Free Web How to

Either the term Web 2.0 makes your blood boil, or you've taken to throwing it around like a free Google frisbee. If you're in the camp whose collective feeling is one of seething hatred, you may soon find yourself in the position of the people who didn't like mobile telephones being referred to as "cells." It appears that Web 2.0 - the concept and its controversial name - aren't going away.

Therefore, in the tradition of SEOmoz's Web 2.0 Awards, we've taken a business-minded look at thirty sites whose content fits the Web 2.0 description. We only have one request: please don't be horrified at the number of relevant or high profile sites we haven't included in this report. This is meant to be a comprehensive sample, but a sample nonetheless.The sites are listed in a rough order of usefulness. Everyone's experience will differ, depending on industry, audience and product or service. Some of the sites lower down on our list are our favourites, but we know that they're not going to send anyone to the America's Richest lists any time soon.

Nearly everyone who reads this article probably knows what most of the following websites do. What we've looked at is:

• The site's "About us" information... or its meta description. Or its littering of randomly placed instructions.
• Whether a user's experience on the site is the same as (similar to... somewhat in the ballpark of...) that which its developers claim it should be.

How useful the site is as a business tool. Can you use any of these sites for your commercial benefit, or are they serving as little more than mindless entertainment?

1. Digg

Their Pitch:

"Digg is a user driven social content website. Ok, so what the heck does that mean? Well, everything on digg is submitted by the digg user community (that would be you). After you submit content, other digg users read your submission and digg what they like best."

Our Take:

When a website, or any appliance, for that matter, becomes a verb, you know they have done something right. "To digg" has become an important addition to this noun-turned-verb crowd. Do you think it annoys Yahoo! that despite their best efforts, their name as a verb means something like "to make a fool of oneself?"

• You can submit your own content to Digg; however, whether your content is dugg en masse has a lot to do with the status of the person who submits the article. Think of it as Washington DC. You want to get an influential lobbyist to work on your behalf, because even if your initiative is awesome, no one will listen if you have no reputation.
• When someone else diggs your content without your knowledge, you'll probably not be ready for a huge increase in traffic. If your site is strong enough, an untimely digg isn't going to hurt you. In fact, as Guillaume Bouchard mentions in his blog post about being dugg during alpha phase, the traffic served as a free stress test, and the Digg comments were a free usability report.
• If you have digg-worthy content, consider enabling a comments form, or some type of participation, whereby users have to register in order to participate. This way, your Digg referrals should result in more people registering and being more inclined to become regular visitors.
• You cannot have everyone in your office digg what you've submitted. The site's editors will notice that a lot of diggs are coming from the same IP address, and their most likely course of action will be to ban you and your workmates' accounts. Trust me. Of course, having a bunch of different usernames will achieve the same result.
• If you're dugg and your servers can stand the load, the traffic you gain from such an occurrance is priceless.

2. del.icio.us

Their Pitch:

"del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website -- the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too."

Our take:

• This site is quite a lot like Digg, but it seems to emphasize the community aspect of social media more than Digg does.
• The "network" feature of del.icio.us may well be its most useful tool. Users can identify other people whose content they respect and appreciate, thus becoming privy to the bookmarking actions of those users. It's also possible to view the people others have added, and those who have added them. Confused? All the network does is create a web of people who are linked to each other through common interests and mutual respect.
• You can save links to content in the same way as you do on Digg, thus giving the content a boost in the del.icio.us / popular rankings.
• Hopefully, those people whom you add to your network will browse your content also, and things that you bookmark will become more visible. You can start to develop a community of people who share your interests.
• This community is one of the main things you can get out of del.icio.us that differentiates it from similar sites.

3. Reddit

Their pitch:

"Reddit is a source for what's new and popular on the web -- personalized for you. Your votes train a filter, so let reddit know what you liked and disliked, because you'll begin to be recommended links filtered to your tastes. All of the content on reddit is submitted and voted on by users like you."

