As a new internet marketer, you will hear much about social bookmarking. This is a term used broadly for the latest trend of social sites, link sharing or micro-blogging sites. Initially intended for a way to share your favourite sites with your friends and anyone with similar interests, these sites have now become a way to market your business, connect with potential customers and stay up-to-date with the happenings within your niche market.

Social book marking sites include sites such as Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, etc. All of these sites have toolbars that you can add onto your browser as a plugin that will allow you to add any sites of interest as you are surfing the net.

These sites are free to use. You create an account and fill out your profile. Then you install the widget or toolbar as an odd-on to your web browser. Once that is done, you can simply click a button to add a bookmark to your account. This will add the URL, and page title to your list. You have the option of filling out keyword tags and a brief description of what the page is about.

When you begin using social bookmarking as a marketing platform you must proceed with caution. Remember that these sites were not intended for marketing but rather as social sites. If you get carried away with the marketing and self-promotion, you may find your account banned from the system.

Whenever you are using a site as a means to further your business, remember to be a good neighbour. Include other sites of interest within your niche aside from your own and you will find you get much more interest from other members of the social bookmarking community.

The links to your site that you share also count as great back links and a means to drive traffic to your website, so treat them with respect and you will benefit from being included in the social bookmarking communities.