Depending on your niche or industry, you may find that channeling all of your energy into broad social bookmarking networks that cover almost every topic imaginable may not benefit you.

Instead of targeting networks that only have a percentage of users interested in your topic, why not find a network whose members and visitors are 100% interested in your niche?

The following are popular niche social bookmarking networks for bloggers, business professionals, developers and designers.

#1: BizSugar

BizSugar is a social bookmarking network dedicated to news and tips for small businesses. It covers marketing, finance, franchises, global, legal, management, technology and startups. Home page stories receive an average of 20 to 30 votes, or “sugars.” You can easily retweet the original source from the BizSugar home page, as well as share it on StumbleUpon, Delicious, Facebook, Google Buzz and email.

You can also create detailed profiles including links to your website, main social profiles and even a link to your latest blog post via RSS feed. You can become friends with other users, send them direct private messages and comment on stories.

If you’re looking to make friends with the most active users, you can view them in the top users list based on various network activity (story submissions, votes and comments).

BizSugar Stats & Tools

• BizSugar receives an average of 40,000 unique visitors per month and has over 200 members.
• The most popular story in the last year is How Can I Look “Amazing” on LinkedIn with 107 sugars.
• BizSugar has an active blog covering social media and network news.
• Tools for website owners include voting buttons, badges and a top stories widget for your website as well as a WordPress plugin.
• Tools for users include a bookmarklet and toolbars for Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer.
• You can follow BizSugar on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

BizSugar is a social bookmarking network for small business news.

#2: Blog Engage

Blog Engage is a social bookmarking network and community specifically for bloggers who write about any topic from blogging to technology and anything in between. Home page stories receive an average of 10 to 20 votes. You can easily share items from the Blog Engage home page to a variety of networks using the Share This link under each story.

On Blog Engage, you’re able to create your own profile and you can add other members as friends. Interaction between users can happen in a variety of places through commenting on stories, participating on the Blog Engage forums and sharing stories within groups.

If you’re looking to make friends with the most active users, Blog Engage also offers a list of top users based on network activity.

Blog Engage Stats & Tools

• Blog Engage receives an average of 19,000 unique visitors per month and has over 400 members.
• The most popular story in the last year is Google PageRank Score Too Low? with 96 votes.
• Blog Engage has an active blog covering social media and blogging. They also have regular guest blogging contests.
• Tools for website owners include voting buttons, badges and a WordPress plugin.
• Tools for users include a bookmarklet, which you can find in your user dashboard when logged into the network.
• You can follow Blog Engage on Twitter and Facebook.

Blog Engage is a social bookmarking network for bloggers.

#3: Design Bump

Design Bump is a social bookmarking network for designers looking to share stories and tutorials for web design, graphic design and even niche design topics such as architecture and industrial design. Items on the home page receive an average of 10 to 20 votes.

Although interaction on Design Bump is limited to comments on stories, you’re able to create a basic profile and include up to 12 images that will link to your portfolio. Top users are listed based on network activity.

Design Bump Stats & Tools

• Design Bump receives an average of 30,000 unique visitors per month and has over 8,000 members.
• The most popular recent story is 50 Free High Quality Icon Sets with 27 votes.
• Tools for website owners include embeddable buttons and an official top stories widget.

Design Bump is a social bookmarking network for designers.

#4: Design Float

Design Float is another popular social bookmarking community for designers, covering topics similar to Design Bump. Home page stories receive 10 to 20 votes and can be shared on Twitter.

On Design Float, you can create a basic profile, and although you can add each other as friends, interaction is again limited to story comments. Top users are also recognized by network activity.

Design Float Stats & Tools

• Design Float receives an average of 108,000 unique visitors per month, has over 65,000 members, and has over 7,000 RSS subscribers.
• The most popular story in the last year is 33 Awesomely Cool Science Fiction Wallpapers with 55 votes.
• Design Float has an active blog with roundup posts of artwork, design, tutorials and resources.
• Tools for website owners include voting buttons, top stories widgets and a WordPress plugin.
• Tools for users include a bookmarklet for easy story submission.
• You can follow Design Float on Twitter.

