Top 10 Reasons This List Will Be Popular on Digg

January 7, 2008 by Collin LaHay
Filed under: General 

Top 10 lists can always be seen on Digg’s homepage, and to give you an example — here are ten things that will help (helped) this post become popular on Digg (over 5000 diggs!).


10. Digg users will enjoy this list.
This list will get a lot of Diggs because it is unique and creative. It also brings the word out to all of the crappy hosts/websites/spammers that try to game the site. Digg users are not mindless zombies, and only enjoy quality content. They reward the best of the best by a simple click on the Digg button.

9. This article is one page long.
Digg users hate when you submit a page that they have to click through ten (or more) pages to see the entire thing. Big companies submit these crappy pages when they release a “top 100″ list of games, and it gets really annoying having to go through 100 pages just to realize that the list is a piece of crap. Digg users like all their information on one link.

8. This article references Digg.
Digg users love to promote sites that love the sites they use just as much as they do. The vast majority of sites that are against Digg are quickly buried, leaving only the best ones that promote the site left standing.

7. This article was submitted by a top Digg user.
Digg users enjoy articles that were submitted by the top Digg users more than by random newbies. Digg users know that by trusting top diggers, they will be more likely to find the article interesting than if they were to go to a random article by a one day old user. By going with the top diggers, they avoid a big majority of the spam that is submitted to Digg.

6. This article is unique.
Digg users hate repeated content that has been featured on the homepage before, or has been circling the internet for years. Digg users enjoy an article that is new and exclusive more than old and boring.

5. This page is hosted on a high bandwidth server.
Digg users hate visiting websites on cheap shared hosting that gets suspended/taken down when the spike hits. This blog runs on a fast gridserver with a lot of bandwidth and also uses the Wordpress Super Cache plugin to handle a Digg effect.

4. This article is only interesting to tech savvy individuals.
Digg users are very fond of technology and industry news. Digg users like to Digg stories that most people who are not on the computer very often would have no clue about.

3. This article has a live Digg button on the post.
Digg users find it convenient when they are reading the Digg frontpage and visit an article that has a Digg button sitting on it for them to Digg it after they finished reading the article. Digg users know that time is precious, and those with the button for easy clicking generally get more Diggs.

2. This article has a creative title.
Digg users hate the boring rehashed junk titles that explain nothing. Digg users like titles that are controversial or funny.

1. This article is in list format.
Digg users do not want to spend a whole lot of time trying to find what they want to read. They want the best information right in their face and want the information able to be scanned through quickly. The listing format is popular because you can read three times as much information in one third of the time. Digg users tend to like informational top 10 lists because of their simplicity and creativity.

I almost forget to give a mention to the Digg kings like Ron Paul, the Iphone, MACs, linux, music piraters, and so on.

Copyright 2008 – Collin LaHay’s Link Building blog.

Comments

98 Comments on Top 10 Reasons This List Will Be Popular on Digg

  1. DannyB on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 1:40 pm

    2. fun read :)

  2. TheMadHat on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 2:03 pm

    3. I’m guessing it’ll get buried just so they can make a point. I dugg it though :)

  3. Tyler on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 2:36 pm

    4. Dugg!

  4. Ethan Christ on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 5:50 pm

    5. Woot woot!

  5. Collin LaHay on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 7:59 pm

    6. Just hit the Digg frontpage… Supercache Lockdown Enabled. Comments will be published after 24 hours – Thank you!

  6. Alien TYC on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 8:06 pm

    7. Quite useful guide to writing a page to be highly digg!

  7. reno on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 8:17 pm

    8. Reason #11, I just Dugg it. Nice article.

  8. J.J. Merrick on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 8:36 pm

    9. haha way to go!

  9. Stuart on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 8:42 pm

    10. The article really hits it on the nose! Well dugg :)

  10. PuReWebDev on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 8:44 pm

    11. Impressive results. Nice use of marketing. Apparently lists carry a lot of weight with Digg readers.

    PuReWebDev

  11. any on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 8:50 pm

    12. hahaha. creative enough to be dugg!

  12. TheMadHat on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 9:08 pm

    13. I stand corrected :D

  13. dustin on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 9:13 pm

    14. true true

  14. fest on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 9:20 pm

    15. you forgot to mention kevin rose

  15. Clearwaterlab on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 9:28 pm

    16. At the end there, you forgot to mention marijuana. If you want digg users to like it, mention marijuana. It works.

  16. dew on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 9:35 pm

    17. yay for wp super cache! It’s saved my server so many times!

