If you haven’t noticed already, Digg is the most deeply gamed social media service on the planet.

‘Gaming’ social media is the act of using private networks and arrangements to propel your own content forward. Asking for votes is gaming, organizing submission by select individuals is gaming, and so on.

The argument against so-called ‘gaming’ is that it’s undemocratic, and it goes against the principle of a level playing field. At first glance, this objection sounds both fair and logical. The issue is made more complex by the truth: everybody does it. From top bloggers down to little minnows in the web ocean, people are trying to maximize their chances of success on Digg using both arranged submission and private networks.

For a second, though, let’s imagine if nobody did this. Small blogs and websites would be at a huge disadvantage, as they’d be unable to get more than a few Diggs from their modestly-sized regular readership. The chances of the Digg community picking up on a submission with 5 - 10 diggs in as many hours is miniscule at best, considering the huge number of submissions made every hour. At the opposite end of the spectrum, highly trafficked blogs and websites would utterly dominate the front page (more than they already do), because they could rely on their huge reserves of traffic to propel the stories forward.

The end result? You have a service that sends CNET, TechCrunch, NyTimes and the Huffington Post even more traffic, and entrenches the web media status quo.

Is it really a level playing field if content succeeds based on the size of its servers and advertising budget, rather than on the back of human creativity and endeavour alone?

A network of voters can give even a small website or blog the chance to hit the front page, by putting its content in a position to be judged by the Digg community, and then either propelling it success or burying it, depending on its merits. This networking stage is also one of the most social and enjoyable aspects of using Digg.

If you’re serious about playing the odds game on Digg, you need a network to push your best content forward. Here’s how you can build one, and benefit everyone involved.

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Most bloggers would love their content to hit the front page of Digg. Unfortunately, most of those bloggers are never able to experience the huge spike of traffic and the feelings of accomplishment this brings.

In this post, I want to argue that success with Digg is an odds game. You can never guarantee it, but you can give yourself the best possible odds. I’ll be describing how to do this, right down to what kind of post you should create, and how to get it moving up the ranks on Digg.

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Photo by Iydurg.

It’s easy to get caught up discussing high-level Digg strategies and complicated metaphors, but it’s important not to lose sight of the things that make the advanced stuff worthwhile.

Without the ability to gather links, subscribers and comments, your blog can’t grow. These three basic things are the lifeblood of your blog. It’s essential to be reminded (every once and a while) of how you can keep that lifeblood flowing.

Let’s get back to basics!

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Photo by Andrew Eglington.

Effective use of time is the main ingredient in creating a thriving blog or website. In this post, I want to explain some high-impact traffic generating techniques you can use that minimize time and effort without minimizing results.

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Photo by Brett L.

1. The social media runaway train. Perhaps the most sought after (and least frequently attained) route to a popular blog is rapid ‘growth from above’ resulting from huge traffic spikes, most frequently originating from Digg. This route was traveled by blogs like Zen Habits (did you know Zen Habits has been on the Digg front page more than 80 times?) and The Art of Manliness.

Getting started on this path:
Why You’ve Got to Digg Digg to Get Dugg
The One True Cause of Rapid-fire Growth

2. Grassroots growth. The most common form of blog growth occurs at the grassroots, where blogs and bloggers at similar levels of development collaborate from the ground up. The central idea here is that a lot of little links are just as powerful as one big, top-down growth event. This is one of the most community-based approaches, though growth yielded through this route tends to be consistent and slow-burn.

Getting started on this path:
Hansel and Gretel Link-building

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