Pro Blogger Guide

101 Must-Read Articles to Become a Pro Blogger

2007-12-12T15:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a listing of 101 must-read articles which have enough information to help you to become a pro blogger.

Content

“Content is King”, you might read it hundred times before and you might got sick and tired of that line, like anyone else, but it’s plain truth. Here are few articles that will help you in creating A-class content.

Traffic

Traffic is the reward for quality content and the gateway to money and fame.
Here are a few articles with useful tips on attracting traffic.

Link building (Baiting) and Social Media Marketing

Inbound links, the next phase of traffic which will eventually get you high PR in search engines, increase your market value among advertisers, and make sure that you have good traffic coming even if you’re taking a break. Here are some well written articles on this subjects.

Blogger’s Block

Every author has to go through this and sometimes quite often. You feel that you don’t have any content to blog and you are surely affected with a curable disease called blogger’s block. Here are a few remedies for it.

“Fan” building

Nothing is viral than mouth to mouth publicity. Your fans will do the job for you. Fans can be in the form of subscribers, community members or frequent visitors. Whatever the type may be, they are always good for the blog.

Wisdom of the Blogosphere

Articles in this section contains pieces of wisdom gained through experiences from the blogosphere which has enough information to give you the right mindet to propel your blog to heights.

Run Out Of Things To Blog About? Here’s Some Help…

2007-11-29T18:08:00.000-08:00

Do you ever get “stuck” with not knowing what to write for you blog? Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us, believe us.

There are tricks you can put in your utility belt that can you can pull out when you need an idea. Here’s a few..

1. Blog about news in the industry. Go on over to Google news and do a search for your industry. Now simply write about your thoughts on that industry topic. Give your expert advice. Ask your readers to weigh in in the comments.

2. Pull up and old blog entry and revisit it. Compare something you wrote a long time ago to today’s world, and see if it stands up. Look back at old predictions and follow through on how accurate they were. Analyze your content.

3. Interview someone. Go out and interview someone in your industry, or even someone in your office. Post the transcript on your blog.

4. Create a list of resources and tools that you recommend and talk about them.

Remember, every blog entry does NOT have to be a journalistic piece. Sometimes the best content is short and sweet. As long as it’s helpful and valuable to the reader.

What To Do When You Lose Your Blogging Mojo

2007-11-29T17:58:00.000-08:00

Writing is nothing like computer programming. The latter is scientific yet was relatively easy for me, when I did it for a living. I could reuse code fragments and thus produce large, functioning programs in just a few days. Writing isn't like that. While hyperlinks are probably the equivalent of code reuse, writing involves a wholly different process. There is only so much "system" you can apply. In thirty years, I've never suffered coder's block. Ever. I used to brag that I've never suffered from writer's block, either. At least, not until I started writing full-time for a living. That is, multi-blogging professionally.

Mind you, it's not that I don't know what to write about. I've done a lot of research into what topics are popular and/or profitable, and my blogging contracts already define my topic parameters. So you think it'd be easy to write, right? Wrong. The problem is, there's more and more "invisible" pressure to be linkworthy, and when you write on as many blogs as I do, it's not easy. That doesn't mean that every one I write for is expecting linkbait out of each article, considering that most of what I write is a combination of news summary and my spin. So, in fact, much of the pressure is of my own creation, my drive to be a better blogger.

Still, if you let such feelings carry too far, you do suffer from writer's block - or whatever you'd like to call it. And then you end up with unproductive months, which is bad for your clients and bad for your business. So what do you do when you've got some sort of writer's block? Here are some suggestions that have worked for me in the past, and a few of which worked for me this week, after a month of bad writer's block.

Take a break and treat yourself.
If you work from home, get up and get away somewhere. I headed downtown a few days ago to try out a new restaurant and treat myself to blank sketchbooks, a packet of original Moleskines journals, and some new rollerball and fountain pens. And you know what? It worked. I started writing this article you're reading on the bus ride home.
Draw a diagram.
Despite my writer's block, I've been producing a lot of diagrams lately, as well as screencasts. Your diagrams don't even have to serious, as this hilarious Venn diagram attests to. [via Digg] If you're not having any luck in this area, maybe you've got a spreadsheet that helps you in your daily blogging activities. Consider sharing that with your readers by using a web-based spreadsheet app such as ZohoSheet or Google Spreadsheets.
Record a podcast.
Do something other than writing. If you have something to say, try actually speaking it instead of writing it. You can find cheapo $1 microphones that do almost as good a job as a better $50 mic. Maybe not broadcast quality, but okay for an occasional podcast, or just for fun. And go get Audacity, the very well put-together cross-platform audio recording software for free, to help you record and convert audio formats. There are also a multitude of blogging platform plugins to help you publish your podcast files.
Produce a screencast.
If voice work isn't your thing, maybe you're good at using a piece of software and you can capture a screencast of how to use a certain feature. (Practice up, because later this year, I'll be looking for paid contributors to Tubetorial, which is a SplashPress site that I'm currently editing.) You can use the free Camstudio to record a screencast.
Make a SplashCast.
Have a number of images and screencasts that you'd like to integrate together into one presentation?
Blog some TV.
There's nothing like blogging a show while you're watching it to really fire up your creative juices. There's really very little planning needed - it's all stream of consciousness. Reality shows are good for this, and if you pick the right ones, you can build a bit of seasonal traffic to your blogs.
Go see a movie.
It's partially the simple act of getting away from your unproductive writing activities, but also the opportunity for some different creative input.
Read a book.
Since I started blogging full-time, I've barely read anything in print, and miss doing so sorely. I find lately, though, that if I actually take 15-30 minutes per day to read offline, not only does it relax me, but it doesn't seriously affect my work time. Do this and you can even blog about the book.
Write fiction, lyrics or poetry.
When I was a paid technical writer, between programming gigs, I found it very hard to come home after work and write fiction. They involve two different mindsets, at least for me, and the activities couldn't coexist on the same calendar day. But blogging is much more creative in nature, the way I do it, and can coexist with fiction writing. Try it. Start by creating a story premise, writing down a list of events in sequence (and which characters are involved) and see where your story goes from there.
Write something irrelevant but fun.
Make up something to write. Or try Jason Rekulak's The Writer's Block (non-affil.), which is a small, cube-shaped book of writing inspiration. There's also Naomi Epel's The Observation Deck (non-affil.), which contains an instruction book and a packet of flash-style cards to help spark your creative juices. When I remember to use these, they've helped me considerably.
Write something important.
Maybe you've never written your will. Or is there anything else important that you might write?
Write a list.
Write it point form, without details, and see what develops over time. It might turn into listbait, once you beef it up with details and relevant hyperlinks. (A list is only a list. Turn it into a useful resource to become linkworthy.)
Write your future bio and/or obituary.
Imagine that if you were, say, a subject of A&E's Biography show, what would people say about you? What do you want them to be saying? Write that down. Now go a step further. What do you want to be remembered for, when you leave this mortal coil? Write that down.
Write summaries of other bloggers' posts.
When I can't decide some days what to blog about, I start by reading a batch of posts by other bloggers, then writing a few sentences of summary for each post. A topic may catch my interest, and a post will form on its own out of one or more summaries.
Laugh.
Laughing relieves stress and tension, and brings down inhibitions. It's long been touted as a curative for many reasons. Laugh heartily and you'll see why. I make it a habit to watch at least an hour of comedy every day.

How to Avoid Blogger's Block

2007-11-29T17:53:00.000-08:00

Most bloggers know the importance of updating often. The last thing we want is for our traffic to drift off because we don't have anything to say. What happens if we experience blogger's block? How can we update, if we don't know what to talk about? Here are some tips for finding ideas.

Make a daily list of blog stops:

Subscribe to plenty of blog feeds. Not only those that are in the same niche groups but anything you find interesting. Expand on other bloggers' ideas or find ideas of your own.

Use your tools:

One of my favorite tools is Google Alerts I currently subscribe to at least a dozen alerts on anything from blogging to jobs to news about people I find interesting. What I love about Google Alerts is how it always throws out an interesting tidbit or two I might not have found on my own. Stumble Upon is another favorite, but it can also be dangerous as it's a great way to procrastinate.

Make lists :

Always keep a list of things to blog about and update often. If a blog topic doesn't immediately come to mind, consult your list.

We all suffer through a block now and then. The important thing to remember is that it's only temporary. Keep up with the feeds, read the news and use tools such as Google Alerts or Stumble Upon. Keep that content, and traffic, flowing!

Blogging Tips - Hundreds of Resources for Finding Content for Your Blog

2007-11-29T17:34:00.000-08:00

Blogging is great fun. It’s exciting. You start out with great ideas, full of motivation and inspiration. After a while, though, you run out of steam. The muse isn’t so amused any more and you start hunting for content, things to write about.

There are two aspects of finding content for your blog. First, it is to find the inspiration that generates original content on your blog. This can come from a variety of sources. Basically, it can be a news story, fellow blogger’s post, an interesting web page you stumbled across, something a friend said, or anything that interests you enough to research and write about it.

The second aspect is to find links. A lot of bloggers seem to specialize in finding interesting content and providing a link and maybe a few words to recommend to their readers that they check out the original content on someone else’s blog or site. While this isn’t so much about finding original content for your blog, it is about finding information and resources that is helpful to your readers.

Either way, when the well runs dry, where do you go to find more content to keep the river of babble flowing on your blog?

I’ve put together a huge list of content resources for you to peruse and investigate for possible blog content. It certainly isn’t a list of all the content, resources, and information out there, but it is designed to get you thinking about all the content, resources, and information out there for you to blog about. And there is a lot out there.

Industry News and Resources

If you are blogging about a specific subject or industry, monitor the news stories coming out of that industry. There are many industries to choose from, and they are not always all encompassing. For example, if you are interested in the blogging industry, not all the information on blogging might be of interest to you. You might only be interested in bloggers blogging in Japan or China, not the whole world. So your need for news resources covers a very wide industry but narrows to a specific focus.

The following is a general example of some industry news and resources available online. For a specific industry, hit the search engines for your industry keywords. Whatever your blogging topic, the odds are that there are one or more industries which support it. So search far and wide to find good resources for your blog stories.

Tag and Social Bookmarking Services

Tags and social bookmarking services are similar but different. Social bookmarking actually is the term that refers to users recommending which topics are most popular with them. This is done through votes and by tags.

A site or software tool that collects and stores your recommended or “bookmarked” sites is called a Social Bookmarking Manager. Some Social Bookmarking Managers are private, but the ones that will usually serve you better are the public ones, which show the world what you think is important information, and asks others to “vote” for your recommendations as you vote on theirs, and the winners rise to the top.

Tags are mini-categories for blog content, tagged by the blog owner or visitor. Used in combination with social bookmarking, you can search through tag services for the most popular posts within a specific tag category based upon traffic, voting, or other recommendations.

Tags and social bookmarking help Internet users talk to each other, sharing favorite posts and articles. They also help let you, the blogger, get a feel for what topics are popular at the moment. If it is popular enough, you may want to blog about it. By monitoring these “most popular” lists, whether by overall category or tags specific to your interests, you can keep a finger on the pulse of public opinion.

Technorati
IceRocket
Daypop
BlogPulse
Blodex - Top Blogged Stories
Blogsearch.com
Blogs of the Day
180n (Top Sited News Stories)
Gada - Graphic Meta Search Engine
Furl.net - Latest Headline Entries
CodeCubed - Tree Map (based on Del.icio.us)
Newzingo - Google Tag Map
Flickr
BlinkList
Connotea - Scientific Tags
De.lirio.us (Del.icio.us clone)
Digg
Furl
Blogmarks
KB Cafe Tag Search
Shadows - Social Bookmarking Service
Bloghop
Simpy
Oishii - Most Popular Bookmarks
Citeulike - Free Citation Service
Common Times - Reader Controlled News
Wists - Social Shopping
Spurl
Scuttle
LookMarks
Frassle
GiveALink - Donate Bookmarks
Netvous
Memeorandum
Ask Jeeves (now uses tags)
LinkFilter
Hyperlinkomatic
FeedMarker
BackFlip
Yummy.printfu - PDF Social Bookmarking
Diigo
Quimble - Poll on Favorite Social Bookmarking Manager
StumbleUpon
Filangy
Riffs - Social Recommender
RawSugar
Linkagogo
Gibeo.net
Linkroll
OpenBM - (Open Bookmarks)
SearchFox
Bloogz
Findory
Wink
Blog Top Sites
Indiza - Europe and International Social Bookmarking

Most Popular/High Traffic

There are many lists online that list the “most popular” websites, blogs, topics, news, products, services, and more. By monitoring these sites, you can stay on top of what is attracting the most attention.

Most popular lists are based upon a variety of criteria. For a few, it is just what is most popular to them, the individual or group, as they see it, often with their own criteria. For most “most popular lists”, though, popularity is solely based upon measurable data such as actual purchases or highest visitor traffic.

