Here are a few of my favorite ones…

That’s all folks!!

I’ve made a chart to illustrate my newly discovered lack of motive.

As you can see, at the beginning of the week my productivity was actually increasing.  Then, later on in the week there was a small dip in my productivity.  This was caused by my incompetency making graphs in photoshop.  The productivity balances out for a short while until it starts a straight drop.  The line starts to slant back to the left signifying that the time before I purchased the ps3 was made less productive by anticipation.

If you want to avoid writers block, and keep yourself motivated to update your sites content.  I suggest that you don’t play videogames, or purchase any impressive new technology to boggle your mind.  Unless of course that piece of technology relates to your website and you can write about it relevantly.

• Digg:
  Of course, Digg, the most popular social networking site on the Internet makes this list.  It can be utilized to spread important news to people around the world, bring huge traffic boosts to websites, and meet people with similar interests to yours.  Of course there is much to learn before you can change the world with your submissions, as you can see here.  Aside from my business, and news-sharing reasons for using Digg, I find it one of the most-fun places on the Internet.  Just seeing what people have to say on popular submissions makes me laugh, cry, and wonder about the fate of humanity.

  Level of Social Media Necessity: 10/10 (If you’re going to network socially at one place, and only one place, then do it on Digg)

  • Byproducts and Sites Similar to Digg:
    • Reddit:  Instead of researching, I’m going to guess that Reddit came out before Digg.  Or maybe they were both created at the same time, but that doesn’t change the fact that many articles on the front page of digg, are articles from Reddit submitted a little bit later.  Numerous people have pointed this out to me, but since I don’t use Reddit myself, I wouldn’t really know.  I’m assuming that Reddit will always be #2 to the ever-popular Digg, but they both have loyal users, and similar functions.  If I were to use Reddit, I would use it for the exact same reasons that I use Digg.Level of Social Media Necessity: 9.5/10 (Second choice, if Digg were to blow up for some reason I’d use Reddit)
    • Mixx:  Mixx is one of the newer social media sites, that is obviously inspired by the Godzilla of Social Media (Digg).  Most of the functions, and features are similar, but I prefer Digg.  Despite Mixx being much more feature-rich than Digg, I love the simplicity of Digg’s system.  Or else I’m just to lazy to learn more about Mixx.Level of Social Media Necessity: 6/10 for the average Joe
• Sphinn: Sphinn is basically a Digg for webmasters, so in other words, “this could’ve gone under ‘Byproducts‘ but it’s just so unique”.  So since my site is about social media, marketing, Seo and such, I should probably be using Sphinn to my advantage.  A very wise friend told me about this website, and so I’m going to pretend I’m wise and suggest that you (if you’re a webmaster) use this site to promote your product.  After all, it’s like a Digg where people don’t get mad if you submit your own crappy articles on Black-hat link building tactics. I’ve taken the step of adding a little Sphinn button to each of my posts, but unfortunately the problem remains that I am too lazy to learn more about this website.  In time I will metaphorically have to “Get off of my lazy ass” and start doing some extensive research, but until that time comes I will continue to produce self-mocking post masterpieces.Level of Social Media Necessity: 7/10 (If you’re a webmaster) 2/10 (If you just want to Read stuff that probably shouldn’t concern you?)
• Twitter:  Twitter is a bit of fun, great for updating your followers on what your doing.  The problem with twitter is how hard it is to get followers/friends.  Here’s one of MakiMaki’s posts explaining possible ways to get more twitter followers.  I suppose if you were using twitter the way it’s meant to be used then nobody would be struggling to get thousands of followers.  As far as I’m concerned, Twitter is a dumb way to advertise your site, but a rather good way to update readers on topics like “what the next post will be about” and etc…  I use Twitter, basically because I know a lot of cool people who use it as well, though I’ve found no logical reason to tell people when I’m going to the bathroom like the Twitter Whore.Level of Social Media Necessity: 7/10 (It’s pretty cool…)
  • Byproducts and Sites Similar to Twitter:
    • Pownce:  A feature rich Twitter ‘almost’ clone made by Digg’s own Kevin Rose.  This time I’d actually consider Pownce the more mature micro-blogging tool.  Luckily, Pownce was able to add a bunch of extra features, and without losing any of Twitter’s simplicity.  Though I don’t use Pownce as much as Twitter because, well… Twitter came first.Level of Social Media Necessity: 8/10 (better than the original?!)
    • Plurk:  There was a huge buzz for Plurk not too long ago, and when I could see right when I joined that it could be fun.  Is it a useful tool for webmasters?  Absolutely not, but it’s definitely the most fun you could have micro-blogging.  The layout, and visuals on the site are what really get you sucked in.  Everything just seems to fit into place, and you definitely don’t need guides to figure out how to use it.Level of Social Media Necessity: 1/10 (yea it’s pretty much useless)
      Who do you Turn to When you want to have fun Writing (wtf)?: Plurk