Our take:

Another social bookmarking site, Reddit lets you save and comment on news stories that you or others submit to the site.

• Reddit will send you more traffic than you may think.
• It seems that Reddit's users are, on the whole, older and smarter than Digg's. This is not to say that Digg is full of idiots; however, the average comment at Digg seems to be less constructive than those on Reddit. Popularity probably plays a part here, as Digg is dealing with a bigger audience than is Reddit.
• While Digg's how-to-get-on-the-homepage question is partly answered, the code to success on the Reddit homepage hasn't yet been cracked.
• There appears to be no bias amongst Reddit users towards technology, current events or anything else. The homepage can contain stories about any subject, as well as cool pictures, science news or anything else.
• This diversity means that all topics have a chance of being voted up, but your topic is just one amongst many.
  

4. Technorati

Their pitch:

"Technorati is the recognized authority on what's going on in the world of weblogs. We help people search for, surface, and organize bloggers and their daily posts... Technorati. Who's saying what. Right now."

Our take:

Without a coherent plan of what one expects to achieve on Technorati, this site seems a little daunting. The most useful tactic is obvious: you must add the blogs you like as favourites in order to take advantage of the site's huge database. Additionally, searching for keywords can be fun, but you will soon be cowering from the scores of MySpace and LiveJournal blogs who have mentioned said keyword in their rants.

• Keep tabs on your online visibility using Technorati.
• Technorati will show you who's linking to your blog, which is a great service.
• Don't be deceived that all Technorati does is chronicle blog posts. The site indexes popular videos, linking to YouTube videos that are enjoying a lot of links.
• The site has some cool features, such as the "Technorati Mini" window that you can display on your desk top, and which updates itself every minute, showing you what's happening on your favourite blogs.
• Technorati should be used in conjunction with other marketing tools. Although your potential for direct marketing on the site is limited, it will show you how much progress you're making, where you're being mentioned and how your competitors are doing.

5. Squidoo

Their pitch:

"Squidoo's goal as a platform is to bring the power of recommendation to search. Squidoo's goal as a co-op is to pay as much money as we can to our lensmasters and to charity. And Squidoo's goal as a community is to have fun along the way, and meet new ideas and the people behind them."

Our Take

While their attempt at wit and ingenuity in their pitch only confuses Squidoo's purpose, the website itself is a good resource. Letting people create "lenses" about any topic, Squidoo is different to LinkedIn in that people are not limited to promoting themselves. As well as individuals, businesses, services and hobbies are all popular Squidoo lens topics. To clarify, a lens is a page created by a user, and users can create as many lenses as they wish on as many different subjects.

• Squidoo actually promotes the addition of external links to lenses. In fact, in their FAQs, they specifically show off their link lovability, stating that Squidoo lenses have "huge credibility" with search engines, and briefly explaining how this can help the sites you link to rise up Google searches. No nofollowing here, people!
• Squidoo does not restrict you to one lens per topic. Instead, it uses an algorithm to rank lenses.
• You can make money from royalties on Squidoo, and either keep them using PayPal, or donate the money to charity. Do not get too excited, though. There are many thousands of people using Squidoo and you'll spend a lot of time trying to become visible enough to make any money.
• Lenses that make it to the top of the rankings (#1 - 100) are invaribly text, link and picture rich, although because the rank is assigned by a computer, the lenses with the top rankings are not necessarily those with the most useful content. For exmaple, the premier lens when this article was being written was "Funky, Chic and Cool Laptop Bags." Cute, yes. Useful? Not really.
• You can include an RSS feed to your company's blog, as well as as many outbound links as you like.
• Lenses can come with other neat features, such as Google Maps, feeds from sites like BCC News, and previews of your Flickr images.
• Include enough links to your actual website that people will see many opportunities to click through. After all, anyone who is interested enough in what you have to offer that they bother reading your lens is probably also interested enough to see your site.
• The main thing you have to gain out of using Squidoo is increased online visibility from a nicely presented source that is not a wiki.