For high traffic sites or blogs, there is a lot to learn as well as be inspired by. What are they talking about? How are they talking about the subjects? Where are they getting their information and resources? Should you be following their lead? Use high traffic and most popular sites and blogs as resources for possible content and ideas.

If you don’t see a specific “most popular” topic of interest to you, in a search engine type in “most popular” with a keyword for your interest, like WordPress, and the search results will include the most popular WordPress Themes, plugins, tips, techniques, blogs, and other WordPress related most popular items. From here, you can find sites to monitor for the “most popular” topics for your blog.

Top Search Results

Another method of finding content is to find out what people are searching for. Search engines and other search engine monitoring resources are always keeping an eye on what topics are most popular by counting up the top search keywords and phrases.

There are several different types of reports for tracking top search results. Old style but useful lists include top search keywords and phrases from seardh engines. More modern style top search results show you live, as-it-happens search action, which may or may not reflect the most popular searches but shows you what people are searching for in the moment. Which ever method attracts you, there is a lot of information and inspiration that can be gleaned.

Webcrawler Search Spy - Live Viewing of Search Keywords (Adult and Filtered Views)
MetaSpy - Live Viewing of Search Keywords (Adult and Filtered Views)
LiveMarks - Live Del.icio.us Feed
Digg Spy - Live View of Diggs
LiveMarks - Top Ranking from Del.icio.us
Kanoodle Search Spy - Live Search Preview
Meta Eureka - Voyeur (Manual Refresh)
Joe Ant - Top Search Keywords Live
AOL Hot Searches
Dogpile - Search Spy Live Search Preview (Adult and Filtered Views)
Search Words
Search Hippo
Search King - Top 25 Search Words
Eurekster - Advertising and Keyword Search
Fravia - Web Searchlore (Keyword and Search Tips, Techniques, and Methods
Analogx - Top Search Keywords
MSN Insider - Top Searches
DWoz - Top Keywords and Search Phrases
Yahoo Buzz - Top Searches
Google Zeitgeist Global - Top Search Results Globally
Google Zeitgeist - Top Search Results
Google News Top Searches for 2005
Lycos Top Searches for 2005
Yahoo Top Searches for 2005
Search.com Top Searches for 2005
Ask (aka Ask Jeeves) Top Searches for 2005
AOL Top Searches for 2005
Dogpile.com (via Infospace - metasearch engine searches Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask, and others for 2005
A9’s Top Search Words with 9 Letters for 2005
Search Engine Watch - Google and Yahoo Make Dogpile’s Top Searches Of 2005 List
Yahoo! Canada 2005 Year in Review Top Searches
London Free Press - Janet Jackson top pick for Google searches
The Manila Bulletin - Top IT Stories for 2005
BBC News - Google Taps Into Search Patterns
Search Engine Watch - 5th Annual Search Engine Awards (from earlier this year)
Year in Review: Year of Heroes and Weasels
CodeCubed - Tree Map (based on Del.icio.us)
Newzingo - Google News Tag Map

Research: Reading What Other People Wrote

There is so much being written on the web, it can be overwhelming. Yet, one of the most important ways of finding something to write about is to find out what other people are writing about. This goes beyond news or most popular stories. It is the monitoring and reading of what other people are writing about to help inspire you to write.

Inspiration comes in many ways from reading. It begins by reading about what people are writing about in your industry. If they wrote it wonderfully, then you can cite them on your blog with a comment or two to encourage your readers to visit their site and read the article. If you want to talk about what they wrote, you can cite their post and include a blockquote or two from the article, and then say what you want to say. If you like what they wrote, but you think you can write it better, use their article as inspiration to write your own. Reading what other people also write helps you to keep up with what is going on around you, the trends and the news.

You never know where a bit of inspiration will come from, so keep your mind open to all possiblities. The following includes a wide range of resources for finding articles and archived articles. I’ve also included a list of some aggregators, sites that display content from other sites to help you keep track of what is going on through blog feeds. Some of these you can personalize and customize, while others are just lists to read through.

Search Engines, Search Blogs and Search Feeds

There are times when the most popular, highest traffic, or top stories just don’t give you the material you need for creative composition, or you need more collaborating evidence and research for the topic you are working on. That’s when you turn to searching.

Sometimes just putting in a few words that sum up your industry or a topic that interests you can bring up interesting story angles and perspectives that you haven’t thought of before. Sometimes, just typing in a word and hitting the “Surprise Me” button that some search engines have will take you to new places you never thought to look before. Either way, search engines offer tremendous information, resources, and inspiration if you just start looking.

Everyone has their favorite search engines, but this list also includes a variety of search services that might get you more specialized results on your topic. Among these more specialized searches, you can also search just blogs, feeds, or specific topics.

Tracking Stories

Sometimes you want to be the first blogger on your block to cover a particular story. Then there are times when everyone else has covered the story but you want to know what has happened to the story now, after the news has turned their headlights away. There are also times when the headline news doesn’t tell the whole story and you want to tell more. This is when it is time to start tracking the story beyond the headline news.

While there are a variety of sites that track stories and news, there are three methods for story tracking services and sites. First, there are sites whose goal is to simply to list blog or site content or press releases from subscribers or whatever resources they monitor. They are glorified information lists. Some showcase odds and ends, while others specialize in a specific industry. These work well for general interest subjects you are researching or investigating.

The second method is known as “website trackers”, software, online services, or utlities that will notify you if there has been a change in a specific website or blog. If a new post is published, you get an alert via your browser, email, or when you visit the website tracking page, showing you which blogs or sites have new content.

The third method is to use search engines and feed services as well as tagging and social bookmarking services to track stories. Search the story subject, title, or keywords to generate potential sources. Check these to see if they allow you to create a feed from your search results so you can track the story. See the lists above for those services.

Whatever reason you want to track stories, I’ve put together a list that includes both groups.

Facts and Statistics

There comes a time when you just need the facts. Or, you stumble upon some facts that so amaze you, you want to check them out so you can write about them. There are so many facts and statistics out there, I couldn’t possibly list them all, but here are some of the more popular resources for facts and figures for the US and World.

Internet Traffic, Web Trends, and Page Rank

Whether you blog about the Internet, the web, or blogging, you are still working within the Internet industry by being a blogger. No matter what your blog topic is, it helps to understand your Internet audience, where they are coming from, how they blog, and how they search. If you have advertising on your blog, then it is important to understand what is going on in the blog business in order to help you blog better and make more money. It also helps to keep an eye on the top web hosts and traffic in general so you know what is going on around you in the Internet world.

By watching which blogs or websites are top of the charts for traffic, you can pretty much guage which topics are popular with most Internet users. Here are some resources for lists of the most popular websites and blogs online, as well as tracking web trends and traffic.

So what are some news or resources you monitor frequently to find stories and content for your blog that I have missed? Wanna share?

How to Overcome Blogger's Block

2007-11-29T17:32:00.001-08:00

Blogger's Block, much like the traditional Writer's block, is a phenomenon involving temporary loss of ability to continue blogging, usually due to lack of inspiration, creativity or even motivation.

If it occurs for a day or two or even a week, it should not be a cause of concern because as bloggers, we all suffer from Writer's block at some point of time. However, if our inability to post new content extends for a longer duration, it may be something to worry about because of three reasons:

1. Our regular readers would return disappointed when they don't find anything new our blogs and if the cycle repeats, they may completely abandon reading the blog [you know how tough it is to get readers but it's so simple to lose them]

2. Google may be indexing your site at frequent intervals but if the Googlebot is unable to find new content on your blog during consecutive visits, it may decide to decrease the crawling frequency.

3. A site that isn't updated for a long period may not look very attractive to new visitors who stumble upon your site via search engines, forums and other places. You are missing an opportunity to convert a casual visitor into a return visitor.

Therefore, a Writer's block, or specifically Blogger's block can sometimes be bad news for your blog. So here are 10 ways to prevent or even overcome Writer's block:

1. Ditch the laptop and try to note your ideas on a paper notebook. You can always post them online later.

2. Explore your hidden treasures [old blog posts] which are lying somewhere unnoticed in your archives. Also read the user comments on your old posts. This may motivate you to write more wondeful posts.

3. Remove all the clutter and unused icons from your desktop. Start your blog editor in a simplistic mode where you see just the text that you type - no distractions.

4. Try to change your work environment like move to a different room or change the direction of your desk.

5. A good family picture with an indoor plant on your desk may help you concentrate better.

6. This is may sound funny but if you chalk out a blogging timetable, like the own you had while you were in school, it may help you stick to your regular posting schedule.

7. If you are writing a blog post but that doesn't seem to go anywhere, just save it as a draft and start working on another article. You will always get new ideas for your previous post later.

8. Sometime the room environment is not conducive enough for blogging. Unplug the laptop and blog from your terrace or even the garden.

9. Don't miss the family dinner just because you are under pressure to post a blog entry. The discussions at the dinning table would make you feel more rejuvenated and your mind will be filled with ideas.

10. If none of the techniques work, it may be time to take a quick shower and sleep. You can resume blogging early morning tomorrow.

10 productive things to do when you don't feel like blogging

2007-11-29T17:17:00.000-08:00

On one particular day of your blog life,you wake up and you don't feel like blogging.But you still don't want to feel or sound or look lazy.So what's the way out.How about a productive break?Here are a few things you can do which don't require tremendous effort from your part but will add points to your blog.

1.Submit your blog&feed to directories.
This one would be an efficient use of time as it increases your chances of being discovered at the same time gives you a bit more exposure in the blogosphere.You can find some directories for blog and rss submission from rss-specifications.com.

2.Format your posts.
You can do spell checks,change the picture positions,validate the links or add more useful links to your existing posts.Dividing long posts into short paragraphs will give a classy look to the article.Or you can consider adding bookmarklets below your
posts which will make it easy for your reader to do social bookmarking.

3.Modify the template.
Play with your blog template.You always wanted to do it,right.Change the banners,backgrounds,the css buttons,sidebar positions etc.This will add a fresh look
to your blog.

4.Tweak the ads.
Tryout new positions for your ads.Position them at points where the would get maximum
exposure.Change the ads background and link colour.Try to make those boring ads a lil
bit eyecandy.

5.Analyse your growth.
Combine the data about you blog and its traffic from Google Analytics,Feedburner,Technorati etc. and get a big picture of your blog's progress.Check out how your ranks have improved and find out where your loyal readers
are from.

6.Create a ravishing avatar/favicon.
Why spend time on creating an avatar?Now as communities like Mybloglog have evolved,there's no wonder if you find your picture on the blog you're reading.Mybloglog widgets are now on almost every blog.So creating an avatar which defines you or your blog will be a good investment of your time.Same are the reasons in the case of a favicon.

7.Check out the top100.
Find out what the top blogs are upto.Skim through their presentation styles,the templates,the boasting numbers and the fat subscriberships.There's a lot to learn and
more knowledge will do only good in the blogosphere.

8.Build relationship with other bloggers.
Make someones day by commenting on his blog.Commenting on blogs related to your subject of expertise will be a good idea,since it elevates the chances of pulling inbound links.But don't forget to leave your blog title and url along with the comments you make.

9.Get some motivation.
Reread your most applauded articles,the inspiring responses,the thanks messages.If you still don't get that punch,remember that you've a reputation to keep up with.

10.Surf around.
Surfing around other blogs or news websites will help you find subjects you would be interested in blogging about.Make a 'To blog' list and do some research on items you'll be blogging about.

Top 29 Niche Social Media Sites (That Actually Send Traffic)

2007-11-28T14:09:00.000-08:00

With Digg getting more and more hostile–and with my baiting habit getting a bit out-of-control–I’ve lately been forced to look elsewhere to get my beloved jolts of social media traffic.

No matter. Evolve or die! They won’t send you 5,000 uniques in an hour, but the traffic they do send is more likely to subscribe to your RSS feed, because their members have already identified themselves as part of your niche’s tribe. (And it’s a more targeted tribe than the “gamer wanker” at Digg, or “Politico smartass” at Reddit.)

