Three days ago, I promised to write a series of posts about how the bloggers can increase their visibility in the blogosphere. I stated that the social bookmarking websites like Digg are the best source to get good hits. Well, everyone knows that and everyone also knows that if the link of one of your articles hits the front page in Digg then you can get a huge amount of traffic within just a few hours. Even if your article does not make into the home page but get dugg by some users, still you can get some decent visitors depending on the quality of your article. Anyway, Digg is a great tool to use to increase your visibility in the Cyberspace and if you have the quality and if you are persistent and lucky then sooner or later Digg users will bestow their blessing on your blog/website.
I did some research in Internet and also browsed Digg for quite sometime and based on my research and personal observation, I have made a list of tips here that would help you to get better result from Digg. Of course, I would suggest you to read Digg's Terms of Service very carefully and if you feel that any of my tips violates Digg's Terms of Service or you are not sure then do not follow that particular tip at all. In that case, please, let me know in the comment section and I would try to modify the entry. Secondly, if you feel that I have not credited a source properly or failed to credit a source, just let me know in the comment section and I will fix it by giving a link to your work.
Here are the tips:
Topic
1. It is needless to say that a technology related topic will give you a better chance to be blessed by Digg users.
2. Suppose, the theme of your blog is not related to technology- then you can write a topic about the use of technology in your field. For example, your blog is about football/soccer and then you can write about the use of technology (mobile phone, Internet) in World Cup.
3. Breaking news is always a good thing and if you can break an interesting news item then surely it will give you an edge.
4. Research a lot to find out the topics that are getting popular in the last few weeks in Digg. If you can cast some new light on one of those topics then your article may get popular attention.
5. Do not try to write a controversial topic unless you have a clear idea about it.
6. On the other hand, do not be afraid to introduce an original idea.
7. It is better to go after one particular topic instead of multiple topics.
8. Be as specific as you can in your topic selection. Do not write about a topic which is too broad or too general.
9. Do not write about a topic about which you do not know much.
Title
1. Work very hard to give your article an attractive title.
2. Some users just look at the title and decide. So, look at your title like a reader and get feed back from others about your title.
3. Do not worry if the title of your original article is a bit long. You can always cut it down while submitting to Digg as you have to limit your title in Digg to certain number of characters.
4. Many users in Digg are young in age. So, while giving a title for your article, think of them.
5. Don't use any uncommon word in your title. Many users would not bother to search the meaning of a word in the dictionary.
6. In the pursuit of making your title catchy and attractive, do not make it too ambiguous.
Description
1. Write a nice description and do not just copy paste from your article in this section.
2. Do not give a one-sentence description. Make it a bit longer.
3. Before writing a description, observe the description of successful articles that recently made the front page of Digg.
Article and Formatting
1. Unless it is breaking news, do not make your article too short. Try to make your article at least 400 words long.
2. Give the main message of your article in the first few sentences. Otherwise, many users will not bother to scroll down your writing and will not vote for you in Digg.
3. After writing the article, double check it for any mistake.
4. Revise your article 2-3 times and if possible get some feed back from someone before posting it in your blog/website.
5. Do not post many images with your article. If the article makes the home page of Digg then it will use too much bandwidth from your website.
6. Unless it is a breaking story, spend some hours for writing an article.
Submission
1. There is nothing wrong in submitting your own writing. So, go ahead and submit it. Actually, I found that in Digg, "39% publish their own blog".
2. Do not create multiple accounts to promote your writing in Digg. If you do so then you will easily get banned sooner rather than later.
3. You can arrange a link in your blog by which your users can Digg your article. This can increase the possibility of getting more votes.
4. Do not submit each and every article of your blog. This way, you will only lower your credibility. Instead, submit the entries that you think are good.
5. Do not submit the link of more than one entry of your blog at a time. This will increase your chance of being reported as a spammer and the url of your blog/website will get banned even though your blog may contain high quality content.
Promotion
1. You can always request your readers to vote for your story in Digg. Of course, if they like your writing, some of them will do so.
