Captivating blurbs in Digg/Delicious/etc.

Essence · 08-11-2008, 10:34 PM

This is my first post on these forums; been lurking for a couple of weeks. I searched for this subject & didn't find anything in the first couple of pages; please feel free to point me to existing threads if they're relevant.

I was pointed here from the 30 Day Challenge boards, where I was taken on a crash course in IM in order to pay for my days-from-being-born first baby. I've been learning a lot; I've got an Ebook and a growing collection of articles as well as a few blogs and some Ezine Articles.

I've kind of reached a hovering point (at zero traffic), however, because I've been told to socially bookmark all of my articles/blogs/pages, etc -- but I've also been told that I have to do it RIGHT. In other words, generic blurbs on Digg or Delicious get ignored, and are a waste of time.

The question I'd like to put to the forum is simple: when you're social-bookmarking, what is your general strategy for writing eye-catching, traffic-inducing blurbs? Are there tricks for optimizing blurbs for search engines, or is that important? How do you make sure people actually SEE your social-bookmark entries?

Also, while I'm at it, if any of you take a glance at my pages (linked above) and have some advice for me, please PM me. I'd really appreciate it.

Thank you!

Michael Danielson,
newbie to fatherhood, internet marketing, and trying to turn my life around
experienced at poverty, retail (=poverty), unemployment, and just recently -- hope.

Essence · 08-12-2008, 05:43 AM

I hope this isn't severly discouraged - this thread just ended up on the second page with 0 views.

So -- bump.

Lloyd Buchinski · 08-12-2008, 08:23 AM

Social bookmarking is at least a bit of a can of worms. First you are dealing with people who are mostly bored, lonely and with absolutely nothing better to do, and they have negative votes too. The initial traffic is just about worthless but I've read that the initial burst can result in links that will last longer. The second part certainly hasn't happened to me, but it could possibly be true. A link about the traffic with a quote from it. What it Means to "get dugg" from a Business Standpoint | CenterNetworks "In 24 hours,
we had over 20,000 pageviews to the dugg article. We didn't make
enough in clicks from all of our ad sources to buy a happy meal.
No, I am not talking about a big mac meal super sized, I am talking
about a kids happy meal. Maybe if they leave the toy out we can afford
it." 7 Oct 06

There are a lot of articles like that about the traffic and in fact of sites that have experienced it (rather than forum posters that theorize about it) the kids (almost) happy meal was by far the best results I've ever read about.

To get the traffic most pages won't do. You would have to specialize and adapt it to the interests of the site you are submitting it to. This link goes into good detail about that. 10 Steps to Guarantee You Make the Digg Front Page

As far as your headline and submit post, I would just look at the general style of a few of the page 1 submissions. For digg and for reddit for example these are almost opposite. Reddit has a headline that tends to be quite short, and nothing else. Digg follows it with a little descriptive paragraph, but being just a bit cynical these days, I wouldn't risk trying to stretch out the readers attention there for more than about 3 short sentences.

Here are a few more digg alternatives that you can practice on and get some traffic for your trouble, but each has a different way of signing up and posting, and I've decided that I should also learn to keep my attention span short, at least for this area. del.icio.us, buzz.yahoo.com, stumbleupon.com, fark.com

So good luck with all that, your situation and what you are trying to do certainly wouldn't be easy for me. Personally for less risk I would try an off line second job but that might not be an option for you. But best wishes and of course your approach could turn out better than either of us expect.

Essence · 08-12-2008, 03:44 PM

Hrm...OK. No one has ever mentioned the pitfalls of social bookmarking to me before. That's all right, I expect everyone has their own experiences. Thank you for the forewarning, however. I won't expect any miracles, and I'm grateful for the advice on research and site-specificity. Thank you!

