
Digg As Social Bookmarking Medium
Many spammer use digg as spamming medium they submit to Digg TOO much. “How could that be a problem?” question comes in your mind… let me answer it. Once a site has proved its information is unique suitable for Digg and does very well, many Diggers get that ‘first’ mentality, much like those sprite that are the first to comment on every blog post. Not only do they try to get to it first, but they also are generally careless and not the ideal Digg user. You may see broken titles, incorrect categories, no thumbnails and/or inaccurate descriptions. This can really put a limitation on your content’s success because you can only make a first thought once.
Here are a few tips to set your site up for success – no matter who submits it to Digg:
1. Write a Catchy Title Tag
Digg has recently changed the duplicate story checker (functionality that checks to make sure the same story wasn’t submitted before) and now pulls story information from the page to help the user fill in the title and description easier. It uses the title tag of the document to auto fill this attribute, so expertising a convincing page title can really help your odds. However, Digg allows for 60 characters for the title, so keep it short and sweet!
2.
Use the META Description
Just like the title tag information above, Digg uses the META description to fill in the story description. Writing a compelling and interesting blurb for your META description can then help you really round out your article for proper Digg submission. The description of an article can be just as important as the title in some cases, so don’t hold back on on this step.
3.
Include an Image for a Thumbnail
Having a thumbnail image for your Digg article can really help you stand out from the pack. Thumbnails catch the attention of users and also can help to describe what that story is about. Digg now uses Facebook’s “share” standard to find the proper image for the shared link. In order to signal which image you would prefer to use in the story, simply use the following tag:
<link rel=”image_src” href=”http://www.onjd.com/design05/images/PH2/WableAFC205.jpg” />
Thumbnail Digg
Also, if you want to have a suitable image for Digg to find on your site automatically, make sure that it resembles a thumbnail size-wise. Smaller, more square-ish images can make the perfect thumbnails for a story, so try to stick with those. I wouldn’t recommend having your ideal thumbnail go more than 450 px wide or 350 px high.
4.
Include an Upcoming Digg Widget
This feature can help to notify your audience which stories are currently on Digg. It can help you boost the votes on a story if you have a loyal and passionate audience. The widget can be customized by color, source and a variety of other options. In order to harness the most value from this widget (if your site is very active on Digg), I would recommend using the following setting:
Digg Widget
Here is an example of a customized widget on shopping cart:
shoppingcartWidget
5.
Add a Customized Digg Button
This is the most effective way to set your site up for the most ideal Digg submission. A customized Digg Button will allow you to populate all of your ideal information into a simple Digg button that will be auto-pulled for the user. Basically, a specific Digg button will need to be written for each article. The code included in the button will do all the work for you – with no additional tweaks needed in your code. Here is the following code for your customized Digg button:
<script type=”text/javascript”>
digg_url = ‘WEBSITE_URL’;
digg_title = ‘TITLE’;
digg_bodytext = ‘BODY’;
digg_media = ‘MEDIA’;
digg_topic = ‘TOPIC’;
</script>
<script src=”http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>