting.
By spreading the submission period you will spread the traffic and not get a reputation for spamming. Just be sure to submit to the right sites – not mass submit.
I agree with what you have said but there is a major element missing… “relationships”
If you have relationships (friends/followers) on the social bookmarking sites then you will see exponentially more traffic. Social media is all about the relationships… don’t have them? … don’t expect much no matter how good your titles, descriptions, etc. are.