If you are into online marketing and wish to expand your knowledge and connections about this industry, then you should join Inbound.Org today.
May be you are already a member, but if you are not (or if you are not engaging enough there), I suggest you to take a look at this post, so to know more about this vibrant community.
Why You Need to Join Inbound.org
Inbound.Org is a meeting point of many popular internet marketers. It’s a fantastic social sharing website where you can make new connections, increase your authority and discuss the best articles dedicated to online marketing.
It has born as a news based platform, where users could submit their favorite stories in this industry, but has soon turned into a must visit place for every marketing professionals.
At the time of this writing, Inbound.org has more than 112,000 users (and counting).
The community was created in 2012 by Rand Fishkin and Dharmesh Shaw. Check the following video, where they discuss the origin of Inbound.org during the Boston conference:
Getting Started at Inbound.org
Joining the website is easy, just fill out the registration form.
Once you are logged in, you can complete your profile.
Remember to add as many details as possible, so to get your name introduced in the community.
If, for example, some of your contributions become published on the homepage, people will start checking your profile for more information and they will likely to visit your Twitter or Facebook profile, or your website.
Inbound.org’s interface is really intuitive and simple to use.
The homepage hosts the published stories, or else, “Trending” section.
Here you can check the most popular submissions of the users, based on the site algorithm (which, in my experience, includes both the number of comments, votes and age of the story).
You want to visit the original URL of the content (or read the complete story, if it’s a post published on Inbound.org blog), and leave your honest and real feedback, voting up if you liked the story and adding your comment, if you have something useful to add. You can even flag the submission, if you think it is inappropriate for the community.
If you check the upper left corner of the site, you’ll see the following menu:
Have fun browsing within the options, visiting, other than Trending section, the Hall of Fame (the most popular stories of all time), the Latest (recent submissions), or Ask Inbound, where you can check the most popular questions being asked in the community.
Inbound.Org Voting System
The system of voting is quite easy. There is just an option, voting up.
The number of points you can give may vary, depending on different factors, like (in my opinion):
- Karma
- personal upvotes score
- number of submitted stories
- your profile
I noticed I can give 3 votes, each time I click the up arrow on the stories. Some people can bring up to 5 points, while others just 1.
Please note: this is just based on my observations.
Sharing an Article
Before submitting an article, be sure to give at first your genuine contribution to Inbound.org (votes, comments, ideas).
The “New Topic” button should be just part of the activities of users in the community. And remember to follow the 90/10 rule (90% of shares of the useful content found on the web, 10% your own articles).
When sharing an article, add the URL, title and unique summary.
Also, be sure to check the categories and pick up the most relevant ones for your content.
Remember that the articles shared should be interesting for the community (check Inbound.org posting guidelines here).
Also, the website offers some other extra features. Read on.
Explore
Check this section when you are new to Inbound.org, and you want to have a look around, discovering the tons of content available.
Members
“Members” feature showcases the people of Inbound.org
There are a trending, top and latest section you can visit to find new marketers and people to connect with.
Jobs
Other than submitting stories and making discussions, Inbound.Org has an interesting section where you can find job opportunities in the online marketing industry.
There are many listings, mostly from U.S., that you keep as a resource for SEOs, SMMs, content and internet marketing professionals.
Groups
At the moment, there are more than 230 groups you can join.
Depending on your interests, you can request to enter one or more groups.
Be sure to follow the rules of being a good member and not spamming those groups, for self promotion.
Top
The “TOP” section at Inbound.org shows different pages, according to the menu, as displayed in this image.
Have fun browsing within the options.
For example, the first feature, shows the best marketing blogs across a diverse range of marketing disciplines from thousands of top blogs in Inbound.org index, using search and social metrics (data refreshed once a week).
Conclusion
Inbound.org is a community and as such, is basically founded on users.
Check the guidelines, before starting to submit your content and to avoid getting banned.
These are things you should never do at Inbound.Org:
- create fake profiles and manipulate the stories (moderators are actually checking users activities, keeping a particular eye, for example, at upvotes coming from the same IP address);
- just submit your own content (remember, 90/10 ratio);
- submit spammy or irrelevant posts;
- spamming within comments.
Think to Inbound.Org as an important part of your internet marketing strategy, included the chance to build useful and interesting connections (check users profile and ping people on Twitter too).
Use the community as a place to learn new things and as a content management tool.
I’m a big fan of Inbound.org and I hope to see you there too (visit my Inbound.org profile here)!
What do you think?
Are you already a member of Inbound.org?
Please share your experience in the comments below, and help spreading the word about this post, thanks!
Hi Erik
I had a friend introduce me to inbound.org. and they are awesome community. However, I have not had time to really engage in this community. Thanks for sharing and I do love your screenshots. Take Care
Hi Ikechi,
Inbound.org is awesome, isn’t it?
Thanks for the kind feedback and I’m glad you are already a member!
Hey Erik,
I just inbound earlier this year, and although I’ve been submitting my own articles, I haven’t been as active in the community. But I see that it does have a lot of great features, but I haven’t really dove into this community like I should have. I’ve been mainly focused on kingged.com but this post gives me a good reason to start leveraging inbound more and above all the right way!
