'Net Features : mixx

The State of Content Submission Sites

Mike Phillips — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:14:00 GMT

Content submission sites can garner a fair amount of traffic for a website. So it's good to know where your content stands the best chance of reaching the widest audience. Compete.com has returned new traffic results for March 2009, and the numbers suggest that most of these sites are doing extremely well, meaning they are still viable - if not essential - places to market brands, products and services. Of course the first focus should always be on your company, but you will want to take advantage of free promotional services.

Digg.com remains strong, getting more than 36 million visits per month, according to Compete. For the year, traffic at Digg is up 71.5 percent. The attractive part of Digg is that it is widely used, both in and outside of the Web professional industry, meaning that you have a good chance of making an impact with consumers, not just fellow marketers. The down side is that the very structure of Digg caters to those with connections and those who know how to make the system work for them. Otherwise Digg can take a lot of effort and time to be truly effective.

Twitter is far and away the fastest growing network online, both in terms of traffic and overall industry buzz. The site is up to 14 million uniques per month, up from 8 million last month (a 76 percent increase) and up more than 1,200 percent this year. There's no denying that Twitter is an important place to submit content, or at least have a presence. Be sure to take advantage of URL shortening services like bitl.y, cli.gs, or budurl to track how (and if) your content spreads through Twitter.

Then there are the rest. There are may niche content submission sites and some of them may hold real value, depending on your industry or focus. But for general purposes it makes sense to focus on those with the widest reach. Below is a chart from Compete.com analyzing five popular submission sites and their current traffic data: Newsvine, Propeller, Mixx, StumbleUpon and Reddit. (Article continues below)

Reddit holds the overall edge, in both traffic numbers and growth, closely followed by StumbleUpon. It's also interesting to see that Reddit has a very steady growth pattern, usually indicating a site with staying power. Also note that all but one of these services (Propeller) is experiencing growth. And while the numbers of any of these sites might suggest it's simply not worth the effort in comparison to Digg or Twitter, it could be argued that while these sites are growing, now is a good time to get involved and stake your claim.

It should also be noted that StumbleUpon, while used as a submission site by many, is not necessarily intended to be a content submission site. It might fall under the category of content discovery. And, for that matter, Delicious.com could fall into that category as well. Delicious had over 1.8 million unique visits in March, a 13 percent boost from February 2009.

Submitting content to these sites and establishing a reputable presence (including networking and making influential friends) can take an extraordinary amount of time. Sometimes too much to be worth the return. Therefore, it's always important to use your analytics to closely monitor the returns you are getting for your efforts. If you see that site visits from one particular network are resulting in high bounce rates, limited time-on-site or any other factor detrimental to your overall goals, don't be afraid to jump ship. Or find the network(s) with the highest return toward your goals and focus on those instead.

reddit Opens Up, Allows Full Customization

Mike Phillips — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:28:00 GMT

While larger voting sites such as Digg and recently-released Yahoo Buzz keep their properties closely guarded, Reddit is taking the exact opposite approach, hoping to capitalize on its 300 percent growth since May.

Taking dead aim at its competitors, reddit now allows users - and publishers - to fully customize their own reddit communities. You can modify the CSS and use custom CNAMEs. Style the community, the logos, and point your own domain to your new, custom community. This could be a fantastic way to really engage your site visitors and have them engage with your site and your brand - even if you have to endure some third-party advertising on your custom voting site.

Depending on the success of the reddit experiment, we could see many more social networking/voting sites start to open up to private use. Revenue shares, third-party app inclusion ... Mixx, are you listening?

As an extra bonus to get started, reddit is running a contest for custom communities - grow the largest audience in one month and get a free Macbook Air.

The Complete Publisher's Guide to Yahoo Buzz

Mike Phillips — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:35:00 GMT

Yahoo Buzz has opened up to all publishers, meaning that - like it or not - you need to get involved. The big bonus for publishers is not in getting a few thousand hits at a time, but millions. Yahoo Buzz gives you the opportunity to get your story - your website - on the front page of Yahoo. Whether for 10 minutes or 10 hours, that kind of exposure will garner significant traffic and could make a huge impact on your online enterprise.