This is not a wiki and thus, the content is entirely up to you. It is a good idea to have a Squidoo lens to you company's name. Done well, your lens will appear in search results.

6. Netscape

Their pitch:

"The Netscape portal has evolved from a portal that is programmed by us to a portal that is programmed by you--the audience! All of the stories on Netscape are submitted and voted on by users. With thousands of users submitting interesting stories daily, the news on Netscape.com moves much faster and more interesting stories can make it to the homepage."

Our take:

Netscape 2.0 is not the site it used to be. In their FAQs, they even link to their sister site AOL, "if you're looking for something a little more produced." Nowadays, Netscape is blending rather serenely into the Web 2.0 background, having diverted users' existing web portal bookmarks to AOL.

• Netscape's user-generated site is somewhat controlled by eight anchors who remove spam, select stories as recommended reading and do "followup journalism.".
• From personal experience, Netscape is like Reddit in that it will send you more traffic than you might imagine. Although users seem to shy away from adding their votes to stories, a story on Netscape can bring you quite a few referrals.
• Ahh, the Digg clone. Submit enough good stories and comment regularly on Netscape, and you get to be listed as a Top Netscape Contributor. It's like winning Fiesta Bowl instead of the national championship.
• Netscape users are more interested in current events than technology, sport or entertainment. Stories that make the homepage are often politically or financially centered.
• What you have to gain out of Netscape is similar to that which you can achieve on Digg, but to a lesser extent. However, if you're promoting current events, your chances of being picked up on Netscape are far higher.
  

7. LinkedIn

Their pitch:

"LinkedIn is an online network of more than 7 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 130 industries."

Our take:

A first reaction to LinkedIn's blurb is to wonder just how experiened and how professional the members of this site actually are. After all, LinkedIn's worthiness somewhat depends on the calibre of its seven million users.

• Clicking "People search" and typing in a common last name will provide a good list of people, their industries, companies, positions and locations. And, wow, this site is not filled with spam and idiocy!
• The majority of people on LinkedIn are true professionals. Thus, there are definitely marketing opportunities available here.
• The process of promoting a business on LinkedIn involves getting recommendations from other people (who must have LinkedIn profiles themselves). When you receive a recommendation from someone, the fact that they recommended you appears in your profile. The only odd thing about this is that the recommendations do not come with the names or statements of the people who provided them.
• You can search through professionals in specific areas (and be listed, if you have the adequate recommendations),
• Job searches for job-seekers and a candidate search for employers and recruiters is also available.
• You can also view members who graduated from your school, people with specified skills and people from a particular area of the world. And yes, this site is popular enough to be truly international. Looking for an engineer in Denmark? Look no further.
• Oh, how wonderful it is not to have to provide one's relationship status or a list of "who I'd like to meet!"
• Gain visibility on a site where everyone is there for professional purposes. You can use the site to either find potential business associates, or someone may find you and your services instead.
  

8. Newsvine

Their pitch:

"At Newsvine, you can read stories from established media organizations like the Associated Press, ESPN, and New Scientist as well as individual contributors from all around the world. Placement of stories is determined by a multitude of factors including freshness, popularity, and reputation. Contribution is open to all, and editorial judgement is in the hands of the community."

Our take:

• Firstly, Newsvine features both wired news from the AP and ESPN, and stories that are submitted and voted upon à la Digg.
• The home page of Newsvine looks like that of your typical news site, but despite its additional peer-produced content, its layout is actually cleaner and less cluttered than sites that only deal in traditional news reporting.
• Newsvine allows you to write articles of your own. A story that has no appeal, however, will not be voted to the "top of the vine."
• Because this site is very current events-oriented and is not so concerned with peculiarities, a marketing pitch, channeled through Newsvine, may not get very far. An entry will have to contribute something truly newsworthy if the Newsvine community are likely to vote it up the vine.
• Gain both traffic and notoriety with Newsvine. If you write your own content, you could end up being recognized as an influential, quality commentator.
  

