What is Digg? For those who do not know, I will use the description right off their web site:
“Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users. You won’t find editors at Digg — we’re here to provide a place where people can collectively determine the value of content and we’re changing the way people consume information online.”
I will not go into all the ins and outs of Digg. You can read a good article about it here. You basically submit content you find interesting to the Digg Community. The community votes it up or down. If enough people vote it up and not too many vote it down or “bury it”, your submission makes it to the “Front Page” which can generate thousands of hits to the submission.
Is Digg beneficial to the “obscure bloggers” of which I count myself? It can be if you remember the key phrase coined by Viacom movie mogul Sumner Redstone “CONTENT IS KING!”. I actually thought my brother Mark Cuban coined the phrase until I read about Redstone. This is the golden rule that drives the Digg community.
What is your blog about? Is your blog about getting traffic from front page postings regardless of quality of the content because you are ad supported? I see a lot of that on Digg. That kind of content in my opinion is not king when it comes to blogging because it is almost always content generated by someone else. Why not spend some time building a loyal readership base with quality and or original content? If you don’t people are not going to come back until you have another popular submission. I want reader loyalty. I want people to stick around and look at my multiple posts. The only way they are going to do that is if they enjoyed the initial post I submitted to Digg. When a Digg submission of mine hits front page, it is just as or more important to me how many other of my articles are clicked.
There is nothing wrong with writing about other people’s news. Unless you are writing an original screenplay it makes sense to write about the world happening around you. The key for me at least is to take an event, even if 500 other people have written on it, and make it mine with original ideas, thoughts and viewpoints. If I can not add something new (at least new to me) to an event, I tend to stay away from it.
The tendency of some Diggers is to read only the lead-in when they digg. I try to create a lead-in that encourages readers to click on the link to my blog rather than simply digg and comment off of the lead-in. A bad lead-in can get an article buried as quickly as a bad article itself. The art of writing a good lead-in can be compared to a a teaser for a Hollywood movie. You want to capture the interest of your audience quickly without giving to much information. You want them to be curious enough to go see the movie.(your blog) It is a continuous learning process.
Do not be afraid of the comments. When a submission goes front page there can be hundreds of comments. Many of them are hateful and tough to read but if you shrug those off and find the meaningful ones you can learn a lot about ways to improve your writing and content selection skills. I routinely got tortured for my grammar before I started working harder on it. I still get tortured to a degree but the complaints have reduced dramatically.
Here is an example of how Digg recently worked for me resulting in two ESPN interviews and an appearance on The Fox News Channel.(video below).
On June 6 2008 I wrote an article entitled “Why Athletes Go Broke“. It went popular and generated 814 Diggs. This is a fairly modest number for a front page submission. In contrast, the actual article on my blog received 30 thousand hits. This is again, not an unusually large number of hits from a front page submission. The real benefit is the other search engines and blogs that pick up on this large number of hits. This process got my post noticed by the New York Times. The Times linked to the my blog in their Freakonomics Section in a post entitled: Why Do So Many Celebrities Go Broke. It was also posted in their “Whats Online” section. The Times postings resulted in my submission being picked up by news blogs all over the world. This resulted in two ESPN interviews and a national appearance on the Fox News Channel.(video below) I have also received several offers to write for publications.
What lessons can be learned from this? There are some that will say that this only happened because my last name is Cuban. I dispute that assertion. I have written many blogs that have gone front page and not generated any interest beyond Digg. It proves that Digg does work for bloggers even in the face of any disdain by the Digg community towards the blogging community. I have no idea if this disdain actually exists but I read about it frequently. It proves that regardless of any Digg variables, content will always be king. If you have content that is timely, interesting and hits a “public nerve” Digg will work for you. Digg is not just for distributing hard news around the internet. Digg can work to distribute your thoughts on that news as well. You just have to have something worth saying. Digg can pull back the curtain but the audience still has to like the show. Be original-Be timely-Be bold as a blogger. The Digg community will stand up and take notice.