Design Float is a social bookmarking network for designers.

#5: DZone

DZone is a social bookmarking network for website developers and programmers. Home page stories receive 5 to 15 votes and can be shared via Twitter. You can create a very basic profile and interaction is limited to story comments and forum participation.

DZone Stats & Tools

• DZone receives an average of 194,000 unique visitors per month and has over 25,000 RSS subscribers.
• The most popular story in the last year is the Amazing HTML5 Paint App with 114 votes.
• Tools for website owners include a voting button.
• Tools for users include a Firefox voting plugin.
• You can follow DZone on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

DZone is a social bookmarking network for developers.

#6: SERPd

SERPd is a social bookmarking network for Internet and search engine marketers. Home page stories receive 15 to 25 votes, anywhere from 50 to 150 views and can be shared via Twitter and StumbleUpon.

You can create a profile, follow other members, send private messages and interact in the comments on stories. Top users are listed at the bottom of the site in the footer.

On a side note, social interaction was actually the reason SERPd was created, as a reaction to the popular search news site Sphinn changing from Digg-style user voting to moderator-approved stories only. I’ll give Sphinn the honorable mention, as they still allow members to “suggest” stories and the ones selected are usually top-notch.

SERPd Stats & Tools

• SERPd receives an average of 19,000 unique visitors per month – quite impressive considering they only started in September 2010.
• The most popular story since the network started is 7 SEO Experts to Avoid with 44 votes and 1,600+ views.
• Tools for website owners include a social voting button and banner.
• You can follow SERPd on their blog, Twitter and Facebook.

SERPd is a social bookmarking network for Internet marketers.

#7: Tip’d

Tip’d is a social bookmarking network for those interested in finance and business topics including real estate, currencies, entrepreneurship, career and economy. Home page stories receive 15 to 20 “tips,” or votes, and can be shared on other social networks using the Save and Share widget.

You’re able to create a profile and add other users as friends to interact via private messaging as well as story comments. Top users are listed based on network activity. You can even see what domains have the most votes on Tip’d by visiting the top domains page.

Tip’d Stats & Tools

• Tip’d receives an average of 48,000 unique visitors a month, and has over 61,000 members and 4,000 RSS subscribers.
• The most popular story in the last year is 6 ways to find free money with 59 votes.
• Tools for website owners include voting buttons, a WordPress plugin, and a Feedflare for Feedburner command to ensure an “Add to Tip’d” link appears along with your blog’s feed items so subscribers can submit your story to Tip’d from their feed reader.
• Tools for users include a bookmarklet for easy story submission.
• Follow Tip’d on Twitter and Facebook.

Tip'd is a social bookmarking network for financial news, ideas and tips.

What are your favorite niche social bookmarking networks?

Have you used any of these sites? I know this can’t be all of them, so please share your favorite niche social bookmarking networks, as well as any advice you would give others on how to be successful in getting their stories to the top of these networks. Leave your comments in the box below.

Want to make it easy for readers to share your great content with their tribes? If so, keep reading as I share six social media add-ons you can effortlessly integrate into your blog today. Your immediate result: much better engagement with your readers. And by the way, I’ve used them all—many on this very site.

An aside… The key to encouraging social activity is making it easy for people to act. The less friction there is between desire and action the more likely people will share your content or reach out to you. Fortunately these six excellent tools make encouraging activity easy—and dare I say, fun!

#1 TweetMeme—The Ultimate in Social Proof

In times past it was said that comments were the currency of bloggers. But far too often outstanding content only attracts a comment or two. What if there was a better way to determine if people like your posts (while also driving traffic to your blog)? Well now there is. Introducing TweetMeme’s Retweet Button.

TweetMeme’s button provides readers an effortless way to share your post on Twitter (and much more). Readers simply push a button and your post shows up on their Twitter feeds—driving more traffic to your page! But the real power is in the number it displays on your page. Every time anyone tweets about your article, TweetMeme tracks and displays a number on the page (whether they used the button or not).

