Want to be on the very first page of Digg.com? You’d be famous, right? Here’s how to do it.

Link Bait has one specific aim — get me to the top of Digg.com. The idea is that once you get there, others will click through to your site and you can reap the rewards once they arrive. Of  course, it’s not that simple but if understand the mechanics of how Digg works —and what interests Diggers—then you’re one step closer.

So, pull up a chair, grab your coffee and sit back.

1. Study Digg – this is the number 1 mistake people make. They don’t hang out on Digg, get a feel for what’s happening and learn to judge what will work or not. So, sign up, log in and engage.

Why bother?

Well, it’s like writing a travel guide on Italy without ever having pizza on the Step of Rome. Once you’re there, everything makes more sense. Digg, Delicious and the rest are all the same.

Tip — if you want to succeed with link bait, focus on one site. Don’t spread yourself too thin.

Ok, you’ve signed up. Use a real name if possible, not greenpig715.

People relate to real names; they are more likely to dig you if you sound human than use an avatar. But there are exceptions, I know.

2. Create a Swap File.

A what?

This is a file where you will keep links, snippets of text and other link bait that impresses you.

Told you it would take some time!

Now, this isn’t hard. You just need a text file and then copy/paste in whatever stands out.

Why is this so important?

Ans: headlines.

3. Headlines

Look at the DIGG homepage. What do you see?

Headlines. Lots of them.

Copy and paste the top 10 headlines into your swap file. Do this as often as you can.

Notice anything?

Most of them are lists.

• 5 ways to sleep while working
• 7 ways to wash your iPod
• 10 ways to alienate your children

People like lists. And what else do they like?

4. Benefits

Give your heading an extra boost by adding a nice, juicy benefit.

For example,

• 5 beers that get you drunk faster & make you smarter
• 7 ways to break your iPod & get an instant refund
• 10 ways to alienate your children & win an award

You get the idea.

All of these are slightly idiotic but—here’s the thing—you’re tempted to see what’s on the other side of the link.

5. Write to be scanned

No-one reads on the web, they all scan.

So, write to be scanned.

Write your article or blog post so that readers will scan down through the article — like you’re doing now — go, “yeah, I like this” and then, fingers crossed, hit the DIGG IT button and do us all a good deed.

Sounds to easy. It is. You need to also…

6. Add ‘off-beat’ images

Avoid PC junk. Add an image that captures the mood and will appeal to the reader. Something with an edge but not too risky.

Humor also works. Get it wrong and you look lame.

7. Credibility

It takes time but if you join other networks and comment on others post, guess what?

They’ll hang out with you and give you a few digs. This does work but it’s a really slow way to generate link bait. It does work, but, well, it’s not for me.

8 & 9  Test & Re-Test

Here’s something I do and it works.

Write a 300 word article. About anything. Doesn’t matter.

Spend 20 min and come up with 20 variation on the same headline. Have fun. Shuffle the words upside down, inside out and back to front.

It’s yours to play with. Enjoy it.

• Mon – submit the 1^st headline. On Wed, record the Diggs.
• Thurs – change the headline and submit it. Record the Diggs.
• Sat — change again and submit it. Record the Diggs.

And so on…

Then what happens?

Patterns begin to emerge. Some headings bomb.

No-one clicks on them.

Not even your Mom, kids or pet Labrador, Caesar.

Others take off!

Paste these into your swap file (remember him) and use this as a starting point.

Twitter is also another way to test headlines.

Remember – No-one bookmarks tweets.

It you know how to write, people will click thru.

And finally…

10. Practice

Like all things, the more you practice, the better you get.

Focus on writing amazing headlines, develop super-sharp content, and you’ll get the Diggs.

Want to know more?

Top Diggs of the year

7 Days – http://digg.com/all/popular/7days

365 Days – http://digg.com/all/popular/365days

Check these out and you can see what people are interested in. These are the big hitters.

Avoid news of the day type material. The web is saturated before you even get there.

Write, submit, Digg.

What do you think?

What’s the best example you’ve seen of link bait? Was it the words or the images?

Charlene Li and her colleagues at Forrester Research report that companies often approach Social Computing as a list of technologies to be deployed as needed — ie a random assortment of blogs, communities etc— to achieve a marketing goal. Ms Li argues that “a more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them, based on what they are ready for.”

You can use the tool here to get started. www.forrester.com/Groundswell

Features of this profile:

• For an explanation of these groups (Creators, Critics, etc.), see a presentation (8 slides)

• Bars indicate the percentage of the selected demographic that are in each Social Technographics group.

• The white marks indicate the same percentages for the whole population of the country selected.

• The index indicates how the demographic compares to the population — a score of 100 means the demographic is the same as the population average.

• The message “No data available” appears when you request a profile for which our survey samples are not large enough to provide a reliable answer. This occurs for age groups in Japan, Metro China, and South Korea. To see profiles in these countries, set the Age to “Not specified”.

Some really terrific material over here including free case studies, PDF downloads and extracts from the book.

If you’ve read it, please let me know what you think.

Regards,

Ivan

and you can Twitter me @ivanwalsh

Note: Any use of data and charts generated from this site must include the following citation: Data from Forrester Research Technographics® surveys, 2008. For further details on the Social Technographics profile, see groundswell.forrester.com.

Charlene Li and her colleagues at Forrester Research report that companies often approach Social Computing as a list of technologies to be deployed as needed — ie a random assortment of blogs, communities etc— to achieve a marketing goal. Ms Li argues that “a more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them, based on what they are ready for.”

You can use the tool here to get started. www.forrester.com/Groundswell

Features of this profile:

• For an explanation of these groups (Creators, Critics, etc.), see a presentation (8 slides)

• Bars indicate the percentage of the selected demographic that are in each Social Technographics group.

• The white marks indicate the same percentages for the whole population of the country selected.

• The index indicates how the demographic compares to the population — a score of 100 means the demographic is the same as the population average.

• The message “No data available” appears when you request a profile for which our survey samples are not large enough to provide a reliable answer. This occurs for age groups in Japan, Metro China, and South Korea. To see profiles in these countries, set the Age to “Not specified”.

Some really terrific material over here including free case studies, PDF downloads and extracts from the book.

If you’ve read it, please let me know what you think.

Regards,

Ivan

and you can Twitter me @ivanwalsh

Note: Any use of data and charts generated from this site must include the following citation: Data from Forrester Research Technographics® surveys, 2008. For further details on the Social Technographics profile, see groundswell.forrester.com.

I’ve been reading this book most of the weekend. It’s a terrific exploration of social media and how social media technologies are effecting corporations and companies from a business perspective. I thought you might want look at these links as these are the footnotes to the book and provide some very interesting material. Worth a look if you’re trying to get a handle on how twitter, facebook and the rest will impact your profit margin.