My 49Media Groups

49Media is a great way to promote your site and get more hits.

It's very easy: there are several channels, each with a different theme, and anyone can create a new channel if they like (as long as it's not a repeat, of course.)

Let's say that you have a blog that is mostly about current news, or that you've written one particular post that is about the news. You go to the News + Politics channel and click on "Add Link". You copy your blog address, or the address of one particular post, and paste it where it says "Link Location (URL)" and click on "continue".

Then you will have to choose between these options:

- Selecting a thumbnail image from the web page (if you choose this you will be taken to a page where the image that accompanied your post will probably show up. Sometimes other images might also be there, especially if you have images on your blog's index);

- Entering the web location of an image (in case there is no image accompanying your post, of if for some reason it's not showing up you can always choose this option);

- Browsing for an image on my computer (you can upload an image from your computer, if you prefer);

- Entering a text description (if you just don't want an image illustrating your link).

You make your choice and click "continue". You can change the title of your link if you like. On the bottom of the page you see the names of the several channels, and you just click on the one you think best describes the link you're entering. It's useful because sometimes you might start out thinking your post is "Variety" and then you change your mind and decide it should really go to the "Food+Drink" channel. Instead of having to start all over you can just click on a different channel. Then you click on "Add Link!" and that's it.

You can give or take points to other users, depending on whether you like their posts, and if you find anything offensive or that you think doesn't belong in that channel you can flag it.

And don't forget you can start you own channel(s). I was surprised there was nothing for vintage and retro stuff so I started my own. I also noticed that there was a channel for Indonesian blogs, and another for blogs powered by Blogger, but not one for any blogs of any nationality, so I started one for blogs from all over the world, written in any language. I also made a channel for anyone interested in fire fighting and fire prevention. When you start your channel you are given the option of making it public (where everyone can add their own links) or private (where only you can post anything there.) All my channels are public, so feel free to add a link to your own blog, or to any other site you might find interesting, as many as you like as often as you like. It will bring you more visitors.

The golden rule is not to post the same link on different channels. Don't, for instance, link to a post about a painting in "Arts", "Illustrations", and "Variety" at the same time. That's spamming and people have been penalized for doing that. In any case, if you ever do start your own channel and anyone starts spamming it up or posting anything that is offensive or simply doesn't belong there you as the owner of the channel can simply delete their posts.