Is Digg really gonna send you THOUSANDS of visitors?

I see some of blogs over the pond are making a big thing (is it a big thing???) about Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon and how many visitors they can send to a website.

All great and of interest, but just one thing plagues me....

Having had my own articles digged or "red-ditted" (some out of the blue) I've yet to see the thousands of visitors some people claim to be getting each and every day.

I admit and agree that these voting type sites can increase traffic but how effective are they in generating inbound links to your website?

And more importantly how many £££ or $$$ is each Digg user spending on your site... I'd hazard a guess it ain't very much... if some people can digg that often then do they have paid jobs? I know the top digg(ers) are likely being paid, cannot remember where I read that though.

The other thought that strikes me is that isn't Digg just one great big link farm...?? Not in the typical sense of reciprocal linking but one that is being utilised by link marketers for their own gains rather than for the real community of Digg users... doesn't this make Digg's users pissed off they're being used by marketeers....?

When Google's algorithms realise the marketing and link bearing connection from Digg and adjust their link juice or link value accordingly downwards... could it negatively affect a websites rankings (could it therefore be used to affect a competitors online rankings)... I am not saying the algorithms are doing that now but who knows for the future....?

YES if you write a good piece on Digg and are seen to be a regular submitter of decent articles you can hide your own self promotion quite effectively from other Digg users... but if you're a one time link builder I'd say you're easily gonna get a) ignored and/or b) spammed

Either way I'm not one to believe the hype of how much traffic (and if it is all good how much cash that converts into) the likes of Digg and Redditt can bring.

They're fine sites but not the be all and end all of getting visitors to a website.

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A GREAT lesson on DUMBASS link requests....

Got this GREAT link request today - let's break it down and have some fun shall we?

And I'm not passing this guy any link love either so no links!

Ok here's the email:

"Hi
I just thought I would send you a quick compliment on your website
and while at it, I thought I'd ask if you would mind exchanging links. My site is: http://www.#i-am-a-potential-spammer.biz and I will be sending aproxamitly 1000 - 15000 search engine visitors to the site on a daily basis starting Feb 05 2007.

In other words... LOTS OF TRAFFIC will be dropping by, which will benefit both you and I... IF we exchange links that is. The reason I'm asking you to exchange links is because I noticed that your site has related content and I am really trying to boost my search engine rankings and I figured the best way of doing it would be to
insure that we both would greatly benefit from it.

I am actually putting your link on: http://#www.dumb-ass-spammer#.biz/link.html right now and ask if you would be kind enough to place a link on anywhere on your site - linking back to my site at: http://www.#blank-due-to-it-being-spam#.biz with the text "Search Engine Marketing" or even "SEO Optimization".

I want to thank you very much for your consideration and am looking forward to doing business with you in the future.

Konrad

PS - Should you decide to do me this favor and accept my proposal, simply email me and I'll enter you into to a contest to win $100. If not, I apologize for this inconvinience and shall never bother you again."

Ok Konrad, let's put together a little lesson on sending out legitimate link requests shall we?

DUMBASS LINK REQUEST RULE NUMBER 1:

Learn to S-P-E-L-L or take time to read your email before sending it to me, it needs to be picture perfect for me to be interested. You've spelt quite a few words incorrectly and thats a bad sign though I'm not worried about American English spelling. I'll let you figure out this one.

DUMBASS LINK REQUEST RULE NUMBER 2:

You've not used my name! So you obviously did not look through my website in any great detail. Sorry but do I look like a sucker? We online marketers all know that the best response to a link request is a personalized email with the website owners name (or at least their position within their company). It only takes a simple phone call if it is not immediately obvious online.

DUMBASS LINK REQUEST RULE NUMBER 3:

No, I don't mind exchanging links but I am going to check out the content of your web site first. I am not going to be too concerned with design (though that is a bonus) but more with your content - is it authoritative, resourceful and user friendly? Or is it just spam.

From the nature and type of your domain I think it's the latter but lets be generous and give you the benefit of the doubt.... no, I spoke too soon, your site - straight off the bat - IS SPAM!

DUMBASS LINK REQUEST RULE NUMBER 4:

1000 to 15000 visitors A DAY? From the 5th February 2007? That is AMAZING - just how are you going to do that with a 3 PAGE website full of affiliate links - but hidden as contextual links for your users to click on?

If, Konrad, YOU can prove to me those figures rather than make a potentially false and inaccurate statement then I will link to you but somehow I doubt your claim without hard evidence.