Without further adieu, here are 17 25 29 24 29 niche social media sites that actually seem to be gaining critical mass:

AgentB (Deals)
AutoSpies (Autos)
Babblz (Parenting)
Ballhype (Sports)
blogs4God (Christian)
BuzzFlash (News)
Care2 (Social Action)
Dealigg (Deals)
Dissect Medicine (Health & Medicine)
DNHour (Domaining)
DZone (Developers)
Game Diggity (Game Videos)
Hugg (Environment)
Meme or Lame (Gadgets)
Mixx (Anything)
PhotographyVoter (Photography)
Pixel Groovy (Web Design)
Plant Change (Environment)
PlugIM (Online Marketing)
qoolsqool (Education Resources)
ScoreGuru (Sports)
ShowHype (Entertainment)
Sk-rt (Lifestyle)
Small Business Brief (Business & Entrepreneurship)
Sphinn (Search Engines & Online Marketing)
Stylehive (Fashion)
TTiqq (Tips & Tutorials)
Tweako (Computers & Technology)
VideoSift (Videos)

It’s a good bet that nearly every linkbait you publish would fit in at at least one of the above sites, so I recommend making ‘niche social media submission’ part of your regular launch to-do list. Just like ol’ fashioned link begging, it’s a great tactic to hedge against the power of the Bury Brigade at Digg. (Save yourself time: Go sign up and get an identical username and password for each site, and then bookmark this page )

Tips from a Top 10 Digg user on how to get to the Frontpage

2007-11-28T14:04:00.000-08:00

Many Bloggers these days want to get their blog posts to the frontpage of Digg so that they can increase their traffic and popularity of their blogs. Some are ready to go almost any extent to get diggs such as making fake usernames and asking friends to digg for them.

Yesterday, I had a chat with one of the Top 10 Digg users and he shared a few tips with me. If you really want to get on digg frontpage, here is how you do it…

make atleast 15 friends on Digg so it gives fast exposure to your story
get your friends to digg all your posts
you must digg them in return
if your story is good, it will get 20-30 more diggs but those 15 friends are the key
you must select a niche like technology or world news
then you pick 50 or so feeds and post fast
feeds gives you fast sources on news
Some of the Feeds I subscribe are:
1. Ars Technica
2. BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition
3. BBC News | Technology | World Edition
4. Bloglines Search: kevin rose
5. Bloglines | News
6. CNET News.com
7. CNN.com
8. CrunchGear
9. Engadget
10. Google Blogoscoped
11. Guardian Unlimited
12. Official Google Blog
13. Read/WriteWeb
14. Scientific American
15. Wired News: Top Stories
16. The Huffington Post | Raw Feed
17. TechCrunch
18. Techdirt
19. BBC News | Health | World Edition
20. EurekAlert! - Breaking News
21. Physics Org
22. National Geographic News
23. SI.com
24. SI.com - NFL
25. SI.com: SI Writers
26. BusinessWeek Online — Most Popular
27. BusinessWeek Online — Technology & Science
28. TechWeb
29. Nature
30. HowStuffWorks.com
31. Signum sine tinnitu–by Guy Kawasak
32. Steve Pavlina’s Personal Development Blog
33. Joystiq
34. TMZ.com
35. InformationWeek - All Stories
36. iLounge | All Things iPod, iTunes and beyond
37. PC World: How-To’s Update
38. PC World: Latest Technology News
39. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)
40. eWEEK Technology News
41. Leftlane News
42. Tom’s Hardware
43. New Scientist Tech - Technology
44. New Scientist Tech - Weapons Technology
45. New Scientist Tech - Aviation
46. New Scientist Tech - Cars and Motoring
47. CNN.com - Technology
48. CNN.com - Science & Space
49. LiveScience.com
all u need is good 50-70 sources
once you get to the frontpage about 20 times, it gets easy
so you must look for diggers who post a lot, digg them fast, and post good stuff fast
top diggers like DigitalGolpher (Amit) get 30 free diggs
top diggers are just gamers, nothing special about them
use attractive titles using why, how, etc. Example: “Why Windows XP is the best OS”, “15 reasons why Windows XP is the best OS”, “How to tweak Windows XP”
you must be fast in posting because if you are slow, other Diggers will post the news you want to post, before you.
use good description
its a game, you will learn, as you play
digg bans lot of blogs as splogs so be careful
digg users may report your posts as Spam for fun as Digg has bad crowd, so you have to be very professional
rarely blogs gets to go frontpage, unless it’s very popular
digg management is watching for blogs
digg groups are not effective
generaly you need 50 Diggs to get to Frontpage
if your rate of digg is high, it can go frontpage with 25 Diggs
I had one not promoted at 65, one took 75, one took only 9 Diggs!

If you want to get your blog posts on the frontpage of Digg, make sure you have posts worth it. Also start digging the stories that some of the top 100 digg users submit. Add them as friends and if possible try to make them submit your stories. Stories dugg by them have more chance of showing on Frontpage. If they find your articles useful, they will surely submit your stories for you.

Some more link baiting strategies

2007-11-28T14:00:00.000-08:00

Link baiting (or linkbaiting) is the latest buzz word in the SEO world and has come to be the preferred way to natural link building.

It means to create something that naturally attract backlinks for your web page by getting people to talk about it, discussing it on forums, blogging about i, posting it on del.icio.us/Furl/Digg/Shoutwire and linking to it from their sites. It also attracts a lot of visitors.

Here is an excellent article: The Art of Linkbaiting and Linkbaiting for Fun & Profit.

Here is a list of ideas:

Make a valuable resource (lists, special reports, history of, how to, etc.)
Interview (e-mail/phone) prominent people and publish it.
Build a useful tool
Write an interesting article
Run a newsworthy ‘event’ such as a contest
Test something new that has not been done before
Be the first in doing something on the internet
Write something controversial
Be the first to write the latest news in your niche
Be the first to expose a scammer
Disagree with an authority
Write some funny humor
Make an interesting picture
Be the first to research and document something
Make a theme, plugin or piece of software
Make a tool that others can put on their sites but that links to you
Make a joke about a known person
Make a resource that is just in time for a major event
Write an outrageous theory and back it up with logics
Write useful comments on something that is happening
Give something valuable for free
Coin a new acronym in your niche and get people to talk about it
Become an expert in your niche and write valuable information

Linkbaiting or Link Baiting Strategies?

2007-11-28T13:48:00.001-08:00

The idea of link baiting is to create a piece of content which is centered on a set demand from a specific audience. Who do you want to relate to? Why would they care? What would make them likely to spread your idea?
For example, Salary.com sponsored research stating that work at home moms did $134,121 worth of work each year. Because it was packaged as research and a story people would want to spread it spread far and wide.
Some common link baiting techniques

Talk about a specific community.
Give people a way to feel important about themselves, someone they care about, or something they feel should be important.
Take recent events and scale them out to others in your community.
Be provocative or controversial.
Be a contrarian.
Be thorough.

Controlling Your Message

Launch your story on a main channel such that you can change your messaging or update your offering based on feedback. If they wrong group runs with your story you may not want to stop them. ïŠ
If you do not have a main channel which you can launch your idea on try to launch your idea by giving a popular channel such as TechCrunch the exclusive on your story.
If possible, build trust and attention in the marketplace well ahead of when you need to leverage it.
Consider potential blowback ahead of time. Depending on the importance of your message and brand strategy you may want to make your message easy to misinterpret OR you may want to make your message clear.
Create common link points. Do not throw away your link equity. For example, here are a couple ways people throw away link equity they earned:
- Some book authors do not create an official page about their book on their site, and thus just give away the link equity and top ranking to an online bookstore.
- Many people use Surveymonkey or some other 3rd party voting service when they create contests and polls. If you can include the voting script on your site you keep that link authority associated with your site even after the poll closes and people no longer talk about it.

Magnetic Headlines

Be specific with your headlines. Salary.com stating that work at home moms are worth $134,121 a year is probably going to spread further than if they said $200,000.
Write your headlines with the intent of spreading them. Focus more on writing something that evokes emotional responses and spread rather than writing for keywords and SEO.
Given that many social news sites have a voting mechanism that does not even require people to read the article to vote, the title may be far more important than the actual content of your link bait.
Copy Blogger offers great free headline writing tips.

Me Me Meâ€¦the Selfish Web

People like to view themselves as being important.
- Many bloggers search for links to their blogs on Technorati or Google Blog Search multiple times each day (I typically do).
- Calling out specific people, especially with humor, is an easy way to build linkage data.
- Digg frequently has homepage stories about Digg or Digg users.
- People are more likely to believe and spread messages which reinforce their world view.
Community involvement is important to help others identify with and feel ownership in your link bait.
When Rand Fishken launched his Search Engine Ranking Factors he collected feedback from about a dozen prominent members in the SEO community. Many of those people are active community members who helped spread the news at launch time.
- Asking people for feedback can help others feel ownership in your idea, and is a way to pitch them on your idea without looking sleazy pitching it.

Seeding Your Idea

Ask for feedback from people who may be interested in helping you improve your idea or helping you market it.
Leverage friends and contacts via instant message and email.
Pitch relevant bloggers and media sources. It is preferable to build rapport prior to pitching.
Build accounts on social news sites.
Some social news sites allow you to place voting buttons on your site. Do so on your most important ideas.
Consider the best times and locations to launch your idea.
Have a friend or yourself submit your best ideas to the most authoritative and relevant social news sites.
- Ensures your story has a title that is easy to vote for.
- Ensures your story is submitted at an appropriate time.
- If you do not do it soon after mentioning a story on your own site someone else may submit for you, using a dumb title or dumb post content.

Launching a Static Site
Even if your site is fairly static in nature you can still create a buzz when you launch it.

Call in favors from people you helped in the past.
ncorporate community ideas into your idea.
Spread out your ideas. For example, if you are forming a new partnership you can triple dip on publicity:
- Interview partners on another channel.
- Announce the launch.
- Add linkbait to the site at a later point in time.

Formatting Link Bait

Make it easy to identify and connect with. Think about human emotions and tap the sense of empathy.
You may want to make your idea look polarized such that it especially appeals to one group and/or especially offends another. If other people are fighting over guessing your intentions you will get quality links.
Make your link bait look comprehensive.
- Perception is more important than reality.
- Most writing is quite wasteful in nature, because you have to trim off much of what you create.
- By creating ordered lists of factoids an incomplete story can look well researched, even if it is not. For example, if you make a list of 101 ways to do x people may give a few ideas and some feedback, but nobody is going to sit and list 383 ways to do x.
Cite research, further reading, and link out to related resources from within your content. It makes your story look well researched and associates your work with other trusted names or brands in your field. You may even want to cite a few people that you want links from.
Dress up your link bait using quality design and / or relevant images from sites like Istockphoto.

Monetizing Link Bait

Make your link bait EASY to link at.
Donâ€™t over-monetize it right out of the gate. Make it look like research which is easy to cite rather than a piece of commercial information.
In Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content Clay Shirky stressed the importance of gaining authority to gain scale and distribution if you want to make money online.
Link bait rarely makes much money or directly pays for itself from the direct traffic. However, it has amazing indirect value.
- People who pay attention to the active portions of the web are far more likely to be web publishers than those who do not.
- Even if people do not link to your link bait idea right away you still gain mindshare and brand recognition amongst a group of people who have significant authority.
- Many search engines, such as Google, use authority centric relevancy algorithms. Editorial links are seen as votes or signs of trust.
- In Google, getting a link to any part of your site will help make all pages on your site more authoritative.
Two weeks after launching a linkbait my Google traffic and site earnings more than doubled on a site that was getting thousands of visitors and making over $100 a day from AdSense before the viral marketing campaign.

Bubbling Up

Social news sites and social bookmarking sites have recently popular lists that many people read.
Meme trackers track what stories are quickly spreading through the blogosphere.
Exposure on either of these can cause additional exposure and more linkage data. Many bloggers and some mainstream media outlets (like the MSNBC Clicked Blog) use these social news sites to find stories or sources.

How to submit links to 60 social bookmarking sites in 30mins?

2007-11-28T13:46:00.000-08:00

Submitting links to social bookmarking sites one has registered can be a tolerance testing process.Repetetive and boaring process is in the end highly rewarding.So avoiding it is not an option.So let's lighten up and ease the process of link submission.
Let's start the process with a basic technique.
Copy-paste n Notepad
.....................

This technique needs you to use the notepad you've not used in generations.
Copy the details of your post to a notepad file and save the file to your desktop.
By details i mean 1)URL to the post.
2)Title of the post.
3)A short description about the post.
4)Tags related to the post.
5)Your blog's feed URL.

Bank on browser's password manager
...................................
Use your browser's inbuilt password manager to save login & password of the sites
you've registered,so that the next time you go to the site it lets you in automatically.

Your first genie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
How long will it take you to submit links to 20 social bookmarking sites?40mins,50mins,60mins.Ok we'll stop at 60mins by assuming you use the copy-paste
technique and are taking about 2 mins to submit your links to one site.And what about
the agony of those 60mins.Let me tell you about Onlywire,your painkiller.It submits your link to 20bookmarking sites with just one click.All you need to do is to provide them
your id&passwords to those 20 sites.Kudos to Onlywire.

Your second genie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Lets save some more time.This time how about 10sites.Satisfying right.Scratchlist is the next solution for your bookmarking troubles.You don't even have to register to the sites listed in scratchlist to submit links in them.The link you submit expires on a presetted number
of days which is setted to 30days in default.So you need to make sure you set the expire limit to 365 days which is the maximum.

