A good number of the drop ship (and regular Internet) business owners that I chat with that attend Social Media, and SEO conferences where they are taught to “use Digg” because it will be an “amazing source of traffic” and will do wonders for your back links and traffic etc. are lost.  That puts it mildly.

I remember the first “SEO” conference I ever attended in New York City back in 2005 I heard so much “buzz” about Del.icio.us and Digg, and that everyone needed to be using them, but no one, and I mean no one was giving specifics of how to use them, and use them in a manner where it will benefit your business.  NOTHING MADE SENSE!!  I, like many of the people who read this blog, (and ask me questions about DIgg and Delicious) was lost when figuring out how to make these sites work for me (with an SEO benefit).  I am still amazed in myself that I did not give up on these sites back in 2005 with no guidance.  I am glad I did not, because they are a powerful source of link building and traffic, and can mean the difference between you beating all of your competitors.

I want to share some tips that could help you use Digg (and you can apply the info to Del.icio.us as well) in a way that will benefit your link building campaigns, bring more traffic, and turn your site into an authority site almost overnight.  (no kidding)  It might also turn you into a power DIGGER, which also has some negative side effects, but that is for another post, another day!

Here is what they fail to explain to you in these “conferences”

• To make Digg work for you, you must become a trusted user with many friends that are submitting the same kind of stuff as you.
• It takes some time to build up a trusted account, but not as long as you might think!
• Find and submit stories that are related to your industry.
• Do not spend time submitting stories that are already found on Digg.
• Look for the stories that are not already submitted.
• You can use this tool – Social Media For Firefox to help you find stories that have not been Dugg, but are popular on other major networks such as Del.icio.us, Reddit, and Stumble Upon.
• Find the users who are submitting the stories you like (that have hit the homepage) and make friends with them, and all of their friends.
• Vote for the stuff (that you like) that these new “friends” submit, and they will notice you are taking care of them, and they will return the favor.
• Don’t submit your own stuff, if you become a powerful Digger, there will be plenty of people you can find who would be willing to submit your own stuff.
• After spending time on Digg you will get a better idea of what stuff will make the homepage, and what will not.
• Don’t waste time submitting stuff that you really know will not make the homepage.
• Don’t email your stories to all of your friends all the time, and have the same group of friends submit the same stuff every time.
• It is ok to have friends that are Diggers and have them scratch your back if you are scratching theirs (submitting each others stuff when its worthy). (Don’t even trip on this one, you all know you do it too, I don’t care what you say)
• Everything you write is NOT Digg-worthy.  That is ok, because a site really only needs a homepage digg once or twice to change your momentum, and blow you past your competition!

This should give you a better idea how to use Digg, and benefit from it with links, traffic and more people knowing about your business.  You might end up making some friends in the process.   Any time you can build up friends and getting people to link to you, you will benefit from it.  I wish I would have had someone spell it out for me like this when getting started with Digg.  This will make your Digg experience much nicer then mine was in the begining!

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