This is one in a series of posts for mastery of del.icio.us and assumes you have a working knowledge of the system. For a complete listing of all you can do with del.icio.us, read through the help documentation.

3. Add me to your network!

No, seriously, add me to your network.

In the last installment, I explained how you'd get the benefits of RSS-y goodness, but it goes beyond that. By adding people to your network, you'll have major bragging rights. And that's all we're doing this for, right? Bragging rights?

Okay, so it goes a little beyond watching an endless stream of connected people from del.icio.us - it's like watching natural sifting of news. That's why the network feature of del.icio.us is so important, and mostly overlooked. It is a powerful tool that lets you sort through the common interests incredibly quickly and reliably.

On Monday, I showed you that linklists are a great way to show off what you like. Yesterday, I showed that it's easy to show other people what you are linking. If you could make it easy to harness that power, you'd want to, right? Just as I link to other sites, and save them on del.icio.us, I read what other people in my network save, because I know they save things that I'm generally interested in.

That's what I mean by natural sifting; other people filtering out what they read, and only linking the things they find most interesting. In addition, people will look at people in your network, and judge wether or not they want to add them as well; call it "cross-pollination." As with any popularity contest, having a lot of fans makes people think you're more interesting than you maybe are (I'm looking at you, adobe).

And the Flash Java-thing doesn't hurt, either.

Get this here.

ADDENDUM: I meant to point out, in my original draft, how the best way to get people to do what you want them to is to ask. The reason being because some people will do things because you ask them, and nobody will do anything because you don't. So, asking nicely, and giving them the opportunity to decide for themselves, you provide the ability to do what you want them to as easily as possible.

Read all the posts in the 5 ways to more deliciousness
1. Add a linklist to your blog!
2. Add the feed to your feedreader!
3. Add me to your network!
4. Add a license to your links!
5. Use it.

status: published
lastmod: '2006-10-01T01:18:12.000Z'
author: John Stansbury
cms: wordpress
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  similarterms: people network icio read save things bragging rights watching natural sifting show deliciousness ways interesting linking showed easy posts adobe