Stumble and Digg question

[Dotty Scott]

Since I am new to Stumble and Digg I have a question about how this works. People send a Digg or Stumble request through this site and they put their blog posting directly. When I have tried to digg or stumble from the blog I sometimes get a message like "this url has been spamming our submission software" The only thing I can figure is that people are submitting the blog posts individually. Would it not be better to Digg or Stumble your own post then submit the Digg or Stumble url for your blog post? Am I missing something?

[Troy Dooly]

Dorothy,

This is a great question and one that most people I am finding do not understand.

Most of us when we get started in Social marketing are so excited about a new way to drive and monetize traffic to our sites, we never take time to read the P&P (policies & Procedures) on any site we are joining. We just click "yes I agree" and off we go.

However, in ALL of the illegitimate sites I have joined I have found that it is not an acceptable practice to submit your own articles. Which makes perfect since when you think about it.

SPAM in the generic sense is nothing more than sending information to people who have not requested to receive it.

The same is true when we submit our own articles and write comments.

However, if others read, enjoy and gain value from what we write or record and decide to submit it with their comments, then it becomes pure organic information provided by someone other than the author who has a biased opinion.

Jack, talks about this in the Authority Black Book, and is why we have communities like this one. People with the same common goals can come together and help each other become the dominate voices in our niche professions.

However, I should state that as any community grows so does the time it takes to review what our community family members submit. So what I would suggest since you are new to this part of social marketing is review the submitted articles and vote and comment on the ones you truly find value or those which are also in your niche market.

Then as you progress and you find your groove you can increase your voting and commenting.

Hope this helps.

Never Give Up,

Troy Dooly

[Brennan Kingsland]

I may be confused but I thought we were supposed to submit our QUALITY articles to the individual sites ourselves, then give the URL to the group so they can click on the link and decide whether to Stumble, or Digg or whatever. I thought I understood that, but then I got BANNED from Newsvine - so I really don't know what the correct protocol is apparently. I think I'm the one that's missing something!

[Troy Dooly]

Brennan,

Welcome to the world of confusion. Same exact thing happened to me, and that is when I started digging to find out what I was doing wrong.

Are you a member of any of Jack's sites? If so tell me which one and I will point you to a great referrence on this subject.

[Brennan Kingsland]

Thanks, Troy,

Yep! I'm in ASC and the ASC Buzz Group. I could definitely use a great reference. I read the Authority Black Book when I first started, but I was just telling my husband that I should read it again, now that I may know what they're talking about (a little bit, at least). I was so snowed under when I started that I'm sure only a small percentage got through my thick skull.

Well, there are worse things than being banned from Newsvine, like being banned from Shoutwire. NOT!

[Troy Dooly]

Brennan,

There are several smaller reports on each of the social news and book marketing sites. PLus Jack has just released the 2008 version of the Black book.

But there is also a small report and a couple of videos (maybe audios) called "Bending The Web" This has helped me fully understand what we need to be doing.

If you can't locate it then let me know and I will email it to you.

Never Give Up,

Troy

[Brennan Kingsland]

Thanks, Troy -

I've downloaded the 2008 version to read & study & I'm off to learn how to bend the web.

Thanks for the info and the encouragement.
Brennan

[Bill Bruce]

Here is my understanding of how to successfully conquer Digg, Stumble etc.

First join ONE and BEFORE you post amything look around get acquainted with the site and the etiquette used there and comment/vote on other people's posts. Show that you want to be part of that community not just selfishly spam/promote yourself. THEN promote yourself. It's give and take if in the very beginning you look like you are just there for yourself you will most likely get labeled a spammer and get banned. Then when you have successfully established yourself repeat the process on yet another site, and so on and so on.

Bill Bruce
blog: blog.billbruce.info

[Chris Lang]

Read the Digg thread here on SMC.