Seems like this social bookmarking is a tough nut to crack, but read to the bottom for a one-off Sphinn related offer.
Getting onto the front page of Digg has always been notoriously difficult, so I realised a while ago that chasing the Digg vote for an online marketing blog wasn't a good strategy.
But with Sphinn, it is a different matter. Here is a social bookmarking site that should respond very well to the types of posts I want to submit - particularly SEO and online marketing. These people read the same blogs as I do, so it was a no-brainer to throw myself into Sphinn, especially as a post can go hot at one tenth of the numbers required at Digg.
Yet, try as I might, I can't seem to break through the wall. Posts that feel to me as if they should definitely punch through, languish with single-figure Sphinns. All the time I wait monitoring RSS feeds to leap on the latest post by a hot blogger seems to do me no good, but the guy who submits a different post of theirs reaps front page gold.
Autopsy of a Sphinn Failure
I have a few theories about this - one being the difference in time-zones. Living in Australia, I am often up and Sphinning when most other users are down and snoring. So I experimented with lodging submissions at different times. Nope, my morning submissions saw no notable difference in Sphinns to my lunchtime or evening Sphinns.
But what about the quality of the posts I'm Sphinning, I hear you cry?
Well, half of the posts I've submitted are from my own new blog, the initial motivation for the strategy. The rest are from around the net. Some of the most recent of these posts have gained fantastic reactions from those who read them, but not enough people read them to Sphinn. An example is 'Why Your Website Copy Sucks', which attracted very positive comments as well as the prediction it would go big. Nope, wrong again.
Okay, so let's do some linkbait. 'Is Google Really the Bogeyman' got some great feedback and found itself reposted in the comments on Matt Cutt's blog and a couple of other marketing forums so it was certainly effective as a post and developed some traffic from elsewhere. Got Stumbled plenty too. Sphinns? 6.
Even when I'm not submitting my own posts, I've thrown up some submissions from other well-known blogs. CopyBlogger, Earners Blog, Internet Hunger, SEO Chicks. Nope. But watch someone else submit CopyBlogger and marvel as the Sphinns role...
Yesterday I submitted an article from Internet Hunger called 'Sphinn is now a pathetic popularity contest!'. Surely this would get the Sphinners clicking and talking, I thought. I wanted to see whether prodding the nest with a stick would get me on the front page. The result? The comments outnumbered the Sphinns, 9 to 8.
I didn't necessarily agree with Tanner's article, as I've found many useful posts on the front page of Sphinn from all users. Just none of my own. Tanner has since responded with a new post which he submitted to pointed out how Sphinn has actually improved to become a fantastic and supportive community. If those who read my submissions agree with me that they should be read (and feedback indicates that they do), then there must be other factors at play.
"Please Sir, Can I have Some More?"
So I'm resorting to begging. I'm on my knees and want to go to bed tonight with the thrill of a front page slot for no other reason than it's there. It's Hilary and Everest, people!
I know a front page submission isn't essential or even always ideal in building site traffic, but now it's more a question of principle. I can't stop until I've cracked this nut, purely for the thrill of having cracked it - no more.
So I've changed my deodorant. I've had that breath mint and the sheets are clean, if that's what it takes. I've even done a spring-clean of my site and blown out the cobwebs.
Free links back to your blogs for every Sphinner!
If I make front page I will mention every Sphinner and link back to them in a future post discussing the merits of social bookmarking. What's that you say? A link from my blog doesn't cream your crackers? I can't help my feeble PageRank at the moment, but as the future post may also go front page as people Sphinn their link, it gets you in front of some influential bloggers.
Get me up there! Let's push this puppy through the Sphinn wall!
Sphinn, baby, Sphinn!
