What Can You Do With Digg?

I’ve known Digg for a while but never think about to join it till now. So what is Digg? What can you do with it? I am curious about that so I searched the Internet for answers. The lists below are  the things I’ve found so far:

• According to Digg’s own definition: it is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, it surfaces the best stuff as voted on by its users.

• Digg is a social news website and everybody can join freely.

• Digg’s contents and links are submitted by its own users.

• When a Digg’s user submits his/her content, it will go into the “Upcoming” stories section.

• Other people will read the new coming content. If they like it, they will “Digg” it.

• If your story receives enough Diggs, it will be promoted to the “Popular” section and will be listed on the front page on Digg’s site.

• A Digg’s user can also use the “Bury” button to filter out bad links, off-topic content and duplicate entries.

• Other thing a Digg’s user can do is to discuss the story in the comment section.

It is all for now. If you find some  interesting things that are related to Digg, feel free to comment them here. 

What is StumbleUpon?

On August 18, 2008, someone referred this blog to StumbleUpon and one of the links was viewed 200 times the same day. I was shocked and could not believe that it’d be true. So I tried to find out what StumpleUpon is. According to Wikipedia – the free encyclopedia:

StumbleUpon is an Internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos. It is a personalized recommendation system which uses peer and social-networking principles.

Web pages are presented when the user clicks the “Stumble!” button on the browser’s toolbar. StumbleUpon chooses which Web page to display based on the user’s ratings of previous pages, ratings by his/her friends, and by the ratings of users with similar interests. Users can rate, or choose not to rate, any Web page with a thumbs up or thumbs down, and clicking the Stumble button resembles “channel-surfing” the Web. There is also one-click blogging built in as well.

In May 2007, StumbleUpon was acquired by eBay – a web company in which people buy and sell goods and service worldwide.

Update: I’ve just signed up an account with StumbleUpon and my url is http://onlinejourney.stumbleupon.com. So far I am pretty interested in learning it and I am wondering how it can drive more traffic to my site.

Related articles
Beginners Guide to StumbleUpon
Is Stumbleupon traffic worth getting?

What is The Purpose to Have Social Network Service?

Why do people sign up for social network services? The main reason for having these services is to drive more traffic to your blog/website. If you run a business blog/website, getting more visitors will no doubt bring you more sales and thus gain more profits. Therefore getting more traffic to your blog/website through these social network services is really important. The list below shows the Free social network services I’ve signed up so far:

• BlogRush – BlogRush is a “Cooperative Syndication Network.” It’s a network of blogs that run a small “widget” on their pages. Shut down by its owner.

• Del.icio.us – Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking web service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks.

• Google Reader – With Google Reader, keeping up with your favorite websites is as easy as checking your email.

• MyBlogLog – A Yahoo! service … MyBlogLog is now a part of the Yahoo! family. Sign up now using your Yahoo! ID. Don’t have a Yahoo! ID? Signing up is easy.

• Technorati – Real-time search for user-generated media (including weblogs) by tag or keyword. Also provides popularity indexes.

• Yahoo! Bookmarks (beta) – Allows users to import bookmarks and organize them into folders. Also offers a toolbar to add into the browser.

• YouTube – Hosts user-generated videos. Includes network and professional content.

What are your opinions about this topic? Do you think they will bring more visitors to your blog/website? Or not at all?

Related articles
List of Social Networking Websites
233 Social Networking Sites for Marketing Your Blog
Social Networking God: 350+ Social Networking Sites

Can You Add Widgets to WordPress.com Blog?

My theme, Cutline, came with some widgets. I was wondering whether I can add MyBlogLog widget to my WordPress.com blog and I found out I can. Here is the article showing me how to do it: How to Add a MyBlogLog Widget to A WordPress.com Blog. I applied the same method to a social network, Technorati, and it works! Check it out on the right sidebar. Just let you know that WordPress.com does not accept third party codes, especially for the commercial sites.

Update: I just found out that WordPress.com doesn’t accept Google Analytics service. According to FAQ in WordPress.com, Google Analytics code is already used by WordPress.com software to monitor the domains in ways that provide with useful information to benefit the service they offer; and I also can’t not implement FeedBurner’s FeedFlare and Subscribe via Email Form (only a link) on this blog – a WordPress.com blog.