One of my favourite social media/bookmarking sites is digg.com and I have been asked many times over the past couple of years “what is the benefit of using digg”. Here I will endeavor to answer that very question.
What Is Digg?
Digg is an extremely popular social media bookmarking/news site where all of the content is submitted by the very people that make digg as huge as it is today…it’s users.
According to Alexa, Digg is one of the most popular websites on the internet and is viewed by almost 1% of all internet users worldwide on a daily basis.
Members of Digg are able to submit articles, videos and images from almost any website they choose (subject to the digg terms and conditions). Once a story has been submitted to digg, it will be shown in the “upcoming” section and is then able to be either “dugg” or “buried” by other digg users. Members can also comment on digg articles and some of these comments make for very entertaining reading indeed!
How Can Digg Benefit You?
If you are lucky enough for one of your articles to get enough diggs, there is a chance that your story will then make it onto the Digg Front Page where it will be seen by literally millions of viewers.
If the article in question happens to be one of your own blog/website articles, get ready for some action and be prepared for the possibility that your server may crash due to high volumes of traffic! This is where the benefit of digg can be huge to bloggers and website owners as online traffic is one of the main aims of any successful site.
The other benefit of gaining a lot of diggs on an article is the fact that each digg is actually a link back to your site.
An Example Of The Power Of A Digg Front Page
I have been a member of Digg for well over 2 years now and at the time of writing I am proud to say that I have achieved 50 front page articles on the social media giant (which takes a lot of time and effort by the way!)
Recently I submitted a very basic video to digg that I found to be quite entertaining and thought it may stand a good chance of achieving the front page….I was right, the video went on to become the most viewed article on the entire site for that particular day. You can view the video that was submitted to digg by clicking on the image below.
The article I am referring to is titled “Ladies First…And Don’t You Forget It”. Here is the front page of Digg on the day of this particular article. You will notice the article in the right sidebar under “top in all topics”.
And an exploded view of “Top In All Topics” on the Digg Front Page:
It is now 6 days after submitting that particular article and it has received approximately 1000 more diggs (backlinks) since the above screenshot, which you can see below:
How Much Traffic Can A Digg Front Page Deliver?
Traffic generated by a Digg Front Page can vary, but you could expect somewhere in the vicinity of 2000 – 60000+ unique visitors from a single front page story.
If we work on the video that I mention in this post, I have just checked the traffic that shows on the diggbar, which states that the video has received 45,160 views (this is diggbar traffic only). From experience, I know that diggbar traffic stats shows around 25% of total traffic, which means that this particular video has possibly been visited by up to 180,000 unique viewers…pretty impressive stuff to say the least!
Hopefully you will now understand why social media sites like digg can be highly beneficial to anyone who is trying to build a following to their sites. I will also mention that digg is a great way to keep up with the latest news from around the world. Have fun, happy digging and I wish you all the best in achieving your very own digg front page.
You can find me on digg as: Bullhunter
About Sean Rasmussen
Hi Sean,
What a great post Sean, and very well explained, to some one like me that is new to blogging and is been contemplating in joining Digg. I can say most definitely and confidently that I’m going to register with Digg right after I finish this comment. I guess ones gets to really experience the way Digg works, by using it and having a feel for it…
Thank you for sharing your insights and expirience on this social media – bookmarking site.
Cheers….. Paulo.
Sorry Sean,
I forgot to introduce myself, as I’m new here to this blog. But you probably remember me, as I had a free hosted blog through wordpress. Well now that I have gain a bit of more knowlegde on the topic of blogging, now I have my own self hosted blog, and I’m having a lot of fun in the process of learning and testing…… Once again I would like to thank you for opening my eyes to blogging and to social media, since that last seminar I attended back in March, here in Melbourne…that you and the other Shawn held…. I really appreciated……. that was a fantastic!!! seminar, and a real eyes opener to the wide world web.
Wow…. I just watched the video.. lol… that was very impressive and funny….and I definitely, I will never forget that ladies are first.
Cheers….
Thanks Paolo.
I’m glad you enjoyed the Digg Post and also the seminar we did in Melbourne.
All the best mate. Hang around for plenty more fun stuff.
Sean
I love digg too! It not only boosts your seo but it is just great fun to participate in. There are some great stories that are found on digg. I’m yet to see the front page but I’ll keep working on it. until then I’m happy getting my news from Digg.
Hi Nicholas,
Digg is super addictive, all the best in achieving your first front page!
Sean
Wow Sean
Impressive stuff. I am expecting to get good results from Digg with the help of the friends I hav.
It’s a very sharing and caring community which is what social media is all about
Do you suggest we digg each blog post we put on our own blogsite? I actually bookmark with delicious a lot but I will have to look more into digg. Thanks Sean
Hi Sean,
I love the video. It’s very funny and I’m not surprised that it became a front page story on Digg. I really enjoy using Digg but I’m still looking for an article that gets dugg in double figures. Let alone that elusive front page.
Still, I am getting backlinks and having a great time.
Thanks Sean, very powerful numbers there!
Cheers & CS,
Sue!
Hi Sean
I never knew about Digg and how massive it is until now. Have I been asleep under a rock somewhere? Well if so, I am glad this competition has woken me up quick smart! It is amazing that Digg can offer all those benefits. No wonder you keep ‘gently’ nudging is to use social media sites. Now I understand.
I noticed on a few of your articles, when I went to “Digg” them, they had not yet been submitted?
I don’t know what I am supposed to do there, maybe you can explain what to do.
I would like to ask if the guy in the video actually tried to snatch the ladies handbag? or am I seeing things?
Great post and great ideas.
Blessings
Elly
Digg is one of the most popular sites online Elly, and can be very beneficial to the right type of article. Unfortunately the Digg community don’t seem to like SEO or IM type articles, they do however like humour, technology, controversy…and bacon of all things
And yes, I think that guy tried to pinch the wrong ladies handbag 
Looks like I must start Digging again – that video response was great
Very interesting article. I think I missed out on DIGG. I will most definatly get back to DIGGING on the DIGG. Thank you very much for the post. it explained a lot.