  17. Crunchy on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 10:00 pm

    18. A good eleven would be “and we’ve added a random reference to Ron Paul here”.

  18. QB on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 10:08 pm

    19. Sweet post

  19. Mitch at Money News on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 10:13 pm

    20. I think the main thing is #7 though. Most times those front page articles are so-so reads. Its just they have a lot of top digger friends, and you’re story will pretty much get alot of hits through that. Kind of like getting hit by a top stumbler.

    Grats on the front page though =) #5 in all topics at the moment.

  20. Sparky on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 10:16 pm

    21. you forgot to mention;

    09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

  21. Quella lista sar on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 10:43 pm

    22. [...] Volete una prova? Top 10 Reasons This List Will Be Popular on Digg. [...]

  22. IIRSYS on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 11:20 pm

    23. Fun article … hehe Nice one.. :)

  23. Else on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 11:28 pm

    24. Haha. I was thinking about a hypothetical top ten list with some of these points in it just a few days ago. I think you did a much better job than I would have. Nice work.

  24. robert on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 11:35 pm

    25. Ron Paul can suck a cock. I also disagree with 2 4 7 and 8 on your list. Otherwise, good list.

  25. Erik on Mon, 7th Jan 2008 11:53 pm

    26. Cool list!

  26. jp on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 12:34 am

    27. Definetly Dugg!

  27. Brajeshwar on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 12:39 am

    28. Dugg for the awesome digg-ified list. Btw, thanks for enforcing a broad smile on this dull day.

  28. EvansHall on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 12:45 am

    29. Google Ron Paul!

  29. BeautyandtheBoost.com on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 12:52 am

    30. cute.

  30. the xo directory on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 12:58 am

    31. hahaha. You did it man. You’re on top of Digg.

  31. Ethan Christ on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 12:58 am

    32. Congrats on the HUGE success with Digg. My new blog is up and running. We both accomplished something. :) Doesn’t it make you feel good? Oh, btw, you’ve got to email me a screen shot of your analytics report. Can’t wait to see.

  32. David Elton on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 1:13 am

    33. Yep, top diggers with lots of digger friends have a much better chance of getting seen on digg. Let’s not forget you probably have to put in a lot of time & effort to get to top digger status. It gives us lowly digg newbies something to aim for!

  33. Sudarshan on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 1:18 am

    34. WOW….this is gonna hit the front page…Very good tips

  34. Useful on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 1:37 am

    35. You forgot that the list correctly shows #1 last.

  35. Matt Ridout on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 1:43 am

    36. “Digg users are not mindless zombies, and only enjoy quality content.”

    I consider this content to be far from any kind of high standard or “quality”.

    Mindless Zombies

  36. Carl - Thatblogsite.com on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 2:19 am

    37. Dugg! Great post!

  37. mr on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 2:43 am

    38. but you didn’t mention impeaching cheney or how absolutely factual global warming is!?! how can this possibly appeal to diggers?

  38. Sergey at Backup History on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 3:25 am

    39. Digg traffic leaks through your fingers like sand.

  39. AniVOX on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 3:36 am

    40. Hahaha :) Just a nice tip and trick , 2800+ Users Digg in One day ! So cool !

  40. raj on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 3:46 am

    41. great list, hats off to u..

  41. Some Guy on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 4:39 am

    42. So who is this “top digger?”

  42. manfrys on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 4:58 am

    43. It’s true ;-) !

  43. Cool Cat on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 5:40 am

    44. Every community has something that it likes. Digg certainly has an editorial point-of-view. That’s one reason why Digg is going to face competition from all quarters. If you like Digg, great. If you don’t, use something else or start something else.

  44. no on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 6:00 am

    45. MAC is an address. Mac is a computer.

  45. Gamer on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 7:21 am

    46. this topic in no. 1 on Digg. Thumbs up

  46. Sea Man on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 7:52 am

    47. Your first comment totally negates #5. Get a better server so I can comment real time. Buried for inaccuracy.

  47. Anglictina on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 8:48 am

    48. This is not only fun article, this is reality and it is what digg users love.

  48. TekBoi on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 9:58 am

    49. I friggin dugg this thing !!

    Hellz yeah !!

  49. Jobe Roberts on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 10:03 am

    50. How to do the flip side:

    http://sensorymetrics.com/2007.....igg-radar/

  50. Luke Holman on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 10:07 am

    51. viva ron paul

  51. Billy K on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 10:07 am

    52. MAC? You mean Media Access Control? Oh wait – I think you mean Macintosh! The computer! Which is not. an. acronym.

    Buried.

