Digg is the grand-daddy of them all when it comes to social voting sites, having more regular traffic that all other social voting sites – combined! With 40 million site visits each month, it is no wonder why so many website owners aspire to get their content dug to the top of Digg. It became a cult following and has evolved into big business for those marketing to the cult. But what is the value in reaching page 1 of Digg? If you’re a small time blogger on a shared web hosting, Digg can be your worst enemy, crashing your server and potentially getting your shared hosting account banned. If you are seriously targeting Digg, be prepared to handle huge surges in traffic.

You’ve got to consider the demographic of any social site to which you submit your content. Digg happens to be comprised of mostly males, between 20 & 40 interested in technology and news pertaining to technology. If that’s what you want, go for it. But if you’re writing about the latest craze in women’s fashion, forget it.

Another thing you have to consider about social sites is the “mindset.” News is the mindset on Digg. Do you have news? Maybe you have a new technological product that you’re launching and reaching the top of Digg would compliment your PR efforts tremendously. In such case, by all means, have at it. But if it’s not news and you don’t have the organic search traffic required to reach the Digg tipping point, you might consider removing the Digg Button from your website or blog and try pushing a different social network. Digg is kind of hit or miss; you either get enough Diggs from authority “diggers” within the required timeframe, or you don’t. Sure, there’s a small social aspect in that Digg users can browse the Diggs of other users, but the vast majority of Digg traffic comes from the voting pages. So if you’re even thinking about reaching the top of Digg, you had better do your homework.