9. Wikipedia

Their pitch:

"Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has rapidly grown into the largest reference Web site on the Internet. The content of Wikipedia is free, and is written collaboratively by people from all around the world."

Our take:

This site is so popular that searching for any kind of keyword will often display a Wikipedia result in Google's top ten.

• Tacky as adding links to your sites can get (see Eric Ward's Linking Commandments, number III in order to be told off for linking to yourself), if your site really does have something to contribute, go ahead and post your link in a Wikipedia article's External Links section.
• The wiki aspect of these online encyclopedias is dangerous because you may find people writing things about you that you don't like.
• Also, if your website is not the strongest page on the net, your entry on Wikipedia could well rate ahead of your own site for your specific keywords. Thus, it is smart to make sure that anything said about your interests on this site has as good of a balance between "true" and "complimentary" as possible.
• A surprising number of internet users don't fully understand the concept of a wiki and many have no idea that anybody can edit one, let alone write for one.
• Posting an advertisement that is posing as an article is pointless. It will be deleted. When you're writing unique content about your business, try to write it from the perspective of an outsider who has nothing to gain from the article appearing on Wikipedia.
• Your main professional aim on Wikipedia should be controlling what is said about you. Their links are far too influential for you to ignore Wikipedia's content, especially given the public's misunderstanding of its liberal editorial policies.

10. Ma.gnolia

Their pitch:

"At Ma.gnolia, members save websites as bookmarks, just like in their browser. Except with a twist: they also “tag” them, assigning labels that make them easy to find again. So when you search for something, you use words that people choose and look only at websites that people think are worth saving. Suddenly you have access to a human-organized bookmark collection that numbers in the millions, but is as easy to use as a search engine."

Our take:

Just incase you hadn't bookmarked everything on the internet yet, Ma.gnolia gives you another chance to index sites that you like.

Les Web 2.0 Awards de SEOmoz sont populaires en France!

• There are only a couple of features that set Ma.gnolia apart from the crowd.
• When visiting a webpage, clicking on the "Roots" button on the browser's toolbar will show what users have said about it.
• Join Ma.gnolia groups that relate to your business (e.g. Macintosh Apps). Bookmark content that you potential clients would be interested in.
• Although Ma.gnolia isn't the powerhouse of social bookmarking, keeping an eye on what others have said about you via the Roots application is a good idea. Also, if your page has never been submitted to Ma.gnolia before, you get to write the first Roots description.

11. StumbleUpon

Their pitch:

"StumbleUpon helps you discover and share great websites. As you click Stumble!, we deliver high-quality pages matched to your personal preferences. These pages have been explicitly recommended by your friends or one of 1,284,477 other websurfers with interests similar to you. Rating these sites you like automatically shares them with like-minded people – and helps you discover great sites your friends recommend."

Our take:

Anyone remember eTour? The site whose tagline was "Surf the Web Without Searching" didn't survive 2001's dotcom crash. StumbleUpon is Web 2.0's eTour and it's an absolutely fantastic way to wander through websites that potentially interest you. There's no typing, there's no "links" pages to seek out. There's not much effort on a user's behalf at all.

