The traffic and the profits from Digg’s front page posts isn’t a secret to any of us, but its a fact that less than 5% of the blogs these days have achieved it atleast once in all these years, this is even after the top notch content they provide their readers with. Moreover blogs like Mashable and Techcrunch which are actually not even close to other small blogs in their niche when it comes to content,make it to the front page almost everyday. Yes an existing traffic base does matter when it comes to making it to the front page, but its not everything, as content has a key place too.
Recently I have started to see many small blogs grow to high levels with just the help of a few front page articles, most of them did have digg friendly posts, but still they had nothing which could take them to the front page that easily, when I started connecting with them personally I realized there secret, they kept swapping diggs with each other using multiple accounts, actually this was something which I was doing from a long time but at a smaller scale and for small sites such as Sphinn and Mixx and those like StumbleUpon and Twitter which didn’t take much effort and you don’t need a big network.
I used to do the same with a network of friends, but didn’t want to do it with Digg because my network was too small and could never get enough diggs to make it to the front page, but there success stories greatly motivated me to try and achieve this and to my surprise it wasn’t tough at all. If you’ve noticed the previous two posts have received a high number of Diggs compared to the others, but they didn’t make it to the front page because the type of content wasn’t really digg friendly, but now the only thing I need is the right content. In this post I’ve mentioned the best ways to find other diggers looking to self promote and organizing and mutually helping each other gain exposure.
Your blog comes first
The first place to find people ready for such business is your own blog, owning a blogging tips blog gave me a certain advantage as I could publicly tell people to connect with me if they are looking to exchange social media votes, but readers from other niche are not really favorable if you promote such stuff in front of them, but still you can promote your social profiles, as mostly other bloggers from your niche will try to connect with you.
This method isn’t really that accurate, but if you find a new friend immediately introduce yourself and see if he is planning to exchange votes with you. This is good because a few initial users are necessary to keep up with the next few steps, once you get the initial few, you can find others easily, moreover you yourself will start getting requests from others.
Other social sites
By other social sites, I mean Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter, I have also mentioned many times in my previous posts that always connect with other bloggers than your blogs readers, as its them who help you promote your site in the long run. After you’ve got a quiet a good list of friends, start off by sending them mails or writing on their walls that your willing to exchange social media votes with them, all will surely respond a few will be negative, but most will be positive.
As soon as you get them, try connecting with them on Gtalk if possible as its much more easier and then start following them on all of their social profiles. After the above two steps you’ll surely get a good number in your network, so you’ll start getting requests for diggs, and as soon as you make your next post make sure you ping them all.
Trade and expand
When you get a handful of people in your network start exchanging votes with them immediately and after you’ve built a trustable relationship try to convince them to introduce the people of his network to you and you do the same in return. Almost all will agree with this strategy as most of them are dying to build there networks.
If you successfully strike this with everyone, your sure to get enough people to have you on the front page, thats why I mentioned that this isn’t as tough as people really think. At times this may become very annoying because sometimes requests for votes keep popping up, remember that before getting you need to give.
If your ready to bear that single disadvantage, then I’m sure there is no other sort of problem that you may encounter, you’ll start getting huge amounts of diggs on all your posts.
Promote it on your profile
I have seen many Digg users who write this directly on their profiles stating that they are ready to exchange diggs and below they’ll list various ways one can get in touch with them. This is a wonderful way to promote yourself and if you do so you’ll instantly start witnessing requests, but you also stand a great chance of getting banned from Digg.
You will not get caught if your account is new, but once it comes under the limelight, that is if your submission makes it to the front page, then you’ll surely get banned. So my plan is to grow my network as much as possible by writing it initially, but when I feel I have built a network and ready to utilize it, I’ll remove that from there.
On to our readers
Till now this is the best way to promote your blog on Digg, if you really don’t want to spam you can start creating a powerful profile on Digg by making popular submissions of other articles which are of great quality and when you have the authority you can start submitting your own posts.