You third genie
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Now the password manager technique comes into play.Mohamadlatif.com speeds up link submission to about 33 bookmarking sites.Although you're not
completely freed from participation.Type in post URL and title on Mohamadlatiff.com and it will generate links to those 33sites's link submission page with title and URL
filled.You need to copy-paste the description & tag manually.

Abracadabra for more traffic
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
If you have a good article in hand it's always fair to go for more publicity.So don't
forget to ping your blog to blog search engines.Tools which you can use to get this done.
1.Ping-o-matic
2.Pingoat
3.Kping
4.Feedshark

How to welcome the 'Digg Effect'?

2007-11-28T13:44:00.000-08:00

Knowledge of what will be coming gives one a huge deal of advantage as it lets one utilize the forecoming fortune wisely.As far as bloggers are concerned getting on digg frontpage is a huge events as it follows loads of traffic and link love.Apart from SEO's nowadays many bloggers are into creating those diggable posts or what is called digg baiting.While SEO's do it for higher PRs and better positioning in search results,blogger are aiming at higher Technorati ranks,Feed subscribers and Blogrolls.And why not?Many bloggers became A-listers when their articles got digged 3 or 4 times.As many may argue Digg-baiting may not bring targeted traffic.But as from my experience a good amount of visitors from Digg look further for content in your blog and many return for updates.And further more a little bit optimization at the digg period can bring some monetary benefits too.Here are a few things you can do for welcoming the 'Digg effect'.

1)Pay few more bucks for bandwidth:You may have to satisfy as high as 6000 connections per second on the first day at digg.So be prepared.

2)Optimize your ads:Though digger's are said to adblind,good placement of ads can score some clicks.The best positions being just after the title and after the posts.

3)Get the buttons:Once you see that your post is slowly getting popular,make it easy for the readers to share your stuff.Get buttons to other bookmarking sites or add some feedflares if you use Feedburner.This will help you get some bonus traffic.

4)Put your best links forward:After digging the story people will starting looking for more.You should catch their eyes to your best posts and who knows they might digg those stories too.

5)Uploading images:If your posts contains images as a central part don't upload it on sites that has bandwidth limit like Imageshack.Instead upload it on Flickr or Google pages.

6)Don't submit the digged post to other bookmarking sites yourself:Digg frontpage
gives you guaranteed exposure to top users of other top bookmarking sites like
Reddit and del.icio.us.When these top users submit your story it has a better chance
of getting popular because these top users will have a good community base their with
friends who'll make the story popular by just looking at the submitter's name.

Free Link Love - To Get It, Give It Up!

2007-11-28T13:42:00.000-08:00

Those of us who have been in the SEO biz for a while tend to want to direct and manipulate the PageRank on our sites. You know the tricks. However, things are very different with blogs and, if you want yours to rank well, you need to let go of that concept.

Blogs are all about linking freely, not just to other posts and pages within your own site, but also out to other websites and blogs.

Blogs are about sharing information and insight. They are about relationships and communities. None of these can spawn or thrive without interaction. Links are their conduit to interaction and to get links, you have to give links. Here’s how and why:

Link out

People usually find out when you link to them, especially other bloggers. This often prompts them come to your blog to find out who you are and what you said about them or about what they said. They may then comment on your blog, link back to you and/or become a member of your community. Using good keywords in your outbound link text will also help to theme your pages.

Comment on other blogs

Because of comment spam, many blogs use no-followed links. Do not let this deter you from commenting. In the sea of spam, intelligent, thought-provoking commentary really stands out and it encourages the blogger and his or her readers to not only respond to your thoughts, but to visit your website, leave their own comments and to link to you.

Use a blogroll

Find and read other blogs on your topic. Then, point links at those you respect with your blogroll. Those bloggers will be alerted to your interest and may respond in kind. Thereâ€™s also been talk lately, notably by Bill Slawski of SEO by the Sea, that Google may somewhat reward blogs using blogrolls.

Use trackbacks

Where enabled, trackbacks allow you to go to other blogs and link back to posts on your blog as related stories. They essentially say, “If this post interests you, you might like this one, tooâ€. These links are valuable, even if they are no-followed, because they may draw the blogger and his readership to your blog and into your community. This may result in links and traffic.

Do follow

Some blog platforms come standard with â€œno followâ€ tags on links in the comments. While leaving these enabled does deter some spammers, it will not keep most of them away. I prefer to reward readers who leave good comments with a link, so they will return and become part of my blog community and, perhaps, link to me. If your blog links are no-followed by default, search for appropriate “do follow” plugins to disable this feature.

Use good internal linking strategies

Links between your own posts and pages should use good keywords to lead the search engines to related posts within your blog. Placing your posts into proper categories also helps to theme your post pages and your links. As your pages gain PageRank, they then share it with other pages on your blog using good link reputation.

Tips to Get Slashdotted and Survive Slashdot Effect

2007-11-28T13:40:00.000-08:00

What is the meant by getting Slashdotted? Did Slashdotters visit your site? If you dont know the answer, probably your site traffic has never been slashdotted before.

Slashdotting is like a web traffic generator leads to many comments, lots of website traffic, more advertising revenue, crashed servers and expired bandwidth leading to more web hosting payments… the web traffic stats and web traffic analysis will say all. Welcome to Slashdot or better seen as /.

Wikipedia defines The Slashdot effect as “a particular example of how incoming links from a popular website can cause a smaller site to slow down or even temporarily close due to the increased traffic. The name comes from the huge influx of web traffic that often results from sites being mentioned on Slashdot, a popular technology news and information site. Typically, less robust sites are unable to cope with the huge increase in traffic and become unavailable – either their bandwidth is consumed or their servers fail to cope with the high strain.” [Another one]

Here is a collection of tips and tricks to get your site Slashdotted!

VirtuOffice : How To Get Slashdotted - “Some Experiments In Slashdottery. “If you’re really looking to participate in the Slashdot effect, you may be overlooking some really easy alternatives.
“Nicholas Roussos: How-To Get Slashdotted, The Easy Way - “I found an easy way to get them to link to your site. Yes, easy, it took me five tries the first time. Anything that you can do in five tries is easy. My second link didn’t even take that long.”
How-To Get Slashdotted, The Easy Way (continued) - “I recieved this email from Tim Lord with an unofficial and incomplete submission guide.”
(A Few) Words on Slashdot Submissions - “What makes a perfect Slashdot submission? A perfect Slashdot submission should make you want to cry, it is so good.
“Slashdot FAQ : Why didn’t you post my story? - “Slashdot gets hundreds of submissions every day. Every day our authors go through these submissions, and try to select the most interesting, timely, and relevant ones to post to the homepage. There are probably as many reasons for stories to get rejected as there are stories, but here are some of the more common ones”

More stories about slashdotted experiences and preparing to get slashdotted

LinuxWorld : How to Survive Being Slashdotted - “Sometimes the traffic may exhaust a month’s worth of bandwidth allocation from its ISP in a few days. Sometimes the requests can plug up a limited connection. But, according to Malda, most often it’s poor planning and site architecture.”
ThreadWatch : What a Slashdotting Looks Like - “Slashdotting hits instantly at peak - no build up, so there’s no time for taking precautions”
Intertwingly : Surviving Slashdot - “I was able to survive a slashdotting yesterday. The solution was simple. My ability to do so, and so easily, speaks volumes about the power of the REST architecture.”
Devnulled : Surviving A Slashdotting With a Celeron 466 - “My server at the time was a temporary server built out of spare parts (I host my site at home) which was over 6 years old, so I had no idea what I’d be able to do with it.”
MyVogon Poetry : Anatomy of the Mailinator slashdotting - “It was my first time experiencing it firsthand from the server side. I thought I’d share some interesting things that happened today.”
BusinessWeek: Less Impact from the “Slashdot Effect” - “Links on the tech news site no longer harvest the overwhelming numbers of readers they used to.”
Dynamoo : The Slashdot Effect - “Being features on Slashdot is both an honour and a curse. The story I was in wasn’t a particularly popular story as these things go, only a medium amount of comments. However, the traffic was still significant, and the Slashdot after-effects are worth noting.”
Problogger: What to do when you Get Slashdotted - “Getting a deluge of visitors to your blog from a larger site is what many blogger’s dreams are made of but what should you do if you want to maximise the benefit of this occurrence as and when it happens?” More from Darren - Google vs. Slashdot Traffic.
WebmasterWorld : Getting slashdotted - “Surviving a slashdotting is not that hard, there are two key areas to look at. Bandwidth and Server Load.”
Dunc Nuggets : The Slashdot Effect - “A few lessons, if a blog gets slashdotted its wise to turn OFF comment moderation straight away if you have it on, you wont be able to keep up.”
The Slashdot Effect : An Analysis of Three Internet Publications - Apache httpd log files have been analyzed to show the Slashdot Effect.
Web Servers, Earthquakes, and the Slashdot Effect - This article details how the U.S. Geological Survey Pasadena Field Office has attempted to deal with this phenomenon.
Geek.com Slashdotted: Surviving The Slashdot Effect - “I was indeed curious about what effect being picked up by Slashdot would have on our numbers.”
Yahoo Gets Slashdotted - “The funny thing is that it held up just fine–served by a single FreeBSD server running Apache. The hardware was nothing special. So, why is it that when most sites get “featured” on Slashdot, they crumble?”

There are some other tools to help during slashdotting

MirrorDot - When Slashdot posts a new story, MirrorDot automagically parses the story and mirrors any linked pages and keeps your site buzz going.
Network Mirror - automatically mirror any Slashdot-linked pages and ensure the content would remain available, even if the original site went down trying to solve the Slashdot effect.

How To Get Digged

2007-11-28T13:36:00.000-08:00

Ever wanted to know how to get your site on the front page of Digg.com?

With a few simple steps you'll be well on your way dealing with swarms of traffic that'll raise your bandwidth sky high!

* If you find this lens helpful please rate it and submit it to digg.com *

Thanks!

Intrigue The Readers

With Great Titles Of Course

The first step to being on the front page of digg.com is getting the readers to click on the title to read your blog / story / site.

Recent big hits on digg.com includes:

"How to Destroy the Earth With a Coffee Can"

"How I learned to break in to Apple and Code for them without Permission."

"How I (color blind person) see the world!"

"Mom uses Technology to PWN Teens."

Follow The Trends

Before they get burnt out.

The next step to getting on the front page of digg.com is to follow the trends. What is everyone talking about and can't get enough of?

A few examples include:

Windows Vista (what's wrong with it now!)

Nintendo's Wii (soon to be released on Nov. 18)

Windows users vs. Mac users (always a hot topic to start the OS wars)

See the trend here?
(Technology is rapidly growing, and the fact is most people whom use digg.com are always wanting to keep up to date with it.)

Write About Something That Pisses People Off

Face it, it'll get them talking

What better way to draw more attention to your submission to digg.com but to get people to comment on it. The easiest way to receive comments is to piss people off or to fake a post.

A good example was a submission that was entered a week ago:

"MacBook Joins the Club of Igniting Laptops"
This was a false post. The Owner of the laptop set fire to it, it did not ignite itself.

This set off a wide range of comments when it was soon found that the owner had lied.

Make A List

People Love Lists

People are attracted to lists. Some of the best digg.com submissions were as simple as the following:

5 Minutes To Wealth
CSS In 8 Easy Steps
Top 10 Reasons To Buy Electronics
6 Examples Of Cooking Hazards
How To Get Digged In A Jiffy

Pleasing To The Eye

Wow them with a photo

Photos are worth a thousand words (so they say). People enjoy looking at odd and unique things. Whether it be tragically disgusting or a new discovered beauty, you'll win them to digg your submission.

Snazzy Video

Video is worth a million words (if its good!)

A great way to be on the front page of digg.com is if you have a great video clip.
From grandmothers shooting MP40's to a guy who dances around the world.

Links To Other Great Sites!

People love to explore great sites

Another great way to get on the front page of digg.com is to have a list of great useful links.

digg / All: search Digg Swarm and Stack, just like mom used to bake. Well... if mom baked real-time flash visualization tools.All StoriesUpcoming Stories (3,811)
Squidoo Homepage: Squidoo is home to tens of thousands of everyday enthusiasts. Spread your ideas, make yourself known, meet new traffic. (You could even earn a royalty). What's your topic?
Welcome to Flickr - Photo Sharing: Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos to the world, securely and privately show photos to your friends and family, or blog the photos you take with a cameraphone.

How to Build a ‘Digg Culture’ on your Blog

2007-11-28T13:34:00.000-08:00

Many don’t believe that getting on Digg is worth much because the traffic is so fleeting however I think there is much more value for smart publishers than just the initial burst of traffic.

Such benefits to getting on the front page of Digg include:

1. Fresh RSS subscribers

Every time I get dugg I notice a leap in my RSS subscriber count. The first few times a site gets on Digg this is often bigger than subsequent diggings (after a few times I guess those who are interested in your topic will have already been subscribed) but there is a noticeable bump in subscribers each time.

