Once one is introduced to a social bookmarking site, the possibilities to use them as traffic generation tools immediately becomes apparent. The thing that stops people from using these sites is the fact that getting to the front page of one of the more popular social bookmarking sites such as say, Digg or StumbleUpon is not an easy task by any stretch of the imagination.

The key to using social bookmarking sites properly is the same across the board and there are a few tips to help you on your way to becoming a social bookmarking sites poweruser. The key thing is to think of these sites not just as bookmarking sites, but to focus more on the social aspects of these sites. While some of these tips might seem to be obvious - it is really surprising how many people neglect to put them into practice.
The first and foremost of these superuser tips is to make sure the first impression you present is eye-catching and interesting. Make sure your avatar easily catches the eye and is memorable. The problem with this is that you may not notice a difference in the short term (two weeks to a month) but with enough diligence you can make sure that your Name and Profile Picture do more than anything else to net you extra Diggs or Stumbles.
Another thing is to become friends with as many people as possible. This is not an overnight job and needs to be done carefully. No one will like it if you start adding dozens of friends... they will get the idea that you are trying to use them. Rather start commenting Diggs or Stumbles that you think have a chance to make the front page. Add other people's bookmarks to your profile so that you have a reason to add them to your friends list. The best place to do this is to bookmark stories that in either the upcoming section or a specific group (obviously relating to your niche). Adding constructive comments, ie: not "Nice link +1", or anything to that effect is also a sure fire way to get noticed. Being vocal, but also poignant will give you a lot of points with the people who regularly share favored pages using these social bookmarking sites.

Then there is the other factor to consider. Is the site that you would like to promote actually interesting to people on that particular social networking site? It is a widely known fact that Digg users will generally ignore anything to do with Affiliate Marketing or SEO.

The final phase is to test, and if the test fails to try and correct yourself. Submit stories from other bookmarking sites, or just generally interesting pages you maybe come across to get a feel for how many people will like your suggestion. IF you get between 8 and 12 "likes" then you are doing something wrong. Go back and try to see where you went wrong and fix it. If you start getting higher numbers then enjoy the flow of eyes to your site and congratulate yourself - you have become a social networking sites poweruser!