Thanks for sharing your review! Have a great day!
Hi Sherman,
if you want to meet the big names in the internet marketing field, then you need to invest more of your time at Inbound.org
I’m an active member since a few months already and I was able to build awesome connections there.
Thanks for checking the post and I appreciate your comment.
Hi Erik,
Nice to read about Inbound.org in NPI. I feel good because I’m familiar with the benefits of taking part in this active community.
I have been a member here since 2 years but recently started to stay active over there and networking with awesome marketers & bloggers.
It is a great community that would help to gain fame and credibility
Thanks for writing the details of inbound.org, hope it would help the newbies to recognize the importance of
taking part in the discussion.
Have a good day!
Hi Nirmala,
happy to see you! 🙂
Inbound.org is a huge community, isn’t it?
Glad to read that you are getting many benefits from being an active member there.
I appreciate you sharing your experience,
have a good rest of this week, Nirmala.
Hello Erik
What an awesome review of Inbound.org. I have been using this community since a quite few time, and I am really enjoying the every bit of it. Its an amazing site for finding Internet Marketing material.
Thanks for the post.
Hi Atish,
a pleasure to see you here!
Glad that you agree with my points about Inbound.org
It’s really an awesome place to meet internet marketers and to improve the knowledge in this field.
Appreciate your visit and comment,
have a great day, mate!
I’m trying to be more active on Inbound. Yet another direction in which to be pulled!
Hi David,
as a social media guy, you surely have a lot of places to be active. 🙂
Thanks for visiting and commenting,
I wish you a great rest of this week.
Hi Erik
I am glad I saw this article in my facebook feed. Thanks to Nirmala Mam. Coincidentally, I got a new follower on twitter yesterday. It was inbound.org. Before watching the intro video, I didn’t know the people behind them.
I thanked them personally for giving me a chance for getting access to the forums. I personally believe in the power of sharing and helping others.
I thoroughly enjoyed the whole video. Dharmesh and Rand are truly a source of inspiration for all the marketers.
I look forward to learning and sharing ideas from all the members in the community. I will keep in mind your 90:10 proportion formula.
Thanks for this awesome post, Erik. I am going to enroll myself in the community by the end of this week. See you there, buddy 🙂
Hi Yatin,
good to read you discovered the history behind the creation of Inbound.org in the video I shared in the article.
You’re right.
Dharmesh and Rand are two powerful names in the internet marketing field.
There’s a lot to learn from them.
It’s great you decided to join Inbound.org, thanks to this post.
I look forward to see you there, Yatin! 🙂
Hi Erik,
A wonderful review about an amazing. community!
Though I have been here since few months and a bit active these days too, but still I was not much aware about Its other benefits which is mentioned in this review. Yes, this review brought out its in and out for the benefits of people like me. We just shared it in our social sites.
Sure this one is a must community for all bloggers!
Thanks Erik for this informative review.
Keep writing!
Keep Sharing.
May you have a profitable week ahead 🙂
Best
~Phil
Hi Phil,
good to read you confirm my points about Inbound.org
It’s such a nice place, where to find new connections.
Thanks for leaving your views,
have a good week!
Hey Erik! Been a while since I’ve talked to you here, hope all is going well.
I’ve been fairly active on Inbound.org as a commenter, but haven’t actually submitted anything of my own yet. I do read a lot of fantastic content every day so I will have to consider that, because I know articles submitted to Inbound have the power to get seen by a lot of people very quickly.
I do see you over there pretty often so I’m sure it won’t be long until we talk again.
Have a good one Erik!
– James McAllister
Hi James,
everything is great, thanks!
I’m very busy, I hope the same for you. 🙂
I’ve seen you several times at Inbound.org
As you are very active as commenter, you should really think to get more into the community, submitting the best articles you find on the internet.
Thanks for reading the post and leaving your views.
have a great week, my friend.
Dear Erik,
Informative info you shared about Inbound…….Definitely it is useful for newbies and established bloggers to get more exposure to their quality work.
Thanks again for your valuable sharing with us…….Have a nice day………!!!
Hi Gangadhar,
thanks for reading and commenting.
I look forward to seeing you at Inbound.org 🙂
Hi Erik,
Great review of inbound. I have recently joined inbound and have been reading great articles in it. Will soon try to use it effectively.
Hi Umapathy,
as an Inbound.org fan, I strongly suggest you to register and actively participate since today.
Hi Erik,
So nice to see your awesome review on inbound marketing. It’s an brilliant social bookmarking sites which is dedicated for online marketing. Inbound own popularity from internet marketers..
I believe it’s an great place to learning internet marketing. You can discuss directly to the top online marketers from there. Thank you for your valuable share it will help me to make my inbound profile more decorated.
Kind Regards
Yasin Rishad
Hi Yasin,
are you a member of Inbound.org? 🙂
Or are you going to sign up after reading this review?
Thanks for checking it and for sharing your views.