There are tons of articles on how to hit the Digg frontpage, even I wrote a few articles that cover that chapter of blogging. More and more bloggers seem to have only one goal in their blogging career, that’s hitting the frontpage of Digg…
Yes, hitting the Digg frontpage will give you some exposure, lots of exposure. Dozens of blogs have suffered due to the Digg effect, but today more and more blogs are so called Digg-proof. But if it isn’t, hitting the Digg frontpage will most likely be the (temporary) end of your blog.
Photo by victoriapeckham
But why would you want to hit the frontpage? Is it good for your ego, or is it really such a rush of adrenaline to see thousands of unique hits in your stats? Visitors via Digg will most likely bounce right away, once they’ve read (or even before finishing) the article. They will never return, untill you hit the frontpage again. And again and again.
Lots of effort, just a few hours “fun”
If there is a reason for you, to give it a go, you have to put lots (and I mean lots) of effort to it. Making it to the Digg frontpage, takes time. Time to make friends, the same friends you will need to gain the first votes that make the ball roll.
Once you’ve made it to the frontpage, you’re blog and server will suffer sever for a few hours. For people that have making it to the Digg frontpage as the main goal, this is where the “fun” starts. It will politely sink to the bottom of the frontpage, as more and more (new) articles get popular as well. Once the article is off the frontpage, you’ve got some filled statistics and a half wrecked server…
Hits, but nothing but hits
Diggers return most of the time (hopefully after reading), back to Digg. If they want to comment on the article, they will do so on Digg. If they want to stay in touch with you, they will add you as a friend on Digg.
To the active Diggers, Digg is everything. Most of them won’t even look at your RSS-feeds or the possibility to add a comment on your blog. Besides hits and I mean extraordinary amounts of hits, the Digg frontpage has nothing to offer.
Diggers use Digg instead of RSS-feeds
If you’re active on Digg and you like most of the topics that hit the frontpage(s) of Digg, you can use the frontpage(s) of Digg, to stay up-to-date. Many Diggers will do so and that’s the reason lots of people check the frontpage a few times a day, just to stay up-to-date of the news in the world.
Perhaps it is more effective to follow a news-site, or add a few in you’re favorite RSS-reader. But the Diggers are people that love the site that they inhabit and are not willing to give that away. Digg is a community you shouldn’t underestimate, in both positive as negative ways.
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All that you wrote in this article is true and i agree you. Traffic, diggs and that’s all.
What you wrote in this article is very true and i totally agree you. Only some traffic for a limited time period and diggs but nothing more.
True, I’ve heard from a few people that the Digg frontpage is good for having people to meet up with your blog. That’s true, but there are more advanced and efficient ways to do this.
Well, I don’t agree with you. Most of the points you laid out in this article are debatable. And I’m going to write a second article on Digg and link to you (if applicable :-)) to get you more traffic (you have some cool posts here). I have managed to hit the Digg frontpage twice with my blog so far and this has many advantages… which I’ll discuss in one of my next posts.
In the meantime, I wish you good luck on getting to the Digg frontpage. Keep up the good work!
I’m looking forward to your blogpost! Feel free to link to any post you like, I appreciate that!
[…] 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 […]