2. Newsletter subscribers

Similarly newsletter subscribers (if you have one) will generally get a bump when you’re dugg. I generally add a link to subscribe to my newsletter on any post that gets on digg to leverage the traffic in this way. In this way (and with RSS subscribers) you are not only getting that first wave of traffic but are building ongoing waves of traffic each time you post or send a newsletter.

3. Secondary link ups

Digg has a ‘blog this’ feature and while it’s not used by every Digger it is used. I find that each time I’m dugg that there is a secondary wave of incoming links to your post via this feature but also other diggers blogging about you. I also find that when featured prominently on digg that you quite often get linked to on other social bookmarking sites (delicious, reddit etc) and get further waves of traffic and incoming links from their users. The secondary link ups don’t generally send a lot of traffic (although on occasion they can be from larger sites) but have the added benefit of helping the site’s Search Engine ranking (Google Juice) which over time helps build a site’s traffic.

4. A Digging Culture Emerges

If you are able to convert your incoming readers from Digg into regular readers you then have a unique opportunity to get repeat appearances on Digg again. I’ve found that with each appearance on digg that I seem to gather more and more readers to my site who will naturally submit my posts to Digg in future. I can’t quite put my finger on it but I guess the type of reader that is now subscribing to the blogs is now familiar with Digg and is even actively looking for things to bookmark. Once you develop this type of ‘culture’ the cycle outlined above can continue.

The Impact of Digg Culture over time:
Once this ‘digg culture’ kicks in a site can experience a series of ‘diggings’ which on each occasion will see the site receive a sudden and short burst of traffic followed by a return to lower traffic that is actually higher than pre-digg levels.

The actual traffic from digg is a nice (but short lived) thing - but the real benefit of being dugg regularly is the increase in traffic from loyal readers (RSS, bookmarks and newsletters) as well as the SEO benefits of new incoming links.

I’ve attempted to graph this below (this is not from any actual site’s traffic but is typical of a blog that enjoys the benefits of ‘digg culture’:

While each blog is different (and the graph won’t apply to everyone) I’ve witnessed this ‘digg effect’ on a number of blogs now.

Can you Encourage a Digg Culture on Your Blog?

So how does one build a ‘Digg Culture’ on their blog? I’m sure this is a question that many of us would like ‘the answer’ to.

I’m afraid I don’t have a definitive answer and while many articles have been written on how to be successful on Digg I’m not sure anyone has really got it completely worked out because it can be a reasonably unpredictable and whimsical beast.

Having said that - here are 10 tips that come to mind on how to build a ‘digg culture’ on your blog. They come both from my own experience of having my blogs regularly featured on Digg but also by watching what other successful sites do.

Style of Writing - while many hundreds of pages get to the top of the digg pile every week and there is quite a variation in their style - many of them do tend to have similarities. They are often lists and are usually easily digestible pieces that appeal to a skeptical yet reasonably knowledgeable audience. I don’ t know their demographics but I suspect it’s largely a young male audience so your writing needs to be appeal to them. I find ‘how to’ posts tend to do well on Digg, as do posts that break news or that are irreverent to some sort of institution.
Topic of Writing - Digg has recently broadened the topics that it covers, however it’s roots are technology based and I find that blogs that have a technology focus tend to have a higher chance of being dugg repeatedly than blogs that are on other topics. This may change with time.
Become a Digg User - perhaps one of the most powerful tips I can give you is to actually use Digg yourself. Become a part of the community, be an active Digger (not just of your own sites), watch what stories make it big, analyze their style and topic, make connections with other diggers. Don’t do all this just to manipulate the system but because in doing it you could well learn a thing or two about building a successful site, have some fun and meet some cool people.
Get on other Key Sites/Blogs - One way to get highly Dugg is to be featured on other sites with a Digg Culture. For example blogs like Life Hacker routinely have the sites that they link to get flow on diggings. Similarly, other social bookmarking sites like delicious and reddit often bring i a type of traffic which will then also digg your posts. Ultimately the more people that see your post the higher chance of it being bookmarked - however there are certain sites that can send traffic that are more likely to do so.
Drive Traffic to Diggable Posts - a few weeks ago I noticed an interesting trend on one of my blogs statistics. It seemed that every Friday (or at least every second one) I was getting on the front page of Digg with one of my posts. This was strange to me as I had not purposely tried to get any of those posts featured in that way but almost as regularly as clockwork they were. Why was this? The answer lay in my weekly email newsletter which I sent, you guessed it, every Friday morning to thousands of readers. While I hadn’t mentioned Digg in those newsletters and had not asked readers to do it - the fact that I sent thousands of readers to a freshly written post all at the same time meant that a certain percentage of them Dugg it (partly because the Digg Culture was already in effect as I’d previously been at the top of Digg on that blog). It struck me that I was onto a good thing so I began to release my more ‘diggable posts’ on Fridays instead of randomly and let my newsletter continue to do its work.
Make it easy to Digg your work - I know that some people hate the recently common practice of putting social bookmarking icons at the end of posts but they can at times be the difference between getting your post on the front page of Digg or not. I choose not to use them but if I do see one of my posts rising in the number of Diggs that they have I will generally add a text link at the end of my posts pointing to the Digg page that readers might like to visit in order to bookmark it. This means that not every post on my blogs has a digg button - but those that someone has bookmarked often get enough extra diggs to get on the front page.
Titles and first lines are Important - I find that in most cases that I’ve had a post I’ve written submitted to Digg that the person who submits it uses my title (or at least something close to it). In many cases they also use the first line or two of my post as the description. As a result it is important to hone your title writing skills and to think carefully about how you start your posts. Posts that make it to the Digg front page are punchy, informative and draw readers in to read more.
Digg Your Own Stories - With Caution - I quite often get asked whether I submit my own posts to Digg. To be honest, in my early days I did, but I found I had a much higher rate of getting to the front page when someone else did it naturally, so I stopped. My attitude is that getting into Digg is something that I want to happen naturally but that once it’s in and climbing the ‘upcoming stories’ ranks that digging my own story is something that I’ll do on posts that I think are worthy of digging. I’ll also pass the digg page link onto a few friends on occasion to help it on it’s way - however this is not something I engage in heavily because I’m much more interested in organic results for my blogs these days. Also don’t aim to get on the front page of Digg every day (or even every week). I’ve found that some digg users actually become suspicious of sites that get Dugg too much - moderation is the key.
Celebrate Diggings…. Subtly - If you get on the front page of Digg I think it can be worthwhile to subtly mention it on your blog and/or thank your readers for it. Don’t go over the top with it (or your readers will think you’re boasting or obsessed) but to mention it reinforces that you’re a diggable blog which may trigger other stories that you write to be dugg. Subtlety is the key though - don’t be obsessive or cheesy about it.
Quality Content - Ultimately Digg users (like most web users) like quality, useful and unique content. They get frustrated with second rate writing, lots of mistakes, recycled stories and sub standard site design. If you work hard on building a quality website you’ll substantially increase the chances of building a Diggable blog. Once again - don’t be obsessive about it. Build your blog up to be a site that people enjoy and want to come back to and let your Digg culture grow in it’s own time.

How Not To Get Your URL Banned From Digg

2007-11-28T13:32:00.000-08:00

A lot of bloggers feel that the key to increasing their traffic is to get on the Digg front page as often as they can. Most of these bloggers do so by scooping news, writing how to guides or even top 10 lists, but most don't realize that you have to be careful or else your URL will get banned from Digg.

When submitted stories are consistently reported as spam and users complain via our feedback email about submission spam, we ban the domain. The domain will not be unbanned. The domain would consistently get reported as spam otherwise. Please review our FAQ (digg.com/faq) for more information.

digg support

Here are some of the things that the Digg community considers spam:

Old news
Repeated stories that keep on getting submitted, such as "iPod Spoof Commercials".
Stories that provide basic information such as "How To Increase Your Blog Traffic". Although many of these types of stories hit the Digg front page, a lot of diggers hate them and are making noise about them by marking them as spam, or even emailing the Digg staff.
Stories submitted by website owners.

Before you or your friends start submitting your own stories to Digg, be careful and put the Digg community ahead of yourself. It does not matter if you are writing spam or writing good content, if the Digg community feels that you are spamming, your URL will be banned.

Get reciprocal links by not asking for them.

2007-11-28T13:30:00.000-08:00

After proving that link exchanges really work to help search engine rankings, I was bombarded with requests asking about my successful method for getting reciprocal links. Instead of answering each person individually, I decided to put up an article that will help everyone who is strugling with getting responses to their link request emails.

And that's the big problem with link exchange requests, isn't it? They are often ignored. If you have the words "link exchange" or "reciprocal link" or anything like that in the email subject, the email will be unceromoniously deleted by 95% of webmasters. The other 5% probably aren't worth trading links with.

Why is that? It's because thousands of webmasters are using automated tools to crank out the link request emails, trying to get links to junk sites that have little real content and even less value. Because of this, webmasters have been conditioned to ignore link request emails.

First, Don't Ask For Link
Pay A Compliment and Give a Link

I solved this problem by not asking for a link in my "link request" email. In fact, I don't even mention a link at all!

Does it seem counter-intuative to not ask for a link request in my emails which are designed to get a link to my site? It probably does. But if you ask for a link, you'll just get your email deleted, so you need to take an alternate route.

My subject line is usually something like:

"I'd love to add your site to my directory!"

Then, in the message body, I tell the webmaster what I like about their site and ask them to add their site to my directory. (Note: You should always pay the webmaster a personalized compliment so that they know your request wasn't cranked out by a machine.)

Wouldn't you be much more motivated to open up an email that says the person would love to add your site to their directory than to open one that says "Link exchange request" or something impersonal like that?

They Add Their Link To Your Directory, And Then …

Once the webmaster adds their link to your directory, only then do you ask for a link back. Once they've already been given a generous link by you, most often those same webmasters will return the favor. In fact, I generally see about a 70% reciprocal link rate.

For the other 30%, they are still a valuable addition to my directory, so I keep them in there, but I mark their links with the rel="nofollow" attribute so I don't lose any PageRank for a webmaster who won't return the favor.

Do The Math

In the typical, unproductive scenario, you might send out 100 emails asking for a link back. You might get 10% to open the email at all, and of those who do only 20% actually swap links with you. That's 100 emails times 10% who open, or 10 people who actually read the email. Of those 10, 20% swap links with you, so you end up with only 2 links. Ouch!

Using my method, I get a solid 50-60% who open the email, followed by 70% who swap links with me. So I end up with 100 times 50%, or 50 email readers, times 70%. So I end up with 35 links. That's more than 17 times as productive as the clunky old method.

21 Traffic Triggers for Social Media Marketing

2007-11-28T13:26:00.000-08:00

What does it take to have a huge web traffic breakthrough?

In order to produce a single piece of content that brings in dramatic amounts of traffic, you should aim to fulfill an existing psychological need. Aiming at root needs can be more powerful than simply stimulating desire, because you need people to feel compelled to share.

For example, you’ll see plenty of advice telling you to praise Apple or bash George Bush if you want to get on the Digg home page. But why not dig a little deeper?

Try examining the underlying needs that are being addressed by popular content. Then develop something unique that strikes a subconscious chord and satisfies a genetically-programmed craving that gets people talking, linking, bookmarking and Digging.

Here’s an alphabetized checklist of 21 psychological triggers that you can consult when trying to craft breakthrough content that spreads throughout the social media landscape and brings in big traffic. You’ll find more great insight into human psychology over at Changing Minds.

Beauty

Beautiful design, photography, illustration, music… all have a tendency to attract attention and prompt sharing. True beauty is rare, which triggers the scarcity principle that creates desire and discussion.

Belonging

The need to belong is fundamental. Content that demonstrates that the author belongs in the same group with the target audience is highly influential, and the fear of not belonging often prompts a bandwagon effect.

Certainty

Certainty has to do with our need to understand, predict and control, even if it’s ultimately an illusion. Breakthrough content can either reassure people about an uncertain situation, thereby restoring normalcy, or it can challenge existing notions and create unsettling confusion that you cure with a unique solution.

Challenge

In order to feel happy, we need new challenges that push us, but not so much that we cannot adapt. Challenge your audience, but make sure that you don’t go to the point where they are overwhelmed and discouraged.

Completion

We hear all the time that people need closure. However, many very persuasive people know that withholding closure is a masterful way of getting what you want. Finding a way to create a huge cliffhanger could create huge buzz.

Conformity

No one likes to think of themselves as a conformist, but conformity is a huge psychological need that ties in directly to belonging. Letting people know that both you and they “fit in” can cause a strong connection with your content.

Consistency

Society considers inconsistent people as “confused,” “irresponsible,” and often “incapable,” despite the fact that Ermerson wisely said “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” How did the “John Kerry is a flip-flopper” meme gain so much traction and ruin his chances for election?

