Make Money With Social Bookmarking

Many months ago the internet was swept by a web2.0 startup called del.icio.us. Delicious introduced an easier way to save your bookmarks and share them with your friends. Rather than having hundreds of bookmarks in ten folders on your browser, you can save them all online and use a search feature (tags) to find them again. I could save all of my favorite Apple/Microsoft blog posts and tag them “apple” to easily find them days, weeks, or even years later.

Since then, Delicious has had many competitors try to outdo what they offer, although being the pioneers to the field, none have succeeded. Although a new competitor has entered the pool of sharks aiming for the top of the hill. That competitor is called ZingBin, the feature of today’s paid review, and a site that I have had a few days to experiment with. Zingbin aims to outdo the biggest competitor, Delicious, by sharing the revenue earned by the site with the members. This is a great way to build buzz and new users, and I am even utilizing a more in depth version of the revenue sharing on a new site I am working on (stay tuned). However, Zingbin’s current revenue sharing setup is like that of the (now dead) Agloco. The official exchange rate is never publicly disclosed and so the users end up getting screwed.

What I like about the site
Zingbin uses a very simple design (like Delicious), and has a neat interface that is auto updating. Just like most Google applications, you can easily add what you want, where you want it, and then it stays there permanently. Likewise, you can remove windows you do not like with the click of a button. Zingbin has a very large focus on AJAX (a scripting language) interface so that all of the updates are instant, rather than having to reload the page for everything you click. I also like the idea of getting paid for using a free service that many people would use normally. Everyone could use a little free money, and Zingbin could leverage that to build more members. If they could perfect that scenario, everyone would win.

I like that Zingbin has a company blog. Such a simple little thing like that can do wonders for a companies search engine ranking, public relations, and marketing efforts. It is nice to see a lot of new internet startups are utilizing the growing form of user relations, and I hope they keep writing updates about their site on it, although the latest post was way back at the end of April.

I also like Zingbin’s contact page, because they provide not only an email address, but their actual phone number to give them a call to talk in person. I like talking one on one with potential clients, and them providing a personal support line shows that they are serious about their business. I really hope to see Zingbin’s idea expanded and perfected, as it really could be a nice way to make some extra income online.

The things that I would change if I were Zingbin
There is very little information to go on as to how people will earn money. The only information that I can find is on the FAQ page, where it states that you earn ‘points’ for referring your friends and for using Zingbin (I am at 3 points just for logging in a few times). Unfortunately, when you want to know how much money you could have made, you are left running in circles. The about page says:

“The conversion from points to dollars is based on a variety of factors that change daily. The conversion ratio may change from payment to payment, but it is the same for every Zingbin user over any given period. The conversion ratio will be shown along with your payment.”

Long story short, you will never know how much money you have earned, or when you are getting close to being paid. My 3 points could be worth $0.0000003, or $3. It is up to the owners of Zingbin to decide on what “factors” they are talking about. This uncertainty combined with the high $25 minimum payout brings me to an early conclusion that few people are getting paid, and without any knowledge of how to get paid, I would be hesitant to use it for money making purposes.

The second biggest thing that I would change would be to add a splash homepage, or at least a little paragraph explaining the site better. The current homepage is half explanation (in short sentences on pictures), and half a signup form. I believe they should utilize a full page explaining the site and then have a signup page dedicated solely to user information. This will let people get a better idea of what the site is and what it has to offer, increasing the conversion rate for new members.

The third thing I would change about the site is I would change it from javascript links to search engine friendly HTML links. Being an internet marketer and blogger myself, I would use Zingbin (or Delicious) every day if I could build links to my blog posts, clients, and websites. The potential for getting paid would be just a bonus. I currently have a huge list of search engine friendly social bookmarking sites that I use for web promotion purposes, and I believe Zingbin could dramatically increase their market share if they tap into that crowd, but that may be something for them to ponder down the road.

The biggest turn-off for me though is the quote on the FAQ page that says,