This is one of the most powerful social barometers I have ever seen. The bigger the TweetMeme number, the more others feel compelled to read your content and share it.

You can add the TweetMeme badge anywhere on any page (blog or not). I like to display it at the top of the page. The higher the number, the more likely it broadcasts to readers, “Others think this is important, so you need to read this too!”

I really like the WordPress plugin (note that other platforms are also supported) because you can substitute your own Bit.ly account (a URL tracking service) and include your own Twitter ID in any retweets.

Here’s an added bonus. If one of your readers has a TweetMeme account (not required to use), when he or she clicks the “retweet” button, TweetMeme publishes the page to their Twitter account without leaving the page, a really powerful feature.

#2 DISQUS Comment System—The Ultimate in User Engagement

DISQUS is a VERY powerful comment system that takes over your existing blog’s comment functions and adds very powerful features. For example, with DISQUS readers can add video comments or leave comments using their Twitter or Facebook ID, and you can have multiple individuals moderate your comments.

I was a bit critical of DISQUS when I first reviewed it.  However, the service has since increased its features.

A few of my favorite capabilities include an indented comment stream (see image below) and the ability to add and display new comments without the page reloading. The experience is so user-friendly that I found people leaving a lot more comments after I installed DISQUS.

Also, if you have a free account with DISQUS, it recognizes you whenever you visit a site that uses the service. This means no need to type in your name and email, simply leave a comment.

A few pointers: As a commenter, you should register yourself with DISQUS. When you do, set up your name and website address so it will display properly when you leave a comment (under Profile | My Settings). So instead of non-identifiable ID I was assigned (like MikeS22) I can customize it to say “Michael Stelzner” and link to my site. If you do not do this, your name appears abbreviated and will not link back to your site, making it hard for folks to discover more about you based on your brilliant comments. While you’re in there, add an avatar or link to one from your Twitter account.

#3 Gravatar.com—Faces Make Comments Come to Life

Gravatar is a universal platform that displays a reader’s picture based on the email address he or she enters into a blog’s comment form. Thus, when you visit a blog and leave a comment, your email address is matched against the Gravatar database and your picture displays (see sample below). This only works if you have registered your email address with Gravatar and added a picture.

I’m pretty sure the latest versions of WordPress work automatically with Gravatar. However, if you are hosting an older WordPress blog, you’ll want to install WP-Gravatar for Gravatar support.

A few tips.  If you have multiple email accounts, set them all up under your Gravatar account to ensure your mug shot always appears, regardless of which email address you use.

#4 Sexy Bookmarks Plugin—The Easy Way to Share Great Content

There are a number of tools that allow your readers to share your post on different social networks, but none come close to Sexy Bookmarks.

This WordPress plugin allows you to display the social sites of your choosing and is visually appealing.  When a user “mouses over” an icon, it animates on the screen.  And yes, you change the “Sharing is sexy!” text.

The backend of this WordPress plugin is exceptionally sophisticated. For example, you can enter in your Bit.ly API code and the plugin will use your account to create tracing URLs.

#5 Twitter Follow Badge—The Simple Way to Grow Twitter Followers

Twitter Follow Badge creates a nifty little button that always remains on the page as users scroll through your content, making it easy for them to follow you on Twitter. You also can customize it to match the color scheme of your site and determine where you want it to live on the page.

The main benefit of this little widget is folks can easily follow you on Twitter.

#6 Meebo Me—Adding Live Chat to Your Page

Ever been to a website that said, “Click here to speak to a live agent”? How would you like something like that for your blog (or any web page for that matter)? You can with Meebo Me, a simple embedded chat system you can place on any page (or all pages) of your site.

This free service allows anyone to chat with you immediately. What’s cool about this is it integrates into all your other chat accounts. So now you can have them all in one interface AND still answer live questions from your readers.

This chat capability is very powerful and should also be used on your product landing pages.

So what do you think? Do you use any of these tools with success? Do you have others to share? I’d like to hear from you. Just type in your message below.