You hadn’t really been aware of Scribd until this report caught your eye. If that’s the case, you’re probably asking yourself: “Yet another social network I have to subscribe to?”

Well, not exactly…

Scribd is more than a social network: It’s primarily an online publishing site and library, with many social networking properties and hallmarks added as side benefits.

How Do You Pronounce “Scribd”?

Before you get into too much of a habit saying “Scribed”, let me vault you up into the elite inner circle:  Those who know it’s actually pronounced: “Scribbd”.

What Does It Do – and Why Should I Care?

Even if you don’t really know anything about Scribd at all, you’re probably aware of its most famous fact: That it started in San Francisco, March 2007, and now calls itself “the largest social publishing company in the world”, claiming over 50 million readers every month, with more than 50,000 new documents uploaded by users every day, according to The Guardian.

You can upload and download any kind of written documents, including (but not limited to):

• Essays
• White papers
• Fiction
• Recipes
• Memoirs
• Résumés
• Manuals

“YouTube” for Documents?

The best description of Scribd I’ve seen on the net is “YouTube for documents”.  Make no mistake, however: Although it’s doing everything it can to be user-driven, this is no grassroots, people-friendly company. Millions of dollars of seed money and investment have been regularly fed into this company since its inception, and it is following a highly deliberate strategy and plan.  Its stated goal as of November 2009 is to increase the number of books it publishes yearly from 300,000 to 3 million. Scribd may have only 23 listed employees but each name individually brings a high-powered corporate background and skill base to the table.

Top commercial authors compete with  Mainstream and online publishing companies such as Wiley (the “for Dummies” series) and Random House. Lonely Planet and Lulu.com have also teamed up with Scribd, with more being added daily.

In short, more “famous names” are adding their backlinks and credibility daily.

7 Top Reasons for Waking Up to Scribd

There are some crucial restrictions internet marketers and particularly affiliate marketers need to know about – but there are also 7 powerful reasons to sit up and pay attention to this until-now largely overlooked social network, for anyone in online business:

1. Scribd is going Mobile/is Mobile friendly
2. Scribd has an online store – where you can sell your works (not just share them)
3. You can link your Scribd account instantly with other social networking platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter
4. You can (or will very shortly be able to) read Amazon Kindle documents via Scribd’s all-purpose reader
5. You can create powerful, valid backlinks simply by having content on (or even just using) Scribd
6. You can use it like an article marketing directory – without having to wait  for approval
7. Supports multiple file formats, including .PDF, MS Word, PowerPoint and Excel

Scribd also has its own API, which is good news for developers.

In October 2009, it added its own “Branded Document Reader for Media Companies”, which created quite a buzz in the publishing and business world.

A Little Competition goes a Long Way

Scribd is also giving mega-giants Google and Amazon a run for their money. Why is that good for you?

While there are advantages to having your works searchable by Google and for sale in Amazon, you may be found there only by people already on your list, who know about your products. Depending on your niche, and how well you’ve optimized your products, they can easily get dwarfed in such vast marketplaces, making the chances of organic searchers finding them extremely problematic – and your chances of creating a “buzz” about them nil!

And since much eBook reading takes place on mobile devices nowadays, it’s always a good idea to make sure your products are searchable the way people usually find eBooks on mobile devices: Not through clever search algorithms, but through word-of-mobile recommendations.

In other words, mobile users find your products most often through social networks, which is how Scribd operates.

How Do I Use It?

Well, this is to long to put it in an article, you can download the ebook (free) in the Free Downloads Section :

Scribd Marketing Strategies
Scribd Marketing Strategies free ebook download at IMguru.biz Scribd is more than a social network: It’s primarily an online publishing site and library, with many social networking properties and hallmarks added as side benefits.
2010-03-26  495 KB 32