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.
- 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!
- 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.\
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.)
- 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 
