Getting Dugg

Digg is one of the biggest and longest established of social media websites. It was established as a news site for the technology industry. Any website or article that was worth reading was submitted, or Dugg, by Digg readers. Other Diggers would then read the submitted pieces and, if they liked them, would Digg the article again. As an article receives more and more Diggs it climbs the rankings and once an article has proven popular enough it would reach the front page of the website, potentially generating very large amounts of traffic over a short period of time.

The New Digg

While Digg was first established as a technology site, it has broadened its horizons to include a much wider scope of topics. Business, science, entertainment, gaming, and sports are joined by world news, offbeat news, and funny videos. Pretty much any article on any topic has a place on the Digg website now. Ranked the 113th most popular website in the world by Alexa.com, it can drive serious traffic to a web page should you gain front page exposure.

Digg It

If you run a blog or news service and regularly add new content to your website then you should consider adding Digg It and other social bookmarking buttons. The Digg It button enables readers to quickly Digg your article. Once they click on the button, readers are prompted to log in or register with Digg before their vote is counted.

Using Your Existing Readers To Get Dugg

The key to getting an article Dugg is initially having a reader base that Diggs. Generally speaking, regular Internet users will have at least heard of the idea and may well be an active member. If this is true then they are very likely to Digg an article on your site that they appreciate. Alternatively, it is possible to Digg your own stores, although it is frowned upon to continually Digg the same stories. If you want to reach front page then you will need a good following on your own website, anyway.

The Value Of Digg Traffic

Some debate has raged about the value of Digg traffic. An article on the front page will almost certainly drive thousands of new visitors to your website, but has been noted on several occasions that the resulting visitors are not an active group of people. You should expect low conversion rates, even if you only want new subscribers for a blog or newsletter. Again, the important thing is to create high quality content and on a regular basis. This may help ensure that those visitors you do get will at least stay the course.

Branding

Having your site Dugg can provide excellent exposure, even if it doesn't generate many conversions. The more a person is exposed to your website and the more they recognise that it holds real value in a topic they are interested in, the more likely they will be to become a conversion. Branding on this kind of scale can be difficult to achieve using other channels, although you will need to be persistent and regularly create very good content to stand a real chance.

Are You Digging?

If you run a blog or article directory on your own site then you should be in the practice of regularly adding high quality content. If you receive a reasonable amount of traffic, then adding a Digg It button to your new content pages could result in a serious spike of traffic. While this traffic may have a very low conversion rate, the minimal additional effort required to try and get Dugg makes it a great return on investment.