Congratulations! Well done! You made the front page on Digg. Not a bad effort. Perhaps you wrote a well constructed article on a hot topic, posted some breaking news or just submitted an article, went to bed and when you logged on the next day, to your astonishment, you have had 3500 diggs.
Well, what to do now?
10. Screenshots.
If you are lucky enough to see your article on the front page: screenshot, screenshot, screenshot. There are hundreds of free screenshot programs to choose from, download it and start snapping. Save the images to a photo sharing account like Flickr or Picasa and tell everybody you know.
9. Mine through your statistics.
Most blogs have some statistical data about your account; the number of views, incoming links, location of the person viewing your article, search engine related queries, etc. Google Analytics is also a favorable option. It is well worth your time to focus on what social bookmark sites have picked up on it, plagiarists who have ripped your article blindly and blogged it claiming it as their own, and any other facets. This information can aid you next time when writing an article for the masses.
8. Don’t start thinking you a blogging god.
A lot of people become so enthralled in their latest victory they temporarily think that whatever they write from now on will automatically be embraced by the people, shoot to number 1 on Digg and other competing sites. Not so, my friend. In a rush of blood, people start submitting poor quality content, spelling and grammatical errors are likely to litter the article, which in turn diminishes your credibility immensely.
7. Give your self a pat on the back.
Hey, it’s not everyday you get on the front page, is it?
6. Develop a strategy to get on their again.
By evaluating your traffic data, one can use this as a guide to pin-point what aspects your popular article caught people’s attention in the first place. Was it the headline? Was it the use of certain words? Maybe the phasing and tone of the article inspired people to digg it? Fish through it, be critical on yourself if need be, and try to develop a conceptual framework to work off for your next article.
5. Don’t be put off by idiotic comments.
You just can’t please everyone. There is always someone on the internets who is, for reasons known only unto themselves, is vocal critic about your stance on whatever topic you posted. Don’t be intimidated or put off by these people. Politicians will tell you the same. After all, they’re always in the firing line.
4. Write about your experience
If you had a particularly interesting experience with the article you posted, then blog about it. In some cases unique articles that make the front pages are picked up by mainstream media and broadcast internationally. It is not unknown for a blogger to be inundated with calls from all over the world from news agencies wanting “further comments”. If you find yourself in that situation, whatever you do is your business, yet write about it when the experience is still fresh in your mind.
3. Make a sequel.
If you submitted a video and it rocketed to the front page, perhaps you can capitalize on the exposure and make a sequel. You can do the same thing with an article too. Submit the article within a week of your prior post and label it as a follow-up. Kind of tricky to do if you videoed your best mate breaking his leg after crashing off a skateboard.
2. Clean up your blog.
Now that you had a large number of hits to your blog, people may very well subscribe to it or bookmark it for later viewing. Go through and tag articles accordingly so others can search through it easily. If you have been meaning to change the banner of some pictures, now is the time to do it. Make a contact me page and link it to your photo and video sharing accounts, Facebook, etc. Chances are if people like what you wrote, they may very well like what you photograph, video and twitter.
1. Keep Digging
‘Nuff said!