Using this method you don’t have to be worried about getting banned or anything because it has got little to do with your account and once your banned you can easily create another account. Your sure to have a tough time initially as you’ll have to spend a lot of time digging other’s posts, but you’ll sure have a powerful profile once you make it to the front page once or twice.
Among the others who are looking for such exchanges is myself, so if your looking for anything of such sort, please do connect with me on Facebook and I’ll surely exchange more than just diggs. If you have any opinions or suggestions on this post please feel free to comment below.
Brilliant article…Vishal. One of the best articles on your blog. One thing I must say…nothing helps like networking. And it has really helped me a lot in recent times. Though I haven't made any financial benefits from the same yet the kind of exposure which me and my blog received, is just phenomenal. To be very honest, I have never been so concerned about this social bookmarking and related stuffs. I think I really missed to make the most of it. Digg is certainly one of the platforms which can do wonders for your blog in terms of traffic and overall popularity. I could have made the most of it but being a niche-less blogger, I didn't pay much attention to it. The same goes for other social networking sites too. But after reading your post, I think I can apply the same for my blog too. But I wish I had a more professional blog to make the most of it
Thanks a lot Aswani!! I completely agree with you, though I realized it late I did work on it and its started to pay off. I haven't yet made in wonders in Digg, but I'm sure its got the potential to turn things around for any sort of blog.
Very informative article sanjay,I can say Optimizing and Networking make us to builz buzz !!.Thanks for sharing .,
Hirfan thanks a lot bro!!! Yes these are usually the best methods for promoting your blog.
Very useful post Vishal! Having a huge amount of friend that help you to digg your post is the best way to increase digg vote. I never throught to promote myself on my profile, however I agree with you that this method could make you get banned by Digg team.
Thanks a lot Nicola!! Yes we both started off together and now we are both getting a lot of diggs on our posts.
Brilliant stuff
Vishal i never thought about promoting by blog like that.
Thanks Shabnam!! I think you have been doing that, maybe not with Digg, but your surely doing this with other social networks.
Vishal at times i get request from fellow bloggers to do retweet.I believe in getting retweets in a natural way.Regarding sharing in FB if i like articles i share them on my wall.
I think I had mistaken you Shabnam, I think your blog has got the high reputation organically without any exchange of favors and purely from quality of content, but I feel growing blogs using such methods are really tough these days, I surely want to know more about how you promote your posts if we can connect anytime soon.
Sure Vishal
Thank you so much for this artclie, it saved me time!
they swapped his face for text that says service temporarily unavailable? i don't get it.
I have also mentioned many times in my previous posts that always connect with other bloggers than your blogs readers
Swap for Good parties are a great way to promote creative re-use, build community, and help a worthy cause. It is an all-volunteer project, with no paid staff, and no office.
There are nude pics out now too. Her ex-husband was nice enough to “leak” them. Just google “anna chapman nude”.
I got a new profile pic for facebook and ppl told me it's really cute but I got no comments even tho she said shed comment and never did and when I don't comment on her pics she pulls the guilt tripp on me like…
I got a new profile pic for facebook and ppl told me it's really cute but I got no comments even tho she said shed comment and never did and when I don't comment on her pics she pulls the guilt tripp on me like…
I got a new profile pic for facebook and ppl told me it's really cute but I got no comments even tho she said shed comment and never did and when I don't comment on her pics she pulls the guilt tripp on me like…
By that time i was annoyed so i said shut up and turn around she kept muttering abuse under her breath so i said is your income over the national average or do u jus rely on benefits…
By that time i was annoyed so i said shut up and turn around she kept muttering abuse under her breath so i said is your income over the national average or do u jus rely on benefits
No wonder people start working hard to optimize their commercial sites to use social media sites in its marketing. Let's just say that social networking sites are the sugar and ants as people who use them.
i am always fond of reading topics and issues about this one ,.
I think other web-site proprietors should take this web site as an model, very clean and fantastic user genial style and design, let alone the content. You’re an expert in this topic!
Interesting article! I’ve been thinking about exchanging diggs for a while now, but I feel a bit emberassed to ask for something like that. It still is cheating of some sorts, but collectivly cheating
I have to think about this one…