Web 2.0 is all the rage these days. You would have to be living under a rock not to have heard of it at least once by now. Every day there are more and more Web 2.0 type sites coming online and it can get crazy trying to figure out which ones to participate in. The key to Web 2.0 is interaction. People come online to interact with each other as well as to obtain information. In this article I’m going to talk about some of the more popular Web 2.0 sites that you should have a look into to decide if they are right for you in promoting your business.

What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 brings people together and they form online communities. Like with any “real” community in the offline world, the key to success with Web 2.0 sites is participation and contributing value. You’ve most likely heard of MySpace, Twitter and Facebook. You may also have heard of Squidoo. If you visit any blogs or news websites you no doubt have also seen symbols for Digg, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and Technorati and much more of the social bookmarking sites. These are all part of the Web 2.0, social interaction network of sites.

Blogs are one of the easiest ways to participate in Web 2.0 as you are able to give your opinions in your posts and your readers are able to leave comments about your posts. If you want to build an online business, you need to have a blog for your niche. A regularly updated blog gives the search engines fresh content to offer their users so you tend to rank higher in the search engines as you maintain your blog.

There are so many social networking sites around these days that it would be impossible to participate properly in all of them so it is a matter of checking them out and deciding which ones you are going to become a valuable, contributing member of. You want to pick those that your target market would also participate in. Basically you’re going where your customers are to interact with them, build relationships and create sales as a result. I would suggest you look into MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter for starters. Squidoo is a very popular site with Google so it would be advisable for you to create a lens for your business as well. A lens is simple a one page website that Squidoo hosts for free.

Social Bookmarking is similar to using your “Favorites” in your browser. You basically “tag” a website that you like and it is then stored online for you to share with others. In this arena you want to check out Digg, Del.ic.ious, Stumbleupon and Technorati. Again the benefit of using Web 2.0 strategies is that you build relationships online that turn into customers and sales for your business. Try to stay focused on a few sites so that you maximize your input at each and develop those relationships that will drive traffic to your website(s).

Christine Imamshah is a full-time internet marketer. Visit my blog at http://www.christineimamshah.com and be sure to leave a comment or two. For new and excellent Traffic training head on over to http://www.explosionalmarketing.com