What is Digg?42 Comments
- reqork, on 10/10/2007, -3/+19Great. Just what we need...more bloggers.
- theprokaryote, on 10/10/2007, -2/+13He forgot the most important part.
1. Write a "Top 10" list.
2. Submit it to Digg.
3. ???
4. Profit! - mistafreeze, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8When you build a blog, if you submit it to digg, make sure you are on a real host so your site doesn't go down within a few diggs!
- Matrixsta, on 10/10/2007, -9/+16But Digg is a Tech crowd, we already know this crap...
- mrgoat, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8Over the last few months, the questions I’m receiving from friends and readers regarding setting up a blog has dramatically increased. Who says this medium is on the downside? So, I thought I’d put together a “Basics” checklist for beginners to use. There are more facets to setting up a blog than I list here, but this should give you a solid base from which to build. I’ve used this same method for both personal and business blogs.
For Starters:
* Select a memorable, relevant name: Think about your topic and audience and select a title and tagline that you think will appeal to them.
* Buy the domain: Whether you’re using a hosted or self-hosted version of a blogging platform, buy your name as a domain. Someday, your blog could be very popular and you won’t want to have missed the chance to have your own name.
Decision Time:
* Select a Platform (from which to jump): Wordpress, Blogger, and Typepad are a few to consider. I’m not the one to ask about comparing these platforms - I gravitate towards Wordpress every time. Problogger offers a great writeup on selecting a platform - it’s over a year old but still very relevant.
* Hosted vs. Self-Hosted: For the purpose of this post, let’s assume you’re taking my advice and selecting Wordpress. Will you choose their hosted version or will you take their software and install it on your own server space with a web host? Wordpress.com offers a very nice way to get things started in about 5 minutes. They host your site and all the setup is done for you. But, this is more limiting and down the road you may wish to have more freedom. Your other option is to download their latest version and install it on your own hosted space on your own domain you just purchased. Don’t be scared off by this option! With this option you have complete freedom over your site. The Wordpress.org installation instructions are very thorough. I’m not a web developer and I’ve been able to pick up on it pretty easily. There are even hosts that offer one-click installations!
Claim Your Property:
* Technorati: Once you get your site set up, go out to Technorati and claim your blog. Technorati is an authority on blog ranking. They track and rank your coveted incoming links. The more links the better your rank and the better you’ll be in search engine results when people search on keywords that could lead them to your blog.
* FeedBurner: RSS feeds and FeedBurner seem to be a tough concept for people new to the blog world to figure out. FeedBurner is the most widely used RSS feed distributor. What do I mean by feed distributor? Go sign up for a Google Reader or Bloglines account. They are free online readers of RSS feeds. When you subscribe to an RSS feed and select your feed reader, the RSS feed (or blog) that you just subscribed to will now be in your reader. FeedBurner helps it get there. It reads the feed from your site and distributes it to other sources. Those big orange buttons you see on sites lead to a FeedBurner feed where people subscribe. FeedBurner keeps track of your subscribers so you can see how many subscribe to your site. They also offer a decent, free stat tracking tool.
Now, let’s jump ahead and assume you’ve done your research and made all the above decisions. I could go on for pages and pages on the above discussion points, but remember this is a general checklist meant to give you starting points from which to get started.
You’ve selected to host your own blog on your own domain and have gone ahead and installed the Wordpress software. You now need to put some structure to your new site. Below is my list of must-have initial plugins with which to start your blog.
Build Your Site:
* Akismet: This comes included with your Wordpress installation. Don’t be a fool - activate it and set it up - quickly. Akismet helps block comment and trackback spam. To give you an idea of its importance, it has blocked over 8,000 spam attempts on this site.
* Subscribe to Comments: Allows users to register themselves on any given post to receive follow-up comments via email. I very much endorse this plugin as it allows your readers who comment to get updated on your response or the responses of other readers without having to remember to come back and check.
* WordPress Database Backup: Essential for any blog. Allows you to schedule backups of your database to be emailed to you or saved to your server.
* WP-Cache: A WordPress page caching system to make your site much faster and responsive. It caches Worpress pages and stores them in a static file for serving future requests directly from the file rather than loading and compiling the whole PHP code and the building the page from the database.
