There’s a little buzz surrounding the newest pay for Diggs service called Subvert and Profit with both the Online Marketing Blog and Tech Crunch have covering it. It’s not the first website created specifically to game Digg and it won’t be the last.
I’m not going to debate the ethics involved with gaming Digg or any other social media site. It is what it is. I do want to warn anyone thinking about using such a service. Dig

I know this is going to sound like linkbait, but it’s not.
I’m getting tired of reading blog posts that are simply pandering to Digg users. You all know the format: catchy title, top 10 list, praising Digg, Google, Apple, etc. The very fact that I’m now able to pick these posts out, suggest it won’t be long before the majority start recognizing the same pattern.
While I’ll admit Digg sends a lot of traffic, and I’m always happy to see a post here make the Digg homepage, I don’t want to fall into the trap of writing posts that attract Diggers and don’t appeal to our regular readers.
So, as of today, I’m making a “Not-Made-For-Digg” pledge to our readers

So, Yahoo launches a new Suggestion Board format for visitors to browse suggestions submitted by users of properties such as Yahoo Autos, and it looks very similar to Digg.
Digg users get their underpants in a wad, and start screaming that the site is a blatant rip-off of Digg.
Diggers even go as far as spamming the new Yahoo Suggestion Board

It seems not a day goes by that a new “Digg-clone” pops-up on the radar and everyone chastises them for copying the popular voting model.
Well, according to Business Week, Digg’s about to start copying another popular online community - StumbleUpon.
Later this year, Digg will launch a recommendation tool able to expose members to fellow Diggers who appear to have similar interests, says Rose

Kevin Rose has just announced that Digg is scrapping the Top Diggers list, believing the move will take away the perception that just a few hundred Diggers control the majority of the 5,000 submissions each day.
Some of our top users – the people that have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours finding and digging the best stuff – are being blamed by some outlets as leading efforts to manipulate Digg…After considerable internal debate and discussion with many of those who make up the Top Digger list, we’ve decided to remove the list beginning tomorrow.

While Rose suggests Digg will introduce new ways to connect it’s users, this might certainly alienate the very users that have helped grow Digg

Steve Rubel managed to capture a screenshot of a new site called WTF (Where’s the Fire), before it was taken down. It appears to be the work of Technorati, the well known and trusted blog search engine.
Boy, I’m excited to see this move by them. Digg has become a very closed community, and it’s virtually impossible to have your site featured, if the top users decide they just don’t like you

An interesting conversation is going on between Lyndon Antcliff and Jason Calacanis about whether Digg can withstand the onslaught of clones using Pligg.
While Lyndon demonstrates just how many Digg clones are gaining traction, Jason suggests Digg will remain strong as it is focused on an important vertical - young, tech males.
Calacanis also explains why Digg needs to be careful not to mess with the the formula that attracts young techies.
When you build a huge, passionate community like digg has (and Fark, Slashdot, Engadget, iVillage, and the Well have), you live and die with that group

TechCrunch’s infamous Michael Arrington has listed the “Web 2.0″ companies he couldn’t live without in 2007, but we may as well call it “the top tech companies to watch in 2007″.
It’s a list most marketers should consider reviewing. While it has some tech companies that don’t quite cross into marketing, Arrington’s list is full of social media and search companies, including Ask City, BlueDot, Digg, Flickr, YouTube and more.

Darren Rowse responds to suggestions that traffic gained from being on Digg is fleeting and not long-term. He offers some excellent insights as to how Digg can benefit a blog’s traffic.
Here’s Darren’s observation of how the Digg effect increases his long-term traffic.

I’ve certainly seen the same effect with my own blog’s traffic, with a roughly 10% increase in daily traffic after the two instances this blog has been on Digg’s front page.
If you’ve

This will likely be the last news post until after Christmas. Here’s what’s caught my attention today.

Avinash Kaushik discusses the merits of javascript analytics over web log files.
Robert Scoble has re-discovered banner ads. He explains how Texas Instruments’ banner ads managed to catch his attention.
Mashable is reporting LinkedIn has secured new funding which suggests the company has a $250 million value.
Social media expert, Neil Patel, explains why some SEO web sites are being banned by Digg

You have to get up pretty darn early, if you want to try and game Digg. Your best bet to get traffic from Digg is to simply create something that is “Digg-worthy”. Sending an email to the Top 30 Digg users and asking them to help promote your company, is just dumb. Unfortunately for one top digger, he fell for the pitch and ended up having his account suspended.
Here’s where Digger Karim “Supernova17″ Yergaliyev went wrong

If we’re to believe the tripe fed to us by CNET recently, we’d have to add the New York Times to the list of “spammers” and “scammers” out to game Digg. Why?
TechCrunch reports that the NYT has added social bookmark links to many of its stories, including links to Digg, Facebook and Newsvine

I’m normally a fan of Elinor Mills stuff on CNET, but her story about the manipulation of Digg is just wrong, wrong and wrong.
The article basically discusses how marketers are using Digg to promote their company. This social media marketing is no different to search engine marketing, and those that try to get stories on the front page of Digg still need to provide quality content, or the community will bury it.
It’s not a scam or spam, yet Elinor refers to the practice in the same way SEO used to be discussed, a few years back

I had the pleasure of meeting Neil Patel, of ACS, for the first time at the recent PubCon, he (and Cameron too) is a great guy and very smart. He also happens to be an expert on Digg and other social media.
You can catch Neil on ShoeMoney’s radio show and even Guy Kawasaki is a fan of Neil’s guide to Digg.

Want to know a quick and easy way to get on the front page of Digg? Simply find one of their moderators and persuade him/her that you deserve to be on the front page. According to The Mu Life, a moderator can get you on the front page with just 1 Digg!
While I respect Digg’s option to do whatever the heck it likes, it certainly sucks that a system that is supposed to be a tool for the masses, can be influenced by just one person.
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