Paying for Diggs and Stumbles
Every blogger wants his or her posts to catch fire on Digg or StumbleUpon (or the social site of their choice), but would you ever pay for Diggs and Stumbles?
It’s not a new phenomenon. In fact, many social sites try to combat paid submissions, but there are still many sites out there like Subvert and Profit where advertisers can pay people to Digg, Stumble, etc. blog posts or web pages and where bloggers or internet users can sign up to get paid to submit those Diggs and Stumbles.
As a marketer, I can certainly see the value in paying for submissions to social sites, and I’m sure if I still worked in Corporate America, I’d probably be paying for them. However, as a blogger, I don’t like it. I like the idea of the best content rising to the top naturally and everyone having a fair shot at being “discovered” through social sites. Of course, reality then strikes and I remember that sadly, much of the content that currently rises to the top of Digg, etc. has not gotten to that spot naturally (even if submissions for that content weren’t paid for). Instead, there is often an organized effort or key people involved in bumping certain content to the top.
With that in mind, what do you think about paying for Diggs and Stumbles? Alternatively, what do you think about getting paid to Digg or Stumble content for advertisers and marketers?
Kevin | March 31st, 2008 at 1:36 pm #
I have to agree with you Susan, as a blogger I don’t like it. I never could get into Digg because it seemed like all the posts which reached the front page got there using less than trustworthy techniques.
Though I don’t use social sites like digg often I do use stumbleupon from time to time and I’m a big fan of it so I hope paid sites like this don’t become more common. Though the skeptic in me suggests that it will.
Andy MacDonald | March 31st, 2008 at 2:17 pm #
A also agree with you Susan. I would much prefer my content be voted to the top naturally then pay for the bumps. If you provide truly valuable content, then you shouldn’t have much trouble in getting some good referrals and votes on these social media sites.
Janette Toral | April 2nd, 2008 at 9:37 pm #
I actively submit content to StumbleUpon, Delicious, and Ximmy (where I just submitted this post). Definitely, having any form of automation and payment for these activities should not be encouraged. However, I support giving incentives to users who submit high quality content on a regular basis.