* A Contact From – The contact form is a module that you can drop on any page or any post and it gives visitors a way to fill out a form and contact you. It is much better than publishing an email address that can be picked up by spammers. I’d link to my contact form plugin, but it has been sold to a person who publishes it in a different language now. Anyone know of a good one?
* Add This: This plugin puts an icon at the bottom of your posts that when clicked offers multiple options for bookmarking your content. This is important for getting your content added to sites such as Digg, del.icio.us, and StumbleUpon. If you’re a fan of Search Engine Land and Sphinn you’ll want to add the Sphinn button as well!
* FB StandardStats: This plugin gives your site the capability to track stats via FeedBurner as a backup to Google Analytics or your stat package of choice.
* FeedBurner FeedSmith: The plugin will detect all ways to access your feed (e.g. http://www.yoursite.com/feed/ or http://www.yoursite.com/wp-rss2.php, etc.), and redirect them to your FeedBurner feed so you can track every possible subscriber. It will forward your main posts feed, and optionally your main comments feed as well.
* Google Analytics: This plugin allows you to utilize Google Analytics for your statistical tracking on the site. Did I mention that Google Analytics is FREE?!
* Google Sitemap Generator: This plugin generates an XML sitemap of your WordPress blog which helps search engine spiders crawl your site. This format is supported by Google, YAHOO and MSN Search.
* Simple Tagging: Simple Tagging allows you to tag posts with keywords that will appear in the meta tags of the post source code. Thus, making the content more searchable.
* SEO Title Tag 2.0: This plugin allows you to write a post title that will appear in the title tag for the post. What’s nice about this is you can write a keyword-stuffed title for the title tag and keep a more catchy title for your published post.
There are many more useful and powerful plugin - what would you recommend as an essential plugin for a beginner?
Next, you’re ready to start writing and socializing….
It All Starts With Content:
* Posts: I usually recommend having 5-10 posts written and posted before you go out and start “socializing” your work. By socializing I mean commenting on other sites, linking out heavily to other blogs, and participating in social networks to name a few. If you’re going to bait someone to check out your site you’ll want to make sure you have a good cross-section of content that gives that visitor an idea of what they can expect from you.
* About Page: Have a decent About page to educate your visitors on what you’re all about. I think it’s important to give visitors something to which they can relate.
* Make It Easy: Make life easy for your visitors by offering an easy to find subscribe button.
* Most Importantly - Have Fun!!: If blogging is not fun for you - stop doing it! Your dislike will show in your writing anyway. Enjoy this platform and the great communities and relationships that develop.
Is there more to setting up a blog than what I’ve outlined here? YES! But, I’m hoping this checklist gives beginners something to follow as they dig into setting up their first site.
What did I forget? Is there something you would tag as essential for a beginner? - Veretax, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Actually that is a bad generalization. Just because someone is Tech savy, doesn't mean they know a great deal about running their own Blog. I can vouch that I don't, and recently am starting to consider running my own, so I found the article useful, but still didn't change my leaning toward Word Press at the moment.
- mrgoat, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Maybe he should add 'get decent hosting' as after 171 diggs it seems to have fallen over
- theoffice, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4The very first thing I plan to do is write a post proclaiming to the world that I AM A WRITER. I will insist that I do not write my blog for my fans. Nay, I write for me! Because I am a writer! Who needs to write! I will claim that blogging is cathartic for me and I will bore the piss out of you with romantic stories of my youth where I claim my grade school teachers fawned all over my mad writing skillz. When people make the point that if I were writing strictly for myself, I could be typing it all up in Microsoft word, I will ignore them dutifully. When people ask me if I’ve ever written professionally (Or have ever gotten paid for my work), I will insist my big break is on the horizon. After all, writing is my destiny! It is what I was born to do! I will assure you of this, over and over again, until you seriously consider jamming toothpicks into your eyes. Also, I will be sure to use multiple fragments and exclamation points while making these claims. Sometimes, I may even stress words that should not be stressed. It’s my style, yo.
