extreme webmaster evernerve

After doing some more digging and learning a lot about Digg in a short span of time, I recently read a post which states that going after the Digg frontpage makes no sense. While Webhypes is a really good, well-written blog, I disagree with its author, Coen, on the issue of Digg. I will explain you now why you definitely should go after the Digg frontpage. By any means necessary.

The Digg effect — shitloads of traffic instantly!

Take a look at this picture — these are my blog’s traffic stats for this month (February):

The so-called Digg effect is clearly visible here.

When my article about speed reading on the Web hit the Digg front page, I got a surge in traffic. More than 4,000 visitors arrived at my blog in 30 minutes! After the dust settled, I got more than 18,000 visits for that first story.

Then I got careless and gamed Digg to have my second article hit the front page. And after a short span of time, it was removed from their index! Surprise, surprise. Well, remember this well: Don’t submit a story from the same source in the span of a few days (unless it’s some big portal like BBC News, The New York Times etc).

That second story brought more than 12,000 visitors to this blog, in a single day.

The instant benefits of having your article hitting the Digg front page

While it is true that most Diggers while check out your story and leave your website as soon as they’ve seen it, there are a lot of benefits to it.

1. Not all people on Digg are regular Diggers. Many Web users come to Digg to see the latest news, funny stuff and so on. So, some will return to your website if they liked what they saw. This can clearly be seen in the number of Diggs your story got and the number of visitors that came from Digg.

• My article on speed reading pulled in 15,000 visitors from Digg, while only getting 700 Diggs.

2. The Digg effect pulls in a lot of other traffic. Both stories combined brought in more than:

• 5,000 visits from StumbleUpon
• 1,200 visits from de.licio.us.

Exposure and popularity breed more exposure and more popularity — more traffic for your website. My post on speed reading got bookmarked more than 190 times on de.licio.us, but brought in 6 times more visits!

3. Websites that keep an eye on social media websites brought in some more traffic. I got more than 1,000 visits from popurls and Netvibes combined.

The lasting benefits

1. RSS subscribers. Like I said, not everyone coming to your frontpage-Digged website is a Diggboy. Out of all this traffic, I got about 100 new subscribers to my RSS feed. And that’s what’s important — the people who liked your post enough to come back for more. Every subscriber is important, and getting 100 new ones was more than worth it for me.

2. Getting popular on Digg. Since I have hit the frontpage with my stories, I also managed to have 4 other stories hit the front page. Not mine, but news, pictures, etc.

• I have more fans each day and I can spread a story now faster than ever before. Meaning I can make more mutual friends whenever I choose to. This is very important if you want your story to go frontpage as quickly as possible.
• More fans and more friends means more popularity. And more people checking out your blog, when they visit it via your URL in your Digg profile.
• I can create a new website or blog now and have it on Digg’s frontpage quickly, even if my main blog gets banned.

3. My StumbleUpon profile became popular. If I submit a new story to StumbleUpon now, I get anywhere between 600 and 800 visits from it. Again, all thanks to me hitting the Digg frontpage. I have created the same profile (evernerve) with the same icon on other social media websites and people find me there and add me as a friend, which is cool.

4. Meeting cool people and forming lasting relationships. This is perhaps the most important aspect. It’s called networking. I met really cool people after becoming popular on Digg. This has many benefits:

• Exchanging opinions and engaging in constructive discussions. I get many good ideas from this (like inpiration for this article, for example).
• People will start to link to your blog, because you got noticed.
• Getting help and advice and giving it back. Now, I love this. You will start to grow, because you will expand your knowledge and will be more and more involved in your community.
• Your new friends will help you spread your newest story, product or website.

Summary

As you can see, the effort to hit the Digg front page is well worth it. It pays off more than enough. Coen, thanks for the inspiration. And I disagree with you because of the fact that despite your opinion, you are submitting your stuff to Digg on a regular basis. And I wish you luck in getting to the front page!

I have also learned a lot since becoming popular on Digg. Stay tuned for more info on Digg. I will expand my existing advice on Digg.

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