Natespost

   How many times have you submitted a post to Digg only to see it get buried before you can refresh the page? After much research, I have discovered that it may or may not be because your post stunk. Many a good post or article from a lower traffic blog gets buried in the Digg landfill before it gets a chance to get off the ground. There are two reasons for this.

1. Your blog doesn’t have the existing mass traffic (possible diggers) to push it from the upcoming category to the hot category.
2. You have no friends.

   By #2, I don’t mean that you are a reclusive hermit. I mean you aren’t playing the Digg game on a level playing field. Digg submissions need a certain number of diggs in order to remain in the game. If you don’t get around 20 diggs or so, your submission will just trickle down the upcoming list and never make it to the hotlist, which results in 10 or 15 hits max. Now I am not recommending that you engage in what is known as a “digg circle” which can get your digg account and possibly your blog banned. What I am recommending is that you add friends to your digg account and send them a shoutout when you submit a post. This will keep your submission from being buried before it has a chance to compete.

   How to make digg friends? Look at articles in your niche, and click on the profiles of the users that have dugg them, then add them as a friend. You will learn that even though you add them, they many times will not reciprocate. So to help us all get started, add me (ellie123) as your friend, and I will reciprocate. Also, add any of my friends that you see. Anyone that is listed as my friend will have originated from this post, so there should be no problem with people not adding you in turn.

   As you read and research on how to get traffic to your blog, you will discover that in one way or another, those that succeed in getting traffic and making money are working the system in one way or another. They are thinking outside of the box and operating in what is known as a gray area where they are neither breaking any laws nor violating policies. I happened across an article recently touting the benefits of a program which expliots the gray area of yahoo answers. Yahoo answers is a part of yahoo which allows users to ask a question regarding a particular problem or interest of theirs and then other users give their best answers. It has become quite popular and many of the question threads are given high search engine returns for those keywords. This led an entrepreneur to develop a program which allows bloggers to be updated on new questions being asked that relate to their blog’s niche. At that point the blogger answers the question and has his/her link inserted into their answer, thereby gaining traffic.

   I liked the concept and could have easily signed on as an affiliate and made money by recommending it to you, but here are my issues with the product. It costs either $50 or $75 depending on the version you buy. Plus, from what I can tell, the only thing it does for you is let you know when a question in your niche has been asked and then inserts your link at the bottom of the answer you give. Both of these can be done by you for free and in short order. What I recommend is going to yahoo answers and simply do a search for any questions related to your particular niche or post topic. You will get the list of all questions on that subject updated to the second. That took no time whatsoever and didn’t cost you $75. Now answer the question in a somewhat detailed manner but don’t give them everything you’ve got. Let them know where you found the info by inserting your post link in the source box at the bottom. DONE.

   Now to dig a little deeper into the gray area….you could ASK THE QUESTION YOURSELF with a different username. THEN ANSWER with the other one. This would allow you to make sure you are the first to answer and be completely on topic. Just remember to keep the title to your question somewhat brief, but frame it so your answer will be the best possible answer to the question. You may even think about creating several usernames so it isn’t so obvious, or even have a buddy ask the question so it is coming from a different IP, ask from your work computer…answer from home…etc. Heck…let the other readers know what question you want asked in the comments here and help each other out.

   I ask each of you to watch a NASCAR race this weekend. I take that back….watch the end of the race. The cars that finish the race 1 or more laps down are not working in the gray area. And they aren’t making money.