Control

The need for control is huge, and you can actually benefit from increasing a reader’s perceived sense of it. Deliver new choices, or give up control of something yourself and hand it over to the audience. Think about Darren Rowse’s group writing projects… relinquishment of control to his readers resulted in massive attention for him.

Curiosity

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it can lead to killer content. Fascinate readers with content that sparks questions in their minds and overwhelms them with possibilities, and there’s a good chance they’ll want to add to the conversation and spread the word.

Esteem

Self-esteem determines how we regard ourselves, and we look internally and externally for cues that determine our level of esteem. Content that makes people feel good about themselves is always popular. And while it can be tricky, strategically catering to the esteem needs of prominent bloggers can result in beneficial traffic effects as well.

Explanation

We all try to explain things to others to demonstrate our expertise, but think about satisfying others by explaining something about them. Resolving self-doubt with beneficial explanations of behavior can trigger feelings of belonging and conformity to those who might feel otherwise.

Fairness

There’s a reason why the Bible’s Golden Rule of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” is also a powerful rule of secular society. People have strong reactions to unfairness, so identifying an injustice or rectifying one will get people’s attention.

Health

While we don’t always take very good care of ourselves, our own health is a fundamental root need. There’s a reason why health is an industry unto itself, but if you can credibly create content that uniquely addresses health issues, people will take notice.

Identity

Content that either facilitates or challenges a reader’s identity—their concept of who they are and who they want to be—has an opportunity to gain major traction. Steve Pavlina knew what he was doing when he started writing personal development content for “smart people”.

Novelty

Novelty is much more than something trivial; it’s actually a fundamental human need that literally makes life worth living. Novel content seems to drive most of the traffic on the web, but realize that anything that breaks up routine, alleviates boredom and challenges people will be greatly appreciated.

Prediction

Predictability is highly related to control, and yet acts as the enemy of novelty. Doing something unpredictable is a great way to be remarkable, but many people don’t realize that if you go too far and make people uncomfortable, you’re alienating people by damaging their sense of control and consistency.

Repetition

Repeat after me: People need repetition, especially to learn. If you’re developing exceptional tutorial content that you hope will get you noticed, your results will improve when people effectively absorb your lessons. Repeat key points to aid the reader and leave them with a positive impression that prompts them to spread the word.

Safety

Challenge someone’s physical or psychological security and safety, and they’ll drop everything and focus on the threat. Some people, groups or governments maintain constant fear with vague threats to safety, but you’ll be better served by catching attention with the threat and then providing a real solution that alleviates the fear, if possible.

Self-actualization

The very pinnacle of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is self-actualization. Inspiring people to achieve the ultimate person they want to be takes the need for identity to its transformative conclusion.

Understanding

Writers and other content creators who can communicate with clarity provide people with the understanding they need to make sense of life. Find a way to get to the very heart of a complex matter in a simple, straight-forward manner, and people will happily point others your way.

Winning

Information marketing is the ultimate win-win situation, because people love to be supplied with the resources they need to be a winner in business, relationships, and life. If you provide the means for others to improve themselves and their situations, the natural result will be a vast improvement in your own situation as well. Wake up every morning thinking about how you can deliver insane value to others, and I guarantee you’ll find success.

P.S. One thing you need to keep in mind is to never write about marketing if you want to get on Digg. This post hit the Digg home page today, and the editors turned away from their new PlayStations long enough to immediately pull down the post. It seems that discussing psychology is akin to spam these days, but debating whether iTunes sales are dropping is crucial discourse.

21 KEYS TO LINK BAIT SUCCESS

2007-11-28T13:24:00.000-08:00

What Is Link Bait and Why Does it Matter To You?

Eric Ward, also known as the Godfather of linking, describes it best: “Link Bait is more or less anything you create anywhere on the Web that inspires other people to link to it. They can link to it via a Web page, a blog, social bookmark site, tagging site, e-zine, newsletter, IM, email or any other method that tells others about the bait.”

The ultimate result then being higher traffic to your site and therefore higher search engine rankings. So, why should you cultivate an understanding of this extensively discussed link-generating ability?

Link baiting is now. If you wish to keep your site competitive on the pages of search engines, it is imperative that you have the knowledge base to vie for that top spot among REALTORs on the Internet.

Before you grow intimidated and curl up in the corner, however, know that link baiting is a different game in the real estate world.

If you are like me, you probably feel constantly inundated with SEO articles advocating that single, hugely successful link bait project that boosts your site to the front page of Digg or generates traffic so overwhelming that your server crashes.

REALTORs need to understand that it’s ok if you don’t become famous overnight.

If every time you write one notable piece you gain one, two, five, or ten prominent links, the article did its job. Do not underestimate the small increase in legitimate links. In online real estate marketing, those few quality links are your ride to the apex of search engine rankings.

Link baiting can be found in numerous forms as you may have learned in our previous article. News, contrary, attack, resource, and humor are the five categories found on sites among various SEO experts. However, as we were going through the list, Jim was alarmed to see one fundamental technique entirely omitted.

As he so candidly reminded me, the “granddaddy of them all” was missing. I couldn’t believe it myself. As a result, we will be working off a new and improved list – we are confident the addition is more than worthy.

News, contrary, attack, resource, humor, and – the added element – fear, are the hooks every avid link baiter must master.

1. NEWS
Learning and expanding what we know is what drives the perpetual exploration on the Internet. Make your site a reliable source for news-seekers.

You will grow a reader base that turns to you when they want to know the happenings in the neighborhood, community, city, state, country, or world. Imagine the influx of traffic that you will see once you offer the service of delivering news to their fingertips.

As a REALTOR, this is a golden opportunity for you to become an active member in the community. Gain name recognition, and provide an appreciated service to your neighbors at the same time.

Keeping yourself up to date with the events around town will reflect well on you and aid you in developing a trustworthy rapport among future potential clients.

2. CONTRARY
A contrary hook can be slightly trickier, but when you can pull it off, your site will benefit immensely. The hook revolves around the contradiction of something done or said by someone else in your field. Don’t be afraid to start a debate about a contested hot topic. Take what others in your field say and offer a different perspective.

Another twist to the hook is supplying your readers with bizarre information about a certain big shot that your audience is familiar with. Try it, and your site will most definitely gain some attention.

Remain civil with the contradiction or the hook might take a violent shove into the next hook category.

3. ATTACK
The attack hook is linked directly to the contrary hook addressed above. Attack, however, takes the contradiction one step further, and ultimately lives up to its name.

Attacking your competition will garner you an entirely different reaction from your audience. It will undoubtedly gain you traffic, but the type of interest your site will generate may shock you so be prepared.

There is a warning label that comes with this hook.

The game of attacking others is a risky one. You’re setting yourself up in a position that you must prepare for.

If the person you attack has a substantial following, be ready for the negative attention that you’ll receive from avid supporters of the so-called victim. A mob might come knocking – on your blog door of course – and you better be geared up for the battle.

It may sound like a scary tactic to use to gain links. If used properly, the effectiveness does have the potential to be worth your while.

It’s true that you may end up with incredibly negative attention from some. However, in the meantime, you will acquire additional authority and reliability among your peers and followers if the attack is justifiable and relevant.

4. RESOURCE
A resource hook lives up to its name and leaves little to the imagination.

The page is solely informational.

You take countless sources full of information and distill the data into a core, cumulative report. Presto, just like that you are offering valuable, reliable, yet condensed information to your readers – not to mention you have the advantage of offering it from your perspective.

5. HUMOR
Humor is universal.

You can depend on humor hooks to bring in readers from all over - without risking offending your audience or alienating yourself.

Use humor to entice a crowd which, like many of us, have grown tired of the daily routine and are actively looking for an outlet. Keep in mind, however, that just because you use humor you can still effectively convey a message.

As a REALTOR, use comedic stories from around the community or about real estate in general. Find irony in the local newspaper, take pictures of amusing images, or simply post jokes that you run across. You’ll then find surfers coming back to your site often to see what innovative, wacky things they will find.

It should go without saying, but keep your jokes clean.

Use humor as your vehicle of choice. Get the laughter flowing and watch the traffic topple in.

6. FEAR
Every person in the world will bite at a story if you scare them. It is quite possibly the strongest hook available to you.

Incite panic in your audience and watch them run screaming in search of an explanation and a remedy to the situation.

As a real estate expert, you have the ability to see changes on the horizon. A fear hook may be as simple as notifying residents in your community (thus prospective clients) that a change in the market is imminent. Tell them to buy now or wait to sell (whatever the case may be); save them money, become a hero.

If you do a sufficient job of using scare tactics in your headline – just enough to make the reader wonder what’s going on – you will witness an influx of traffic to your site.

People will be incessant in their quest to uncover the full story, and because your site has the answer, it becomes their destination.

Again be careful with this hook. It is extremely effective, but if you take it too far you will have some unhappy, skeptical readers on your hands.
These hooks are all precious link bait mechanisms to utilize. You just have to unleash your brainpower to effectively put them to work. Beware, even Matt Cutts chimes in to warn us to avoid overusing any of the above links. They all have the potential of becoming tired and fruitless if you aren’t cautious.

Be credible – be creative – be cautious.

NOW… The 21 Keys to Link Bait Success

1. Don’t Self-Indulge
Although it may be tempting to place other advertisements on your home page and other high-traffic areas – DON’T. Avoid the temptation, and it will undoubtedly make your site more link-worthy.

2. The Value of Popularity Didn’t Die in High School
A recurring suggestion found everywhere is to become genuine friends with influential and well-respected people in your niche – links from them are always beneficial.

You then have the opportunity to pick each others minds and eventually link to one another.

3. Become a Blogging Aficionado
Post quality content frequently and consistently. This is how you develop a following.

Make certain that your posts vary in length and the content in the extensive articles merit the time it takes to read them.

Problogger offers some great tips on building blog authority.

Keep in mind that blogging is not a free for all opportunity to write and do what you want… if you want to remain respected. There are in fact deadly sins of blogging that you must be aware of.

4. Know the Tough Stuff
Aaron Wall from SEObook reminds us that…
“the harder it is to find a piece of information, the easier it is to grab a chunk of the market if you provide a quality answer to that associated problem.”

Do everything you can to be informed and ensure you have all the answers to the ultimate questions facing the industry.

5. Be a Social Butterfly
Subscribe to various social networking sites like digg, del.icio.us, and reddit.

When you are creating your profile on the various social networks, make it legitimate. Using a “codename” will get you nowhere. Use your full name to ensure that you develop a reputation that will benefit your site.

Jim believes that Digg’s algorithm looks at the articles you digg in relation to the success it eventually sees. If you begin to digg quality articles that make it to the front page of Digg, you gain credibility. Then, when you digg your own work, you carry more weight than someone who is so self-involved that they only digg their own articles.

Digg others’ articles, and they are likely to return the favor. People want to know who is taking the time to validate their efforts. They will turn to your site to figure out who you are, and then digg your articles in return.

Also, reading the top stories will contribute to the generating ideas of your own for your site. You instantly get a taste of the content captivating readers – right now, not last month.

6. Broaden Your Horizons
Don’t get stuck in a rut of only writing content about real estate.

People care about what affects them, and there are a million things you can tie into your site’s content. Give people what they want. Talk about life and give your readers the opportunity to connect with you.

7. Reach a Nationwide Audience
You may be tempted to focus all of the attention on your site to your local prospective clients. Do not, however, discount the benefits of writing for a national audience. The Real Estate Tomato has a wonderful article outlining the countless benefits of writing to a broad, national audience.

You are opening doors to the opportunity to offer your expertise to REALTORs and their clients across the country. And don’t forget… you never know where your next client is coming from.

8. Swallow Your Pride
Talk up your site and your business with friends and acquaintances. Get them to digg your blogs or post on Reddit.

Maybe you’ll acquire a few new, devoted readers.

9. Interacting With Your Readers is Overrated
WRONG!!!

If you’ve ever read the above statement, disregard it - it’s bologna. Building a relationship will result in loyalty – loyalty will result in links.

Chat it up. Then… Invite interaction from your readers.

Allow comments on your blog posts. Set up a forum for interaction. Then INTERACT.

10. How Do I…Where Do I???
You know how to find what you’re looking for on your site. That means zilch.

Sit down with someone who doesn’t know your site and see how easy or difficult it is for them to navigate the site. If they need a map and compass, you may want to consider revamping it and making the site more user-friendly.

Remember, once you hook ‘em, you’ve got to keep them there. They won’t stay if they can’t figure out how to get from one page to another. Once frustration sets it, they are gone.

11. .Gov & .Edu – What’s the Big Deal?
Credibility, credibility, credibility.

Virtually any average Joe can link to your site, but who’s going to trust them? Get a .gov or .edu link however, and your site must have something substantial to offer.

