Tagging and social bookmarking questions?

[BigVikingAl]

Been scouring the boards trying to figure out tagging and social bookmarking for a new blog I am going to create. Am somewhat cofused though. Are these two things one in the same?

I also am reading alot about Technocrati. Do I have to point my tag links to them? If not do I have to point them to another internal page on my blog (which I don't necessarily want to create)?

Is there a site that clearly explains all this?

[virgohippy]

Technorati wants to see a link with this structure:

<a href="http://www.somedomain.com/tag/keyword" rel="tag">keyword</a>

Here's technorati's say:

http://www.technorati.com/help/tags.html

What you link to is up to you. An internal tagging system is fine. You can even link to a Wikipedia page, if you want. It's the structure that's important.

As far as the social bookmarking is concerned, no, they're not quite the same as tagging (which is internal), but users can use tags to organize the bookmarks on the bookmarking system.

Think of tagging as a way to direct surfers from your site to other pages of similar relevance to your page/site/post/whatever, while social bookmarking is a way for users to share sites of interest with one another.

Hey Walrus, did I get everything right?

Btw, Mr. Walrus is the resident master of the blog-o-sphere.

[BigVikingAl]

Tagging sounds pretty straight forward my problem is that if I create a tag ie:

<a href="http://www.stars4porn.com/tag/asian" rel="tag">Asian</a>

does this mean I have to creat a page:

http://www.stars4porn.com/tag/asian.html?

And where does technocrati fit into the picture? Don't I have to somehow link up to them to inform them of my tags?

[virgohippy]

I'm not sure if you absolutely have to create the page for technorati to notice, but purposefully putting up a broken link seems like a bad idea to me. It's probably best to find a page to tag, or just use internal tags. They work well for organizing content. In fact, Walrus proposed running a blog without categories and just tags. My next project will do just that.

Also, if you're pinging ping-o-matic it should in turn ping technorati. If not, add either one to your blog's rpc list and you'll be all set.

Just be aware that technorati doesn't send traffic right away. They have a sort of ranking system, in a way kinda like all the other major search engines. I've heard that the most effective way to get technorati traffic is to get backlinks from other blogs already listed by technorati.

You don't need to link to technorati for them to send you traffic. Unless you're doing so just to have appropriate tag links there's really no benefit except offering relavent links for your surfers. If you really don't want to create your own tag pages, and you don't want to link to technorati, maybe you could link to friendly blogs' tag pages?

[walrus]

Been scouring the boards trying to figure out tagging and social bookmarking for a new blog I am going to create. Am somewhat cofused though. Are these two things one in the same?

No they are not the same thing but they are related. Think of tags as keywords and tagging as something a surfer will do to create a social bookmark. So you could have a tag "blowjob" and a surfer could create a social tag within his "delicious" account and add the tag "blowjob" to it. When he finds your site tagged as "blowjob" he can bookmark it in his social tagging system....clear as mud?

I also am reading alot about Technocrati. Do I have to point my tag links to them? If not do I have to point them to another internal page on my blog (which I don't necessarily want to create)?

No you don't have to point the tag link to technorati. The important part of the keyword structure is

...keyword" rel="tag">keyword</a>

This can point to anywhere as long as the keyword structure is followed and you have the "rel=tag" in the link.

Is there a site that clearly explains all this?

Nope sorry.

Tagging sounds pretty straight forward my problem is that if I create a tag ie:<a href="http://www.stars4porn.com/tag/asian" rel="tag">Asian</a>does this mean I have to create a page:

http://www.stars4porn.com/tag/asian.html?

You should...why would you want a link that leads nowhere? Plus if you look as it as a means of linking like pages together within your site, you've got some SE bonus

And where does technocrati fit into the picture? Don't I have to somehow link up to them to inform them of my tags?

Yes, you need to register (or claim as technorati calls it) your blog at technorati. Other than that you just need to "ping" them to let them know you've updated your blog. They will spider your site, after a ping, and pick up all the tags.

[virgohippy]

Originally Posted by walrus

Yes, you need to register (or claim as technorati calls it) your blog at technorati.

Oops... forgot about this essential part. Must be because I only had to do it once.

[walrus]

Originally Posted by virgohippy

Oops... forgot about this essential part. Must be because I only had to do it once.

All in all you did well....guess my work here is almost complete!!!

[Simon]

I don't think anyone's mentioned Ultimate Tag Warrior in this thread.

There's some good info on using UTW, and "related articles" links to info on tagging in general, on this page. And there's also some on this page.

HTH

[virgohippy]

Originally Posted by walrus

All in all you did well....guess my work here is almost complete!!!

You're not planning on walking away into the abyss, never to be heard from again until the final showdown like those old martial arts masters do in the Hong Kong fight flicks are you?

"Master, I'm not ready to do this on my own! I still need your training!"

"You have learned well, young grasshopper, but... "

Right about here would be when I refuse to listen, run away, and beat up all the town villagers in a dysphoric haze only to later find out you were killed by The Boss, and I have to avenge your death.

[BigVikingAl]

Thanks for all the info guys, this does help quite a bit. Will posy my blog next week when completed for your feedback.

Thanks again!

[jayeff]

Just to add to the confusion, as well as the "chiclets" often used for social bookmarking, there are also those which display names like "MyYahoo", "MyMSN", etc. These have a specific purpose too and should be included if you want to include the whole panoply of surfer "services".

The point of these is - for surfers who use a home page such as MyYahoo - is to allow, via a single click, the output from your blog's RSS feed to be added to their home pages. The link format (this example for MyYahoo) is http://add.my.yahoo.com/rss?url=http...main.com/feed/

[walrus]

Originally Posted by virgohippy

You're not planning on walking away into the abyss, never to be heard from again until the final showdown like those old martial arts masters do in the Hong Kong fight flicks are you?

Na, I've got about 432 posts to go before making the BC club. At the rate I post, that should be in about two years so I'll be here for a long time to come!

One thing to note, at least with Yahoo, before the chicklet actually will work for a surfer you need to add your site to Yahoo's database. The easiest way is to add it manually to your own MyYahoo account.