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By khalid on November 15, 2007 11:39 am
Posted in (Blogging)

Update: We just released our free report, Breaking the Digg Code: A step by step instruction to get on the first page of Digg in 4 weeks or less. Download your free copy now.

I have seen many blogs that focused on the Digg top 100 users. Although that approach is somewhat interesting, I think focusing the top articles can give a better insight to what works, and what doesn’t on Digg. Being a math geek and a fan of Digg, I spent time analyzing the top 100 articles of all time on Digg. What is the average number of words for a Digg top 100 article? Should you choose a different title when you are submitting an article to Digg or just stick with the one on the blog? What is the average number of words in the title of a Digg article? Do I have too much free time on my hand?

Before I start answering these questions and few others, here is the approach I followed. I looked at the Digg top 200 submissions of all time. If the submission was an actual article as opposed to picture or a video I included it in the list.

Well, let’s take each of these questions and see what the data tells us.

Should you choose a new title for an article when submitting it to Digg or should you stick with the original title of the article?

Of the top 100 articles, the submitter chose a different title 75 times. Only in 25% of the top articles did the submitter decide to stick with the original title of the article. Some common sense here; many people do not know how to write good titles that hook the reader. So, if you want to get on the first page of Digg not only do you have to find good content, you have to do some more leg work and choose a better title.

Okay, if I choose to come up with a new title when I am submitting to Digg, should my title be longer than the original title?

70% of the time the title on digg has more words in it compared to the original title. Only in 30% of the submissions, the digger decided to shorten the title when submitting an article to Digg.

So, when submitting to digg, choose a more descriptive title

What is the average number of words in the title of a top 100 article?

Average number of words in the title of a top 100 article is 8 words.

The smallest title of the top 100 had 3 words in it

  • 1 Miiiiiillion Users
  • Digg This: 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0

The longest title amongst the top 100 articles goes to:

  • So, as of yesterday, If you protest the war, the Prez can take your stuff (15 words)
  • PLEASE Digg this story up. This boy needs help, get his story out PLEASE (14 words)
  • Courtney Love does the math, or Why you needn’t shed any tears for the RIAA (14 words)

What categories do better on Digg?

Here is the category breakdown of the top 100 articles

% Category on Digg
36% Technology
29% World and Business
18% Offbeat News
9% Science
7% Entertainment
1% Gaming

Technology rules on Digg, then business.

What style of articles does better on Digg?

% Type of article
38% News
15% Announcement
16% Story
11% Other
6% Story about Digg
5% General blog
4% Secret
3% Top list article
2% How to

Although top lists, how to, and secrets articles generally do well on digg, they are not of the kind that will make it really big. You might be able to hit 400 to 700 diggs with them, however the chances of hitting 2,000 diggs is very limited.

What is the average number of words in top 100 article?

Average number of words per article

  • The average number of words in a top 100 article is 674.89 words
  • The median number words in a top 100 article is 444.5words.
  • The smallest article had 27 words in it.
  • The largest article of the top 100 had 6881 words in it.

67% of the top 100 articles are less than the average number of words. You articles will do better on Digg if you keep them to less than 700 words.

What is the average number of words in the description on Digg?

Average number of words in description

  • The average number of words in the Digg description of top 100 article is 41.28 words
  • The median number of words in the Digg description of top 100 article is 47.5 words
  • The smallest Digg description of top 100 article had 2 words in it.
  • The largest number of words in the Digg description of top 100 article had 68 words in it.

So, even a description of 2 words can make it! But you probably want to do a little better than that.

What is the average number of comments a top article receives on Digg?

Number of comments on an article

Number of comments is a good indicator of how well the blog engages the community.

  • The average number of comments on the Digg for top 100 article is 520.99 comments
  • The least number of comments on the Digg for top 100 article was 56 comments
  • The most number of comments on the Digg for top 100 article was 1649 comments

What is the average number of comments a top article receives on the site publishing the article itself?

  • The average number of comments on the publishing site for top 100 article is 73.45 comments
  • The least number of comments on the Digg for top 100 article was 0 comments
  • The most number of comments on the Digg for top 100 article was 1691 comments

So, the number of comments an article gets on digg is about 8 times more than the number of comments on the publishing site.

What is the Google page rank for sites publishing these articles?

Google page rank for averages for top 100 Digg article

75% of the articles are published on sites with a Google PR 5 or more. The median page rank for top article sites is 6.

Share and Enjoy:
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21 Responses to “ Analysis of Digg top 100 articles”

 
Lara Saad Says -- November 15th, 2007 at 9:05 pm

Woow… Good work khalid, I really like your article it sounds like you have worked hard to come with this numbers. sure i will digg it ;-)

 
This Week In SEO - 11/16/07 - TheVanBlog Says -- November 15th, 2007 at 10:43 pm

[...] Analysis of Digg top 100 articles [...]

 
Zaibatsu Says -- November 16th, 2007 at 12:52 am

Interesting article. It looks like you’ve put some hard work into the stats. The only trend that I’ve noticed is that being a top 5 Digger, comments matter a hell of a lot more, as well as getting diggs for stories that are from random users and not just your friends. I can get 100 eyeballs on a story quite easily, it’s the other 50 that I care about. People really enjoy the content.

