It’s not much of a secret that getting a story onto the front page of Digg is without a glimmer a doubt, something that will absolutely skyrocket your traffic (hows 20,000-50,000 visitors sound?), and while many successfully manage to eventually get their much beloved websites there, it often takes a whole lot of blood, tears and bucket loads of sweat to make it. Well except for Digg user msaleem, who’s managed to successfully and legitimately land a whopping 1,161 articles onto the fortress heavily guarded by nerds armed with a barrage of unwarranted insults, and an abnormal lack of exposure to natural sunlight and society as a whole - otherwise known as Diggs front page. And if that wasn’t enough, Muhammad has also managed to become a top user over at propeller.

If I mentioned the user name ‘msaleem’ out of a pool of over one million registered users to a regular contributor over at Digg - or Propeller for that matter, chances are they’d know whom I’m referring to. A self professed social media maven, extremely talented writer, creative thinker, and university student, Saleem is considered the second most successful and largest contributor on Digg - so when the opportunity to conduct an interview came along, best believe I wasn’t going to let this one slip. And now that I’ve ‘obtained’ Muhammad until the end of the interview (let me check if his still confined to my dungeon), we better get crackin’ before he finds a way to escape.

Thanks very much for agreeing to take time out to do this Muhammad. Let’s kick things off!

How long have you been involved with social media?

I’ve been involved in social media since Late 2005.

What do you find most frustrating about Digg?

One of the most annoying things is that the algorithm actually works against the top contributors which is counterintuitive. Also, they need to be more open in their communication with their community.

Is there anything in particular you can tell us about Digg and Propeller traffic? How much of it do you manage to retain? *

They say that the conversion rate for social media traffic is one-third that of search traffic. However, after using social media, you also increase your google traffic, which you can add to the conversion.

What kind of articles - in your experience - typically tend to hold up well after submission?

The articles that truly create value, and content that is evergreen is more likely to convert better, and also bring good long-term traffic.

I understand you deal with a whole string of other social media websites. What would you deem to be your favorite, and why?

My favorite has to be StumbleUpon. The content is great, I love the discovery aspect of it, and the community is genuinely appreciative of your participation. I love networking through StumbleUpon.

What do you feel is key to making an article hit the front page, and why?

Honestly, there is no magic to it. You need good content, submitted by a user in good standing and you have a hit on your hands. You have to participate on the site, of course, to know what kind of content the community appreciates.

Have you fallen victim to the notorious ‘comment abuse’ that seems to regularly occur on Digg - and if so, how has it effected you?

I’ve been abused on the comments a few times but I’ve learned not to care about that. Anonymity on the web breeds idiots and we just cannot let it bother us.

Browsing around on your StumbleUpon profile, I noticed you were also a hired scout on Propeller. What’s that like?

Being a hired scout has been great. We get to interact with the management, the programmers/developers and get to give direct input on the future direction of the site. We’re also going to be unveiling an awesome new site soon.

You can visit Muhammad’s blog by clicking here.

In one of my previous posts, I recommended checking out the competition when setting up a marketing campaign. I’ve noticed a whole heap of websites neglecting this because they often feel their competitor has corned the audience in their selected advertising platform. This is often not true. Sometimes it’s handy to know what the other players in your industry are up to, and even though sometimes using their ideas isn’t plausible, it will at least give you something to work with when setting up your own marketing campaign.

Since I hardly consider anyone my competitor in this industry(ahh the beauty of blogging), I’ll give a rundown of two blogs that are known to make some serious cash. First up (prepare the plank!) - Mr Jeremy Schoemaker.

Top 5 Traffic Sources

It’d be expected that direct visits would top the list for Schoemoney in particular, as the this photo has been spread to pretty much every Adsense user. The Adsense Cheque is the second most viewed page on the blog, with the main page leading suite.

