Reading blogs and forums you would think that getting on Digg is all about short term pops of traffic. Yes the traffic boost is nice but if those visitors arrive and leave like a tide without anyone sticking around then all you have for your efforts is a slow web site for a while. Is it worth it, and more to the point, what can we do about it?
- Exposure – more people know about your site. Recognition is important in building trust.
- Brand – if your content is good then your site will have positive associations, get on Digg a lot for having good content and your brand will grow.
- Secondary Effects – many many people use Digg as a source of news, that is what it is there for. The initial traffic boost is nice but it is the blog, forum and mainstream media references that bring the good stuff.
But wait, are we just giving up on the initial Digg traffic? No way.
This is where we need to talk about a little thing call conversion. A topic for a future post, but here are a couple of tips
- Keep the visitor involved and on-site – if you can convince your visitor the Dugg article is not a one-off you increase your chances of keeping them around, show your best stuff, related content, anything to convince readers of value
- Put your RSS and Email subscriptions right where they can be seen, in your side bar, under the post, IN the post
- Call to action not just “subscribe” – give a reason why they should sign up, a damn good one
You might not grab a high percentage of your Digg visitors as subscribers but with a bit of work you can improve your conversion rate and reduce your wasted hits. Every subscriber counts!