How to get anything on the Digg.com front page

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digg front page

Last week I got an email from my business partner that contained a challenge: “$1000 that i could get ANY article onto the Digg.com main page in 3 attempts.”

We have decided to share this story as a case study of a behind the scenes look at the Digg effect, and some of the tips, tricks and secrets that I have mastered through thousands of hours of study and experiment.

Ok, back to the bet: The rules were simple:

* $1000 prize money
* He chooses 3 random articles
* I have 2 weeks to transform them into viral gold, and get one of them on the Digg main page.
* I cannot drastically change the articles, just use my techniques and secrets to turn the boring articles into Digg front page material.

Despite my past success on virtually every social media site on the net, I must confess that initially I was going to reject this bet. However, I had proposed to my girlfriend the week before, and frankly… engagement rings are not cheap, so $1000 seemed more tempting than normal.

I accepted his offer and he showed me 3 random articles.

Article 1: A self improvement article on procrastination
Article 2: A photo and brief review of a new product
Article 3: A religious article

I am now going to give you the biggest spoiler you have ever seen…. I was on the main page of Digg.com 48 hours later, with my FIRST attempt. (the self improvement article)

What’s more, I have proof, I have screenshots, I have a before and after of the article, I have a $1000 cheque in the mail with my name on it, and I have the secrets and tricks that I used to get 29,000+ unique visitors and tons of backlinks.

Note: Over the next two weeks I am going to show you EXACTLY how I did it, and I am going to show you how you can do the same for ANY article and ANY website.

I hope you will enjoy the ride as much as I have.

Dean

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11 COMMENTS

  • Peter

    back to the old style of blog posts :-(

    Current score: 0
  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Hi Pete,

    I genuinely got on the Digg.com main page? You cannot seriously be telling me that I am not supposed to write about something as huge as this?

    I am sharing my tips on how I did it, tips that no other webmaster would dream of sharing… I kinda see your point, but surely you must agree that this is worth discussing.

    Current score: 0
  • http://www.forwardslashmedia.co.uk Gideon

    I’d say you were back to the old, old posts – exactly the ones I enjoyed when I started following your stuff. I for one am looking forward to the ride…
    PS Congratulations.

    Current score: 0
  • Dare

    It even got translated on one of the portals in my country!
    http://www.idividi.com.mk/stil/Woman/391276/index.html

    Current score: 0
  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Dare – Thanks for the translation :-)

    Gideon – I agree 100%, and that was certainly my intention. I think Peter perhaps didn’t read the post fully.

    My goal here is to show you what it is like to be on the Digg main page. I also will show you the step by step tips that I have used to get over 150,000 visitors from that one site.

    I hope you will enjoy it.

    Dean

    Current score: 0
  • Peter

    I think it is great that you got the topic to the Digg front page! I’m just not a fan of stringing out would could be an exceptionally interesting “single post” into a 3,4,5? part series…

    Every time i see a new article from deanhunt in my netvibes, i look forward to reading it. I just felt there was a lack of “real/useful/concrete… im not sure of the right word here” information in this post.

    Maybe i was a little too harsh in saying you were back to the old (american heavy marketing) style, but i think you should be a careful ;-)

    Current score: 0
  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Peter, thanks for the update…

    I see what you are saying, but bear in mind that with the level of detail and information I am trying to give for this case study… it would be:

    a) impossible to put into one post
    b) Would take days, perhaps weeks to compile

    So I either split it up, or post nothing for 2 weeks.

    I had to go with what I thought was best. Thanks for your feedback though, I will bear it in mind for future posts.

    Dean

    Current score: 0
  • Diego

    I almost agree with Gideon. Your next post looks like it’s going to be like the old, old post, back when I subscribed to your feed. This one is just… mmm… are you gloating Dean? hahaha. Grats on your digg front page achievement. I look forward to reading your post.

    Current score: 0
  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Diego – Thanks for the kind words.

    This is just an intro post, so I appreciate it lacks substance, but I am also keen to take questions from you all regarding Digg etc…

    PS: yes, I suppose I am gloating a little. It should be fun though.

    Current score: 0
  • Kieran

    Dean… Your articles are great.

    The style you are writing them in is great.

    The fact that your going to tell us how you did it is great.

    pfft… Whats not great!?!

    I’d prefer to read it over a few articles.. As it means we can keep track of it more, and think about each article more before diving into it all.

    Thanks a lot,

    Kieran

    Current score: 0
  • http://HitsUSA.com web site traffic

    Looking forward to the rest of the story…

    Current score: 0