Vital Pixel

Digg: Getting to the Top

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been experimenting with digg alot. I tried many different methods of getting articles popular. Some methods which I derived on my own, and some that I learned from other more professional social networkers. I have still yet to get an article to the front page of digg, but I consider myself lucky to have been able to get articles up past 90 diggs.

Digg’s initial effort to get the best articles to the front has pretty much failed. There is no way a user can sign up for digg and a day later start making stories go popular. First of all, there are so many users on the site, and so many articles being submitted at high rates, that your article will be buried with thousands of others that never receive a single vote. Unfortunately for you, nobody hears your voice, and most of the news you submit will never get past 10 diggs, unless…

It’s time you got geared up, and got ready to play the game of digg. (I doubt that sounded right, but whatever). I’ve compiled a small list of things you can do to become a popular digger, and even though it could take a few weeks, to a few months to achieve, it’s well worth it.

Why would should you care if you got your article to the front page of digg? First of all, it gives you a feeling of appreciation, and stardom. That kind of ‘wow, they like me, they really like me’ feeling that makes you feel are warm and fuzzy inside. Also, if you’re a webmaster there is all sorts of benefits. Getting to the front page of Digg provides the digg effect for the holder of the article. Thousands of visitors are sent to the site in small amounts of time. So what could you want more than fame, and fortune which Digg graciously provides for those who know how to play.

1. Friends: friends are the sole thing that will carry your articles as far as they can go. Without friends you can pretty much kiss your dreams of getting to the front page good bye. What I did when I first joined digg, was go through lists of popular digg-ers friends, and add them to my own friend list. When you first add them, you are their fan, but if they like what you submit, they can add you back and you become mutual friends. Only mutual friends, are people who are fans of you receive your shouts, and so they’re the only ones that are going to help you out. (wait until later in this guide to learn about pruning your friends).Add people that have been active recently, not users that haven’t shown up on digg for 24 days. I like to keep my friends common digg-goers, because that way I have more people to talk to, and much more action. Try and add people that you have common interests with, this way you can legitamitely digg their articles, without feeling bad that you dugg something you don’t care about at all. Make sure and pay attention to your friends, when they send you shouts digg them, that way they’ll digg your articles when you shout to them!
2. Multiple Accounts: There are certain users on digg that use multiple accounts in order to digg and share their own articles. This method might work a little bit, but it’s against terms of service, your accounts will be banned, and there are better ways to make your articles popular. One of those ways being the massive amounts of friends that you can send shouts to.\
3. Link Bait: The title of your posts and articles are arguably the most important factor in getting lots of people to view your submission. Any article you’ve submitted that’s titled to where the contents are obvious, and drab is going to be tossed aside like dry playdo. (Here we go with the… similes and metaphors?) Keep your titles short, make people curious as to what it’s about, and if you can’t do that. Then you better submit a pretty damn good article, because more than half the people on digg base their vote on nothing more than the title and the small summary underneath.I’ve heard numerous things about lists and guides being the two types of digg submissions to get to the front page the most. With my own experimentation I found this to be true, my top submission is currently a list on the top 10 firefox plugins of our time (of course my title didn’t use link-bait, so I didn’t make it to the front page). Also, digg likes itself more than anything, and firefox is right up there. So if you write anything about Digg or Firefox, chances are it will do better than you post about how more red heads of freckles than the average brown haired person.
4. Getting Buried: One of the worst things that can happen to your article is to get buried. When a user buries your article, it tells the digg editors that not everyone that sees your article likes it. If you don’t have a high digg/bury ratio, then no matter how many diggs you get, you won’t make it to the front page. Try to keep your content uncontroversial, and unoffensive, but not too much of either one of those things. People love controversy, and offending articles, but depending on how they come accross, those factors can determine whether or not people will like your article.
5. Time Threshold: Speed another determining factor in which articles get to the front of digg. No submission has ever gotten to the front page of digg after roughly 24 hours (only rarely), so you’ve got to get plenty of votes by say… the first 12-15 hours. Try not to skyrocket in diggs during the first hour, that would definitely be a sign of foul play. Going fast is ok though, and if you use all the methods I’ve taught you… you are going to get diggs pretty fast.There are specific rules for getting to the front page of digg, and the Digg System reviews all of the most popular articles in upcoming before putting them in the popular section. If you follow the time threshold, and try not to submit articles from your own website, you’ll be fine. (Get your friends to submit articles from your own website, you can still share, but it let’s Digg know you’re not only submitting your own content.)
6. Getting to Know your Buddy List: Specifically, the powerful members of your buddy list. If they have an instant messenger, then contact them. Ask them what’s going on and tell them you’re always available if they have an article that they want you to digg and share. Usually they’ll say “cool, feel free to contact me if you’ve got something you want me to digg, or help you out with too” . The more you get to know your friends, the bigger, and better your social network will be.Lot’s of times people that you add will have the same thing in mind, and come to you. Take advantage of the situation and offer your help with anything (related to digg… O.o). When you get to a better personal level with all of your friends, and you have the community on your side, the way to get to the front page will be quite obvious.