John Chow is another prominent blogger who makes a killing in this industry, and while I still consider Darren Rowse the leading player by far, it’s still interesting to check out other bloggers. John Chow’s blog didn’t release any official traffic figures like Shoemoney’s, so I did a little bit of snooping (very simple stuff anyone can do with the help of good ol’ Google)

John Chow’s blog was heavily Dugg in September 2006. The articles that became popular were:

John Chow’s blog was heavily contributed to by Digg, which saw him earn $17,828.61 the very next month (August 2006).

Jeremy and John know how to convert first time readers into recurring visitors, through the employment of well written, unique and honest articles. Content is, and will always remain king. While both bloggers enjoy buckets of traffic from Digg, getting an article to hit popular status on Digg can often be a daunting task. These guys stuck it out. I don’t think getting five articles to hit the front page was easy for Mr. Chow, however this guy managed to exercise a great persistence and boy did it pay off.

We also learned that traditional SEO is and will always play an important role in online marketing, with Shoemoney still getting a major influx of traffic from Google. Sometimes it’s good to just skip back to the basics, instead of diving in and attempting to find a magic solution, and while SEO can sometimes be a pretty difficult task, when correctly applied will pretty much always deliver results.

Everyone knows it. I know it, you know it, your visitors know it, my pet lemon tree knows it. Link baiting is one of the most rewarding, well proven, cost effective marketing techniques at a webmasters disposal and allowing an opportunity to caste out some bait slip by, is definitely something you’ll be kicking yourself about later down the track. Link baiting has the ability to easily turn you into an overnight success. It can completely transform your SEO ranking, and even dramatically increase the value of your website.

For those new to all this, link baiting is practically supercharged link building. Instead, link baiting is the art of generating something so unique, significant and outstanding, that it spreads virally consequently generating links to your website. Here’s nine ideas that can be used to encourage link baiting;

Organizing a contest designed to encourage users to interact more can often generate massive amounts of buzz - especially when an exciting prize lies await. Give away products or services relevant to your niche and remember to let generosity shed it’s colours - the more you give away, the more exciting the competition as a whole is. Offering an iPod to the publisher of the most interesting five posts on a technological forum for example, would be extremely effective if handled correctly. The bigger the contest, the bigger the feedback from outside sources.

Organizing a massive give away is also extremely effective, and in my experience has yielded much better responses than contest. A perfect example for a blog would be to offer $50 to a random four individuals who subscriber to your RSS feed.

Shoemoney tried this by deeming the seemingly unpopular US President George Bush as the greatest president in the history of the United States. This generated a mega amount of buzz both on and off the website, with back links cropping up left, right and center

Humans are naturally curious beings, and using phrases such as ‘change is on its way…’ or ‘it’s coming’ can assist you in using that curiosity to your advantage. Make sure that ‘the change’ is worthwhile and lives up to the hype, or this can very well backfire.

Finding fault in what the bigger websites say can often be extremely challenging but yet very very rewarding, especially if you can bring up some evidence to support your claim. This can add credibility to you, and shift some of their viewers onto your website, especially if word gets out.

Make sure you post something unique and compelling to read, as this is your opportunity to lure some of the host blogs readers onto yours. Remember to make sure you’re allowed to include a by line in your post.

Darren posted a list of blog posts comparing blogging to alcohol, dating, golf and fishing, among a series of other things. Definitely a very amusing read, and something that can generate links for both him and the writers. This can also easily be applied to websites.

Exposing an ill-dealing in your industry by conducting your own investigation and being the first in on the scoop can yield absolutely explosive results. Make sure what you’re saying is genuine, and doesn’t defame anybody.

I know it’s much easier said than done, but arranging an interview with a renowned and a well respected industry figure can on its own yield traffic and results. Placing them on the spot by projecting unexpected questions at them is what really spices things up. Be creative, but also ensure that they do not take offense to these questions.

