How to Build Your Digg Reputation

The Digg community values reputation. Even now, after several upgrades and algorithmic changes, it is clear that individuals who use Digg the most

(and use all of it’s features, not just voting) are able to get stories to the front page faster, easier, and more consistently than your average Digger.

So, how exactly do you build your Digg reputation so that 50% of your stories hit the front page like a user such as DigitalGopher or MrBabyMan? Here are some tips to help you get started.

1. Find, Make and Be Good to Friends:
   There is no substitute for having good relationships on Digg. By finding like-minded people, befriending them, and digging and commenting on the stories they add which you like, you increase both your participation on Digg, and the likelihood of attracting new friends for yourself. In otherwords, find, make, and be good to friends.
   • If you digg a User’s stories more than 2 times, befriend them. If they keep giving you good information, you owe them more than just a digg.
   • Twice daily check your Profile > Friends > Submitted. Don’t digg all of them, just make sure you see at least every friend’s story. Plenty of good stories never get dugg just because of bad timing. Don’t let that happen to your friend.
   • Weekly check your “Befriended Me” list. It’s on the bottom right of your Profile > Friends page. Make sure they aren’t spammers. If they aren’t, befriend them back
   • Comment on Friends Stories: If you are going to take the time to say something, try to do it to people who are your friends. This will draw more attention to you and increase the likelihood they will befriend you.
2. Contribute, Contribute, Contribute:
   This is the most important concept of all. Chances are you read tons of blogs, feeds, and stories on a daily basis from sites other than digg. Be a contributor. Here is what I do…
   • Get a standalone feed reader.
   • Add all the feeds that you regularly read to the feed reader
   • Twice a day, go through all the new stories that have been posted
   • Open your browser to the right and cut & paste urls to see if good stories have been submitted.
   • If not, you are good to go

   This method allows you to submit several stories fairly quickly. It is not automated by any standards, but makes it easy so that when you read a story, you are easily able to move it over to Digg.

3. Digg. A Lot.:
   Building up a good presence is essential on Digg. Your reputation is based, in part, on the quality of votes that you offer. So here are some quick tips…
   • Don’t just digg the homepage. Everyone does that.
   • Don’t just stay in one section Tech > Industry News > Upcoming, either.
   • Do vote on a wide range of stories you find interesting
   • Do vote on brand new stories.

   The best recommendation is to hang out on the 3rd page of the general upcoming page hitting refresh every now and then. Stories that hit this page have had just enough time to get a handful of diggs (3-5) that are worth voting on, so it is easy to find stories that have promise and you won’t waste all of your day on digg.