The Social Web Part 1: Social News Sites

You have written great posts, but your visitor count doesn’t explode. You want people to know about your blog. Isn’t there a possible source of large amounts of traffic? After all, you believe that your content is really worth some attention.

Social News Sites CAN bring you a lot of traffic. In fact, they can bring you so much traffic, that your server goes down (if it’s not a well administered, sufficiently dimensioned server).

The three Majors:

Digg

The biggest of all voting news sites. The aforementioned server crash is commonly known as the “digg effect” for a reason – Digg delivers. Of course there are a couple of things you should know, before you waste your time. If you want the massive traffic fix, you need to get on the frontpage. To achieve that, you should have a circle of friends who deliver the first diggs. So, register there, digg stories you like, leave comments and get some friends. Then you might have a shot. But you better have some articles that are interesting to a geek audience. Oh, and good luck finding a category for your post (you’ll see what I mean).

Of the three big voting news sites, this is the only one that has actually given me massive traffic. Lots of traffic for a new blog. Other than it’s competitors, Reddit only wants the URI and the title of the story you submit. You don’t have to summarize or comment on it. If you think your Title sounds interesting and makes people want to know more – give it a try. You don’t have to choose a category for the post.

Netscape

The categories here could be taken from a newspaper with a really broad topic selection. It’s kinda like digg, only without the concentration on the nerd faction. So, if you’re blogging about politics, Netscape might be a nice addition. Stories are removed from the listing pages after 24 hours. That has to do.

Some things the three have in common:

Having friends is a great benefit (if not a prerequisite).
Don’t submit a post during the night. People have to be awake to vote.
While it might not be forbidden, submitting your own stories is often frowned upon.
The title makes or breaks a frontpage story.

The Social Web Series
Part 1 - Social News Sites
Part 2 - Social Bookmarking
Part 3 - Blog Communities
Part 4 - StumbleUpon

17 Responses to “The Social Web Part 1: Social News Sites”

ross on July 26th, 2007 at 11:06 pm

you forgot about newsvine.com. Ever check that out?
Code4Gold on December 19th, 2007 at 2:13 pm

I’m in the same boat as you, I’ve only gotten massive traffic from Reddit. The other commentor here that recommended Newsvine, well, that site was cool until MSNBC bought them out. Digg and Newsvine don’t like bloggers submitting their own articles, so if you don’t have that “circle of friends”, you’re out of luck and if you do find a “circle of friends” on say DigitialPoint or SitePoint, you can guarantee on getting banned from Digg. That’s whe IMHO the best new social article site for bloggers is Recommend Us (recd.us). It allows anybody to submit articles and vote in a true democratic fashion.
SEO Blog on June 29th, 2008 at 8:15 pm

Hi Tobsy,

I would also recommend aggregators such as http://popurls.com/, great for a quick scan of all the major web 2.0 sites.

I also like Techmeme: http://techmeme.com/

Cheers
Gustavo
link building company on July 3rd, 2008 at 9:30 am

Thanks for the tips, guys. I really needed some help because getting traffic on your blog is very hard nowadays and I find your advices very good and useful. Thanks a lot!
Johny Walker on August 26th, 2008 at 5:53 am

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gout on September 8th, 2008 at 3:41 pm

thanks…I already use digg and reddit…good result
bad breath on September 16th, 2008 at 9:14 am

MIXX is growing stronger and stronger lately and is more fun than digg!
ahmet kaya on October 13th, 2008 at 5:35 pm

Thank you for the tips. good result…
makinalar on October 22nd, 2008 at 6:15 pm

I already use digg and reddit thank you
Penisverlaengerung on December 19th, 2008 at 12:05 pm

How can I increase my Page Rank?? I am a new blogger and still need more info about Page Ranks and traffic, I want to know if having traffic means the same than having a high page rank.
rv for sale on January 6th, 2009 at 3:41 pm

Thank for information but i using digg??? Impressive!
Fall Arrest Safety Equipment on March 21st, 2009 at 9:53 am

Interesting to read views back in 2007. Digg is seen somewhat as a corrupted social site now with well established “power users” being paid to submit stories.
shravan Mishra on June 18th, 2009 at 12:48 am

I really like the info about the Digg you have given. I’ll follow up your blogs posts.
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