After finally writing all of that down I can officially say I’m sick of writing for the night.  It took me a couple of hours just to write down some of my feelings on a few popular social media site that I (have) used.  That means I really need sleep, or some other activity to help me unwind :O.  Remember, just before I publish this article… If I didn’t list the social bookmarking site you use, it sucks (jk ).

Some Facts:

• Despite users constantly gaming the system “so to speak”, most of the articles that make it to the front page are quite interesting.  Though there are some/many that would disagree, you have to consider the fact that Digg’ers don’t have to Digg their friends articles.  Even though some people feel a certain obligation to digg shit stories just because their friends (people who they don’t even know) shared it with them.  The fact is, you Do Not Have to Digg Your Friend’s Articles, and chances are… they won’t even notice you didn’t, so No Hard Feelings.
• Some people ridiculously want to remove shouts and friends, while this may seem like a good idea at first, it really isn’t.  If shouting wasn’t allowed, then there would be almost no articles that ended up on the homepage.  Digg would be in a state of constant Upcoming, because there was no push for any certain articles.  Then, the only articles that did get to the front page, would be the sites that had the most readers to begin with.  That means the only stuff you’d ever see would be from sites like Crack, break, xkcd bleh (always forget the order/letters), huffington, and etc…  One could narrow that list down to the sites who have digg buttons next to their posts, because people don’t want to go out of their way to digg articles.
• My stance on Duplicates:  Say, you were to submit an article that you thought was really interesting, and it ended up getting 2 diggs.  One from you, and one from some random guy who happened to look at the first page of upcoming at the right time.  Three days later, someone else diggs that same article (from a different url mind you) and it get’s to the front page.  You have absolutely no reason to believe that person ripped it from you, and if he/she did then so what?  The content you originally wanted people to see has now been seen, you’re just not credited for getting it seen.  That’s why we have users like MrBabyMan, Zaibatsu, Badwithcomputer, MakiMaki, and etc…  They understand how digg works, and how to get articles popular.
• Digg is a huge website, with an almost uncountable amount of users.  With however many articles there are being submitted each day, not using some sort of digg boosting tactic means your article won’t be seen.  It’s plain and simple, though some people argue that they’re able to get to the front page without a single friend, and without ever shouting.  I highly doubt that these words are verifiable, unless spoken of in a long ago sort of past tense.

In Direct Response Too (Some of the Comments on Digg):

• Amazing. It honestly feels like yesterday when you can submit a story and it’d be on the first page of “Upcoming” for atleast 20 minutes.-deltron It wasn’t
• I honestly think the best way to do away with it is get rid of friends and shouts, I really don’t see a point other than shameless self promotion, if you want friends go to facebook or a bar or something, I just don’t think it has much of a place on digg other than to create the atmosphere we are all complaining about. -kawaiirobo Solution: eliminate “friends” on digg. bxblox
  