• To use StumbleUpon, you must download an add-on to your toolbar that lets you give sites a thumbs-up, thumbs-down and click "Stumble!"
• Submit your site to StumbleUpon by clicking the thumbs-up button when you're viewing your homepage. If you are the first person to bookmark your site, you'll be prompted to give it a title, briefly review it and fill out some other information about its content.
• If you've said your site is about technology, users who have specified technology as one of their interests will potentially be directed to your site when they click "Stumble!" You may only pick one topic.
• The tags you give your site will also influence traffic. Unlike topics, you may include multiple tags.
• There is also an automated system whereby StumbleUpon reads a page's text and decided what it's probably about.
• The system sometimes gets it wrong (pages containing mainly graphics are obviously hard for the categorizer). Users, however, can report mistakes if they feel a site has been categorized inaccurately.
• Getting noticed on StumbleUpon depends on whether users identify your page as one they enjoy by using the thumbs-up button. The more people who identify your page as thumbs-up-able, the more traffic StumbleUpon will send you.
• Also, if a user comes across your site and really doesn't like it, they can click a little thumbs-down button on their tool bar before leaving, demoting your site's status on the StumbleUpon network.
• Members can join StumbleUpon Groups and contact others on the site, although these social features aren't nearly as interesting as StumbleUpon's addictive ability to store and present websites that people like.
• Additionally, although it is a free service, members can upgrade their accounts to the status of "sponsor" by paying twenty U.S. dollars per year. Sponsors have access to extra features, such as the ability create new groups and to keep messages in their inboxes for longer.
• One could argue that there's a psychological advantage to having your site discovered by a Stumbler. After all, they've told a program what they like, and the program has presented them with your site. Hence, people are somewhat programmed to believe that they're going to like what they see.
• StumbleUpon is linkbait's tool of choice. When stumbling, you'll often find yourself arriving at pages well within a site. Rarely are you directed to a homepage.

12. Shoutwire

Their pitch:

"Shoutwire is the latest community based internet news website. It allows the community rather than a news editor to submit and review news content on the site. Every story on the site that makes it to the front page is due to the users of the site promoting the stories. Shoutwire incorporates a system of self-moderation and management which allows the community to remove bar or broken content."

Our take:

Immediate points deducted for the VERY annoying flash advertisement that I was greeted with upon entry to Shoutwire, featuring a buzzing mosquito and claiming that I had won a free laptop.

• Shoutwire has competitor Digg beat in one area. It's topics menu, which it calls a filter, is more comprehensive than Digg's, even when all of Digg's topics have been expanded.
• However, Shoutwire's similarity to Digg is pervasive. As is the case with Furl, the addition of nice features doesn't really make Shoutwire unique.
• Categorizing your content correctly will make it more accessible. Due to Shoutwire's eclectic topics, you're probably going to find a subcategory that suits your submission pretty well.
• The site features a forum, but all of Shoutwire's usefulness comes from its bookmarking and voting feature.
• Top stories only appear to receive 100 - 150 votes.
• Combine visibility on Shoutwire with some more popular and influential sites. On its own, Shoutwire will bring you traffic, but not nearly the amount you probably want.

13. Facebook

Their (marketing) pitch:

"Young adults are the primary trend drivers in our society. Marketing to young adults on their own terms is critical for success. Facebook offers relevant and integrated advertising opportunities to engage the tech-savvy youth audience

We can help you develop the ideal Facebook advertising solution that reaches an active audience of youth trend-setters and influencers. To determine the most relevant opportunities for you, please click below, and a Facebook sales representative will be in contact with you within two business days

We look forward to working with you and seeing your marketing initiatives come to life on Facebook"

Our take:

Facebook helps you keep tabs on everyone whose profile you can engineer a gander at. It has grown into a virtual nation of nine million people.

This is what a Web 2.0 heavy-weight looks like as a bluish characiture.

Recent changes to the site have made it slightly more interesting as a marketing tool.