©2008 Brian Cuban
MY INTERVIEW ON THE FOX NEWS CHANNEL
June 28th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Some very excellent points Brian. Great advice in many areas there. I would like to add (even though I am not nearly as qualified to do so), is to keep learning. Keep that hunger to learn about Digg and blogging in general. I’m a firm believer in interest and motivation and if a person has that burning desire to write, that person will study until the sun goes down on how to be successful in writing their point across.
Great article Brian, and thanks for helping me in this learning process as well.
LewPs last blog post..Breakheart Pass on Encore Western Channel on 6-26-08!
June 28th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I learned a great deal from this post and it was heartening to read that Digg can have a return for the time invested, assuming the person finds and submits material people truly want to see or read. You’ve given me hope that good content can reach people, one way or another.
corns last blog post..Spurs Picks George Hill in 2008 NBA Draft FirstEver NBA Draftee from IUPUI
June 28th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Digg isn’t the only site that can make your blog known, Slashdot can have this kind of impact as well. We discovered Slashdot, by being ‘Slashdotted’. Quite amazing the impact sites like these have.
disss last blog post..Who Am I?
June 28th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
In your bio pic you wear a shirt and tie, yet on the national stage you choose to wear a plain old t-shirt, what’s the thinking behind that?
June 28th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I wish I could say there was some thought process. It was just a random change of pace. If you saw how I dress day to day you would understand. I should pay to have “fashion nazi” on call…
June 29th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Thanks for addressing the last name issue. That was the first thought that went through my head, but it seems like you have a pretty clear chain of cause and effect.
June 29th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Great article. Very interesting. I am new to blogging and this whole Digg thing. I dugg something and shared it with my friends that a friend wrote and it went to the first page. Several weeks later the author emailed me to thank me for the submission of his article. I was SURPRISED by how many hateful people are on there. So much negativity. I am not sure I would even want to take the time to read the comments if an article from my site http://KitchenTableMedicine.com became popular on there. It would be pretty ugly since naturopathic medicine is such a controversial subject. Grammar is tough. It is not something that bothers me, because I write sentences at work that say “No HSM, DTR’s WNL…” etc. I think the point of blogging is COMMUNICATING ideas. If you want to read some perfect grammar go pick up a book that has had a ton of editing done to it. Don’t read blogs I say.
June 29th, 2008 at 1:21 am
You hit frontpage again
June 29th, 2008 at 3:15 am
Great post with lots of good advice.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Thank you Brian. I am new to Digg, but I can see how amazing their work. I have to learn more on how to get people attention. You give me a good point.
One thing that concerned me is that my English grammar is not really good. But I will keep trying.
June 29th, 2008 at 4:19 am
Dude, Digg like totally ROCKS. You cant beat Digg.
JT
http://www.FireMe.To/udi
June 29th, 2008 at 4:24 am
Great article. Content IS King. Our low-brow sports blog, FourHorsemenTattoo.com, has had similiar success by being featured on Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard a few times. Before being featured on Extra Mustard, the blog was relatively unknown, a science experiment with poor results. Now the blog is still relatively unknown, but the exposure has given us a reader base that continues to come back because of the content.
Steelheads last blog post..Steelhead Hall of Fame: Casper “Cap” Boso
June 29th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
I’m sorry you had to be on FOX.
July 1st, 2008 at 3:13 am
This is testament to the internet at large, not just Digg, although Digg is a major cog in the wheel. Just imagine, Brian – none of this would have been possible with a tiered access system:
http://www.craphound.com/images/netneutralpricing.jpg
–Dean
July 1st, 2008 at 10:59 am
There is an easier way to get on mainstream media. Forget Digg, see how this guy got on Reuters for free.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:26 am
Hi,
Really good post. I’m fairly new at Digg and it wasn’t really clear to me how it worked. This certainly helped.
Congratulations on a job well done and on the interview.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:41 am
I am one of the lover of digg.This is really a good place where i like to spent a lot of time.In this post I like the comment section idea about to improve the grammar.Very nice idea i am one of them..