2 Reasons Why I Don't Digg Your Stories
First of all, let me tell you that everything in this post will be written from a strictly personal point of view. I won’t imply in any way that my thoughts are also the thoughts of your other visitors. It’s very possible that I belong to the minority, that is, most of your visitors may act in a totally different way when it comes to submitting your stuff to Digg. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean that no one else in the world thinks like me. So try to see this post as an opportunity to get to understand some of your visitors’ behaviour a little better. After reading it you may either ignore my words or feel motivated to implement some small changes on your site in order to get more diggs.
Now that I’ve made you read this boring — yet necessary — introduction, let’s go straight to the 2 reasons why I probably won’t digg your stuff:
1. I’d hardly be the first person to Digg any given story. Don’t count on me to do it, unless your story is clearly suited to any Digg category. Alternatively you could tell me which category you want me to submit your page to. Why should you do it? Because Digg’s range of categories is rather limited and, even if I like your stuff a lot, I may have a tough time trying to classify it according to Digg’s standards.
I’m going to insist on it because I feel it’s very important: I often find posts that I’d love to digg. I like promoting good stuff and I sympathise with those who look for more traffic, as I’m one of them. Many people dream of making it into Digg’s front page, and I’d be more than happy to help them if I believed them to deserve it. The point is: no matter how much a story deserves to be promoted, if it doesn’t fit one of Digg’s current categories then things get a bit trickier. Submitting off-topic content is a violation of Digg’s TOS (have you ever taken the time to read it?). While your stories may not be exactly off-topic, sometimes it may be (very) hard to tell where they’d fall under. So, please help me help you, if you know what I mean.
2. Are you asking me to digg actual stories? I’ve seen many forum threads where webmasters, bloggers and marketers require and exchange diggs. Many of the links listed in such threads don’t lead you to stories, but rather to homepages or, even worse, to sales pages! How can you expect me to digg those? They just don’t fit Digg’s purposes, audience and topics.
A final note: no, writing about Digg doesn’t necessarily mean that one wants to have her post dugg.
December 8th, 2007 at 11:45 am
Hi Karen,
I didn’t digg you as I hardly bother with them but I stumbled instead.
Good points and I’m also very hesitant of digg. I actually find digg way overrated and only good for short term spike of traffic.
Monika @ The Writers Manifesto’s last blog post..My Do Follow Has Died!
December 8th, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Stumbles are welcome, loved and given free dinners (complete with chocolate ice-cream for a dessert).
Just like you, I find Digg way overrated as well. But that’s a story for a future post.
March 21st, 2008 at 11:44 pm
[...] There are also other reasons why I may say “no” when someone asks me to digg their stuff. But the truth is that there have been many requests which I have declined although I could have perfectly taken them. The problem here is that I’m really not a Digg fan, therefore I avoid visiting that site. To be more specific, I don’t like its community. And considering that it’s a social site, i. e., a site (supposedly) driven by its community, I think that’s a very serious issue. I don’t foresee any possibility to overcome my ill-will towards it in the near future. I just can’t stand all that childness and rudeness. When I visit Digg, I spend most of my time burying the silly comments I find over there, instead of searching for interesting headlines. It tells a lot on my feelings about most diggers. [...]