 
Angelina Jolie, Nude or Not? | SE-Ogre Swamplog Says -- November 16th, 2007 at 1:14 am

[...] Today Digg banned a front page post that contained a video mash-up of “porn” on Fox News. I caught the story on Reddit as it reached about #2. Typically this type of article is not my style but hitting the top of both Digg and Reddit made my SEO saliva gland crank up production. I came across the Digg link in a fellow blogger’s post and followed it to a surprisingly bland 404 page over at Digg. I was surprised to find that they didn’t specifically mention why the post was yanked or bother to redirect the traffic. The Reddit link did in fact work and took me to an embedded video with a non-stop stream of screen grabs and clips taken from various Fox News shows, each containing fairly graphic yet censored content. I don’t know how long the video lasted but after about 30 seconds I had seen enough to get the point and promptly voted it down (not that it helped, it is currently sitting in the #1 spot). Speaking of getting to the point, I thought it was quite interesting that Digg pulled the “safe for television” footage from their site without a word. Maybe their Revision3 ties bind them to potential future deals with big TV. Maybe Fox has some leverage in pulling content they deem “unfit for Digg” or maybe the article didn’t conform to the stringent requirements to stay on top of Digg’s list. [...]

 
Agen Iklan Says -- November 17th, 2007 at 3:13 am

Agen Iklan say thank you. Interesting article. Good info, Great work. I’ll check it out to compare this issue.

 
drunk driving Says -- November 17th, 2007 at 11:16 am

Great Article! Looks like you have put in lots of thought into this. I currently get some traffic from Digg daily, as I have had a couple articles get on the front page of digg. It might be a lot of work, put the benefits from it is absolutely amazing. Keep up the good work!

 
This Week In SEO | SEO:Search Says -- November 17th, 2007 at 7:01 pm

[...] Analysis of Digg top 100 articles [...]

 
Reader Tips: 18 November 2007 Says -- November 18th, 2007 at 9:59 am

[...] Top 100 Digg Articles: What topics are popular on Digg? What kind of posts have a higher chance of success? These are other questions are answered here. [...]

 
Randy Roedl On Wordpress Blogs Says -- November 18th, 2007 at 1:53 pm

[...] Top 100 Digg Articles: What topics are popular on Digg? What kind of posts have a higher chance of success? These are other questions are answered here. [...]

 
Edward Says -- November 19th, 2007 at 10:00 am

Technology has the kind of topics that have many interesting posts to get digg, probably because most of the users of Digg are interested in Technology

 
Linda Bustos Says -- November 19th, 2007 at 4:49 pm

Great job on this. Very interesting that “How to..” and “Top X” lists are at the bottom of effective headlines ;-)

 
Is there a formula to writing popular online articles? « Mindtracks Says -- November 22nd, 2007 at 4:32 pm

[...] Is there a formula to writing popular online articles? Khalid on Invesp blog has focused on the top 100 articles submitted to digg and analysed them. Khalid looked at titles and title length, category, style of content, average [...]

 
sun Says -- January 7th, 2008 at 9:08 am

how can i get copy of prove of popular online article…????

sunarso
http://www.iklanoke.com

 
Guerrilla Marketing: Online Tactics For Independent Web Publishers | Communication Says -- January 17th, 2008 at 4:38 am

[...] how a lot of stuff gets popular. If you look at Digg, over half of the content that makes it to the front page is submitted by the top 100 [...]

 
Green Content Syndication: Part II - Top Environmental Diggers « Marketing Green Says -- January 22nd, 2008 at 1:53 am

[...] InvespBlog suggests that diggers also know how to ‘sell’ their Digg submissions through compelling titles [...]

 
dennis Says -- March 25th, 2008 at 11:48 pm

I like the information on Digg, a lot to learn

 
dennis Says -- March 25th, 2008 at 11:48 pm

Great information on Digg, a lot to learn

http://bigloanguide.com

 
Tommy Says -- April 8th, 2008 at 8:57 pm

I use Digg so much it is all I know.

Thanks
http://bestbargainsever.com

 
Glen Allsopp Says -- April 21st, 2008 at 12:51 pm

Great post, reminds me a lot of my stumbleupon article

 
khalid Says -- April 21st, 2008 at 12:56 pm

@Glen Allsopp it was actually inspired by analysis you did on Digg top users if I remember correctly.

 
Mike Baker Says -- February 10th, 2009 at 10:24 am

Last night I got Banned from Digg I have no idea why, other than they said I was spamming, I undugg an article and add the new version and after that I could never log in again. I emailed them but got no where, below is there reply, and additional Email asking what I did has gone unanswered.

How can I fix it if I am banned, and what did I do, that is all I wanted to know.

I am hoping as people read this blog which is a great blog, they will Digg it and maybe Digg will give me a second chance.

Tech5055

Hi from Digg.com, Your account was reported to us as being in violation of our Terms of Service (http://digg.com/tos) for spamming Digg. We must be vigilant in protecting against activities that compromise the Digg community, this decision is final and irreversible. Thank you, -The Digg Support Team.

 

What do you think?