Michael Danielson

08-11-2008, 10:34 PM	#1
Essence Michael Danielson War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Olympia, WA Posts: 192 Thanks: 97 Thanked 18 Times in 9 Posts Social Networking	Captivating blurbs in Digg/Delicious/etc. This is my first post on these forums; been lurking for a couple of weeks. I searched for this subject & didn't find anything in the first couple of pages; please feel free to point me to existing threads if they're relevant. I was pointed here from the 30 Day Challenge boards, where I was taken on a crash course in IM in order to pay for my days-from-being-born first baby. I've been learning a lot; I've got an Ebook and a growing collection of articles as well as a few blogs and some Ezine Articles. I've kind of reached a hovering point (at zero traffic), however, because I've been told to socially bookmark all of my articles/blogs/pages, etc -- but I've also been told that I have to do it RIGHT. In other words, generic blurbs on Digg or Delicious get ignored, and are a waste of time. The question I'd like to put to the forum is simple: when you're social-bookmarking, what is your general strategy for writing eye-catching, traffic-inducing blurbs? Are there tricks for optimizing blurbs for search engines, or is that important? How do you make sure people actually SEE your social-bookmark entries? Also, while I'm at it, if any of you take a glance at my pages (linked above) and have some advice for me, please PM me. I'd really appreciate it. Thank you! Michael Danielson, newbie to fatherhood, internet marketing, and trying to turn my life around experienced at poverty, retail (=poverty), unemployment, and just recently -- hope.

08-12-2008, 08:23 AM	#3
Lloyd Buchinski copy and paste geek War Room Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Calgary Posts: 617 Thanks: 18 Thanked 41 Times in 38 Posts	Social bookmarking is at least a bit of a can of worms. First you are dealing with people who are mostly bored, lonely and with absolutely nothing better to do, and they have negative votes too. The initial traffic is just about worthless but I've read that the initial burst can result in links that will last longer. The second part certainly hasn't happened to me, but it could possibly be true. A link about the traffic with a quote from it. What it Means to "get dugg" from a Business Standpoint \| CenterNetworks "In 24 hours, we had over 20,000 pageviews to the dugg article. We didn't make enough in clicks from all of our ad sources to buy a happy meal. No, I am not talking about a big mac meal super sized, I am talking about a kids happy meal. Maybe if they leave the toy out we can afford it." 7 Oct 06 There are a lot of articles like that about the traffic and in fact of sites that have experienced it (rather than forum posters that theorize about it) the kids (almost) happy meal was by far the best results I've ever read about. To get the traffic most pages won't do. You would have to specialize and adapt it to the interests of the site you are submitting it to. This link goes into good detail about that. 10 Steps to Guarantee You Make the Digg Front Page As far as your headline and submit post, I would just look at the general style of a few of the page 1 submissions. For digg and for reddit for example these are almost opposite. Reddit has a headline that tends to be quite short, and nothing else. Digg follows it with a little descriptive paragraph, but being just a bit cynical these days, I wouldn't risk trying to stretch out the readers attention there for more than about 3 short sentences. Here are a few more digg alternatives that you can practice on and get some traffic for your trouble, but each has a different way of signing up and posting, and I've decided that I should also learn to keep my attention span short, at least for this area. del.icio.us, buzz.yahoo.com, stumbleupon.com, fark.com So good luck with all that, your situation and what you are trying to do certainly wouldn't be easy for me. Personally for less risk I would try an off line second job but that might not be an option for you. But best wishes and of course your approach could turn out better than either of us expect.
	Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it. Stephen Leacock

08-12-2008, 05:43 AM	#2
Essence Michael Danielson War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Olympia, WA Posts: 192 Thanks: 97 Thanked 18 Times in 9 Posts Social Networking	I hope this isn't severly discouraged - this thread just ended up on the second page with 0 views. So -- bump.

08-12-2008, 03:44 PM	#4
Essence Michael Danielson War Room Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Olympia, WA Posts: 192 Thanks: 97 Thanked 18 Times in 9 Posts Social Networking	Hrm...OK. No one has ever mentioned the pitfalls of social bookmarking to me before. That's all right, I expect everyone has their own experiences. Thank you for the forewarning, however. I won't expect any miracles, and I'm grateful for the advice on research and site-specificity. Thank you! Michael Danielson