Hopefully this social networking guide helps out some of the current nobodies on digg. And who knows, maybe this will be my first popular? Pfft… yea right

Tags: digg, digg effect, popular, social networking, vital pixel

Why Bloggers Know Everything

IF I was being serious and bloggers really did know everything, then the reason would be;

• They’re blog is on a topic they have studied, worked on, or enjoyed as a hobby for years.

Since I’m not really being serious, and bloggers really don’t know everything, no matter how intelligent they may seem.  I’ll just come straight out and say, Most bloggers have no legitamite idea what they’re writing about, atleast half of the time.  Now some of you may be thinking that means bloggers just Bullshit their way through entire articles?

This was brought to my attention when I read a comment to an article on digg.  Of course the article was about how to pick up chicks and it was written by someone who spends all of his time on the computer and smoking weed (according to the site’s theme).  You can check out the site here.  So anyways, this comment stated that the author cleary had no idea what he was talking about.  I’m sure most bloggers just spam out articles and forget/don’t choose to proof read their articles.  Sometimes this leads to leaving out key points and important parts of certain posts.

So, in my opinion the commentor was being a little too harsh.  The ability to BS complete articles seems to me like some what of a sign of genius.  Every other blogger on the internet, and myself have written an article simply for the benefits at one point or another.  This often times leaders to failure, but can sometimes bring in traffic for spurr of the moment topics.

Also, the aire of intelligence and self confidence leads people to believe whatever the author says.  When an author tells something matter-of-fact-like he’s doing better for himself than he would be if he were to say something as if he wasn’t sure about it.  Plus, most people browsing the internet are seeking information on the internet, and aren’t likely to call you out if you’re wrong.

When a blogger writes something that he/she doesn’t know anything about, you can probably expect it to be true enough to believe.  Educated guesses and hypotheses are what found scientific theories and eventually end up as solid results.  Don’t expect things that you’re reading on blogs to be untrue either, because many bloggers look into what they’re posting about before typing up the article.

OMg.. I totally just BS’d my way through that entire article.  I’m serious too, I don’t think it came out very well.

Tags: a, Add new tag

Why Sex is Epic Win

Sexy images, commercials, and even suggestive phrasiology can be the key to a great advertising campaign. Although not always necessary, for most products, you’ll find that when associated with sex, they sell better! It’s my belief that every human being thinks at least a little bit like I do, and when I see an advertisement with a good looking female posing half nude on the internet. I’m probably going to click on the advertisement, even if it’s just to see more.

I’m sure that for everyone, one of the most obvious companies that uses sex to appeal to it’s customers is Godaddy. A web hosting company and domain registrar that almost every webmaster is familiar with. Despite the constant foul reviews Godaddy get’s on the internet, I constantly hear of people that use it. The godaddy girl is just so hot, it makes their whole campaign a little more irresistable.

Sure, any company that spends money on commercials is going to get some bonus customers. But, which commercial do you think is going to get the most followers. A professional commercial, with a guy in a suit telling you about all of the positive features of their web hosting company, or a commercial with a smokin’ hot babe telling you to use her web host. I don’t think she even tells you to use godaddy, she just say… Go Daddy.