A little link research from the Neato backlinks tool tells me enough I need to know and a Google Page Rank of "0" confirms my suscipions you're just about an SEO nobody... IMHO...


DUMBASS LINK REQUEST RULE NUMBER 5:

Ah a little bit of honesty.... yes my site has related content and yes I understand you are trying to boost your search engine rankings. Listen Konrad I am in the search marketing industry I am NEVER going to link to your affiliate site, cause quite frankly I feel its crap.

DUMBASS LINK REQUEST RULE NUMBER 6:

Ensure we both benefit from it? Sure, I'll link to you and get penalised for linking to a potentially BAD neighbourhood IF Google does find it. Sure I'm gullible enough that I just cannot miss out on us BOTH benefitting... or more likely YOU benefitting at the expense of my website's users....

DUMBASS LINK REQUEST RULE NUMBER 7:

One good point. You've put my link on first - lets go wander over to your website and see if it is actually there, shall we? I'm hoping you have put it in but I get a sneaking suscipicion (heh there's that word again Konrad) you haven't.
I'm really hoping you've proved me wrong!

And 15 seconds later, nope, no evidence on your links page (as at 06-Feb-07) of a link to my All Things Web website and no evidence in the code either - I checked just in case you were using anchor text, the same way you asked me to do for you.

DUMBASS LINK REQUEST RULE NUMBER 8:

Looking forward to doing business in the future together? When hell freezes over my friend...

DUMBASS LINK REQUEST RULE NUMBER 9:

Winning a chance of a $100 prize in your contest. Tell you what, save yourself the trouble. Mail me the $100 and I'll put a link somewhere to you (I reserve the right to choose the domain though). I'll donate the $100 to the SEO Industry to train others - how's that, sound fair? Does to me. :)


If you're going to want to get a link from my website or this blog to your site then I am afraid you're going to have to try a little bit harder to get my attention in your email and with your online content!

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Dealing with unwanted inbound links....

I noticed in my traffic logs that the all things web site receives dozens and dozens of visitors from a website that seems to me to be involved with "pyramid selling" - the type that offers $10000 a month for very little effort... that so stinks of BS... really, c'mon!

It pissed me off enough (to be honest it doesn't take much!) to start writing an email to request the site owner remove the link to my site. Just as I was about to send it I suddenly paused and had a thought...

... what if those people coming to my site suddenly got the message that the Internet is not a super easy, make a quick buck overnight way the other website seems to be offering....?

So I binned the email.

It might be that I am approached by some of these people to help them promote their business which I would prefer rather than they go cough up to the other guy...

It might also help generate more inbound links from other sites - even other sites that I disagree with BUT it can only help my profile and overall ranking in time if that does happen.

Yeah I may get plagued with crappy reciprocal requests but they're pretty easy to ignore and the overall effect will be to potentially increase my business' online exposure and that can surely be a good thing!

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Linkbait.... but if we're all doing it.... what then?

I see a lot of the popular blogs are mentioning linkbait agggaaain and how powerful it can be in generating huge amounts of links and traffic to a website from the likes of Dugg and Del.icio.us - thats great that info is being shared like this, but there's something that bugs me....

Its too easy to game Dugg... I could get 10 mates to all dig linkbait I create - might not make the 1st page but in time it could... isn't it likely that Dugg will just start examining Diggs a little too closely?

And its all very well say creating Linkbait around something exciting but what if you're into pensions (and sorry but I just don't find them exciting...), what then?

Based on the demographics of a Dugg user I cannot see them being highly enthralled with the latest pension crisis, can you? I understand its a case of knowing your market but a lot of the blogs (in my mind) are making out that linkbait is the be - all and end all for EVERYONE... I kinda get the feeling if you're NOT linkbaiting then your on the loser road to hell....

Finally if we all linkbait then surely as we get better the experts at linkbaiting are gonna have to significantly raise their game... maybe its a way of significantly raising their prices to clients too?

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Adding a link to your blogroll in a blaze of fanfare?

Or is it going off like a damp squib?

I tend to add links to my blogroll on the quiet and not make a great deal out of them... if I find a blog I like then I'll normally consider it. Blogs that just comment on others blogs are not ideal for me to link to - the occasional one is ok if you are suffering from writers block is fine but pleeeease not on a daily basis... the same goes for namedropping all the damn time...

I've added a new link to my blog roll today, I'm wondering how long she takes before she notices...