Digg: The beginners guide

After reading many articles across the broad spectrum of the Internet, that promise to make you a power user on Digg within a month’s time, I have come to the conclusion that many of these are utter rubbish and do not provide you with the key ingredients and knowledge to help you become a ravish user on Digg.

If you have already spent some time on Digg then have a look at amazing collection of Digg tools.

There is no exact rules or guidelines for a Digg phenomenon and no one has yet mastered the science of its algorithm. But it is important to follow some ground rules to become a part of this social community. This is why Digg has become so popular and it will definitely enhance your Digg experience and make you a success.

After reading this article I am not promising to make you the next Kevin Rose of Digg but it will give you tips and strategies to use and to subsequently improve your Digg experience.

Before you begin to use Digg, have you thought about what is your purpose of using it?

A lot of people and private companies use Digg to promote their own articles. Reaching the front page of Digg can lead to a flurry of 20,000 or more visitors reaching your submitted article in a single day. Imagine the kind of exposure for your brand and the increase in advertising revenue available through this increased traffic. But think again, is it really that easy? If it was that easy everyone would have got almost thousands of visitors every day. Even if you have not realized by now, Digg is not the place to constantly promote your own articles. If you are seen to submit your own articles, just to lead to a front-page feature, you will be seen as a  social media spammer within the community and this will definitely not help you in the long run.

Digg is not a place where you just walk-in and people will welcome with you lots of Dugg, instead it is a place where when you walk in people will welcome you with lots of shouts, messages such as Digg my favorites to be my Digg friend, and some critics who will help you in the end to know your mistakes. Keeping the right approach and little luck is what you need to get noticed on Digg.

Here are some important points to remember when you use Digg:

• Digg as much as you can and what you find most interesting. Digging articles on the front page and those of popular/active Diggers is also something that will help you.
• Make comments on articles you like or on the other hand don’t like as well. However the comments should be sensible and constructive!
• Submit unique, well-developed articles, which the Digg community will enjoy.
• Look at Digg as a social networking community and make contacts with other users on the site. Making relationships can lead to developing key skills on the Internet and help you in the long run through the Digging of shouts you send.
• For newbie’s if you are digging people shouts don’t forget to acknowledge them, in this way you will get noticed else you keep digging shouts at others and that will be a waste.
• An empty profile means you are on Digg for promoting your shouts. It’s better to have a more than complete profile. Provide users with contact medium (AIM, Google Chat) so you can get in touch.
• Use some profile picture which can make you stand out of the crowd (Don’t use your girl friend’s picture). I suggest using something with yellow background, which is easy to spot between lots of profile. Once you will start digging like me you will understand how any why is it important?

Digg is a playground where you need to be in on the action to be seen and acknowledged.

Another point to remember is that when you add friends DO NOT add just as many as you possibly can. You will not possibly be able to keep up with the vast amounts of shouts and submissions every day. Make friends with users who are active in the community, send them a shout; submit interesting articles and they will be interested in you, and you will develop a mutual friendship.

Remember Digg is a combination of hard work and smart work. Initially you need to work hard to get noticed by the community and the active members. After that it’s your smart work, interesting articles and activity that can double your pop ratio.

Check the quality of submission, the user’s pop ratio and his number of Digg’s and comments. By doing this you will have an idea of how active and appreciated the user is within the community.

Though me and Aaron tried to cover all the important points, in case you feel that I missed one or two feel free to shout back.

If you like the article acknowledge it by leaving a comment. Any suggestion and ideas will be appreciated.

Currently I’m writing an article on Stumbleupon: Beginners guide!

Subscribe to feeds if you don’t want to miss anything.

If you understand the concept of Digg by now have a look at Amazing collection of Digg tools.

Related posts:

1. Stop Shouting on Digg
2. How to Become Digg Power user??
3. 446 dugg : Hot news but not a FP : Another digg milestone
4. Should we spend hours on digg or rather write articles?
5. Sub Digger: Track your mutual Friends submission On Digg
6. 4 Things that Digg V4 Should Consider Changing
7. Review & Features of New Digg and 5 Invites to Giveaway
8. Digg V4 Leaked Images & How to Apply for Digg Beta

Tagged as: Digg, Kevin Rose, social bookmarking, Tutorials