Don’t be a Digg-whore

Social media site Digg can be incredibly useful and entertaining. However it is important to remember that it is not MySpace or Facebook. Having tons of friends does not make you a superstar. More often than not Digg is increasingly becoming a marketing tool to push traffic to sites for SEO purposes. Part of the problem is blind diggers.

Users who digg articles without reading them simply because one of their ‘digg friends’ sent them a shout asking them to digg something. The value of a single digg is nothing, however harnessed a few hundred by an SEO company and you have front page material.

Don’t be a digg-whore! Be careful who you decide to friend. If you get a few dozen shouts every day. You might want to un-friend that user. Only you can keep digg unpolluted.

Is $1,200 for front page of Digg worth it?

A recent interview with a Digg user revealed that some top users are using their clout for profit. Digg is one of the more popular social media sites regularly crashing servers from large influx of traffic by getting Dugg.

The Digg user says he charges “$300 – 500″ for basic submissions. Actual article promotion will cost you $700 total. This is regardless of the traffic or Digg success. On top of this if the article actually makes it to the front page this will cost you another $500. This brings you to a total of $1200 for a Digg submission, promotion and an appearance on the front page.

The big question: is it worth it? Is the one time large influx of server crashing traffic worth the expense? If this one Digg user is any indication, yes. He’s making money and continues to offer his services. However, now that the cat’s out of the bag, ultimately the Digg community will seek out the perpetrator and probably exile him if he’s discovered. The Digg user took a big risk in doing the interview, but he also got paid.

He goes on to say that good content is still the key in addition to building a strong network within the community. With enough time and dedication you too can become a top digger, and who knows? Maybe you will one day be charging $500 per submission. So get digging.