It’s a complicated task. But if you can pull it off, the integrity your site immediately gains is priceless.

12. Mary Had a Little Lamb
That’s right folks, it’s back to basics.

Remember in elementary school when we had to sit through tedious grammar lessons and take excruciatingly mind-numbing spelling tests?

Good news - it wasn’t for nothing. People don’t want to stumble through content because you opted against running spell check or ensuring you are grammatically correct.

Know the difference between accept and except, affect and effect, it’s and its, and there and their.

If a 10 year old can do it, so can we.

13. Direct Your Audience Right to Your Doorstep
Submit your site to various online directories.

This is a great link for global and general directories. If more specific is what you’re looking for try a regional or niche-specific directory.

14. Real World Relationships
Develop ‘real’ relationships with your peers when you have the opportunity.

At conferences and training sessions, meet as many people as possible, and begin communicating with them on a regular basis. Then, take a good look at their site. If it’s something you want to be associated with, link to it.

They’ll most likely link to your site as well. Chances are they have a reader base that will then be introduced to your work.

15. Readers Have Needs Too
Get a feel for what your readers are passionate about and USE THAT KNOWLEDGE.

Cliffhangers, up-and-coming posts, and articles that will leave your loyal readers chomping at the bit for more are incredibly effective… if you know what they like.

The interaction that we are advocating will assist you in figuring out what your readers want.

Remember… if your promise a follow up to an article or a series, you must deliver. Otherwise their abandonment of your site is imminent.

16. You’re not Always the Center of the Universe
Just because an idea is not your top priority doesn’t mean it’s not important to your audience.

Plain and simple: “Ideas spread because they are important to the spreader… not the originator.” –Jennifer Laycock “Give Them Something to Talk About”

Making yourself an active part of other blogs that transcend your focus will make you a stronger link baiter. Know what others want to know, and expand – making it relevant to real estate is what sets you apart from others.

17. Strong Post – Even Better Headline
Understand the importance of a good post, but don’t discount the time you put into developing your headline.

If your headline isn’t compelling, you might as well write about what you ate for dinner.

You must take time to develop a well-crafted headline that hits your readers with a strong dose of curiosity. Don’t be afraid. Be bold. Check out these suggestions from Brian over at Copy Blogger.

REMEMBER: Your article better live up to its magnetic title. If your headline reads: “Arizona Runs Out of Water,” you are obligated to tell your readers exactly what kind of crisis you are talking about.

18. Be In The Know
A RSS feed will effectively bring you information from the sites of your choosing.

Going over current events allows you to distribute information to your readers at the drop of a hat. It’s also a brilliant way to come up with blog ideas.

Google Reader is our reader of choice.

19. Maintain Your Good Name
Your reputation is at stake every time you link to another site.

When you link to a site, think of it as an endorsement. Your readers will follow the links you bring them because they have confidence in your ability to sniff out the noteworthy material. Be certain that you will not regret the backing of another site.

A link is an endorsement; don’t get your self in a sticky situation.

20. Here’s My Card
It may seem obvious, but it’s my job to remind you.

Make sure you list not only your email address, but also your WEBSITE on your business cards.

We live in a world where you can order pizza on the Internet… and people do. So why not give your contacts the option of initially checking you out on your site rather than taking up your valuable time on a phone call?

21. Get the Remedy…. With No Side Effects!
There are a million places to go for the cure to the dreaded “there’s nothing to write about” plague.

Rand suggests an effective list of the 10 Web Tools to Help Generate Blog Content Ideas.
Your readers depend on you to bring them what they need to know. So visit other sites. We are definitely NOT suggesting that you steal content, but it’s amazing what can spark a new idea.

Take a look around and suddenly, BOOM you’ve got an idea for a blog post that’ll knock your readers right out of their seats.

2 Easy Authoritative Links that will Boost your Rankings

2007-11-28T12:53:00.000-08:00

Here’s a quick tip that I use with a number of my sites to boost rankings & also help with indexation.

You can pick up easy links from either Squidoo or Wikipedia as long as you are tactful in your approach.

Squidoo: Sign up, create some lenses around your topic & simply add your links with relevant anchor text. Then put a link to squidoo on one of your other sites to get the page indexed. Once it’s indexed by Google you’ll get some link love

Wikipedia: Try & find a page that’s related to your site but not too popular, the higher the Page Rank the better. Simply add the link to your site in the External Links section. Quite often you’ll get caught out & the link will be deleted, but if they deem it relevant enough it’ll stay in.

I get 200+ Uniques per day to one of my sites through various Wikipedia links, so it’s definitely worth looking into.

15 Ways to become a Digg Power user in only 48 hours

2007-11-28T12:49:00.000-08:00

Well, I never really was a big fan of Digg…..Until yesterday when I finally cracked how to get consistent diggs to the front page.

I spent a lot of time analysing what works on Digg & what doesn’t. However what a lot of people fail to notice is that 99% of the stories that are submitted rarely make it beyond 1 digg (from the user themselves).

The reason for this is the mentality of the submitter. They think that creating an account then submitting their stories is enough for the story to hit the front page. However, it’s just not that simple.

Here’s an account of how exactly I created a profile & became a power user that had 4 stories front paged with no help from any IM friends, within 48 hours of creating the Digg Account:

Create a Digg Account
Choose a memorable name & a good picture (picture is vitally important, notice how the top user supernova17 has a bright image ). Make the name memorable. Bear in mind you’re not trying to deceive here but merely some extra persuasion which will help with initial diggs.
Start by digging stories from users in the “upcoming section” make sure & leave a nice comment on each.
Add friends & digg their stories regularly. Adding friends is key to making this work.
Check for people that have added you as a friend using the “See who befriended you” tab.
Start submitting stories from places like reddit & stumbleupon to get an idea of how many initial diggs you are going to get. If you’re getting less that 10 diggs from friends then you need to do more digging & building.
Try to comment first on stories you think will hit the front page, this increases your exposure & increases your chances of acquiring friends.
You’ll instantly get a feel for what’s working & what’s not working. Now it’s time to tweak things.
Don’t submit into the general category. Things scroll off too quickly & don’t linger enough to get that initial “boost.”
I added anyone that dugg my stories as a friend. If they check their “befriended” tab they’ll probably add me too. This works well with newer users who have less friends. Make them feel wanted :p
Create a huge list of resources to scour for stories. 50-100 is good, tech blogs, apple news all that sort of stuff you want right in your feed reader.
I Created google alerts so that I’m getting info on hot topics right to your email inbox.
Don’t post your own stories until you’re sure you can get that initial 10-20 diggs to get your story noticed. If you’re posting your own stories you need to make sure they’re professional, not spammy otherwise you’ll get buried & the blog will get banned.
I now have a Digg account that will automatically get 15-30 Digg’s from my friends as soon as I submit a story, depending on what the story is about. For example they’ll probably not digg SEO or Affiliate Marketing related stories.
Have fun digging, remember it’s a game. It’s not difficult. You just need to network & build relationships then you’ll be rewarded

101 Link Building Tips to Market Your Website

2007-11-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

Link Building... Time-intensive. Frustrating. Sometimes confusing. Yet Unavoidable. Because ultimately, it's still the trump card for higher rankings.

Many of us have been hoping that it would go away. In Brett Tabke's 5/18 Robots.txt entry, he echoed a sentiment that many, many webmasters hold on to as a hope:

What happens to all those Wavers that think [i]Getting Links = SEO[/i] when that majority of the Google algo is devalued in various ways? Wavers built their fortunes on "links=seo". When that goes away, the Wavers have zero to hold on to.

The pertinent questions:

Will link building still be very important for rankings in the medium term?
When will link popularity be devalued in favor of other algo elements (that are less tedious, from a webmaster's point of view)?

The answers:

Sorry, but link building is still going to be the SEO trump card for the foreseeable future.
I wouldn't hold your breath for search engine algorithms to place less importance on link popularity until the Semantic Web arrives, or maybe when HTTP gets replaced by a new protocol. Because links are still the basic connector, the basic relationship, on the Web. And for the forseeable future they're going to be the easiest way for a computer program to judge the importance and trustworthiness of a Web page.

What will happen to the way search algorithms score links is already happening. The Google algo has become much more elegant and advanced, devaluing staggering amount of links that shouldn't count, and placing more emphasis on trusted links. And the trust and juice given by those links is then verified by elements like user data, domain age, and other relatively hard-to-spoof factors.

Oh, and mad props to our inspiration, 131 Legitimate Link Building Strategies, one of the original authority documents on link building. It was just getting a bit rusty, that's all ("Host your own Web Ring"?). Anyway, enjoy the update. It's guaranteed to be accurate until January 1, 2007. ;-)

71 Good Ways to Build Links

Love for Lists

1. Build a "101 list". These get Dugg all the time, and often become "authority documents". People can't resist linking to these (hint, hint).

2. Create 10 easy tips to help you [insert topic here] articles. Again, these are exceptionally easy to link to.

3. Create extensive resource lists for a specific topic (see Mr Ploppy for inspiration).

4. Create a list of the top 10 myths for a specific category.

5. Create a list of gurus/experts. If you impress the people listed well enough, or find a way to make your project look somewhat official, the gurus may end up linking to your site or saying thanks. (Sometimes flattery is the easiest way to strike up a good relationship with an "authority".)

Developing Authority & Being Easy to Link At

6. Make your content easy to understand so many people can understand and spread your message. (It's an accessibility thing.)

7. Put some effort in to minimize grammatical or spelling errors, especially if you need authoritative people like librarians to link to your site.

8. Have an easily accessible privacy policy and about section so your site seems more trustworthy. Including a picture of yourself may also help build your authority.

PPC as a Link Building Tool

9. Buy relevant traffic with a pay per click campaign. Relevant traffic will get your site more visitors and brand exposure. When people come to your site, regardless of the channel in which they found it, there is a possibility that they will link to you.

News & Syndication

10. Syndicate an article at EzineArticles, GoArticles, iSnare, etc. The great thing about good article sites is that their article pages actually rank highly and send highly qualified traffic.

11. Submit an article to industry news site. Have an SEO site? Write an article and submit to WebProNews. Have a site about BLANK? Submit to BLANKinformationalsite.com.

12. Syndicate a press release. Take the time to make it GOOD (compelling, newsworthy). Email it to some handpicked journalists and bloggers. Personalize the email message. For good measure, submit it to PRWeb, PRLeap, etc.

13. Track who picks up your articles or press releases. Offer them exclusive news or content.

14. Trade articles with other webmasters.

15. Email a few friends when you have important relevant news asking them for their feedback and/or if they would mind referencing it if they find your information useful.

16. Write about, and link to, companies with "in the news" pages. They link back to stories and blog posts which cover their developments. This is obviously easiest if you have a news section or blog. Do a Google search for [your industry + "in the news"].

17. Perform surveys and studies that make people feel important. If you can make other people feel important they will help do your marketing for you for free. Salary.com did a study on how underpaid mothers were, and they got many high quality links.

Directories, Meme Trackers & Social Bookmarking

18. This tip is an oldie but goodie: submit your site to DMOZ and other directories that allow free submissions.

19. Submit your site to paid directories. Another oldie. Just remember that quality matters.

20. Create your own topical directory about your field of interest. Obviously link to your own site, deeplinking to important content where possible. Of course, if you make it into a truly useful resource, it will attract links on its own.

21. Tag related sites on sites like Del.icio.us. If people find the sites you tag to be interesting, emotionally engaging, or timely they may follow the trail back to your site.

22. If you create something that is of great quality make sure you ask a few friends to tag it for you. If your site gets on the front page of Digg or on the Del.icio.us popular list, hundreds more bloggers will see your site, and potentially link to it.

23. Look at meme trackers to see what ideas are spreading. If you write about popular spreading ideas with plenty of original content (and link to some of the original resources), your site may get listed as a source on the meme tracker site.

Local & Business Links

24. Join the Better Business Bureau.

25. Get a link from your local chamber of commerce.

26. Submit your link to relevant city and state governmental resources. (Easier in some countries than in others.)

27. List your site at the local library's Web site.

28. See if your manufacturers or retailers or other business partners might be willing to link to your site.

29. Develop business relationships with non-competing businesses in the same field. Leverage these relationships online and off, by recommending each other via links and distributing each other's business cards.

30. Launch an affiliate program. Most of the links you pick up will not have SEO value, but the added exposure will almost always lead to additional "normal" links.

Easy Free Links

31. Depending on your category and offer, you will find Craigslist to be a cheap or free classified service.

32. It is pretty easy to ask or answer questions on Yahoo! Answers and provide links to relevant resources.

33. It is pretty easy to ask or answer questions on Google Groups and provide links to relevant resources.

34. If you run a fairly reputable company, create a page about it in the Wikipedia or in topic specific wikis. If it is hard to list your site directly, try to add links to other pages that link to your site.