  Which articles would end up on the front page then?  None, or the ones from sites with big digg buttons on their posts, and lot’s of readers.
• I dunno, it’s very early in the process to say it with certainty, but I think this recommendation engine might change all that. For a while perhaps, anyhow. I don’t think I’ve dugg a MrBabyMan article since the change. The only politcal article on the front page right now is from the Onion and it’s about Bush. Weirdness. That’s not to say that suddenly there’s great content filling up the front page, but it looks like there’s been an impact. -MrTito
  
  With everyone complaining about how Digg is going downhill, I don’t really think there is much of an argument here.  Not saying anyone is trying to argue, but I haven’t seen much of a difference made by the new “Recommended” system, nor do I think Digg is going downhill.  It’s supposed to give you/me the articles that we would deem as most interesting, yet the average digg user (I’m assuming) diggs a wide range of articles, along with most of the front page articles, so it’s impossible to know what I’m really interested it.  Or in other words, I digg interesting things, and interesting isn’t really a category, so how can they suggest it to me?
• If people only submitted articles that they honestly thought were good then there wouldn’t be thousands of articles in upcoming. It would be much easier for people to browse upcoming and chose the really good ones from the few and have an extremely quality website. Instead people submit every website they see in the hopes of getting to the frontpage or to get traffic to their site or a billion other reasons that have nothing to do with whether or not the content is actually good. In most cases the content isn’t good. -Mononuclear This comment truly Miffs me, partially because I know it to be true, and partially because I’m trying to figure out how it’s false.  When i don’t understand things, I start to feel like everyone should act exactly like I do, and that’s definitely not how it works.  So like Mononuclear goes on to say, stop digging crap that not even you find interesting, because nobody else is going to find it interesting either.  For those of you who submit articles from your own website (like me), shouldn’t you at least make sure what you’re submitting is remotely intriguing?  Try to pick only a select few stories of the utmost quality, and maybe digg would be a better place.  You don’t see people like MakiMaki submitting every (let alone any) articles from his website DoshDosh, because he knows they’re not relevant to the general interests of most digg users.
• My question is this: WHAT IS SO AWESOME ABOUT HAVING A STORY YOU SUBMIT HIT THE FRONT PAGE? More specifically, what is so awesome about it that one would, as the link suggests, “try to get over 100 diggs before 24 hours is spent” or spend time building a sizable network of “friends”? Is there a cash prize? Is it just sort of a for-the-hell-of-it game with a validating win?- thekassette Sometimes it’s for sad and lonely reasons. Hence people who want to get articles on the frontpage of digg. Makes them feel special when in reality it’s a worthless accomplishment that nobody gives a fuck about. thedogfatherx (a reply, a good one)
  
  For many people, there is a cash prize, though they are just the recluse internet marketers who you will never have heard about.  For the others, it’s the recognition you get,  popularity, and feeling of signifigance/dominance over others who are incapable of doing what you do.  Also, if you want someone to read something in order to understand the subject, and it doesn’t get to the front page, nobody will read it, and nobody will care.
• Also, this guy’s writing style is really annoying. The little “oh, look how I am self-analyzing my own writing in the middle of my article” thing got old quick. -Neo829
  
  
  PFFFT… Well I do see your point.
• Is the writer of this article a non-English speaker, or just a complete moron? Really, putting an apostrophe in “gets”? Buried due to unbelievable idiocy, which is the more likely explanation, because, well, it’s the internet (and the simpleton’s About page is still the default Wordpress template.) -fonograph Thanks for helping me to better myself
• get a job, or get married, or make the world a better place, or have some kids, or get a hobby, or go volunteer; it’s not that serious.…Nobody said it was
• Fucking digg comment box, bouncing up and down like some shit. Can’t hit the save comment button. arjie
  
  Goodnight

For the past month or so I have been testing out different ways to get to the front page of digg. None of the articles I’ve submitted have made it to the front page, but I consider this a (somewhat) fortunate learning experience. I now know plenty of information on what not to do in order to get a popular article on digg, and I’ve got lots to write about. There are plenty of obstacles you need to figure out how to jump over, and duck under in order to get your article recognized by other digg users.