  52. E-Biz Booster Blog on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 10:54 am

    53. How To Get A Lot Of Diggs…

    Digg It?Using Social Media can be a disappointing experience. Especially with Digg.com. The Digg community has earned itself the reputation of being very strict with their submission guidelines. If they sense that you might spamming, they bury your po…

  53. sidecarsally.com on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 11:43 am

    54. This is pointless. My shit never gets more than 10 diggs and my website is amazing!

  54. Drew on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 1:29 pm

    55. This list is in Super-Orange Color. Dugg

  55. JoeTech.com on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 2:09 pm

    56. I love it. When I read the article, I knew it would take off like a rocket, so I quickly made the 4th comment, “Ron Paul bought an iPhone and got tazed, bro!” Little did I know the comment would rise to the top, too. This is a great follow-up to your Climbing the Digg Mountain article.

  56. Mitch at Money News on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 3:50 pm

    57. Almost at the 5k Digg mark now. It would be nice to see a follow up to this post with the visitor count and everything Collin.

  57. Ariesgeek on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 4:52 pm

    58. Hello. This is a comment. This list will be commented upon many times because it is a list about things that have to do with things that make it into DIGG. It’s not really a metalist. Hmmm.. What’s the opposite of meta? Well. Actually, yeah, it’s a metalist.

    And this is a metametapost.

  58. Things That Suck on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 6:45 pm

    59. Way to promote your blog

  59. Top 10 Reasons Why This List Will Go Hot On Sphinn! on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 9:34 pm

    60. [...] post is inspired by this digg bait, from [...]

  60. Ethan Christ on Tue, 8th Jan 2008 10:44 pm

    61. True, true!

  61. Troy Worman on Wed, 9th Jan 2008 10:51 am

    62. Woot woot. Uberlicious. And then some. Kudos and congrats.

  62. Digg Effect Case Study by Collin LaHay | Mixed Market Arts on Wed, 9th Jan 2008 1:18 pm

    63. [...] to my RSS feed or get your blog updates by email. Thanks for visiting!My last post talking about the top 10 reasons this list will be popular on digg was not only popular, but it was a flagship Digg post for me. I knew the digg users would digg it [...]

  63. Anne Lyken-Garner on Thu, 10th Jan 2008 1:38 am

    64. In reference to number 7, Remember that Digg’s top users were all one day old users at one point, (unless they were born Digg users, and even then they would have had to be one day old users on the day they were born).

    I find this point to be a little condescending.

  64. Collin LaHay on Thu, 10th Jan 2008 11:12 am

    65. You are right, but if I had submitted this post from my account it might not have reached the homepage.

  65. What Can Digg Do For You? | Slam Blogger on Thu, 10th Jan 2008 6:04 pm

    66. [...] As far as helping you reach the top of Digg, I would suggest reading Mixed Market Arts’ list “Top 10 Reasons This List Will Be Popular On Digg“ [...]

  66. WordHugger: Squidoo with a Conscience. | PureBlogging on Fri, 11th Jan 2008 12:53 am

    67. [...] streams; his blog is full of useful information, and one of his most recent posts, titled “Top Ten Reasons This Post Will Be Popular on Digg,” recently took the top spot on, well, Digg. So clearly this is a guy who’s got his [...]

  67. Friday Tea Time - 1/11/08 on Fri, 11th Jan 2008 8:42 am

    68. [...] Collin LaHay of Mixed Market Arts threw out a linkbait post on 10 reasons why this post will hit digg. I dugg it and figured it would get buried pretty quickly simply for being a digg post. I was [...]

  68. Cozmo on Sat, 12th Jan 2008 11:13 pm

    69. Very clever. That’s a whole lotta diggs you have there. Congrats. Good stuff.

  69. one more hour :: There’s Nothing Like A Good ‘Aul Scrap :: January :: 2008 on Wed, 16th Jan 2008 3:17 am

    70. [...] But now that I’ve linked to the post, what does that make me? A post-modern SEO expert? Very meta, [...]

  70. SEO Rob on Fri, 18th Jan 2008 1:44 pm

    71. Congrats!

    It’s kind of ironic but I found this post while stumbling. I’ve been avoiding Digg because they’ve banned a few of my friends and apparently there’s no second chances. Kind of rude and bad business IMO.

  71. pony on Wed, 30th Jan 2008 8:55 am

    72. Nice one. A metadigg article. My next one will be on how to get accepted as a commenter. The owner of this blog will love this comment because its about their blog.

  72. Affiliate Confession on Wed, 30th Jan 2008 10:39 am

    73. Tha would be highly dugg

  73. Affiliate Confession on Wed, 30th Jan 2008 10:42 am

    74. I’d like to know how to get in on the Digg clique. Most big digg users seem to be weenies to me.

  74. John Raul Joven II on Thu, 31st Jan 2008 3:36 am

    75. Hahaha. Nice one. :)

  75. Mark McCullagh on Thu, 31st Jan 2008 8:48 am

    76. Submitted by Supernova. That’s the ticket!

  76. paulette on Thu, 31st Jan 2008 10:02 am

    77. Thanks for the info.I like it.

  77. January Earnings | Make Money Blogging on Fri, 1st Feb 2008 4:38 pm

    78. [...] conclusion, all of my stats had a mammoth improvement, mainly due to my Digg post getting 5650+ diggs. My RSS subscribers have also increased as lots of people are telling their friends about my blog [...]

