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5 Tips for Getting the Most Out of digg Traffic

There has been a lot of talk recently about the worth of digg traffic. Nathan went so far as to deflect all digg referrers because he felt that it was not the type of traffic he wanted at his site.

Digg has been invaluable in the growth of my own site and continues to be my favorite news site. I have collected a few tips below that I have found useful for getting the most out of digg traffic.

1. Add a prominent “Subscribe” link

The problem with most digg users is that they aren’t “sticky” – that is, they are not likely to subscribe to a website as they are only there for a particular article. However, simply because of the sheer number of people that will be hitting your article, at least a few will be interested enough in what you write to subscribe directly to the source. For these cases, it is important to add a prominent “Subscribe” link to the bottom of the post in addition to your normal location.

While the diggs themselves caused a noticeable spike in my own subscriber graph, the chart also shows the steady increase resulting from capturing those visitors who found the topic interesting.

This graph shows the same pattern as the subscriber chart. (Note: Keep in mind that traffic dips significantly on weekends)

It also seems that you can build a “reputation” as a digg user, and although this won’t help those who are just getting started, once you’ve collected enough front-page stories, readers will recognize the site and will be more likely to decide to subscribe right to the source.

2. Lower the Bounce Rate

This is easier said than done and will likely require a lot of experimentation as different sites will respond differently. The bounce rate is a figure that describes the number of entrances on a page that resulted in an exit from that page without moving to any other areas of the site (Monster Commerce: Web Analytics Glossary).

Obviously, most digg readers are at your site for a quick read, but you should try to keep as many as you can reading. A few ways to do this include adding a “Related Articles” list under the post in question. I have also found that a “Most Popular” list of articles can be very successful. Digg users are coming to (or making) a popular article and it is logical that they would want to see other successful posts from the author.

3. Pick a Good Title

A front page digg will be accompanied by a significant number of incoming links which will result in some serious search engine juice. Therefore, it is absolutely critical that you choose a good post title

Don’t think that a keyword you’re shooting for will be too difficult. A good enough article will get picked up by hundreds of websites and that kind of linking can lead to some high positions on very competitive keywords.

4. Take Care of Your Comments

Creating a relationship with your commenters will keep them coming back for the discussion as well as future posts. Sometimes it can be difficult to individually answer each comment as most dugg articles receive upwards of fifty comments, but you should at least try to answer those that include direct questions or concerns.

There are always a few vocal digg users who make unnecessarily harsh comments that may distract from an ongoing discussion. I am personally not in the habit of deleting comments and usually let them play out. Be polite and informative and let your loyal readers and other commenters take care of the rough ones.

5. Make another post as soon as possible

A surprising number of digg readers will try to learn more about the site and its articles, so having a fresh article atop the digg will give them somewhere new to go. Also, (and I should take my own advice) it is important to have a descriptive “About” page. The user would like to get an idea of who you really are, so having an interesting bio and even a picture could be very important in building a relationship with your new visitors.

digg is a great website built around an avid community. For webmasters, getting dugg can be the best thing to happen to your site as long as you know how to take advantage of the traffic boost.

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At
09:26:00 AM
On
February 5
In
By
Tom Fadial

Comments

  1. Yeah, digg has done wonders for my blog, I went from 50 uniques per day to 700/1000 in less then 2 months. Most of my articles that ended up on DIGG’s frontpage also got on Del.icio.us in the popular section, which is still brigning me some major traffic, even 2 months later.

    Search engines traffic increased tenfold, and I’m as happy as a pig in mud :)

    Interesting article, I tought about writing a similar one a while ago, but gave up on the idea :)

    Take care,

    Kiltak
    [Geeks Are Sexy] Tech. News

    GeeksAreSexy

    Feb 5, 11:04 AM #

  2. Oh and another tought, You have to keep your visitors as long as possible on your blog. To do this, use your article to refer them to some of your other ones. The longer they stay, the more chance they will have to return later

    Kiltak
    [Geeks Are Sexy] Tech. News

    GeeksAreSexy

    Feb 5, 11:10 AM #

  3. All those hits make me feel so…inadequate…

    /ME cries

    Great tips man.