Each time I failed at making an article popular I discovered one new thing that stopped me from doing so. So in a sense it’s like driving through a narrow maze in a car with no brakes. If you make one mistake you crash into a dead end, but if you memorize the bad steps you’ve taken and make sure not to do the same thing again, you’ll come out the maze without a scratch on your car. Lucky for me, the metaphorical car was free, and I never lost anything but a non-existent point off of my reputation.

First I’ll give you some plain facts, Digg’s attempt at getting the coolest articles to the front page has almost completely failed. Getting an article from your site to achieve popularity requires a viral article and lot’s of skills with social networking. Unfortunately for most digg users, they don’t realize that their presence will never be noticed without an aggressive strategy for success.

Why should you care about getting an article popular on digg? Well, if you can’t think of any reason why you’d really like to have a popular article on digg then you don’t deserve one. Whether your reason be because you want the fame, the traffic it brings, or for the warm feeling you get inside because you think people actually (is that mean? contemplating taking that word out) like you. If you’ve got a good reason to get to the front page, then you do deserve it.

Now, let’s get you geared for social networking so the next thing you submit to digg has a better chance of reaching front page. Then again, even if you don’t get to the front page following this advice, you’ll be headed in the right direction, and it will be easy for you to get past 100 diggs on something you submit. In fact, being able to get past 100 diggs is something I can guarantee, or your money back! (Face-palm for cliche marketing statement).

Use the Guidelines Below in Order to Make Sure Your Article Get’s some Diggs:

1. Build a Popular Profile on Digg
   If you have no friends on Digg then you’ve got no one to share your articles with. Unless you’re really lucky and someone clicks on ‘Upcoming‘ at the right time, nobody will ever see your submission. So go to the front page of digg, and click on one of the users with a front page article. You’ll notice that this person has about 700 friends you can steal, and each one would gladly be robbed in broad daylight. When you add a friend on digg they have the chance to add you back, or leave you as a fan. As long as the person has any friend space left they’ll usually add you back as a mutual friend.

   Mutual Friend: you can shout your diggs to them, and they can shout their diggs to you.
   If You’re Their Fan: They can shout things to you, and you can follow up on the things they submit, but not the other way around.
   If they’re a Fan of Yours: They will receive your shouts and get updates on your activity, but you won’t get their shouts or activity.

   So, go down popular digg users’ lists of friends and add them to your own arsenal. People are happy to have more friends as it helps them out as well. If they don’t add you back in a couple of days, then just remove them from your buddy list and get some new people. Also, make sure you only add active people, not people who haven’t been on digg for over 10 days.

   These mutual friends will help your digg count grow exponentially, and the more diggs your submission gets, the more visible it is to the rest of the community. That means you’ll start getting fans of your own in no time.

2. Your/The Website
   Never submit an article from a website that doesn’t look good, or have any other good content. You may think it’s sad that I say this, but a crappy site doesn’t belong on the front page of digg. Make sure the site with the article you’d like to submit has a decent design, and plenty of other content to keep readers interested. We don’t like the artists one-hit-wonders as a general rule.
3. Multiple Accounts:
   There are certain users on digg that use multiple accounts in order to digg and share their own articles. This method might work a little bit, but it’s against Digg’s terms of service, your accounts will be banned, and there are better ways to make your articles popular. One of those ways being the ability to send shouts to the massive amounts of friends you recently added.
4. Link Bait: (other reference)
   Your ability to effectively title your posts and articles is arguably one of the most important factors in getting to the front page of digg. Any article you’ve submitted that’s titled in a way that makes the contents sound obvious and drab is going to be tossed aside like dry playdo. There I go with the… similes and metaphors, or maybe it’s an analogy. Keep your titles short, make people curious as to what it’s about. If you can’t do that, then you better submit a pretty damn good article, because more than half the people on digg base their vote on nothing more than the title and the small summary underneath.
   
