Delicious is a great social media tool that is often mistaken for \”just\” a place to store your online bookmarks. There are a ton of reasons to use Delicious, especially as an author. I have compiled a list of the 6 best reasons below.
It’s easy. Download the Firefox browser, and add the Delicious extension. This allows you to tag any site you come across right from your browser. This functionality is what keeps me using Firefox over Google Chrome.
Online Bookmarks. You will always have access to your favorite pages, no matter what computer you are using to log on to the internet.
Tag Sharing. As you save sites to your Delicious account, you tag the sites with keywords. This not only allows you to find them again quickly, but also lets you share tags with others. Share all of your saved links on a certain subject, like Christian+Psychology. You can can also see others shared tags and quickly find sites similar to what you are looking for.
Brainstorm. If you come across an idea for a book (or a business, a recipe, a vacation, etc.), save the page and you won’t forget. Finding an idea to write about can be an author’s toughest task – Delicious makes it much easier.
Subscribe. This is a great tool to use on Delicious if you want to stay current on a subject. Just subscribe to keywords that interest you and whenever a site gets tagged that matches your criteria, you will know about it. You can also subscribe to your favorite users.
Audience Targeting. When you have narrowed down your idea for a book, business, etc., then search for those tags on Delicious. You will learn a lot about why people are interested in that subject. This can be your first step towards narrowing down your idea for a specific niche market, and you will have a much better idea who your audience really is.