After I’m finished with that, I will make my obligatory hysterical post bemoaning my recent bout with writers block! All serious writers suffer from writers block and I will be no exception. I will whine that even though I’ve been sitting in front of my computer for hours, I can’t figure out what to write. In a strange, roundabout way, I will hint that my genius usually pops into my mind without warning. But today? Nothing is coming to me! I will tell you that each of my posts only took about 10 minutes to write. I will hope you will be impressed by this fact because it means I am capable of creating a lot of hilarity in a short period of time despite my errors with grammar and syntax. But in reality, you will be thinking, “That’s pretty obvious.” Also, I will pretend my post about writers block does not count as ‘writing,’ even though it did not magically appear on the page.
Once all of that is out of the way, I will finally be able to get to the good stuff. I’ll start off by telling you what time I woke up this morning and what I plan to accomplish today. I may or may not post a picture of what I am wearing. I will make special note of any ridiculous bathroom habits I have in the hopes that they will make me seem quirky and lovable to the audience I repeatedly insist I have no use for. Then, I will taxi my children around to various places in a sad, pathetic attempt to make it seem like I have a really busy life, even though the only ones who are actually doing anything are my kids. Later in the day, I will visit a restaurant whereupon I will document each and everything I had to eat. I will include a picture of said meal. I will announce that you simply have to try it! I will insist my fans are interested in this tripe and claim they depend on me for advice! My loyal subjects would have no idea how delicious Indian food was without my blog! For dinner, I will cook a meal all by myself…only this time I will include the recipe with my picture. Later in the day, I will make note of the fact I failed to accomplish the majority of my daily goals. Isn’t that funny how life just gets in the way? Am I not more relatable now?
Directly following any post I make about food, I will write another about my body issues. I will melodramatically relay to you my struggles with anorexia or bulimia and the heart wrenching effect it had on my life. I will call myself a fat cow and then post flattering self pictures so you can all tell me how beautiful I am in my comments section. After that, I will start a new work-out routine because I am so worth it! Every time I walk around the ***** block, I will be sure to document it online.
I will spend more time taking pictures of my bike than riding it. Furthermore, I will spend more time taking pictures of my kids than actually spending time with them. Also, there will be no picture ‘off limits’ to the public. Should my child be sick with the flu and utterly miserable, I will still mercilessly jam a camera in her face and post the results on the Internet.
I will have a wishlist. I gave my fans a great recipe for salsa; I deserve free stuff in return. Should I run out of money to pay my bills, I will slap up a paypal button and proceed with the begging. All those pictures I took of my children looking miserable will definitely come in handy now.
Should anyone insult me or find fault with anything I do or write, I will ignore their arguments and insist they are a jealous troll or a bully. I will call them losers because they have nothing better to do with their time than make fun of me. I will totally ignore the fact that I have nothing better to do with my time than write long, tedious blog posts about people who make fun of me. If the trolls persist, I will claim they are stalking me. I will pretend to be really frightened and lament the fact that there is so much evil in this world. After all, anyone who doesn’t worship me must be evil, right? Right?
Periodically, I will ‘take a break’ from my website. I will assert that it’s easy to get caught up in the blogging world and I will publicly chastise myself for doing so. Afterwards, I will vow to start paying attention to the things that are really important in life. I will follow up this comment with a heartwarming picture of my family.
Then, and only then, can you accurately call me a blogger - crackedplastic, on 10/10/2007, -2/+5Or the Engadget-style blog:
1. Find content somewhere else
2. Paraphrase it on your own blog (better yet, just copy-paste)
3. Submit it to Digg
4. ???
5. Profit! - TeMerc, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Most important thing overlooked:
Don't spam Digg to promote blog.....this will ensure NO ONE reads it. - supermajic, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Not exactly what I expected. As Matrixsta said, Digg is mostly a tech crowd. I think people need to know how to write an informative, interesting and very readable article. Definately worth reading for those who are thinking about starting a blog though.
- ChesapeakeBaybe, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Actually, not all diggers are techies. This article is great for diggers who come here to learn.
- figz, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2How to be just like the rest of the bloggers: http://www.violentacres.com/archives/226/bloggers-are-so-cliche
- shark615, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Buried.
