How to Become a Top User on Digg.com: 8 Simple Tips

Digg.com is the most popular social linking site on the internet, and links featured on its front page can expect tens of thousands of visitors within a 24 hour period. However, with Digg’s popularity comes a ridiculous amount of daily link submissions, far too many for any human being to read through in a single day. Because of this, most stories submitted to Digg fail to get more than 2 or 3 votes before slipping off the upcoming link page into oblivion.

So how do links actually make it to the front page? The answer lies in Digg’s friend-adding feature, which allows one to add other users to a friends’ list. Digg’s most active users have friend listed each other, filtering their friends’ link submissions and comments from those of the masses so that they can better enjoy the Digg community. If one of the users in this active group submits a very interesting link, hundreds of people within their friends’ network will see it, almost guaranteeing that the link will make the front page. A simple look at the front page will reveal this to be true, as you’ll notice that some users have a couple new front page submissions every day.

Becoming a top user in the Digg community takes a lot of work, but if you operate a website that has interesting content that is going unnoticed it can be very useful in bringing attention to your work. Top users also have access to a well-filtered list of newly submitted links from other elite users, which can help you blog about huge stories before they’ve made it to Digg’s front page and are appearing on hundreds of other blogs. If you want these benefits and are prepared to invest several hours staying active on Digg, we have prepared a this guide on How to Become a Top User on Digg.com for you:




1. Upload a profile image: Cool logos look a lot better than the default gray silhouette logo. Uploading an eye catching image that stands out from the crowd will help users with big friends’ lists take notice of your submissions. (The example above is used by ilkeryoldas, who has been getting a lot of submissions on the front page lately).



2. Make Digg’s top users your friends: Digg may have removed its top user list a while ago, but it’s no secret that a handful of Digg users are responsible for most of the stories that make it to the front page. A third party top 100 users list can be found here, and I suggest that you add every single top user to your friends’ list. Not only will you be able to get an idea of what links will soon become popular, but you can also gain their recognition by digging their posts (which will come in handy when you want to submit links and need votes).



3. Make use of the “Agreed On” feature: Once you’ve added the top 100 users to your list, you can use the “Agreed On” page to find newly submitted links that top users are digging. Users who are having their posts up-voted by a disproportionate number of top users are probably what I would call second tier top users. These users are probably fighting to become top users on Digg by befriending other users and generously digging their stories, so it won’t hurt to make them your friends too.



4. Submit a variety of fresh and interesting links: Getting to the Digg front page takes a lot more work than simply adding lots of friends to your list and digging their stories. If you want your friends to actually give you up-votes, you’re going to have to submit links that are both new and interesting. I suggest you concentrate on submitting links on a niche category you are knowledgeable about and post fresh links about that category, since it may otherwise be impossibly time consuming to find and submit before other users.



5. Befriend those that befriend you: After some of your links make it to the front page, you’ll notice that random people have added you to their friends’ lists. They probably like the link you submitted and want to subscribe to your latest submissions and vote for them, so why not reciprocate? You should regularly check your “who befriended this user” page and become mutual friends with your new admirers.



6. Comment on top users’ submissions: Leaving comments on interesting link submissions from top users can be another great way of bringing attention to your account and gaining friends and supporters. Try to leave your comment before anyone else does, so that it is at the top of the comment list when others view it. [This should go without saying, but try not to be a jerk or an idiot, or else your comment will be down-voted and made invisible.]



7. Use Notifir to track your submissions: Notifir.com is a new service in open beta that automatically keeps track of the vote and comment counts on your latest link submissions. If you’re one of those people who constantly need to check your stats, Notifir is an awesome tool.


8. Do not cheat the system! Abusing Digg.com is a stupid idea. Even if you follow the steps in this post and start getting your submissions on the front page, if you suddenly start only submitting links from your own site or low quality spammy links, other users will punish you by removing you from their lists and burying your submissions. If enough users label you as a spammer, your account could be banned, or even worse, you site’s domain could be banned from Digg. If you’re unsure about the what could be considered cheating, please read Digg’s terms of service.