The Ultimate Social Bookmarking Content Creation Guide (Part 1: Digg)
Social Bookmarking sites have been a great source of traffic and inbound links, however understand the type of content that each community enjoys and are willing to share with other community members is extremely important. One of the best ways to know what type of content has the best chance of going viral is by being an active member in each community. However that can be very time consuming and tedious, so i thought I would create this guide you can follow to help create content specific to each social bookmarking community.
This is a 5 part series that will cover creating content for the following social bookmarking sites. The other parts will be released over the next few weeks so keep checking back.
Digg
People on Digg are very loyal to the other active members in the community, so if you have an active account or are a power user it will help your content perform well. In terms of the type of content that will do well on Digg, it needs to be new, exciting and interesting. If you can be the first to break a story, you can be rewarded with thousands of visitors to your post.
Here is a breakdown of the Digg.com user demographics.
Content-Style
Lists: Usually list-style posts like “# Ways to Improve Your Subject” seem to do very well in Digg. For one, Digg users like quick posts that are easy to scan, so by making quick and entertaining posts in list format, it will cater to the ideal Digg users.
Images: Again referring back to how Digg users like to share and read content that is quick and easy, images are one of the fastest ways to convey your message/point. Also, with the rise in popularity of Infographics, they have become very popular within the Digg community.
Videos: Fun and entertaining videos are always a hit on Digg, not to mention many of the other social bookmarking sites. Because videos can cater to a wider audience, they can be watched by any language and location.
Roundups: If you have a collection or wrap-up that is focused on a certain topic or theme, it can go viral on Digg. For example “The Best Collection of Sports Movie Images” could be the title of a post that gets shared rapidly. Words like “Best” “Ultimate” Greatest” “Complete” can help your roundup post do well.
Tutorials: If you have a post that gives a detailed tutorial on a specific topic it can do very well. Incorporating pictures and videos to help explain the topic will boost the likeliness of it getting hot.
Attention Grabbing: Headlines are extremely important since that is what users see to determine if they will read the rest of the article. Adding (Pic) or (Video) at the end of the post title can also help indicate the type of content it is, which helps the Digg user find the types of content they like, a lot faster.
Topics for Content
New New New: Digg users love to read anything that is a breaking story, brand new, or an upcoming product/news.
Hottest Subjects: Even though Digg has a broad selection of categories that you can submit content to, there are a handful of subjects that seem to perform better than others.
- Mobile Phones/Applications
- Computer Software/Applications
- Social Networking
- Current News
- Upcoming Products/Events
- Controversial Topics
- Funny/Humor
Hottest Topics: Don’t get me wrong, the Digg community is huge, but Digg’s users tend to be more on the geeky and tech savvy group. Topics that are technology-focused like the iPhone, iPad, Windows 7, Video Games, etc…perform very well.
Examples of Content That Went Viral on Digg:
You can always visit here to see the most popular articles and posts on digg over the last 365 days. But here are some hand picked posts that went viral.
- iPhone 5 Preview
- Pirated DVDs vs Legal DVDs
- Some Dude Bought This on eBay. It Didn’t Work (9 Photos)
- 8 Things That Suck About the iPad
Other Digg Content Creation Resources:
- Youmoz: A Comprehensive Guide to Going Viral on Digg (Part 1)
- Youmoz: A Comprehensive Guide To Going Viral on Digg (part 2)
- DoshDosh: How to Create Digg-Friendly Content – Cracked.com Template
- Mint Blogger: 7 Must Read Tips to Create Digg-Friendly Content
- TopRankBlog: Link Bait vs Digg Bait
- ReadWriteWeb: The Digg Effect
- SEOmoz: Top 100 Digg Users Control 56% of Digg’s HomePage Content
- Tech-Recipes.com: Digg Effect: The Top 10 Things Webmasters Should Know
- ***update (8/3/2010) – What’s Hot on Digg (Infographic)
More from StayOnSearch
- Part 2: StumbleUpon
- Your Website SEO Checkup: Part 5 of 8 – Link Building
- Part 4: Mixx
- Part 5: Delicious
StayOnSearch Recommends
- Basic Article Marketing Part 1 – Introduction to Article Marketing (Practical SEO)
- Google + 1 Simplified (Practical SEO)
- Google+ + +1 or Google Social and +1 Sharing (Practical SEO)
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20 comments
The information in this post has been well researched, I love my Social Media Sites & will now be following this Blog with great interest.
To-date as a Digg Beta tester I am beginning to like most of the new implimented changes to the old Digg, and you can never keep everyone happy.
Allen Sentance Fisherman
Thanks for the comment. I am really looking forward to the new Digg 4.0.
Keep looking out for the other parts of this series, where I will discuss StumbleUpon, Reddit, Mixx, and Delicious.
GOOD
As you have mentioned, learning what works on Digg can be a long trial and error process, but your tips are true with my own experience.
Quality content will always be king, and presenting it in an easily scan-able format, with bullet points, catchy images or short video and structured headings is also important.
Great post, I'm look forward to the remaining posts in this series.
Yep, being an active user will give you a much better idea as to the type of content that gets shared and dugg more often.
Digg is def a funny site and community, but can generate some awesome traffic if you can get on the first page. The problem is that its either all or nothing with Digg.
Great.
Very Nice
Wonderful post. Its true. You do need good headlines to get people's attention. Also, it sure takes time to become well known on Digg. One of those sites you cant do for a little and stop and then get back into it and expect to be popular.
Being known on Digg takes a very long time. Personally I didn't even submit any Diggs until I had been active in the community for 6 months. This helps to show the community that you are not out to only promote your own content.
This article is very much useful for internet users and how to make book marking . very nice and useful information
Nice one. I've been trying to work Digg out for a while now.
I was beginning to think the only thing Digg's userbase liked was "anything from a power user".
Hey thanks for providing very useful information. Nice article is very informative.
Mark,
I digg this article.
It's good to see exactly what succeeds on Digg and to note that you have to be a Digg power user to really be in the community.
Thx,
Richard
I think we always should use different description for submitting links to social bookmarking sites and title should be interesting.
Very nice i like it.
Here’s another social bookmarking site : http://www.humansthink.com . It’s dofollow.
Pyaaza.com is a Band New social bookmarking site.Just submit your Bookmarks to pyaaza.com and get thousands of visitors to your websites and blogs
Nice icons image. Could I have a credit please!
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