Unless you have been living under a rock during the last week or two you will of no doubt been bombarded with messages touting the new and latest fad…Tag and Ping.

So what is it really?

Well it’s not new, It’s just an underused method of gaining backlinks and potentially some good traffic from social bookmarking sites with a good ranking.

One Sean Wu has stepped forward and taken this practise to the world by writing a book called Tag and Ping.

There are other good publications in the marketplace but Sean’s book has gained the most publicity through heavy promotion by almost every online marketer known.

Let me say first that I have not read his book although I have listened to a promotional interview and read some pre release material that he presented along with some reviews from those that have read it.

This is where the controversy starts, the many and differing opinions as to the success of tagging and it’s future.
Some say that the potential for social bookmarking sites being basically spammed will be a downstream effect of those seeking to speed up the process.

If this does occur you can be sure that the Social Bookmarking sites will introduce some form of control to limit those that seek to abuse the system.

Personally I think that provided you excersize some patience and only bookmark pages or sites of relevance then the potential benefits of social bookmarking will become obvious.

Social bookmarking or Tagging should be seen as a long term strategy, I hope that others can see that as well but unfortunately I am less than convinced at the moment particularly as I am aware of a programmer that is preparing a tool to automate the tag and ping method.

What is the future of Tag and Ping, Well it’s anyones guess but I have the feeling that like everything in the world of marketing it will occupy the minds and views of many only until the next big thing comes along.

So my thoughts are this, Buy Sean’s book if you want to, but if you just want to understand the principals of Social Bookmarking ( Otherwise known as Tag and Ping ) and how to implement it then I suggest you get a copy of a Social Bookmaking and Tagging that explains the process in simple language including some great screenshots…and you will save a few dollars as well.

I have read this book and can acknowledge that it covers the topic very well, I will keep you posted as to my progress with my Social Bookmarking efforts.

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