The top social bookmark site, no question, is Digg. com. Everyday, thousands of marketers and webmasters struggle and use all kinds of tricks, in attempts to get their stories featured on Digg's front page. Almost all diggers have heard of the term "power digger" or "top digg power user" and try their best to become one, as that would make it easier for their stories to get to the front page.



Other than understanding the digg system and how the site really works, there aren't any secrets to help you achieve that goal. Below are 7 effective Digg Tips to help you become a Top Digg Power User in no time :

1- Create, Maintaing a Good Profile and Brand Yourself With a Vivid Avatar

Oftenly overlooked, but I can't stress enough on this one. In order to become really successful in digg, you have to take the time and build up a good interesting profile, while keeping an eye on your daily stats which you should improve little by little. Some of these stats are: - Number of stories submitted - Number of stories that became popular - The popularity Ratio which (percent of submitted stories which were made popular) - The number of stories you personally dugg - The number of people who viewed your profile.

Your avatar is another important piece of your profile, or overall digg membership, that you need to pay special attention to. You should choose a good clear vivid avatar. This is KEY for getting attention to your posts. Not asking you to go with a very attention grabbing image as in sexy images, rare or bizarre images, but you SHOULD have a digg avatar. Don't just mingle there as a ghost without one. It is also important that your chosen avatar is a clear non-blurry photo, be it your photo or just an image you chose to display.

2- Importance of Your Stories' Titles and Descriptions

Take your time coming up with good titles. Think linkbait titles... (top 10.... 5 reasons why.... how to...etc). When choosing your title, you might as well think SEO. Your title's keywords are what are taken into consideration when ranking you in the serps and getting you search engine traffic.

When it comes to the description, don't reveal everything. Many members just copy the first paragraph of their posts/stories and paste them there. Not very effective technique. A good alternative which is far more better, is if you take your time and come up with a description that will make them CURIOUS about what is written in your post. ALso don't forget to submit ONLY quality content. There is no place for trash or spam in digg. Careful! If one thing Digg is notorious for, is banning blogs/sites in lighting speed!

3- Use Feeds, News Alerts...etc. to Stay Current on very Current News Stories

Before anything, you need to know your audience. Majority of Digg's audience seem to prefer and like certain topics over others. Fact. So it is better not wasting your time feeding them what they don't digest. A simple example is the uncountable iPhone stories that fill digg and many times easily make it to the front page. On the opposite side, anything positive about Mr.Bush will never see the light!

Generally talking, it is noted that digg users "digg" stories related to new gadgets, technology or world news, so if your niche is already one of these then you have an advantage.

The only way to be the very first to post a certain news story, is to keep yourself updated and notified of the news and hot topics. If you have subscribed to rss feeds, you should tick and choose the news option, use social aggregators, along with subscribing to news alerts. Another idea to keep it simpler, is to subscribe to news alerts from only top news site, aggregators, and niche sites.

4- Filtering Through and Adding Active Digg Friends

With digg, as much as it is important to expand your network of friends, you also should note that most of them won't be of use to you as they aren't active members, and therefore will only waste your time.

Many people think that by adding top diggers, that they will very much benefit from them. Not always the case. I personally go to digg's homepage, and look for stories that were made popular within minutes of their submission. Most of these stories are submitted by top diggers. I then tend to view the "friends" of this top digger, and add them as my friends in hopes that they reciprocate. It wouldn't hurt adding the power digger himself, but the point is that his friends are more likely the reason for his post to become popular within a few minutes. You also have to watch the activities of any friends you add. You should select friends who are active and who digg your stories when you ask them to. Whenever you submit a story and shout it to your friends, take a look at who dugg it (there is a button to check that). By time you can tell active friends from idle ones. Don't hesitate in replacing the dead beats with new active friends.

An ideal Digg friend :

* Checks in and uses the site everyday

* Diggs many stories

* Checks for stories their friends submit- diggs them regularly

* Submits stories that you will enjoy reading and voting on

* Does not submit way too many stories

* Does not have 70 billion friends

5- Stay Active

To become successful with digg, you have to become an active member. An active member is a member who submits, diggs, shares and comments on daily basis. At least try the digging and submitting part on a daily basis. I will soon tell you why. I personally give digg at least half an hour a day, even when I'm busy. One reason why you should stay active, is that your digg friends (network) are watching you to determine whether or not you are worthy to be on their list of friends, or just some idle laying there. They might choose to de-friend you or remove you from their lists. Remember that digg is a mutual community, where you notify "shout as used by digg" your friends of new submissions and digg each other's stories. They also want active members as friends.

6- Submitting Your Own Stories

Stay away from submitting your own stories. You can do it once in a while, but make sure you submit other stories as well. If you submit only your stories, you won't last long in digg and very possible would be subject for a bann. You can have other people submit your stories but try not to make it a habbit for you to submit them.

7- Save Your Site From the Negative Impact of the Digg Effect

If you are going to attempt getting your stories to the front page of digg, you need to worry about this...The Digg Effect. Simply put, The Digg Effect is when your site "crashes" from a hell lot of Diggers visiting it at once. Your server gets suddenly hit with a boost of hundreds and thousands of requests, overloading it. If your site cannot handle a popular Digg story that made it to the front page, then it might be wise to first mirror your site.