The last thing we need is more narcissistic morons spewing their daily activities and opinions on the internet. Opinions are like ***** people, we all have one, they all stink and they should be kept right where they are; hidden between some hair and two cheeks. - Homunculiheaded, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2How about 'get hosting based on reasonable expectations of scalability'? I get so sick of the 'get a better host' comments. Cheap shared hosts are good for a very large amount of people and can handle relatively large amounts of traffic. It is ridiculous to expect any site to be able to scale to orders of magnitude above their usual hosting requirements on demand. It is equally ridiculous for everyone and their mother to fork out hundreds a month for dedicated hosting. You're hosting requirement should scale pretty steadily with the growth of your website and you can't fault your average site for not being able to handle the digg effect.
- theotheragentm, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2I agree. Professional writers hate bloggers, because most of them write with no credentials. It makes the art of writing diluted.
- valleyvideo, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Digg. I've been doing some basic blogging, but this has some tips I haven't used yet and explains a few things I didn't know.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Yeah your right, blogs don't provide us with any information...you're a tool. about half the ***** submitted to digg is from blogs you ass!
- jtbandes, on 10/10/2007, -2/+31. Get a better server.
- rinkjustice, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1This article would go nicely with Webmann's "Why Create a Blog" series: http://www.ebooks-with-reseller-rights.com/create-a-blog/create-a-blog-3/
Webmann has got to be one of the best web marketers out there (I don't know him personally, only follow his rss feeds). - hockey, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The digg crowd doesn't need to know how to write an informative interesting and very readable article. The people who write the crap that gets submitted to digg do. Although at this point I'd settle on just accurate.
- vonskippy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1More Like:
1. Write a "Top 10" list.
2. Submit it to Digg.
3. Crash and burn because you used a cheap ass hosting service.
4. Smother under the ridicule of the Digg masses. - scojerroc, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1somebody set up me the blog?
- devin_mm, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2The most important parts of starting a blog is to first break all ties with your spellchecker (spelling was so pre-internet), and second decide if your blog is going to be emo poetry about how no one likes you, or a stupid videogame rumor site. After you do those two things it's easy.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2step one: don't do it...the world doesn't need yet another ***** blog about your oh so important thoughts
- evilplayer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0The site doesn't have any ads to block.
- theoffice, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0People have often described me as a blogger. I generally shy away from the term because, to me, bloggers are boring, self obsessed narcissists who use their website mainly as a means to discuss the inconsequential minutiae of their day to day lives. On my site, I try really hard to have a point at least the majority of the time. On the off chance I’m not actively making a point about society as a whole, I am at least attempting to take the piss out of myself.
However, it seems to me that no matter how hard I try to distance myself from those who take themselves entirely too seriously, I keep getting lumped in with the group. So, I have decided to embrace the role right here and now.
This is how I plan to do it:
The very first thing I plan to do is write a post proclaiming to the world that I AM A WRITER. I will insist that I do not write my blog for my fans. Nay, I write for me! Because I am a writer! Who needs to write! I will claim that blogging is cathartic for me and I will bore the piss out of you with romantic stories of my youth where I claim my grade school teachers fawned all over my mad writing skillz. When people make the point that if I were writing strictly for myself, I could be typing it all up in Microsoft word, I will ignore them dutifully. When people ask me if I’ve ever written professionally (Or have ever gotten paid for my work), I will insist my big break is on the horizon. After all, writing is my destiny! It is what I was born to do! I will assure you of this, over and over again, until you seriously consider jamming toothpicks into your eyes. Also, I will be sure to use multiple fragments and exclamation points while making these claims. Sometimes, I may even stress words that should not be stressed. It’s my style, yo.
After I’m finished with that, I will make my obligatory hysterical post bemoaning my recent bout with writers block! All serious writers suffer from writers block and I will be no exception. I will whine that even though I’ve been sitting in front of my computer for hours, I can’t figure out what to write. In a strange, roundabout way, I will hint that my genius usually pops into my mind without warning. But today? Nothing is coming to me! I will tell you that each of my posts only took about 10 minutes to write. I will hope you will be impressed by this fact because it means I am capable of creating a lot of hilarity in a short period of time despite my errors with grammar and syntax. But in reality, you will be thinking, “That’s pretty obvious.” Also, I will pretend my post about writers block does not count as ‘writing,’ even though it did not magically appear on the page.