    Andrew Hamann

    Feb 5, 11:48 AM #

  4. good article! While Digg front page submissions have increased my blog’s reader volume, my rss subscribers haven’t increased too thoroughly. I will definitely follow your #1 more carefully,

    Phil Renaud

    Feb 5, 11:57 AM #

  5. GeeksAreSexy: Wow, that’s a major growth there.
    About your second comment, I definitely agree and was actually going to put that it, but I couldn’t find a good screenshot to show it so I guess I forgot about it. But definitely, internal linking is very important.

    Andrew: Let’s not get into that again O_o

    Phil: Yes, point number one (Prominent Subscribe Link) is probably the most important. You really need to make sure you can catch any potential readers in the mass.

    Thame

    Feb 5, 01:07 PM #

  6. Thame: Look at one of my articles, i.e: Forgot your Windows password? No problems : Password resetting and recovering techniques you’ll see, about half the links on there refer to some of my other post.. Since my blog is about technology, and I wrote alot of content that can be referenced to one another, people do surf around alot to have a peek at everything. At least 50% of my traffic from digg have 2 or more pageviews…. And Google adsense results are more then excellent..

    GeeksAreSexy

    Feb 5, 01:20 PM #

  7. Good article for digg blog users ;)

    Microsano

    Feb 5, 04:00 PM #

  8. Very insightful as I’m starting this myself. I have been writting tech news, entertainment news and more importantly Final Cut Pro Tutorials (video tutorials as well) and am hoping that it will pick up. I’ll be back on your site to see if you have anymore nifty tips for us bloggers to attract good readers and keep them coming back for more.

    Thank again,

    Sebastien Gomez
    www.gomezsproductions.com

    Sebastien Gomez

    Feb 5, 04:06 PM #

  9. GeeksAreSexy:
    That is a very good example of what to do Geeks, and that percentage is alot better than I have ever had. (Fixed up that link in your comment, hope you don’t mind)

    Microsano: Glad it helped!

    Thame

    Feb 5, 04:06 PM #

  10. As a subpoint to “2. Lower the Bounce Rate”, when linking to other sites from your site, set the target to a new window (or at least a new tab?) instead of taking the user away from your site. Techies know that they can right click on a link, and open it in a new window, but I’d guess that the general public doesn’t use this technique all that often. This could be a matter of preference, and there are probably reasons why people don’t change the target (it’s a little annoying having 20 windows open when perusing), but from a traffic standpoint, changing the target makes cents (sense).

    Nice post. If I start planting anything for others to digg, I’ll keep this in mind.

    J. Divis

    Feb 5, 04:58 PM #

  11. Sebastian: Must’ve missed your comment somehow and I’ll be looking forward to seeing your around again.

    J. Divis: I’ve never really considered having outgoing links open in new windows, but then again, the vast majority of my visitors are on Firefox and other tabbed browsers that don’t really need new windows. I do see what you’re saying and it makes sense for sites with a more normal browser percentage.

    Thame

    Feb 5, 05:48 PM #

  12. Very interesting read. Thanks :)

    Alan

    Feb 5, 06:26 PM #

  13. And you’re getting dugg again. Nice tips

    Son Nguyen

    Feb 5, 06:39 PM #

  14. Thanks to everyone that’s commented.

    Thame

    Feb 5, 06:48 PM #

  15. Tip 6: Having established a certain amount of credibility on digg, write an article about digg. Digg users love reading about digg and cannot see enough graphs of digg related traffic.

    Luke Welling

    Feb 5, 07:08 PM #

  16. It also helps if your site name doesn’t abbreviate to EW. Kidding. Clever condensations seem to be more constructive than destructive. From past experience, you don’t necessarily need quality content to catch Digg attention. Stir up some controversy or rephrase an old but popular concept and Digg users will snatch you right out of petty traffic and propel you to highway status.

    Sapphire

    Feb 5, 07:14 PM #

  17. * Sapphire:*
    “From past experience, you don’t necessarily need quality content to catch Digg attention.”

    What are you hinting at? :D

    Thame

    Feb 5, 07:35 PM #

  18. Great Advice!

    Andy A.
    Media Fill LLC
    Http://www.mediafill.com

    Andy

    Feb 5, 07:36 PM #

  19. Interesting suggestions. We already more or less apply all of them on our site, but I see so many blogs that just don’t encourage me to stick around and read more that I figure these tips are needed.

