Piggly Diggly Links

Got a note from Jennifer this morning with a link to her blog updating us on her situation with the National Pork Board. Seems the milk has settled and everyone is happy with the final outcome. Smart smart way to handle things Jennifer, good for you.

I walked away with two impressions after all this was over; the first was a ‘huh?’ head scratch and the other was an observation on how to get 'targeted' link juice out of Digg when you don’t create the bait.

Did anyone else think it was interesting given the HUGE amount of information/sites on the Web that the National Pork Board found the "other white milk" tee-shirt on the CafePress site? Because what they found was an image. I couldn’t find any descriptive text around those tee shirts so I wonder, are there alert bots out there reading images? (don't think so!) Hmmmm

After Li dugg Jennifer’s story, it was fascinating to watch people react and how the story grew. From those observations I concluded people involved in digging tend to fall into two camps:

• Those that comment using descriptive keyword text, drop URL's and add the Digg story to their blogs (promoters)
  
  and



• Those just happy to comment (happypeople).

IMO, if you want to use Digg to accumulate links and attract traffic without dropping 'bait', you need to become proficient at being a promoter (with emphasis on the marketing your URL’s bit.)

True, you’ll get more attention and more links if you start the ruckus but it’s not always possible or time efficient to do so. It’s easy to say “launch some link bait” but the reality is – it can be hard and the results aren't always that great.

Digg encourages comments so comment away – but be smart about it like Danny and Ian were, they both blogged about the situation first and then went to Digg to add comments AND links back to their blogs:

Danny said: ...“I know Jennifer well and did a write-up of my own on her situation:http://searchengineland.com/070201-154333.php” ...

Ian wrote: ...“And to think they just spend $60 Million buying this trademark, only to make themselves look stupid. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. http://mcanerin.blogspot.com/2007/02/pork-porn-and-shirtless-moms.html”...

Whether you call it link baiting or spin marketing or capitalizing on a good/bad situation, learn how to take full marketing advantage of the vehicles people are using to propel their stories into cyberland. You’ll broaden your reach and link counts by doing so.

The difference between men and boys is the smart way they play with Digg toys!

Del.icio.us / Digg