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Socialize With Care

By admin | July 2, 2007

A lot has been written lately on how to maximize your blog’s exposure by using big social bookmark sites like Digg, Reddit and Netscape. What I don’t come across too often is useful information how not to use these. When I started out I thought I had struck oil and submitted heaps of my posts until one day I got a notice that I was banned because users had flagged me as spam. I didn’t know better, people were expecting high quality stuff? Please, have a look at Digg’s current frontpage:”Clinton Calls U.S. Shield a Waste of Money, Foam Chair Comes Small and Flat, Expands to Full Size When Opened!, What happens if everyone adds one word to a story?, The Murdoch Factor: Why So Many Americans Still Think Iraq was behind 911” just to name a few. Seems there is not much moderation going on and basically anyone can submit anything. Wrong.

Long time Digg users seem to be worse than spelling nazis and will flag you as a spammer as soon as they find out you are submitting your own stuff to the site. Good luck trying to get unbanned, Digg simply does not reply to email. Reddit is even sneakier, they will let you submit your link but not put it up in the new section. In fact I don’t think it gets put in any section.
For a while I was bummed because I thought it was the only way I could get people to read my blog. Boy was I wrong. The traffic you get from these sites is crap. They do nothing more than take your server down. They won’t clicks your ads or sign up to your RSS. They have no time, all their time is consumed by digg and browsing it’s contents all day long.


But you still want to get dugg? Ok, here’s one thing you can do.

  • Use another domain, put a file in the webroot called index.php and in that file you need to add the line:
    meta HTTP-EQUIV=”REFRESH” content=”0; url=http://www.yourdomain.com/desired.post.html”


    All this does is tell the digger’s browser to immediately go to whatever address you typed there. 0= refreshtime.
    Most people won’t even notice the switch.


  • You need to Digg yourself first, using the other domain.index.php URL. Once that’s done, copy the URL Digg made of it.
    At the bottom of your post you then add a Digg icon or text, “Digg This!”, and have it link to the Digg URL of your other domain.
    You see, the standard buttons link to your banned URL, which obviously won’t work.


    • To be honest, I understand why you’d like to get Dugg. It’s a rush to see your stats soar, but like with memes, it’s nothing more than a sugar rush. You’re better off networking on sites like mybloglog and fuelmyblog. The only social bookmarker I do recommend however is StumbleUpon. This definitely is a fantastic traffic delivery service :)

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    7 Responses to “Socialize With Care”

    1. Make Moooney Online with John Cow dot Com Says:
      November 30th, 1999 at 12:00 am

      links from Technoratito no hope of getting unbanned. They simply have no time to hear your pleads and excuses. Socialize Sensible. Oh, if you really don’t give a toss and want to get back to spamming them, I’ve written a small article a little while ago with some tips and tricks. If you liked this post, buy me a glass of milk

    2. Desty Says:
      July 2nd, 2007 at 3:23 pm

      I know exactly what you mean. When Paris Hilton was sent home for house arrest, I posted about the reactions of people in the office and dugg it. Visitors shot up, then disappeared. Eventually I got banned from Digg too. No big loss.

    3. University Update - Iraq - Socialize With Care Says:
      July 2nd, 2007 at 3:58 pm

      […] House Link to Article iraq Socialize With Care » Posted at Bob Meets World on Monday, July 02, 2007 […]

    4. Ian is a Failure Says:
      July 2nd, 2007 at 6:03 pm

      yes seeing stats soar is great but maintaining it is the hard part, I had a burst of traffic from SU that I created a study and project on it

      SU is a great instant boost of traffic especially if you get stumbled by well known stumblers

    5. Mark Says:
      July 3rd, 2007 at 4:31 am

      Hey Bob, your comment about Reddit caught my attention. I submit practically every post I write to them and I IMMEDIATELY get an email confirming I have a pingback. In fact, I just submitted something not 30 minutes ago. After reading your post I went to check their site and sure enough: no reference at all.

      I supposed I may be expecting it a little sooner than I should, but given that ALL my submissions have 0 points associated with them, I’m thinking I’m going to remove this as one of my steps to promoting my blog. Thanks for the tip!

    6. Bob Says:
      July 3rd, 2007 at 6:58 am

      Ian, blogging is hard work :)
      Long time no see Mark! Yeah, Reddit is pretty sneaky, making you think all is well. You can use the tip I mentioned for them too ;)

    7. Sueblimely Discovering - Blogging Says:
      July 11th, 2007 at 7:04 pm

      You are talking of sites that involve some sort of rating system. The same would not apply to bookmarking only sites such as del.icio.us would it?
      I use onlywire and ‘group’ submit links to most of the sites it covers.

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