• Companies can buy advertising space on Facebook. Appearing on the left sidebar of any Facebook page, the University of Phoenix is currently pouring big money into having its ads appear on the site, as are Verizon and Sprint.
• If you have the money (and the college-friendly product) to advertise here, your ad will be prominently yet tastefully displayed. The same is not true for MySpace.
• You can pay Facebook five dollars to have a "Facebook Flyer" displayed on the site 10,000 times in one day; the cost increases depending on how many times you wish the flyer to be displayed and how many days you want it to be displayed for.
• You can also post events on the site and invite people to attend. This service is free.
• Now that Facebook is a free-for-all like MySpace, you can send these event advertisements to people who do not have Facebook profiles, as well.
• Far more popular than the events, however, are Facebook groups. Again, anyone can create these groups, and the vast majority of them are you-had-to-be-there ("Ben and Megan's Night to Remember") and pretty pointless.
• Groups that seem to have been created with a financial goal in mind do spring up, although some of them may just be the creations of innocent fans, such as "Boycott Pepsi - Buy Fanta."
• "I'm going to An Inconvenient Truth," however, is a sponsored group that definitely promotes the Al Gore film in its title.
• Going the cheap way, you can create a Facebook profile for your business and add friends from around the globe. This is also known as Friend Spam and it isn't recommended!
• Facebook can expose your brand to a lot of young people, many of whom are in college and a number of whom are interested in throwing their money around. Remember to keep the dominant Facebook demographic in mind: despite the newly open format, Facebook is still the realm of the middle class, late teen, early twenty-something.

The verdict? Promoting an event via this site won't do you any harm, but the search engines have no access to the innards of Facebook, and it seems odd to pay money for a flyer (which just appears as a sidebar ad) when you can create an event or group for free. Buying a sponsored group is another option, à la Gore's film.

Facebook is so beloved by so many people that promoting something wisely and making it seem hip and fun could do you a lot of good. This site's users tend to get passionate about Facebook issues and if you can get them riled up via a group or event, you could stand to benefit greatly from the hysteria.

14. 43 Places

Their pitch:

"Travel changes people. Whether it is finding a great new coffee shop in your city or a life altering trip around the world, finding great places can make us happier people. 43 Places helps you make a list of the great places you want to visit and share stories and photos of the places you’ve been.."

Our take:

The front page of 43 things lists a stylized hodge-podge of things people have listed as their goals; however, browsing people's well-meant wish lists is not the only activity available on the site. By clicking on one of the cities listed on the right hand side of the home page, users are taken to lists of the most popular places that people in that particular city have bookmarked (as is shown below).

• People acknowledge that they've visited a listed premisis, and if you're business is lucky, they'll comment positively on it.
• The site allows users to update establishments' addresses and URLs, and some of the popular destinations have been blessed with links to their websites.
• Being featured on 43 Place's "popular with locals" sidebar is great advertising, and entrepreneurs would be sensible to add URLs to their 43 Places entries.
• A business's visibility is related to the number of people who have said they've visited it, so adding your debt consolidation firm won't do you much good, unless people are into hanging out around bad credit reports.

15. Your Elevator Pitch

Their pitch:

"An "elevator pitch" is a quick and concise way to communicate who you are, what you're trying to do, and why you do it better. It's nice to know that at any given time you can tell people, quickly and clearly, exactly what you do."

Our take:

At least this site is honest about self-promotion. Digg, Shadows and the rest like to portray their sites as libraries of the web's best content, when in fact, a huge amount of that content is submitted by those who made it. YourElevatorPitch makes no secret that, like Squidoo, it's about showing off your own business.

• There are a couple of annoying things about YourElevatorPitch. Firstly, there is no search box. What! No search box? Horrifyingly enough, YourElevatorPitch's search is limited to viewing top-rated, most-rated and random pitches.
• Users rate pitches on a scale of one to four, hence the "elevator" reference.Anyone who has ever taken a quiz where you can only score 0, 25, 50, 75 or 100%, knows it's pretty tough to do well.
• YourElevatorPitch allows you to add a link to your site and has some anti-spam measures, such as a quick arithmatic problem for people who wish to add comments. This may also get rid of ultra-stupid humans as well as bots, which is nothing but excellent.
• As it takes a minimal amount of time to sign up, and because a link to your premier site will be prominently displayed on your profile, it's not a bad idea. Go for it, but don't get hurt when you're only ranking a 2.89 out of 4. It's a YourElevatorPitch score, not your daughter's GPA.

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