How to Get More Diggs

How to Get More Diggs? Start by getting more friends of quality

First let’s talk Digg real fast for the new guys. Digg is a social bookmarking site. You can add bookmarks by submitting articles you are interested in. Then other Digg users will give it a thumbs up by clicking the “digg this” button.

DO NOT JUST SUBMIT YOUR OWN BLOG POSTS and NEVER SUBMIT a SALESLETTER!!!! Is that clear? All social sites are about news, if you have written a new post about something you are interested in, that is news. If you do nothing but submit your own articles THAT IS SPAM.

Signing up takes only a few minutes. NOTE: Choose your username wisely, it will show up in all your posts, comments and Diggs. I used MarketingSocial as mine. If I could I would use ChrisLang. Then use your real picture in your posts. Are you a real person or do you need to hide behind a goofy icon?

Having a really attractive picture is a key strategy in it self. Take a look at SexySEO or SexySEO Blog. Need I say more?

Having no picture is the worst thing you can do for your profile. Also you should be trying to use the same avatar (pic) on every social site so you have some brand recognition.

How to get more Diggs and the quality of the Digg

Diggs from Mutual Friends Mean Little

Digg and Google know that mutual friends can email each other and share Digg links and do this all day long, artificially inflating Diggs (votes). So, Diggs from your mutual friends mean less to Digg, than Diggs from fans. Fans means that you friended them or they you and the other did not add them as a friend.

In fact if you are constantly sending “Digg this” shouts all day then you are going to draw buries. Buries are a negative Digg votes that carry about 100 to 1 on the Digg to bury weight ratio. It can take just one bury to keep you from going front page.

Single Digg Session Diggs Mean Less

A single Digg occurs when you get an email and click thru to a Digg post and click the Digg button, then perform no other actions on Digg, leaving the session. This is how Digg sees it and pretty much feels the Digg was the result of one user urging the other to vote. This makes the Digg fairly worthless.

When you Digg any item on Digg, Digg a few others and your Diggs will have more value and so will your friends Diggs if you let them in on this tip.

Diggs from fans mean a little more

Fans can follow your Digg submissions and Digg your items much more easily than someone who is not able to click thru to your profile from their friends. Hence, Diggs from fans mean more but less than….

Diggs from totally unassociated Digger mean even more

It only makes sense that Diggs from Diggers that are not in any way associated with your friends list should mean more and does.

Diggs from powerful Diggers Are the best

Diggers that have a long history with Digg, having joined earlier than others, Dugg lots of posts, submitted lots of links and commented on others posts have more authority and a higher Digg ranking than other Diggers that do not participate highly.

These are the friends you want and the friends that will give you Digg posts life that can take them from the upcoming column to the “went popular” column. That is Digg front page in Digg jargon.

Don’t get me wrong, mutual friends are very valuable

You are going to need mutual frineds. Mutual friends are friends that friend you back. Digg will show them now as a “mutual friend” in a green icon in your friends list. Mutual friends allow you to send them a shout (email) and that is what makes mutual friends important. You can email mutual friends and get to know them better. Watch this video and then think about your various social marketing friends lists.

Now think about that scenario when you make social marketing friends. Make powerful, intelligent friends that are going to Digg your posts, not just willy nilly numbers people. They are going to Digg your posts because the are INTERESTED in them. Not just because you Dugg theirs yesterday.

You are not going to shout every Digg post and become a Digg spammer, that is not what Digg shouts are for. Shouts are intended for breaking news, sharing others stories and being social. Not spamming Digg and your friend’s inboxes.

Also you are going to need to tell them to Digg a few other submissions as well. There is some evidence that users that only Digging one post at a time is deemed irrelevant by Digg.

DO NOT Submit Your OWN Stories Day after Day and DO NOT Digg your own posts. There is also some evidence that Digging your own posts has a negative effect on the popularity of your Digg post and blog post.

There is also evidence both positive and negative that Digg power users that have a history of popular posts have way more effect when Digging a post.

I use Digg to return backlinks to my site and rank better in the search engines. That is what my social marketing book is about to me. In most cases you need 50 or more Diggs within 24 hours for Google to see your Digg post as valuable.

Do not submit your story during at odd hours. Stories should be submitted early in the morning EST. I find 5am is best. But to get the best stories you had better get up before that. This way the story gets more eyeballs and usually more Diggs at a quicker pace.

How get more Diggs and how to make the front page of Digg

randfish, SEOmoz’s CEO, and co-founder and primary blogger has this to say about Digg power users.

“These Top 20 have contributed a total of 5257 stories that have reached the frontpage out of a total of 25,260 stories to ever reach that page - 20.81% to be exact. Many of these top users have, as Digg terms it, a popular ratio of 30% and higher, meaning that almost 1 out of every 3 stories they submit will reach the homepage. Several users (specifically DarkHack & OsterMayer) have popular ratios of over 60%.”

“A logical extension shows that the top 100 Digg Users have contributed 14,249 stories to the homepage, or 56.41%. At Digg, a very select group of users is dominating the popular homepage content. Far from being a mass of opinion, Digg is instead showing, primarily, the content opinions of just a few, select folks.”

Top 100 Digg Users Control 56% of Digg’s HomePage Content.

How to Get More Diggs from Power Users

So after you have a 30+ mutual friends list now you are now part of the club. No friends on Digg is like having no friends in the real world. Everybody wants to hang with the popular people.

Cameron Olthius points out that Digg’s front-page algo favors submissions from historically successful users and that those users frequently have large bases of friend groups, helping to make their submissions more visible from the start.

Also your Digg history is very relevant too. The earlier you Digg an item that goes to the front page the more relevant your your Digg is considered.

Find Digg power users (100 to 300+ mutual friends) and add them as a friend. Do not just add anybody to your friends list. If they are not posting like content then you are wasting your time. It is way more likely that someone interested in your content will Digg it and shout it to their friends list. Don’t feel crushed when they do not friend you back. Here is a little strategy I am trying out right now.

Look for posts that pertain to your topic.

Comment on these posts with insightful, interesting replies.

Now add the posting user as a friend.

Next look at their new submissions that relate to your content. If they relate to your target market and topics Digg the post.

Now scroll to the bottom and add a very intelligent comment about their post or a link and an insightful addition to the post. This may well get you added as a friend by a power user.

When I say power user I do not mean the top Digg 100. They, for the most part are untouchable. I have two Digg top 100 users as mutual friends and I had to work hard to break the ice. I commented on their submissions with intelligent useful information. I only shout pertinent, targeted, useful Digg items to my list. I friended their friends, it goes on and on.

One way to lose powerful Digg friends is to send shouts all day long about “Look, it’s the worlds biggest pizza ever!”

When you see “You have a shout from Chris Lang Social Marketing Genius” you know you should open it because it is not some rediculous youtube video.

You can also create a post reviewing the soon to be power friend’s product, website or blog post. Them submit the post to Digg.

Just in, blogger Phillip Lenssen wrote How NOT To Get On The Digg Homepage. Oddly enough I found this in the #2 spot on Digg’s homepage. Yeah, it got a Digg from me.

The Bottom line

You can waste your life away trying to get Dugg and adding friends. You can get lost all day on Digg and get nothing done. Remember this and it took me a long time to learn it. Do you know what Internet marketing millionaires do when they write an article. They don’t write articles. They write about a problem that you have and at the bottom of that problem page is a link to one of their products, affiliate programs of at least a web form to join their newsletter list or subscribe to their RSS feed.

Real Internet marketers don’t do anything that does not somehow create a profit. Be a REAL internet marketer.

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