35. It takes about 15 minutes to set up a topical Squidoo page, which you can use to look like an industry expert. Link to expert documents and popular useful tools in your fields, and also create a link back to your site.

36. Submit a story to Digg that links to an article on your site. You can also submit other content and have some of its link authority flow back to your profile page.

37. If you publish an RSS feed and your content is useful and regularly updated, some people will syndicate your RSS content (and some of those will provide linksâ€¦ unfortunately, some will not).

38. Most forums allow members to leave signature links or personal profile links. If you make quality contributions some people will follow these links and potentially read your site, link at your site, and/or buy your products.

Have a Big Heart for Reviews

39. Most brands are not well established online, so if your site has much authority, your review related content often ranks well.

40. Review relevant products on Amazon.com. We have seen this draw in direct customer enquiries and secondary links.

41. Create product lists on Amazon.com that review top products and also mention your background (LINK!).

42. Review related sites on Alexa to draw in related traffic streams.

43. Review products and services on shopping search engines like ePinions to help build your authority.

44. If you buy a product or service you really like and are good at leaving testimonials, many of those turn into links. Two testimonial writing tips — make them believable, and be specific where possible.

Blogs & the Blogosphere

45. Start a blog. Not just for the sake of having one. Post regularly and post great content. Good execution is what gets the links.

46. Link to other blogs from your blog. Outbound links are one of the cheapest forms of marketing available. Many bloggers also track who is linking to them or where their traffic comes from, so linking to them is an easy way to get noticed by some of them.

47. Comment on other blogs. Most of these comments will not provide much direct search engine value, but if your comments are useful, insightful, and relevant they can drive direct traffic. They also help make the other bloggers become aware of you, and they may start reading your blog and/or linking to it.

48. Technorati tag pages rank well in Yahoo! and MSN, and to a lesser extent in Google. Even if your blog is fairly new you can have your posts featured on the Technorati tag pages by tagging your posts with relevant tags.

49. If you create a blog make sure you list it in a few of the best blog directories.

Design as a Linking Element

50. Web 2.0-ify your site. People love to link to anything with AJAX. Even in the narrowest of niches, there is some kind of useful functionality you can build with AJAX.

51. Validate and 508 your site. This (indirect) method makes your site more trustworthy and linkable, especially from governmental sites or design-oriented communities. There are even a few authoritative directories of standards-compliant sites.

52. Order a beautiful CSS redesign. A nice design can get links from sites like CSS Vault.

Hire Help

53. Hire a publicist. Good old fashioned 'PR' (not PageRank) can still work wonders. Andy Hagans now offers a link baiting publicity service.

54. Hire a consultant. Yes, you can outsource link building. Just make sure to go with someone good. We recommend WeBuildPages, Debra Mastaler and, ahem, Andy Hagans.

Link Trading

55. Swap some links. What?! Did we really just recommend reciprocal link building? Yes, on a small scale, and with relevant partners that will send you traffic. Stay away from the link trading hubs and networks.

56. In case you didn't get the memo — when swapping links, try to get links from within the content of relevant content pages. Do not try to get links from pages that list hundreds of off topic link partners. Only seek link exchanges that you would consider pursuing even if search engines did not exist. Instead of thinking just about your topic when exchanging links, think about demographic audience sets.

Buying Sites, Renting Links & Advertisements

57. Rent some high quality links from a broker. Text Link Ads is the most reputable firm in this niche.

58. Rent some high quality links directly from Web sites. Sometimes the most powerful rented links come direct from sites not actively renting links.

59. Become a sponsor. All sorts of charities, contests, and conferences link to their sponsors. This can be a great way to gain visibility, links, and a warm feeling in your heart.

60. Sell items on eBay and offer to donate the profits to a charity. Many charities will link both to the eBay auction and to your site.

61. Many search algorithms seem biased toward older established sites. It may be faster to buy an old site with a strong link profile, and link it to your own site, than to try to start building authority links from scratch.

Use the Courts (Proceed with Caution)

62. Sue Google.

63. Get sued by a company people hate. When Aaron was sued by Traffic Power, he got hundreds or thousands of links, including links from sites like Wired and The Wall Street Journal.

Freebies & Giveaways

64. Hold a contest. Contests make great link bait. A few-hundred-dollar prize can result in thousands of dollars worth of editorial quality links. Enough said.

65. Build a tool collection. Original and useful tools (and collections of tools) get a lot of link love. What do you think ranking for mortgage calculator is worth?

66. Create and release open source site design templates for content management systems like Wordpress. Don't forget the "Designed by example.com" bit in the footer!

67. Offer free samples in exchange for feedback.

68. Release a Firefox extension. Make sure you have a download and/or support page on your site which people can link to.

Conferences & Social Interaction

69. It is easy to take pictures of important events and tell narratives about why they are important. Pictures of (drunk?) "celebrities" in your industry make great link bait.

70. Leverage new real world relationships into linking relationships. If you go to SEO related conferences, people like Tim Mayer, Matt Cutts, and Danny Sullivan are readily accessible. Similarly, in other industries, people who would normally seem inaccessible are exceptionally accessible at trade conferences. It is much easier to seem "real" in person. Once you create social relationships in person, it is easy to extend that onto the web.

71. Engaging, useful, and interesting interviews are an easy way to create original content. And they spread like wildfire.

30 Bad Ways to Build Links

Here are a few link buiding methods that may destroy your brand or get your site banned/penalized/filtered from major search engines, or both.

Directories

72. Submit your site to 200 cheesy paid directories (averaging $15 a pop) that send zero traffic and sell offtopic run-of-site links.

Forum Spam

73. List 100 Web sites in your signature file.

74. Exclusively post only when you can add links to your sites in the post area.

75. Post nothing but "me too" posts to build your post count. Use in combination with a link-rich signature file.

76. Ask questions about who provides the best [WIDGET], where [WIDGET] is an item that you sell. From the same IP address create another forum account and answer your own question raving about how great your own site is.

77. As a new member to various forums, ask the same question at 20 different forums on the same day.

78. Post on forum threads that are years outdated exclusively to link to your semi-related website.

79. Sign up for profiles on forums you never intend on commenting on.

Blog Spam

80. Instead of signing blog comments with your real name, sign them with spammy keywords.

81. Start marketing your own site hard on your first blog comment. Add no value to the comment section. Mention nothing other than you recently posted on the same subject at _____ and everyone should read it. Carpet bomb dozens of blogs with this message.

82. Say nothing unique or relevant to the post at hand. Make them assume an automated bot hit their comments.

83. Better yet, use automated bots to hit their comments. List at least 30 links in each post. Try to see if you can hit any servers hard enough to make them crash.

84. Send pings to everyone talking about a subject. In your aggregation post, state nothing of interest. Only state that other people are talking about the topic.

85. Don't even link to any of the sites you are pinging. Send them pings from posts that do not even reference them.

Garbage Link Exchanges

86. Send out link exchange requests mentioning PageRank.

87. Send link exchange emails which look like an automated bot sent them (little or no customization, no personal names, etc.).

88. Send link exchange requests to Matt Cutts, Tim Mayer, Tim Converse, Google, and Yahoo!.

89. Get links from nearly-hidden sections of websites listing hundreds or thousands of off topic sites.

Spam People in Person

90. Go to webmaster conferences and rave about how rich you are, and how your affiliates make millions doing nothing.

91. Instead of asking people what their name is, ask what their URL is. As soon as you get their URL ask if they have linked to your site yet and if not, why not.

Be Persistant

92. Send a webmaster an alert to every post you make on your website.

93. Send a webmaster an email every single day asking for them to link to your website.

94. Send references to your site to the same webmaster from dozens of different email accounts (you sly dog).

95. If the above do not work to get you a free link, offer them $1 for their time. Increase your offer by a dollar each day until they give in.

Getting Links by Being a Jerk

96. Emulate the RIAA. When in doubt, file a lawsuit against a 12-year-old girl. (Failing that, obtain bad press by any means necessary.)

97. Steal content published by well known names. Strip out any attribution. Aggregate many popular channels and just wait for them to start talking about you.

98. Send thousands of fake referrals at every top ranking Web site, guaranteeing larger boobs, a 14-inch penis (is that length or girth?), or millions of dollars in free, unclaimed money.

99. Wear your URL on your t-shirt. Walk or drive your car while talking on a cell phone or reading a book. When you run into other people say "excuse you, jerk".

100. Spill coffee on people or find creative ways to insult people to coax them into linking at your site.

101. Sue other webmasters for deep linking to your site. Well, this is more "hilariously dumb" than it is a "bad linking practice".

10 Steps to Guarantee You Make the Digg Front Page

2007-11-28T12:39:00.000-08:00

The 10 Steps to Guarantee You Make the Digg Front Page

Hopefully, you will be able to use them before we all die because of global warming next year . . .

1. Make A List or Tutorial Headline. Your Headline should make it seem like the reader’s online success is just a 5 minute read away. Remember, the average digger has the attention span of a gnat on crack. Diggers want the fast, easy answer that will solve all their problems. Your headline must appeal to people with severe ADD or most people won’t even read your article - let alone Digg it.

*In the past year, a “top 10” or “top 100” list has made the front page on average once every other day.

2. Write about Digg. Could a site be any more narcissistic? I think not. Digg likes itself so much that Paris Hilton looks about as humble as a Nun by comparison. People must be sitting at their computers going “OMG Look it’s a story about Digg! That’s sooooooo cool! I’ll totally digg that!” Bonus points if you mention Kevin Rose.

* In the past year, stories with “Digg” in the submission have made the front page a whopping 554 times and mentioned Kevin Rose by name an average of once a week.

3. Appeal to the Apple fanboys. Did you hear from someone who knows someone who served a Cream Chai Latte to Steve Jobs about some Mac Rumor? Well that’s front page Digg Material all the way! Don’t know why, but if Apple lets out a fart, diggers can’t wait to comment on the rosy smell.

* Stories with “Apple” in the Submission have made the front page a mind blowing 1225 times in the past year.

4. Doom and Gloom about how Global Warming will destroy us all. Who cares if we only have real data that covers about 1/20,000,000 of the earth’s history? (unless you’re a creationist, then it’s like 1/40th). So what if there is nothing but anecdotal evidence to support almost every claim? Does it matter that world’s best meteorologists can’t even tell me if it’s going to rain tomorrow?

No!

Diggers don’t really like to DO anything about global warming, but feel guilty about it despite a lack of conclusive evidence. In that sense, I guess it’s kinda like “Religion 2.0”. Diggers will Digg Global warming Doom and Gloom stories so they can “feel” like they “did something” to “help mankind.” All while consuming more electricity, more oil and more natural resources than the 80% of the world’s population that doesn’t even have a computer.

* A junk science, doom and Gloom story about Global Warming will make the front page of Digg on average of once a week.

5. Write about how great Firefox is. When it comes to Firefox, no story is too lame, no plugin is too useless and no article can praise Firefox too much for the front page of Digg. Sure, it’s just a freaking browser. Sure, it leaks memory faster than . . . umm . . . some kind of leaky thing leaking much faster than usual. Sure no one really needs YAFFFP - but who cares?!?

* In the past year, a firefox story has made the front page on average once every day.

6. Remember: Walmart, George Bush, and Fox News have NEVER done ANYTHING right. Everything they do is because they are 100% evil to the core. This REAL Axis of Evil delights in the clear-cutting of forests just for shits and giggles, the sadistic torture of children, and is right now plotting the Next 9/11 attack on America. Here’s a link to a Jon Stewart Video that proves it’s all true!

* * actually, I’m not a fan of George Bush; but his coverage on Digg is more rigged than a Diebold voting machine. Maybe he should ask for a Digg recount?

7. Repeat after me: “Microsoft sucks, Microsoft Sucks, Microsoft Sucks.” So what if 97% of all computer users use their products? Ignore that they’ve been the most consistent winner for the last 25 years in a space littered with failures. Who cares if their founder has given more to charity than any human in the history of mankind? They suck! And they are evil! Why? Because it’s cool to say so.

Don’t believe me? Check out this screenshot of the most recent Digg front page Microsoft Stories. I was going to parody it up, but there’s no need!

* 94% of the front page articles that mentioned Microsoft in the past year cast the company in a negative light.

8. Make up outrageous statistics that you have not researched. State your opinions as fact. Sure, they might get vetted by some geek who has nothing better to do, but that probably won’t happen until you’ve already made the front page.

9. Insult as many groups as you can. Flamewars are popular for a reason. Throw out bombs that dare people to comment on your story. If you haven’t pissed off half your readers by the end of your article, it’s probably because you don’t have the balls or you’re too stupid to figure out how.

10. Include the word’s slowest loading Plugin so people can Digg your Story without leaving your site. If you manage to type 1000 words, there’s at least a chance that it will finish loading before the reader has finished reading your article.