I’ve been responding to a few requests for help on the Digital Point forums lately from webmasters who are having a few issues getting their message across to potential consumers and/or visitors. And you know what I’ve recommended in most cases? Viral Marketing

Like a virus, viral marketing is designed to spread amongst a targeted community, ‘infecting’ person after person through word of mouth, consequently creating a knock-on effect. It is without a glimmer of doubt, extremely effective and simultaneously proven to work rather well. So the question is, how can we get viral marketing to work for your website?

One of the most classic examples that comes to mind in the online world, is Hotmail and their now famous viral campaign. It was a simple and effective concept, that helped drive the email giant into becoming what it is today - and did I mention it was simple? The concept was setting up a free email service, in which anyone could sign up, and placing a small advertisement in each users signature; “Get your private, free email at http://www.hotmail.com”.

Viral Marketing can be also mean staging an event to get people talking, whether it be something rather outrageous, hilarious or simply unique. I remember some years ago, a major mobile/cell phone carrier (Vodafone) had someone run into the middle of a sporting event - naked, with their company name written on them. From memory I think this happened in the UK - but please feel free to correct me if I’m mistaken.

To get people talking you need to stand out. Some very quick ideas for viral marketing campaigns are;

1. Announcing a product/feature with a minimal amount of detail, and issuing a countdown to ’something’ brand spankin’ new. This also has the potential to backfire if your feature or product does not live up to the hype, so you’d want to be sure you do this one correctly.

2. Engaging in some sort of challenge with your viewers. Some examples that I’ve come across over the years are; “If I can’t raise $72,000 from affiliate marketing - I’ll walk around in a dress for a day” or “If I reach one million unique views - I’ll donate xxxx to charity”.

3. Pulling a stunt, writing about it and/or video-taping it, and publicizing it on your website. The CEO for Host Gator recently pretended to be homeless and attempted to find out how much he could earn by asking people for money. He then issued a money making challenge to his staff members, and later donated the money to charity.

4. Engaging in something controversial. Controversy sells! I’ve seen many bigger websites get themselves into disputes with the little guys, and when attempting to publicly shame them, they often send buckets of traffic to the smaller site.

I, like a lot of other webmasters, have at one point or another, opened up our wallets and shouted at the top of our humble voices that we’re giving our cash away. Well that’s what we’ve practically done anyway, and while there’s without question an ocean of reliable paid advertising resources on the internet, there’s just as much free resources which many overlook because they costs nothing but time. Now days, a lot of us in the webmaster community seem to be under the impression that if it isn’t paid, then it’s useless.

Here’s a list of resources that can be beneficial to the development of your website;

Online Forums
Forums are surprisingly effective when it comes to bringing traffic to your website. Setup a signature, advertise in the appropriate sections, and post away! Remember to keep your posts informative as this will reflect upon your knowledge about your particular niche.

Google Submissions
Submitting your website to Google will speed up the process of your site getting indexed. This is more of a long term thing, which can only really be of benefit to you in the future.

Web Directories
There are a series of free web directories out there, that can send traffic over to your website, while also assisting your Google rankings. I feel a lot of people tend to overlook web directories, and since many are free, there’s not much harm in giving them a shot.

Link Exchanges
Exchanging links with other websites, when done correctly, can often yield sizable results, and also adds to the amount of back links your site is receiving.

Blogs
The blogosphere is rapidly expanding, with internet users warmly embracing the concept. Besides offering to exchange a service in order to have a blog review your service (which can deliver excellent traffic and branding), going that extra step and creating your own blog can entice more recurring visitors. It also provides you with a gateway to connect with your users, and receive feedback on your website, services and/or services.

Commenting blogs
Genuinely commenting other peoples blogs (when you have something to say), can be an effective source of traffic for your website, as many blogs allowing you to leave your URL behind. This also allows you to forge business relationships with people in your industry, which may later flourish to both of your benefits.

Controversy
While this isn’t really a resource, controversy is absolutely gold when it comes to bringing attention to your website. As the saying goings, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.