Success with social bookmarking seems impossible...

Hi,

I don't know about you, but when I submit something to Digg or Del.icio.us for example, the story is not noticed by anyone... No matter what I submit. There are so many submissions... It seem to be impossible to get something to the main page on these big social bookmarking sites.
Is it all about having enough friends who can digg your story enough first, so it gets noted by the big public? Or is there another thing i'm missing here?
Any advice?


Grtz

 

In my experience your story has to be completely unique and something that will interest the "net savvy" users that Digg attracts. I remember when pictures of the Google office were posted a while back - it was wildly popular and received thousands of Diggs as Google HQ is the equivalent of nerd-heaven (for the lack of a better term. )

 

The key here is going for long tail keywords. You could get easily on page 1 of Google for these less competitive keywords.

If the keywords are too competitive, the article will not get on page 1.

Cheers
Diep

 

Social bookmarking is not just a matter of submitting pages. You need to interact with other users, develop a network of friends, get other people to digg you pages, etc.

 

It's another way to get traffic. That's sure.

Cheers
Diep

 

Its all about who you know and building a network of contacts.

Extra plusses include using pics which go down well on digg, and so do lists, especially 'top 7' lists. The headline is the most important thing. Try to imagine if it would look strange if your story made it to page1.

 

If thats the case, why is it not OK to set up a Digg exchange?

Seriously I see a big flaw in the social bookmarking model when it comes to getting your stuff seen.

You digg your article then you wait.
Nothing happens because no one knows it's there and digg.comis not going to list it high in any searches or ranks because no body except you have dugg it.

this is the same with YouTube.

So you go on your quest to drive traffic to the dugg article or YouTube video to try to get them to rank it.

A big waste of time? maybe you could be spending your effort driving traffic to your own website which the article is probably promoting in the first place.

I am not convinced it is an effective use of time.

The social networks are designed to allow it's members to share and review each others stuff. But as more an more people try to take advantage of the traffic the sites get, the less and less value the site have to the members.

 

You pretty much need friends or someone who has a lot of friends to get your stories to the front page of Digg. Get a top Digger to submit your interesting story and you're gold.

 

You seem to have answered your own question. It's not as effective becuase of digg exchanges; because more and more people try to take advantage of social bookmarking sites for traffic.

Because of this it is much harder to get traffic from digg and you have to put much more effort into it.