    Michael G Richard

    Feb 5, 07:47 PM #

  20. Hey you got dugg! :)
    http://digg.com/links/5_Tips_for_Getting_the_Most_Out_of_digg_Traffic

    Love the site !

    Adam D

    Feb 5, 07:51 PM #

  21. Andy: Thank you!

    Michael: Yes, these tips should also work in converting other types of traffic into dedicated readers.

    Adam: I noticed and thanks!

    Thame

    Feb 5, 08:02 PM #

  22. Double congratulation: on being dugg and providing a valuable tutorial.

    Linkr

    Feb 5, 08:37 PM #

  23. Excellent content again Thame. You’re almost reaching my digg ranks, I think I’m at 11 now. :-P

    Paul Stamatiou

    Feb 5, 09:18 PM #

  24. Indeed, great article. Not only for those running the pages, but also for the visitors. I find myself actually tossing up a comment, looking for About pages, and generally hitting up other pages. Normally there will be a link to an external page and I’m off browsing for a few hours before I realize it. However, after seeing this and other articles on digg traffic, I’ve become a bit more conscientious and try to take in the site more. Take it easy.

    Cynric

    Feb 5, 10:18 PM #

  25. Great tutorial!

    Ivan Minic

    Feb 6, 02:11 AM #

  26. I’m glad it helped!

    Thame

    Feb 6, 04:19 AM #

  27. Great advice, as a beginner in blogging I can definitly use it.
    Thanks

    amadeus

    Feb 6, 06:19 AM #

  28. Good tips. Of course, this adds more to your digg count :-)

    Tip #3 is, without question, key in maximizing traffic.

    LegacyB4

    Feb 6, 06:26 AM #

  29. Thanks for the insight. My traffic spiked the few times I was dugg, but it dropped off over the next few days.

    I blame Blogger for lacking in some of the features you’ve mentioned, such as categories, favourite posts, etc.

    Kaioshin

    Feb 6, 07:01 AM #

  30. LegacyB4: Yes, choosing a good title can bring in alot of long-term traffic.

    Kaioshin: I’m not familiar with Blogger, so I don’t know what features it has/lacks, but I’m sure there are a few limitations that would restrict how fast you can grow. Good luck with your site, and you know what CMS I would recommend…Textpattern

    Thame

    Feb 6, 07:48 AM #

  31. Some great tips there, going to try submitting an article to Digg and see what it does to my stats.

    Mark

    Feb 7, 05:35 AM #

  32. Good luck and just be aware of the fact that a portion of the comments won’t exactly be professing their love to you and your site. Don’t say I didn’t warn you :D

    Thame

    Feb 7, 06:03 AM #

  33. Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me. :)

    Mark

    Feb 7, 11:05 PM #

  34. How mutch traffic you get from digg ? % ?

    Mitza

    Feb 15, 11:46 PM #

  35. Mitza: It’s right there on the graph a few lines up…

    Thame

    Feb 16, 05:01 PM #

  36. Also get hold of these Digg Tools
    http://pchere.blogspot.com/2005/09/complete-digg-tools-collection.html

    sam

    Feb 20, 09:42 AM #

  37. I understand… due to fact fact it is just so surreal, i just couldn’t resist making that comment. So i guess in a strange surreal way my comment should be considered a compliment

    Online

    Mar 20, 12:47 AM #

  38. cool site

    tworzenie stron

    Jun 19, 02:08 AM #

  39. i agree with you :)

    nurkowanie

    Oct 15, 11:21 AM #

  40. How many clicks can you get from digg? I just added the digg button to my site, thank you for the great tips

    John

    Nov 29, 05:06 AM #

  41. great tips thanks

    John Jackson

    Dec 5, 02:20 PM #

  42. well Just began using digg .Lets see if I too could benefit from it.My healhy site gets only 100 uniques
    a day.www.tiptopwebsite.com/explanations online for
    a month now.

    khush

    Dec 13, 05:30 AM #

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    Dec 14, 10:43 AM #

  44. Keep up the good work – It’s clear, concise and helpful. Greetings

    Alice Buses

    Dec 18, 07:04 PM #

  45. very interesting blog, good solutions, good work,
    thank you!

    John

    Jan 4, 03:25 AM #

  46. I really like this website. It`s unique and I will keep it in my mind for a long time. Good work! Greetings.

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  50. I would prefere reddit.com… those guys give you a real LINK!

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  52. Excellent tips!

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