If that turned any of you onto godaddy, I apologize… don’t use them for your web host or domain registrar. Bluehost is a much better host, and namecheap is by far the best domain registrar. Neither of which have the advantage of sexy advertisements.

Sex doesn’t have to be your advertising campaign in order to get people interested in your website. It could be a simple article, or tidbit of content about sex that leads users on to the rest of your content. For example, this post could be the turning point in vital pixel’s streak of poor-traffic. Of course I have no idea, since the post isn’t published. But, judging by the way things usually play out… I assume it will be.

On the other hand, sex can be your whole advertising campaign, and what your website is about. Sex and Porn and the two top searched terms on the internet. So that tells you what people are interested in. I’m not even going to bother calling them pervs either, everyone has done it.

An photo blog with sexy images on it, is ten times more likely to succeed than a photo blog about fancy cars. I think most people can imagine, that cars are a big market in today’s world. Sexy, nudity, and suggestive art prevail though, and don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t.

Advertising campaigns for food using lewd videos and commercials is also common. Here is one commercial for burger king in the UK.

Just try incorporating a sexy picture into your website. Use a good looking female spokesperson for your next business. Hooters will be my last examples, probably one of the most successful chain of restaurant’s to ever exist. Why do you think this is so? Because women are just decoration when it comes to marketing, and it works pretty damn well.

Tags: appeal, eye, feminism, hot, marketing, pretty, sells, sex, sexism, sexy, ugly, website, women

Make Money With your Blog

Blogging is one of the most popular ways to get your ideas across to the general public. I use it, and there’s probably more than half of the webmaster population using a blogging platform as well. It’s a good thing though, a lot of blogs means there are a lot of good tips, information, and news that circulates around the web. Blogging is easy too, with just an update or two per day, and a little bit of help from your social networking friends, you can get your blog popular and make money with it in days.

Step 1: Traffic
I’m going to assume you already have traffic to your blog, and continue with this post. If you don’t have a steady flow of traffic coming to your blog yet, then check back next time for the Blog Traffic post, which I am due to release pretty soon.

Step 2: PPC Ads
By far the most obvious way to make money on the internet. Go and make your self a publisher account on Google Adsense to get started. You can customize your advertisements, and paste the javascript code into your page. Make sure to blend your ads in with the usual color scheme of your site, for maximum click potential. For every click, you get a certain amount of money (based on your keywords). You can also make money for getting large amounts of impressions. Don’t click your own ads, or ask your visitors to click ads!

Step 3: Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing, is simply getting someone elses product, and referring new users to it. Lot’s of sites on the internet have affiliate programs you can join. You can check out Affiliate Scout for several different sites that have affiliate programs. Sometimes affiliate programs have flat rates, like… $65 dollars per sign up. Or, they will pay you a % of the money the person you referred ends up making.

Step 4: Link Sales
If your blog has a high page rank. Which is Google’s interpretation of the value of your site. People will start getting interested in having their link on your website. The higher your page rank (pr), the more you can sell links for. The easiest way to sell links, is to join a forum like Digitalpoint or Vitalpixel Forums, and create a thread giving the details of your site, and how much you are willing to sell link-space for. Never fill up your site with too many links, and make sure to sell links monthly. Don’t offer life-time links unless you’re a directory, because you may want to take them down at some point.

Step 5: Products
If you have your own products that you’d like to sell, you probably know more about how to sell them than I do. But, the way I would go about selling my products, is to post a link to my website on a webmaster forum (in the buy/sell/trade section). Then, I would give details about what I was selling, and offer my services to those willing to pay. For Example;

I would say, Selling webmaster tip comics for $5 a piece. They would give me what they wanted the comic to be about, I would make it, give it to the buyer, and they would pay me. It’s pretty simple, and self-explanatory really.

Step 6: Blog Reviews

Once your blog starts to get a decent amount of visitors, and has a pretty good page rank, you can start selling reviews. When I start making reviews, I’m sure I’ll be using reviewme, which is the biggest name in blog reviews at the moment. You’re site will have to be reviewed by them, before being accepted into the program, but once your in you can make quite a bit of money.

