Early in the days of Internet browsing, someone got the bright idea of keeping placeholders, or bookmarks for web sites we've visited and enjoyed. It was a great way to keep track of things. Before long, someone else got the brilliant idea there should be a way to share these bookmarks with our friends.

Suddenly, a world of social bookmarking came into existence. But how can you, the internet marketer, tap into this social network? Is there a way social bookmarking can build traffic for your site? This article will discuss a few methods of putting social bookmarking to work for you, bringing new visitors to your site.

Since any web page can be bookmarked, any web page can be shared with friends. This is the premise behind using social bookmarking as a marketing technique. As you may have guessed, the idea is to get people who visit your site to bookmark and share it. Of course your visitors could simply email a link to their friends, but they might not think of that option on their own. It is not only your job then to remind them of this option, but to make it as easy as possible for them to do so.

Fortunately, since the entire blog community has a long and rich history of sharing links, with millions of "check this out" type posts, there have been several tools to help you make it easy for your visitors to share a link to your site. For example, if you happen to build your site on the WordPress blog platform you can find half a dozen excellent programs which provide a "share this" link with every post you make.

Not only will most of these plug-ins allow your visitors to email a link to a friend, they can add your site to the major social bookmarking sites like Del.icio.us (http://www.del.icio.us), Digg (http://www.digg.com), Technorati (http://www.technorati.com), and StumbleUpon (http://www.stumbleupon.com).

At these social bookmarking sites your visitors can also post reviews and say just what they like about your site, thereby attracting others who find the information.

Now, who is to say that you can't post your own articles, blog posts and web pages to these social bookmarking sites yourself? If you post your entries, you expose it to thousands of visitors at the social bookmarking sites who might be interested in what you have to offer.

If you have an exceptionally interesting post, and place it on a social bookmarking site, you open the door to a viral marketing effect and free exposure you probably could have never otherwise afforded.