On January 1st, my post Back Up Your Website OFTEN! was stumbled several times. In return, I received a great deal of traffic from StumbleUpon.

When I logged into my stats on the 2nd, the only thing that could come from my mouth was “HOLY _ _ _ _!” (You fill in the blank).

Quite the traffic I received indeed. But now, a couple of days later I’m seeing that it just wasn’t sticky traffic. A few RSS subscribers were picked up, maybe a few more will be back but for all the hype that goes with these social bookmarking sites few of the traffic that comes are sticky, lasting, and subscribers.

Recently, I have been on quite the social bookmarking kick to discover ways that this kind of networking can increase traffic to all of my blogs as well as find myself new blogs to pick up feed and start reading. The results have been mixed and quite interesting.

This morning, when I caught up on my feeds I realized that I wasn’t the only one pondering what social bookmarking could do for the users of each site.

Daily Blog Tips published the article “Do Small Bloggers Have A Chance With Digg?” where Steven discussed that the majority of the top rated posts on digg got the attention they did based on reader base. And because we all know that smaller bloggers means smaller audiences, they had less of a chance of reaching top positions on digg for well written articles.

So the question then becomes, what do smaller bloggers use to promote their blogs?

In the last couple of months I have gotten into visiting BlogCatalog on a regular basis and I’m finding this to be the most productive form of social networking for my sites.

Each month, about 1/3 of my traffic comes from BlogCatalog. Because of the groups and discussions within BlogCatalog I find that I’m able to promote myself in ways that I enjoy like giving my opinion, helping out another blogger, answering questions that I’m confident with, and in general discussing topics that are of interest to me.

In return, traffic from the site has been great! I’ve met new friends and have had a chance to reach blogs that I may have otherwise not seen. At the social bookmarking sites attention is given to the big names that I already know thus avoiding blogs that I want to find, read, and hear from. People who will actually come and visit my blog in return.

Do you believe that Michael Arrington will ever visit a blog like mine? Chances are not likely and I don’t need digg or StumbleUpon to help me find his articles either (not that I care much what he has to say).

So my question to you, my reader, is then what do you find useful within social networking and bookmarking? Are you finding sticky traffic by your work in promoting your blog(s) or are your results turning the same as mine and other smaller bloggers?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

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