Tags: affiliate, blog, internet, link sales, money, pay per click, ppc, profit, Reviews

Ad Placement

Where you put your advertisements is one of the most important factors when trying to make money on the internet. You need to make sure and keep your ads in places where people can see them, but also make sure they’re not an eye sore. Blending your ads in with the usual appearance of your website is also important. For example, if you had a green theme, and your google ads were red, there’s no way you would get as many clicks as you should.

The Comic:

Tags: ad placement, comic, google, internet, money, online, optimization, profit, vitalpixel

Black hat Tips Used by Google to Get Big: Revealed!!!

Ok, so how could any site get big like google without using some sort of black hat tips?  One possibility is link-baiting, using titles which suggest the content contains more information than it actually does.  Like for example, a title that enthralls the reader, and aggressively persuades them to read on.  So no, i don’t have any real black hat tips that Google Used to Get Big.  I doubt anyone could tell you what google really did to get big.

Unless they tell you the truth, like;

• Google Invested a lot from the beginning
• They have good products
• They have Good Service
• They have their own building IRL!

Ok, to continue the lesson… here’s a quick comic:

In order to get really popular articles, you have to write titles that attract the reader.  If your title is as boring as mine usually are, then nobody will go on to read the rest of your post.  So whether you’re tricking someone or not, you might want to try Link-Bait!

Tags: black, black hat, black hat trick, comic, google, hat, link bait, seo, tip, tips, trick, tricks, vitalpixel, webmaster

Don’t Pay For Traffic!

Traffic that you pay for can never really be good traffic.  When I first started off in the webmaster business, I wanted to find ways to get visitors really quick, and without a lot of work.  The truth is, you’re never going to find quality visitors that way.  What you want, is people that are going to go to your site because they want to, not because they’re being paid to.

Some of you may have been to traffic exchange sites, where you leave the window open for 30 seconds, and then move on to the next website.  When you pay for traffic, you are paying for visitors to come to your site just like that!  There are also other ways that people can send you traffic, and whether they’re bots or real members, it never works out the way you want it to.  Unless you’re one of those sites that brings all of it’s visitors in from top sites, then the traffic you get to begin with doesn’t mean a thing.

One other downside to buying traffic is… google doesn’t condone it!  You could get your publisher’s account banned just for purchasing traffic.  You could lose multiple clicks, or be smart-priced… (no bueno, I’ve been there).

For quality traffic, build up your content and let SEO do its work.  A few other ways to get good traffic is to post in show off threads in forums, submit articles to digg, stumble your sites (trust me, social networking is good).  Even linking and embedding youtube videos on your site can get you some quality traffic from the linked by section underneath the video on youtube’s site.

Here’s my comic for this lesson~

Tags: account, ban, buying, google, quality, seo, traffic, visitors

Negative Reviews

This post is going to be all about ‘giving’ negative/mediocre reviews, the good outcomes, and the bad outcomes.  Alright, so I recently gave out an unprofessional, (tryed to be) humorous review that didn’t bash the guy’s website, but wasn’t overly praising of his sites.  In the end he wasn’t happy with the reviews, he decided not to use my services, and he gave me no chance to correct the errors.  There are some blogs where you can be humorous and kind of bash websites in your reviews, but on others people might not find it as appealing.

Tips For Good Outcomes and Easy to Incorporate Reviews:

• Your blog is going to have to always be kind of rude, and your style has to be humorous.  You can’t be a blog that’s always serious and then give out some sort of odd review that’s not your style at all.  Some people get seriously offended by that sort of thing.  Plus, if you have a blog that’s always rude/humorous then your buyers will be a little more prepared for a funny review.  Where as, here on webjedis they’d most likely only be interested in factual, well spelled reviews.  (Am I that bad grammatically?)

Anyways, the main point of this is to remind you not be assholes when your reviewing somebodies site.  Negative reviews, (even if joking) can seriously offend some people.  Offending people means losing money and negative rep in some situations. 
by,

the webjedis