Entries Tagged 'social bookmark sites' ↓
October 8th, 2007 — social bookmark sites
Getting on the front page of Digg is potentially very rewarding, but, it is also quite difficult – unless you are well prepared. These are some tips for getting on Digg home Page. These points are also useful for writing good articles in general. In fact a good strategy is to just write good articles, rather than trying to work out what the best digg bait is.
- Put Your best Points First
Many people may digg an article without necessarily reading it all. Make sure your first point captivates the reader. See Importance of first sentence
The importance of a good headline cannot be underestimated. It is of crucial importance in determining success on social bookmarking sites. See: Eyecatching Titles
- The Article has to be good and innovative.
No matter how many friends you have, unless it is actually worth digging it will fail.
- List Type Posts do Better.
A long essay is less scanable. List type posts tend to do better. This doesn’t mean you have to write lists, but, I think it is fair to say that lists have a better chance than non list. Choose good numbers like a Top 7 top 10. or Top 50. Don’t choose top 6 or top 9.
- It helps to have traffic to Your Blog
If your blog gets very little traffic, it will be very hard to get on Digg home page. Many blogs with a high readership frequently get on digg home page. This is because the regular readers help to vote for the article.
- The First 24 hours are the most important
After being submitted to Digg, the next 24 hours are the most important time. If you get enough votes you will get promoted to front page. But, after this 24 hours, extra diggs don’t help that much
- Combine Digg with Stumbleupon.
If you have a really good post, submit it to Digg and try get it on stumbleupon at the same time. This means the stumble traffic may help vote for your story. Then if you fail on Digg, (which you probably will) at least you may get some decent traffic from stumbleupon.
- Don’t Digg your own story
Digg don’t like people digging their own story. I wouldn’t recommend it. Find a friend to do it for you. If you can’t find anybody to digg a story for you, chances are you will have no one to vote for it.
Digg is not the be all and end all. Only try with your really best articles
It is difficult to get on the digg homepage. It is very difficult for new bloggers. I would even suggest to new bloggers don’t bother with digg for a while. You will probably find that the quality of your articles improves over time. Later when you have some regular readers then try digg.
- Friends at Digg are Important.
The best thing is to cultivate friends at Digg who will help you vote for your stories. Some people are into this. However, I have to say I find this time consuming so don’t do it. – Don’t spend all your time at Digg so you have no time to write. (There are great blogs which never get on Digg)
- Be Selective in Your Friends
Bear in mind you shouldn’t add friends just for the sake of it. If you have a lot of friends, your stories need more diggs to get promoted to home pages. If friends do nothing for you, then it is best not to keep them
The problem is some people submit 2 or 3 articles and then get disappointed when it doesn’t make home page. Even the best writers will only succeed with a small % of their articles.
If you are fed up with your own blog getting ignored. Try writing a guest post at a blog with a high readership like lifehack.org If it is really good, other websites will be happy to take it on. This gives you a good chance to get on Digg home page and build up your RSS readership. If you get on Digg homepage on another blog, then it gives a better chance for your own blog in the future.
- Make Sure You know when You are on Digg.
Simple Tip – You can get an RSS feed for your blog. This means you will know when it is on Digg. It basically means searching for blog on Digg and then subscribing to RSS feed (thanks Amit)
See: Digg Tools
When a story has been dugg ask friends to vote for a story. If you do it once in a while they will probably not mind.
- Vote From Digg, not from Email
Bear in mind that it is probably better if they go to the category in Digg and vote, rather than just clicking on an email link. i.e I would guess Digg would discriminate against email campaigns. Therefore it is best to vote by going to the page with a digg counter or going directly to digg
Your best chance is always with your most recent article as this will be getting most traffic.
September 10th, 2007 — social bookmark sites
I have been a member of Stumble upon for over 2 years. It is easy to use and for various sites has sent big surges in traffic. True, this traffic stays for a relatively short time, but even with a short average visit length, it is still a good way to create more exposure for your site. Due to stumbleupon traffic, I have seen the number of subscribers increase as a result.
These are some tips for getting the best out of Stumbleupon.
1. Not Necessary to be a sponsor
I paid $20 to become a sponsor, but, to be honest it is not necessary. It doesn’t seem to help get stumbles.
2. Don’t bother with stumbleupon Exchange sites
It’s hard to Game Stumbleupon. I have experimented with Sites which offer stumble exchanges. However, I no longer use them. I find that the traffic was relatively low for the effort involved. They seem to attract a lot of sites which don’t deserve to be stumbled. It seems a shame to spoil the good reputation of Stumbleupon by promoting less deserving sites. I’m sure stumbleupon will adjust filters to increasingly counter sites like this.
3. Ask Friends for the odd stumble.
The best strategy is to develop relationships with stumblers who have good quality websites. Offer to stumble some of their pages in return for the odd stumble back. This can be very effective
4. Don’t over Stumble your own Site.
If you stumble your own site, you may get a lot of stumbles. But, after about 10, Stumbleupon seem to wise up to the fact and stop sending more stumbles. Therefore, it is important to get other people to stumble your site. If you stumble your own site infrequently – it is fine
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August 7th, 2007 — social bookmark sites
Social networking sites can give significant amounts of traffic, so it is hardly unsuprising people spend time trying to improve their chances of success.
It is difficult to know how much time to spend on these kinds of activities. For example, to do well on Digg, I think you would need to be a daily contributor and work hard at building up a network of helpful friends. If you are able to invest this time, you might be able to have success. But, it is a lot of time, that maybe could be spent on writing content for your blog.
However, if you are successful, then a couple of Digg home pages can really make your blog. For example, it was this that really made John Chows blog 12 months ago.
If you do spend time on social networking, make sure, you don’t neglect your blog. At the end of the day, no matter how many friends you have on Digg, if you don’t have outstanding content you will never make home page.
Also, I would say that you can have a very successful website and blog, without getting any traffic from social networking sites. After all, the traffic is often very temporary anyway.
One thing worth sharing is Stumbleupon Exchange
As long as you stumble sites, which you feel are genuinely deserving of being stumbled, then it is OK. But, I would not like to see stumbleupon taken over by spammers.
June 4th, 2007 — social bookmark sites
Recently I noticed my friend, John-Paul, has put a Digg and Reddit button on every blog post. It made me think about whether this would be a good idea to implement:
Advantages of Having a Digg Button
1. Traffic and Links
Get on the digg homepage and you can look forward to a ton of traffic, and more importantly a range of new inbound links. This is just what Google likes. A few entries on the digg home page can really make a site.
2. Digging your own rarely works
To get on Digg home page it is best if your posts are digged by other people, especially those who spend time at Digg and build up a genuine account. Digg are quite good at spotting and downgrading accounts which promote a lot of content from one small blog (i.e. self promotion)
3. Save Time
My philosophy is that I am a webmaster. If I spend my time at Digg building up network of friends e.t.c then I won’t have time to post and write. Having a button, hopefully, means you don’t have to worry about getting promoted through Digg, you can leave it to others. *Spending time at Social bookmarking sites can be a great way to lose productivity. see increase productivity)
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May 24th, 2007 — social bookmark sites
1. Categories.
At Reddit you just submit, at Digg I often struggle to find a suitable category, it’s like they started creating categories, but stopped before they had finished.
2. Submission.
Submission at Reddit is easier. You don’t have to worry about writing a description, just a good title is all you need. Nor do you get asked “Are you really sure you want to submit this article?” If it is a duplicate URL, Reddit automatically deals with it, giving credit to original poster.
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