How it Works

You submit stories, videos or photos and the public buzzes (votes) them to the top. The top buzzed stories can appear on Yahoo's home page. However, it's not totally automated. While Buzz is determined by voters (among other factors) and not editors, Yahoo editors use Buzz to help determine what's worthy of a cover story on the home page. According to the website, "We also have members of our team comb through all the top content on Yahoo! Buzz and select items to appear on the Yahoo! homepage."

Submitting

Before you do anything, make sure your website can handle a huge spike in traffic, just in case. And think about placing Buzz buttons in your posts so those viewing your story elsewhere can buzz it. The larger buttons will probably work best, especially those with vote numbers if you get significant views. Consider placing one at the top and one at the bottom to give your readers more chances to buzz your story. There are many to choose from and even some custom options. You can find the buttons by clicking the link "Publishers: Get your content on Buzz!" under the submit button.

On the right side of the home page you will find the button to submit. Next, enter your story URL, title and a short description. Select your category and media type (text, video or photo) and click "preview." Here, look over your submission carefully, as you cannot edit the post after submitting. Enter one of those wonderful captcha codes and click submit. And this is what you will see:

Sharing

Now you need to make sure your story gets some attention. Click the "Send" button to open a window where you can enter email addresses to send the story. Keep in mind that it's coming from whatever Yahoo ID you are currently logged in with, and that corresponding email address is what the recipient is going to see. So you might consider setting up a corporate Yahoo account (if you don't have one already) and using that for submissions. This way, your brand will appear every time you submit and every time you email. The email recipient receives your personal message (if any), title of the article and a link - unfortunately a very, very long link. After clicking the link, they get the page with your story, including three different places/opportunities to navigate to your website.

Of course, you don't want to swamp people with emails all the time, but there appears to be a serious benefit. According to the Buzz website, "The Web's most remarkable stories, determined by people like you. Stories are ranked based on your votes, emails, and searches." So, the more friends that forward your email to others, the more likely it's going to get buzzed and move that much closer to Yahoo's home page. And Yahoo must be paying attention to the number of times a story is emailed.

You can also click the "Share" button to submit your story to Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Propeller, Digg and Facebook. Take advantage of that. And don't be afraid to promote your story and ask for votes. In fact, Yahoo encourages it: "Tell your visitors what Yahoo! Buzz is and encourage them to vote for your stories (and send them to friends)."

Some Tips

Like anything social, get active. You need to submit several different types of stories and not only your own. Yahoo is pretty mum on the details, but you can be sure that like Digg, StumbleUpon or Mixx, the more diversified and active you are, the better chance of exposure for your submissions.

There is not a "friend" feature on Yahoo Buzz yet, but that will likely happen. According to the website, "In the 'beta' version of Yahoo! Buzz, we do not yet ways for you to connect with other Buzz users. Please stay tuned over the coming months as we layer in more features." By being active, you'll gain a reputation with Buzz. If/When a friends feature is added, you'll want to have some clout - others will seek you out to befriend you and begin the whole process of building communities - just like on Digg, StumbleUpon, Mixx and other social sites.

Be vigilant and patient. As you can imagine, the stories at the top of Buzz and those that appear on the home page of Yahoo are overwhelmingly from big-time sources like CNN, The New York Times, Time.com and even Yahoo itself. Yahoo wants to make sure that the stories reaching their home page are reputable, well-written and worthy.

In fact, you'll notice that on the Buzz home page the stories with the most activity tend to have accompanying images - that includes ALL of the stories on the rotating top banner, "Just Added." According to the publisher FAQs, "Yahoo! Buzz currently partners with certain publishers, and as part of this partnership we are able to receive and display their images on Buzz. We will reach out to additional publishers whose content is doing well on Buzz, and invite them to do the same." No word if Yahoo will require those publishers to use Yahoo Publishers Network (YPN) instead of AdSense, like the early publishers on Buzz were required to do.