Once all of that is out of the way, I will finally be able to get to the good stuff. I’ll start off by telling you what time I woke up this morning and what I plan to accomplish today. I may or may not post a picture of what I am wearing. I will make special note of any ridiculous bathroom habits I have in the hopes that they will make me seem quirky and lovable to the audience I repeatedly insist I have no use for. Then, I will taxi my children around to various places in a sad, pathetic attempt to make it seem like I have a really busy life, even though the only ones who are actually doing anything are my kids. Later in the day, I will visit a restaurant whereupon I will document each and everything I had to eat. I will include a picture of said meal. I will announce that you simply have to try it! I will insist my fans are interested in this tripe and claim they depend on me for advice! My loyal subjects would have no idea how delicious Indian food was without my blog! For dinner, I will cook a meal all by myself…only this time I will include the recipe with my picture. Later in the day, I will make note of the fact I failed to accomplish the majority of my daily goals. Isn’t that funny how life just gets in the way? Am I not more relatable now?
Directly following any post I make about food, I will write another about my body issues. I will melodramatically relay to you my struggles with anorexia or bulimia and the heart wrenching effect it had on my life. I will call myself a fat cow and then post flattering self pictures so you can all tell me how beautiful I am in my comments section. After that, I will start a new work-out routine because I am so worth it! Every time I walk around the ***** block, I will be sure to document it online.
I will spend more time taking pictures of my bike than riding it. Furthermore, I will spend more time taking pictures of my kids than actually spending time with them. Also, there will be no picture ‘off limits’ to the public. Should my child be sick with the flu and utterly miserable, I will still mercilessly jam a camera in her face and post the results on the Internet.
I will have a wishlist. I gave my fans a great recipe for salsa; I deserve free stuff in return. Should I run out of money to pay my bills, I will slap up a paypal button and proceed with the begging. All those pictures I took of my children looking miserable will definitely come in handy now.
Should anyone insult me or find fault with anything I do or write, I will ignore their arguments and insist they are a jealous troll or a bully. I will call them losers because they have nothing better to do with their time than make fun of me. I will totally ignore the fact that I have nothing better to do with my time than write long, tedious blog posts about people who make fun of me. If the trolls persist, I will claim they are stalking me. I will pretend to be really frightened and lament the fact that there is so much evil in this world. After all, anyone who doesn’t worship me must be evil, right? Right?
Periodically, I will ‘take a break’ from my website. I will assert that it’s easy to get caught up in the blogging world and I will publicly chastise myself for doing so. Afterwards, I will vow to start paying attention to the things that are really important in life. I will follow up this comment with a heartwarming picture of my family.
Then, and only then, can you accurately call me a blogger - LizardonaStick, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2The site does not work correctly with AdBlock installed. The first rule of Web design is not to have technology get in the way of use.
- rot13ubercrypto, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Yeah, except that if I had a dollar for every time one of my non-tech buddies asked me "HOW DO I DO XYZ" and I wished I had an easy, concise list to point him to for lack of time or patience...
- NessTheHero, on 10/10/2007, -1/+11. Come up with new word to describe your online website with CMS driven news posts.
I mean, come on. Blog? Sounds like I'm trying to vomit when I say it. Can't we think up a better sounding word? - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0??? == AdSense
- JD52, on 10/10/2007, -3/+2OH NOES! Now everyones will have zee blogs.
Oh wait.... they already do. - solleiz, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3Step One: Don't
- bightchee, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3With this checklist I might now do something with that domain I bought.
- JD52, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1http://www.problogger.com
- Dokument, on 10/10/2007, -4/+2please god spare us of the link.
- evilplayer, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0my eyes are burning.
- evilplayer, on 10/10/2007, -3/+0My eyes are burning.
- jxke, on 10/10/2007, -6/+2why do people blog again? oh, no one else to talk to.
- ndiderrich, on 10/10/2007, -8/+4blogs suck, nuff' said.
- neasteflorin, on 10/10/2007, -8/+1Check out my blog by the way: http://me-geek.blogspot.com/
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is