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Alright so I have almost always avoided mentioning this blog’s Digg success here, but that hasn’t stopped me from giving out advice on how to get frontpaged to others. Fortunately NBB is now in a position where I don’t need Digg to succeed; in fact, this blog has continued to grow over the last 1 and a half months without any help from the big nerdy news portal. That being said, I figured it was about time I let you know how you can get your humble little blog Digg frontpaged without breaking any rules or using any blackhat/spammy methods. This was originally posted at WickedFire but is being reposted here because I don’t feel forums are as search-friendly as blogs, plus many of my readers don’t visit WF.

All that matters with Digg is getting those first 10-25 or so Diggs to get your article to the top of the “Most Diggs” part of the “Upcoming Stories” section. Once it gets there people will Digg the hell out of it just because it’s on the top and they’re sheepy mob instincts demand they click it.

Write a Good Article

You hear it all the damn time, but I’m gonna tell you again. The first trick to getting to the Digg frontpage is to write something worth reading. That’s not to say all Diggers will take the time out of their nerdy days to read your stories, but in the early stages of the article the content is very important. Most of your initial Diggs will be based on the content.

Word of warning: if your article blows it won’t spend more than a few minutes on the frontpage. Before you try to hit frontpage be sure to take a minute out of your day to learn how to write. Here are some of my frontpaged stories (not to say they’re the greatest, but they work):

Building a Niche Minisite (Part 1) » Net Business Blog
Building a Niche Minisite (Part 2) » Net Business Blog
Top 10 Worst Internet Marketing Videos Ever » Net Business Blog
The 14 Point Web Design Checklist » Net Business Blog
5 Blogging Methods That Work » Net Business Blog
8 Reasons Why the Masses Love Lists » Net Business Blog
ForumRank | Article | Top 10 Tips for Growing a Forum

As you can see most of these are numbered lists. Diggers like those, they make them think less. You should also know that I’ve had twice as many posts buried as “spam”, many of which were of much better quality. For example:

Domaining 101: Parking » Net Business Blog (frontpaged, buried)
Do You Have the Designer’s Eye? » Net Business Blog (frontpaged, buried)
How I Got 283k Feed Subscribers in 1 Day » Net Business Blog (never made it, but had the diggs)

Getting buried happens. Live with it. You should also know that my blog is on auto-bury now. That happens when you get enough stories to the frontpage (unless it’s exclusive news type stuff like Engadget and TechCrunch). But for those of us who don’t have access to exclusive stories, a few dozen Digg frontpages is all we’ll see. If you don’t want to be buried never: post about SEO, submit to an idiot category, or submit stories too often.

Find 15-20 (hell, 50 if you can get ‘em) Friends Who Will Digg for You

A lot of people get their accounts and sites banned for creating public Digg groups, but there’s not a damn thing Digg can do if you have a private Digg group. I have about 30 people on my MSN and AIM who I ask for Diggs whenever I get a good article up (about once a week). They ask the same of me. None of us mind it because we’re all getting good exposure.

Everyone does this. You can’t rely on the Diggers to find your article, no matter how good it is. Even if they browse the “upcoming articles” section they usually only stop by the ones that already have a few Diggs. Most Diggers sort by “Most Diggs” and will never find your article without help.

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t get the same friends to Digg every post you submit, and you should also switch up which account does the submitting as Digg’s new bury algo will catch onto this.

You can find Digg friends from forums, social networking sites, or at your school/university. Just don’t be a wimp, and ask someone if they wouldn’t mind digging some stuff for you on occassion.

Submit Late at Night/Get Frontpaged Early Afternoon

This is a somewhat less obvious one. The best success I’ve had with Digg has been when I submitted the story late the night before (~11-12 EST). There are usually less stories submitted at this time which means your article will have a good amount of exposure on the upcoming stories section. But what’s more important is that your story will typically be hitting the frontpage the next day at peak hours. Digg really picks up around lunchtime EST (from what I’ve seen). Despite the increase in traffic during this time there are much fewer stories on then because so many people try to get their articles Dugg later in the day. I’ve had an article stay top of Digg’s frontpage (all topics) for 10 minutes before at this peak time.

This is assuming that it will take your story 10-12 hours to get popular. That’s the time frame my stories usually get popular in, but I can’t say that’s a rule across the board. The moral of the story is to get your story to the frontpage in the early afternoon.

Spam a Little

When I need just a couple more Diggs to hit the frontpage I post the article on a few forums I regular. Most mods/admins don’t mind you posting your article if it’s relevant to the topic and well-written (which is the first point anyway). I have yet to be warned or charged with an infraction for posting my articles on any of the forums I visit. Some people dock “rep” when you post a Digg URL but I’ve had more people give me rep than take it away - plus what the hell should you care about rep anyway?

Don’t make it a “digg this” post. Write a nice introduction to your article and provide a link. I usually provide both the Direct and the Digg link to my article. “digg this” posts usually result in account bans, so that’s a bad idea. Plus it often annoys people on the forum.

There ya go, get to the frontpage everytime. I know this stuff is common sense, but isn’t everything on the web common sense? You don’t have to solicit “top diggers” to get to the frontpage. The cardinal rule: don’t rely on Diggers to find and reward your good content, you have to shove it down their throats.

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