2. While browsing the net, I have read that some people form a group and Digg each others article or encourage their friends to do so. I would strongly recommend against this kind of action. This kind of short cut method may work in the short term but in the long run it would only jeopardize your blogging and writing career as you will spend your time by digging each others posts instead of trying to write quality content.
3. You can email your friends and even ask the forum members of a forum (if you are a member of any forum) and encourage them to Digg your article if they think it is good enough but never enter into a pact of Digging their articles in return.
Participation
1. If you are not too busy then actively participate in Digg by Digging and submitting links regularly.
2. Write comments on the popular links regularly. This way you can get familiar to many users depending on the quality of your comments.
3. If possible, try to submit links of breaking news whenever you can from popular news sources.
4. Write most of your comments on the field that you want to submit the links of your articles.
Precautions
1. Be prepared for the Dugg effect. If your hosting plan does not include high bandwidth then being Dugg may become a curse instead of a blessing.
2. Be sure that your Adsense ads and other ads are in good place. I read about one blogger regretting that he got 60,000+ hits after his story made the front page of a social bookmarking website but he did not have any Ad on the blog.
3. Do not expect a huge increase in your earning from Ad revenue because of making the front page of Digg.
4. Be prepared to suffer a lot of negative reaction in the form of comments. Don't lose your heart.
5. Do not discard all the negative comments and instead carefully go through them. If you pay attention then you will see that some of the commentators have actually pinpointed your flaws. This will help you to improve.
Special advice for South Asian bloggers
My original intention of writing this article was to help bloggers from South Asia to use Digg for increasing their visibility. Since, the traditional media hardly promotes bloggers in this part of the world and since social bookmarking websites from this South Asia are still drawing very limited users, websites like Digg are the only source of increasing their visibility in blogosphere. Here are my few extra tips for the South Asian bloggers.
1. Very few stories about South Asia actually make the front page of Digg. So, try to write an article related to Europe or America.
2. Carry out a comprehensive search on the keywords related to South Asia in Digg and try to figure out what type of stories related to South Asia have become popular in Digg. If possible write something like them.
3. Always look for breaking stories from your region and write about it.
4. Look for stories with a human touch in South Asia.
5. Be fully prepared for suffering a lot of negative comments.
6. Since English is not the first language of bloggers of South Asia, do not get surprised if a lot of negative comments are hurled towards you about your use of English language. Just, do not get discouraged.
7. Do not use words of South Asian languages frequently in your article and in the title unless the words are too well known in the west.
8. There are not too many users in Digg from South Asia. For example, in my entire circle of relatives and friends, there are only two persons who are irregular users of Digg. So, you have to overcome this limitation by giving a lot of extra efforts to your articles.
9. Write one high quality and well researched article at least once a week. Write the other articles in the way you are writing now but make one article special and attractive by putting a lot of effort behind it.
My final advice for all the bloggers is, do not think of a short cut mechanism to get dugg. Instead, focus on providing quality content and sooner or later your blog will get the attention of Digg users on a regular basis. The beauty of Digg and other social bookmarknig websites is that they are ensuring a level playing field for the large media houses and individual bloggers. Most bloggers cannot afford to spend money on promoting their works in Internet but if they can make the homepage of Digg their writing will be read by thousands of readers just like the article of a newspaper or magazine.
I must admit that before writing this article, I was not a very good user in Digg. Well, after writing this article, I feel that now I have a set of tips in front of me and I will try to follow them totally. I hope that this article helps some of you to become a better user in Digg and get better hits from submitting the links of your articles in Digg.
I have found some interesting and useful articles in Internet and I am giving their links here. Please, go through them as they will help you to understand about Digg better.
Digg Me or Bury Me- Using (or is that exploiting?) a people-powered news aggregator to attract hits.
For getting statistics about Digg's users visit the website of Federated Media, Digg's advertising partner.
Thanks Razib for this informative and useful article (and series).I was considering that instead of writing stories related to Europe or America, what if South Asian bloggers write powerful stories about their own region that they know better. Writing second hand about Europe and USA may not help. What you think?
Posted by: Shirazi | July 13, 2006 9:30 PM | Permalink to Comment