Diggers are Nuts about Knuttz

The folks over at Digg. So listen up, I'm here to explain to you exactly how they do it (well, with one critical missing detail!)

(Now, I have a really busy day today so I want to explain things clearly here, but I'll need to keep it pretty brieffor me, anyway. If I miss some important points, please take them up with me in the comments. Often, as much is learned in the comments as in the post itself.) Knuttz.net is a site full of pages displaying ads and photos. That's basically it. Their revenue model is ad banners, pure and simple. If there's anything else going on there, I have missed it. I only came across this site a couple of days ago, on the Engadget, in terms of proportional traffic growth, in the last measurement period - and that's the same Engadget which experience a surge of growth over the iPhone announcement and eye-candy posts. So Knuttz is doing something very right to have grown so phenomenally in such a short space of time. EVERY photo page on the site has the SAME teaser link on the bottom. No matter where you are at any given moment, each photo essay page invites you (at the bottom) to go check out another page, and it's always the same destination page. site-wide. Go check it out. Follow the link. Any link. Now you're on another photo page on Knuttz that looks like all the rest. Except lok at the top and bottom of this page what do you see? A Digg button, and the number of diggs on that button which is below the "popular" threshold set by Digg (in other words, a story that has not yet gone to Digg's front page). The Digg button will stay on that page, and that page will remain linked-to from the bottom of every other page on Knuttz, until it either a) goes over Digg's "popular" threshold (and to Digg's front page/s) and no longer needs the button on this page, or b) seems to flounder after a certain amount of time passes, and the Knuttz team will try their luck again with another photoset/page (I assume this can happen, but haven't seen it all their Digg submissions succeed at the moment!). Are you following me? In summary, the Knuttz site is one big "traffic funnel", moving all incoming traffic in the inevitable direction of that Digg button. It's one very smart strategy. The view from over at Digg Knuttz is kicking butt with this strategy. I mean really. However in the last two weeks, fully 14 stories have gone front page on Digg That's getting very close to a front page story per day! Here they are, including the first three of the New Year, which were consecutive submissions(!): 1. 40 Photos of Abandonned Amusement Park (14 days ago) 3. Amazing Pencil Artwork. (10 days ago) 5. Photos: Rubik's cube and derivative puzzles (9 days ago) 7. Awesome photos of aquarium built at home! (9 days ago) 9. Amazing Custom Designed Sushi (3 days ago) 11. (2 days ago) 12. Crazy Soviet-era bus stops (1 day ago) 14. Jet Vs. Bird [definitely not throwing any accusations at Knuttz of impropriety. What is clear, is that with every front page story on Digg, Knuttz will find it easier and easier to get more of their pages onto Digg's front page in future, since more and more diggers who like Knuttz will bookmark it, return under their own steam, and digg stories "on-page". What this means is that Knuttz - as an added bonus - is gaining an increasing proportion of their return traffic who are diggers. Think about that What can we learn from Knuttz? I have a few observations and suggestions from my research here:

1. Build a Digg "traffic funnel" into your site too. This is what I explained above, in regards to the "traffic funnel" that exists at Knuttz. Of course, it works a treat at Knuttz because the whole raison d'etre of the site is funny/weird photo essays, which makes this funneling of traffic very simple to execute. People clicking through these kinds of sites are there for a bit of lazy fun and they don't need much convincing to click through. On a blog it's a different story. You can't easily "tease" someone at the bottom of one blog post to visit another post that is entire unrelated. But funny/weird photos are always related! 2. Build Digg story submission into your workflow (and stay under-the-radar). I don't know who Digg profile, but I'm prepared to bet he's on the Knuttz team, since 8 of the 12 stories sicc's profile at Digg. He signed up on the 15th of December that's just a little over a month ago. In that remarkably short space of time he has dugg 6,909 stories, submitted 783, and had 94 of those go to the front page. He now ranks 64! Why does he do it? How does he do it? Are you and I supposed to assume that he does this for the love of Digg? If not, how does he "monetize" his time? 4. If Knuttz or I or anyone else was trying to "rigg" Digg, what would that involve? This is pure speculation, and I can't find evidence for it in Knuttz's case, to be absolutely clear. But this is what I'd assume is done in those cases: a site wanting success on Digg would pay a syndicate of diggers to push a story up to the "popular" threshold. Those diggers would be paid, and either a) would enlist buddies to digg suggested stories, or b) would themselves maintain a large number of Digg accounts to digg with. The latter would be so that in order to fly under the radar, they need never use the same account twice with the same "client". If you go looking for them, you can find websites as fronts for Digg syndicates (no links, sorry). These sites are "invitation only" and nowhere mention Digg on their front page, obviously. Digg is trying hard to uncover evidence of this kind of rigging, but it's hard. If 20 different accounts digg the same story in a small timeframe, and they all originate from the same IP, that might throw a flag over at Digg HQ. I am just guessing. But methinks pro diggers are smarter than that. All I can say is, I'd like to be a fly on the wall, watching how they're going about trying to keep Digg clean of these syndicates!

Conclusion Let's summarise the Knuttz story, again. After moderate success in the latter half of 2006, Knuttz traffic suddenly when completely nuts from the moment 2007 arrived, and the good times haven't slowed down a bit. My research suggests this phenomenal traffic increase is almost entirely due to the sequence of 14 (and counting!) front page Digg stories. And since Knuttz have the formula right, they're assured plenty more front page stories to come. This is largely because their site's content is an ideal fit for the Digg demographic (unlike sites and content like mine, which are not just avoided, but often buried SEO is a bad word over there). The critical missing detail: I cannot explain why Knuttz suddenly got the "formula" right on January 1, 2007. If someone can show me that it is on that date that they implemented their "traffic funnel", then that is all the proof needed that it's indeed a killer strategy. I could go rifling through diggbait and PR Pat's photo album is online. A blog 'Meme With Meaning': sponsor someone or something! Alister's blog is a rich tapestry of advice, anecdotes and reflections from the frontline of professional blogging, social media and search engine marketing, and never without generous dollops of humor and wit.