  78. Top Internet Market on Sun, 3rd Feb 2008 3:19 pm

    79. Blogging – in the Arcade of Internet Marketing…

    ‘We never succeed at anything unless we have fun doing it.’ This should be an eye-opener for all those who think blogging is too juvenile and trivial to make a difference….

  79. Make Money Online with Kiviniar » The secret to hitting the front page of Digg on Wed, 13th Feb 2008 1:44 pm

    80. [...] In this post linked below, Collin explains the simple secrets to Digg success. If you are seriously looking to market your sites via social networking sites, then remember that you will need to create content for submission keeping in mind the interest of the audience. Top 10 Reasons This List Will Be Popular on Digg [...]

  80. Melanie Phung on Wed, 20th Feb 2008 11:29 am

    81. Bwahhaahhaaahaa!

  81. paulette on Sun, 24th Feb 2008 8:31 pm

    82. All i can say is that you tap the right niche for this blog:) Congratulations!

  82. Webmaster tools on Thu, 20th Mar 2008 6:53 am

    83. Fantastic idea. Never thought that something like this could be written. Unique idea.

  83. Regan Johnson on Wed, 2nd Apr 2008 4:30 pm

    84. I saw a take on this “Top 10 reasons this post WONT be successful on Digg” was quite amusing.

  84. KG Lew on Sun, 13th Apr 2008 3:31 pm

    85. i did notice that a lot of LIST posts have better digg response than a bunch of paragraphs… just add a number in front of your paragraph with a title and you are set ;)

  85. max on Fri, 18th Apr 2008 6:55 pm

    86. Looks like your post was successful indeed! And, unlike most Digg list successes, this one actually TEACHES you something. Truly shocking.

  86. 9 Extremely Addictive Digg.com Related Articles Which You May Be Looking For! - Opensource, Free and Useful Online Resources for Designers and Developers on Thu, 24th Apr 2008 11:17 am

    87. [...] Top 10 Reasons This List Will Be Popular on Digg Top 10 lists can always be seen on Digg’s homepage, and to give you an example — here are ten things that will help this post become popular on Digg. [...]

  87. Savvy Content - » My Quest in Linkbait Mastery: Part 2 on Wed, 30th Apr 2008 4:15 pm

    88. [...] some interesting links. Top 10 Reasons Why This List Will Be Popular on Digg, includes some pretty useful info including mention of the WP Super Cache which helps protect your [...]

  88. h.owens on Thu, 1st May 2008 5:55 pm

    89. Have to admit I never believed the top-10 as a most quotable content idea until I did it. Troublke is people have copied and pasted the whole page into some forums.

  89. Mircea on Thu, 1st May 2008 9:17 pm

    90. I hope I’ll never make it to Digg’s frontpage!

  90. Japan Article on Sat, 3rd May 2008 8:36 am

    91. Article marketing is awesome. I think this is one of the best SEO practices available. The good part is that it brings traffic at the same time!

  91. What's Your Best Post Ever | Guest Blogging, Guest And Ghostwriter Services - PiggyBankPie on Wed, 11th Jun 2008 8:31 pm

    92. [...] Collin from Mixed Market Arts Title: Top 10 Reasons This List Will Be Popular on Digg and The Link Building [...]

  92. Julie on Wed, 2nd Jul 2008 6:22 am

    93. Thanks for the great podcast

  93. Internet Age on Tue, 22nd Jul 2008 12:49 am

    94. Digg is being extensive gamed by SEO’s. How long before it loses its authority?

  94. Giornale on Sat, 2nd Aug 2008 11:22 am

    95. Ottimo articolo su Digg.

  95. MudiW on Mon, 11th Aug 2008 4:00 pm

    96. Hahahah. LoL, nice article, and well, it’s true. . But reason #7 it’s one of the most important in all those. And well, this is so famous now, LOL.

  96. Bas on Tue, 30th Sep 2008 2:27 pm

    97. Genius job, man! :-)

    So funny that a mass can be so predictable ;-)

  97. Simon from Otooo on Thu, 2nd Oct 2008 6:10 am

    98. Did it end up making it to the front page? It would be interesting to know

  98. Search Engine Optimisation Consultant on Tue, 16th Mar 2010 8:37 am

    99. Basic tips, but its interesting to see that your blog has been dug 5665 times? Amazing success. Well done, thanks for sharing.

    SysComm Team

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