What kind of a blogger are you?
A) The one that diggs all of your own posts.
B) The one that diggs some of your own posts.
C) The one that never diggs your own posts.
So, which one are you, blogger type A, B or C?
The digg community guidelines says:
Don’t spam.
You’re not fooling anyone. Digg is not for commercial use. Please don’t use Digg for selling or promoting products and services. If we discover that you’re involved in Digging for profit we reserve the right to terminate your account permanently.
Can digging your own posts, really be considering spamming? If yes, or no, for that matter, when is it commercial – is it enough to have affiliate links in your posts to make it commercial or what defines “commercial” in the world of Digg?
Any pro digger out there, knows that if an article only has one digg, it’s most likely the author/blogger who did it, and some of the reasons for doing it could be:
- You get to decide what description, and select the category, for your submission.
- You don’t have to count on a visitor to write a proper description.
- The visitor will only have to click “digg” and that’s it – they know they don’t have to fill out description, category and enter the captcha.
Some of the downsides by digging your own content first, could be:
- It’s not an organic digg/submission.
- You could be flagged as a “spammer”, depending on how digg enforces their community guidelines.
The same question could also be applied to Twitter, more precise, Twittley, which is kinda like “Digg for Twitter”. But that’s another story, we’re discussing Digg here.
Which blogger am I?
*stands up*
Hi, my name is Klaus and I digg some of my own posts. I’m blogger type “B”.
*sits down*
What do you do and what’s your thought on this, is it okay to digg your own stuff first?
Don’t forget to digg/retweet this article if you think it’s an interesting question – I already submitted it for you, so all you have to do is click the button – thanks 🙂
I’m (B) The one that diggs some of my own posts. I’ve heard that digging our own posts is less effective but honestly I have no idea. Personally, when I’m on someone’s blog I appreciate it when they have already Dugg their post. That way I just have to click ‘Digg’ rather than trying to figure out the best description and everything.
.-= Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..News Related AdSense Site – First Month = One Hundred Dollars =-.
I am a B. I do digg some of my posts. I know it is bad but if I don’t think anyone else will. Thanks Greg Ellison
.-= Greg Ellison´s last blog ..Online Backup Sites =-.
I guess I have been guilty of digging my own posts on occasional, but it is not something I do routinely at all. You bring up some interesting points and I think in general it is best if someone else diggs your posts purely organically. However, a little self-promotion I don’t think is intrinsically bad although we are all well served by following the various TOS of social media sites to the letter.
.-= Jay Zuck´s last blog ..Jack and the Shaman =-.
Just like Greg. Sometimes I digg my own posts because no one else will no matter how useful the post is (according to the commentators) 😀
.-= Michael Aulia´s last blog ..How to backup Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and IE with FavBackup =-.
Hi i am type B too.But if you have good friends on digg I am sure even your average article can reach front page.
Dear Klaus,
I’m (b) as well. I admit I used to digg my blog entries all the time in the beginning to see whether it would gain new readers, and new fellowship followers, but am not sure it has. Also I used to digg all the unpopular entries to get traffic coming in. Latetly, (last week started) I have just been doing the most popular of the month. I think every little helps, regardless if it’ll help or not. There is only one way to know, and it’s to keep at something or at least give it a go.
.-= Ana´s last blog ..The moment is now =-.
Just delete my account on Digg. It’s hard to compete with those big gun on Digg.
.-= steppinout´s last blog ..Thesis – The Way I Customize My 404 Page =-.
At the moment I’m a ‘C’ – but I may become a ‘B’, because until I read this I hadn’t thought about the advantages of being able to control the write-up and also saving other people time.
I spent a good amount of time submitting and digging my own articles on Digg and after watching the traffic I received from it, I no longer found it to be useful. No more Digg for me period.
.-= Extreme John´s last blog ..Sunday Smash Link Luv, Twittley for Twitter, Yahoo Meme =-.
I think you’re right. The amount of traffic I’m getting from Digg is very, very little – even though, of course, I don’t receive a lot of diggs. I get a lot more traffic from StumbleUpon with less effort, but it seems they just quickly arrive at the site and leave again, probably during a “stumble session”.
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Why “Comment Reply Notification” Is A Must Have Plugin For Your Blog – Otherwise… =-.
Guess I’m between an A and a B as I Digg most but not all. Your reasons were right on the mark in getting description and category set “correctly” and making it easy for others to Digg. In reality I don’t know how much of a difference it makes and may stop Digging and begin spending my time on things that are more productive.
.-= Mike @ HTStechtips´s last blog ..Microsoft Windows 7 Release Insights =-.
I never thought that digging my own articles was spam. Is the first time I read about this opinion to be honest…
.-= Stan The Man´s last blog ..How To Grow Taller – 7 Basic Tips =-.
Hi Stan (the man). I’m not really sure that I gave the impression that it’s *my* opinion that digging your own content is spam. As I wrote, I do it myself every now and then.
.-= Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Why “Comment Reply Notification” Is A Must Have Plugin For Your Blog – Otherwise… =-.
I occasionally Digg some of my post (not all), and I still do not know why I do it because I think Digg is a big waste of time. The Diff Mob has that thing pretty much covered and there is really no point of being there unless you get quality backlinks, which now appears to be of less value, than it used to.
.-= DiTesco´s last blog ..DiTescos Weekly Echo #6 =-.
I stumbled one of the posts in the past and till date that stumble generates at least 20 unique visits monthly while digg generates like 30 unique visits monthly. I’ve made up my mind to always stumble and digg my own posts now that I’ve come to learn that it makes subsequent diggs a lot easier.
By any chance isn’t there a wordpress plug-in that automatically diggs or stumbles posts as soon as they are published?
I’m sure there’s such a wordpress plugin or maybe just a service that you need to “ping”, which will then do the rest of you. But I haven’t looked into it as I’m not sure how “honest” it is to use such a service 🙂
I’d rather, for now, do it manually on the posts of mine that I think deserves a pre-digg or pre-stumble, so to speak.
Thanks for your comment though!
I’ll google and if I succeed in finding something like that I’ll let you know.
Cheers
Im a “B”, I’ve only dugg 2 of my posts to see the results might get from it.
I do wonder though are their guidelines like this for other social bookmarking sites?
.-= Blaine Bullman´s last blog ..The First Blog Contest On Blaineblogger Coming Soon…. =-.