Anyone can upload their documents and presentations. Think of it like a big ole library where you walk in and put your own book on the shelf! And thanks to their Flash browser, readers can 'check out" your document right in their browser - without having to download it onto their hard drive.

You can publish your documents, embed them, and convert them - all within Sribd. Instead of filling up your hard drive with reports and articles, you can post them here and share them.

For a marketer, this means exposure and links - two of the most important things in your online success. You can use Word, Text Documents, HTML, JPEGs, PowerPoint, PDFs, Excel Spreadsheets, LITs, Postscripts, and a very important feature - audio files!

From a marketing standpoint, it's important that you get to see stats with your uploads, so Scribd lets you see who's viewing your files. It tells you where they live and how they found it (like from Google, for instance).

Like Squidoo, Scribd lets your page with your document earn its own PageRank. I love this! You can do a bulk upload, too, if you need to get a bunch of content up quickly.

Since this is a social platform, you're going to have feedback from the public square - meaning, people are going to give you "likes" and comment on your files. You can claim whatever copyrights to your files that you want to so that they won't get stolen and reused (or at least, they're not supposed to).

Scribd, like most sites now, has its own algorithm, so you want to use the site to your advantage, but while keeping in line with their rules and etiquette so that your documents perform to their best ability.

Most anything can be uploaded, as long as it's legal, and if you're in the Adult market, Scribd (like Squidoo) allows the content - as long as you flag it for Adult viewers only.

Here's the catch: You can't blatantly advertise on Scribd like you do on Squidoo. Technically, a Squidoo lens could be one big pitch page f you wanted it to be. Scribd wants to keep their site from being a spam portal, so you have to make sure your uploads are deemed valuable to the community.

People always ask me, "Why not just blog?" Well, your blog is one long, running site of entries. I noticed when I made one single reference to having a skin cancer analyzed, my entire Google AdSense links turned into ads for cancer - even though my entire blog was about Internet marketing!

With your Scribd pages, each page gets its own topic and indexing for relevant content. Now Scribd says you shouldn't "write with the intention of publishing it on Scribd," but why not? I see nothing wrong with that.

They like to think of themselves as a warehouse for stuff you already have lying around. Who's going to know? I certainly won't tell on you! They want to keep their site user-friendly, so they let people flag you if you abuse the system.

Your entries can be tagged, have a rating for their popularity, and people can look up a tag and find all of the documents pertaining to that subject matter. You want your documents to be welcomed by the site's users, so don't be a spammer!

Let's get started! Open up your browser while you're reading along and upload your first document. Surely you have an article lying around somewhere that you've meant to publish but haven't had the time!

Go to www.Scribd.com and before you sign up - know that you don't have to!

I don't recommend this, because although you can upload document anonymously, you won't ever get to edit or remove it if necessary because it was uploaded without a username and password, so they can't tell if you really were the one to put it on their site.

Click the Sign-Up Now Button on the home page of the site. You'll be taken to the log-in screen. On the right side (which you don't see here) is the log in for people who already have accounts. Fill out your username, password, and email address. I recommend if you're branding your name (as you should be), that you use your real name.

This will take you to your "dashboard" of sorts - your home page that tells you what's been done lately on Scribd, as well as what you've done in the past, and alerts you to where you need to go to upload more (or your first) documents.

Click on the top link that says, "Get started by uploading some documents for the world to see." That takes you to another screen.

Click that upload button and choose the file you want to upload. A little pop-up comes up to have you pick the file from your hard drive.

Before you click that Publish button, enter a title that reflects your document and the subject matter. I'm guessing keywords and phrases are important here! For mine, it has Web 2.0 in it, so that's what I'm targeting.

Do the same thing in your description, but make sure you don't write a hyped-up sales pitch in here - it's a social site - be social! Then tag it with your keywords and phrases.

Don't mark it as private - that defeats the purpose. Don't mark as adult unless it's an R rated or XXX rated document. Once you have groups, you can assign it to a group.

And then pick a category - for this report, called The Multi-Layered Mindset of Web 2.0 Marketing, I chose marketing.

The system will convert your document to their servers, so while you're waiting, go and set up your profile. Your profile in any social network is very important. It helps people get to know you (or your persona if you're not going under the real you).

Click on View or edit your profile at the bottom of the screen after you've uploaded your first document.

First, upload a picture. Don't like your own mug? Neither do I - but I use a slightly older picture of me that will do.

After you upload a picture, it'll give you a link to go back to edit your profile and then you'll be able to enter all the fundamental questions, like your hobbies, occupation, etc.

Try to be personable with this stuff, even if you make up your information. Don't be all business and no play on Scribd.

Link to whatever website in your profile that you want people to land on. I always choose www.TiffanyDow.com because it's my "home plate" where I update people about what I'm doing.

If you don't think your profile links are important, you're wrong. I get tons of traffic from my profile in the Warrior Forum, so take advantage of that space!