   
5. Lists, Guides, Digg, and Firefox
   I’ve heard numerous things about lists and guides being the two types of digg submissions to get to the front page the most often. With my own experimentation I found this to be quite true. my top submission is currently a list of the top 10 Firefox plugins of our time. Of course I didn’t use link-bait in my title, so I didn’t make it to the front page. Also, digg prefers hearing news about itself and firefox more than anything. So if you write anything about Digg or Firefox, chances are it will do better than a post about how ‘red heads have more freckles than the average brown haired person‘ or anything else less unusual.
6. Oh No, Someone Buried My Article
   Getting buried is probably the worst thing that could possibly happen to your article. For every person that buries your article, the likeliness that your article will hit the Front Page gets a little less likelier (LOLZ?). People happen to love controversial articles, but people on either side of the controversial argument have an opportunity to bury the article because they don’t like it, or they think it’s untrue. Try to keep your articles completely user friendly, and don’t give anyone the reason to bury it. People whose sole mission is to bury all the articles they can should skip over your article because they think it’s so wholesome.
7. Time Threshold
   Nothing more to say than, just try to get over 100 diggs before 24 hours is spent. As long as you can do this you should be well on your way to hitting the digg front page. All the rest depends on how much people enjoy your article.

After realizing these inconvenient truths and utilizing them, you may easily attain a position on the front page of digg, or atleast get over 100 diggs on your submission.

I can definitely see why it’s necessary to have a collection of articles before you start directing internet browsers to a website though. A good amount of content before you start marketing your blog would be around 20 articles with 500 or more words. With only a few articles a website looks new and unprofessional, not giving readers a very good reason to come back. Whereas, a website with a plentiful supply of words and pages will have visitors leaving your website and coming back to check out the rest of your content at other times.

Of course many bloggers get impatient, and after 5 articles or so they try to get their blog out to the public. First of all, I don’t blame anyone who gets a little antsy and tells their friends about their website (as long as they don’t give away the url). You need to be able to keep your site to yourself until it’s completely ready to market. If your site is leaked to the public earlier, chances are you’ll lose potential visitors later on in the game.

Good luck Keeping Quiet

If you ever find yourself in a situation as annoying as I’m in, you’re going to need to do some planning in order to keep your blog running. Problogger has a solution for his scheduled leave of absence, and I wish I was intelligent enough to think of this earlier. By the way, congratulations to him for his new child.

I will be taking a couple of weeks off now however I’ve pre-prepared two great weeks of content here at ProBlogger for you. It will include a guest post each day from some great bloggers, a series of 10 posts from me on ‘how to let your blog go’ and a few other random posts from me that I’ve written earlier.

It’s very possible to lose subscribers and frequent readers when you don’t post for over a week. So, you should have some posts stored as drafts for whenever you go on a vacation, sporting event, grandma’s house, or etcetera. So whenever you don’t have time to sit down and think about a new blog post to write, you can simply publish an article you’ve written in the past. Whether you set up a complete series for a planned leave of absence, or you have some timeless articles you’ve just be storing for the right moment, at least one of the two is necessary.

Of course a small update about what’s going on in your life during vacation would be great content for a post as well. John Chow frequently posts about his vacations, the food he eats, or things he gets, and still maintains a very successful ‘Make Money Online‘ sort of blog. An example post can be found here. In reality that’s a pretty long post, but if you were just to post a video with a brief description you’d be fine too. In fact, images are probably the best things you could show people during a vacation, as novels generally aren’t as interesting to blog readers as short stories (with lots of pictures) are.

So, make sure you plan out some content before you go off doing something that will leave you unable to write quality posts. Whether you have pre-written content, pictures from vacation, or a video of you receiving a gift (lol), you should be in good shape!

The state I’m in now will probably deem this post worthless, and I’ll end up redoing it later, but that’s what I get for being a procrastinator.