If your aim is to reach the Yahoo home page - and that's really the ultimate goal here - in addition to following these tips, be careful not to submit duplicate content. Just like it can hurt your reputation on sites like Digg, it's likely the same can be said for Buzz. It's early and you'll want to get in good with Yahoo right now. Submitting duplicate content may weaken your standing in this developing community.

Also see The Complete User's Guide to Yahoo Buzz.

Spreading Yourself Thick With Mixx

Mike Phillips — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Mixx.com celebrates their one-year anniversary this month, to the tune of nearly one million unique visitors. But more than just impressive numbers, what sets Mixx apart from its competitors are the user base and some unique features. Mixx Groups is one such feature that facilitates sharing while building strong and focused communities. Used correctly, you can find a rare blend of online promotion, collaboration and education to build brand awareness and become an influential member of a growing community.

While the social news sharing site has been in development for a year the beta site was only launched some eight months ago, making its early growth a good indicator of a success in the making.

Mixx users are educated, loyal and perhaps most important, active. They are sharing news and stories, voting on submissions, making comments and networking. And your brand can be a part of the conversation.

Joining Groups and Submitting Content
Once you sign up for a Mixx account, take a look at the available groups and join those that peak your interests. Then you will want to start looking for stories and news that you feel would be of interest to those groups. Copy the link and click “Submit a Link to Mixx!” Next, choose your submission options. Choosing “Public” will share the link through selected channels to any Mixx user or visitor. Submitting the link to your Groups will share the link only with the members of your selected groups. You can choose to do both.

On your profile page you will be able to see the stories you submitted, vote totals, comments you’ve made and karma points – a measure of your clout with the Mixx community, earned by submitting content, voting and commenting. You will also be able to see who voted for your stories. These are the people you will want to “follow,” the equivalent of adding them as a friend. The more karma points they have, the better.

Creating a Group
Now that you have built up some karma points and accumulated a host of followers, it’s a good time to create a group. Look around at existing groups and conduct some searches to make sure you don’t create a duplicate of an existing group. Then once you have decided on the niche you would like to occupy, think of a good title and create your group.

Next, you will want to submit some content to the group to build up a catalog of stories that relate to the topic. This way, new members won’t see an empty space.

Once you feel that you have enough content to get started (a dozen stories or so should suffice) start inviting your friends. Write a personalized message detailing why you created the group and how your friends can benefit from joining. You’ll soon start to get notifications of new members. These are your new brand evangelists. Suddenly, you’re an expert in your chosen field, at least in the Mixx world. But there is a catch. You must be diligent in building the new group, especially in the early stages. There are plenty of “dead” groups out there and you don’t want to be one of them. This means finding and inviting new members and submitting fresh content. And that doesn’t mean only your own content. You must be diverse. The successful groups out there offer a variety of sources. It doesn’t mean you can’t push your own content – after all, it’s one of the reasons to start a group in the first place – but be smart about it. The goal is to establish your brand in this growing community and you want to put your best foot forward. Mixx users dedicate a good amount of time to building a valuable community and they trust that you will do the same.

Success with Mixx
Choose your profile name and photo carefully. This is about branding, and you will want to be instantly recognizable to those you befriend and share links with.

Adjust your settings. By default, you will be emailed every time content is submitted to any group to which you belong. This can get overwhelming in a hurry. You might want to consider turning this feature off.

Email sparingly. You have the option to send an email alert to any or all of your friends each time you submit a link. Don’t do it. On more than one occasion I have chosen to stop following someone because I was getting dozens of emails a day from the same users.

Voting in groups. Because of past abuse, the group voting system differs than the public side. Votes cast on content within a group stays in that group. Votes cast in the public space can span across related categories. Groups are valuable to building credibility and followers, but public submission is important to get widespread exposure.

Check out the Mixxing Bowl and Social Blend. A forum and podcast, respectively, these are very active offshoots of Mixx and a good place to stay informed about the site. The Round Up is a podcast covering social media on both Mixx and Digg.

Mixx doesn’t have anywhere near the volume of traffic of rival Digg, but it is growing. What’s more, Mixx users are excited about the site and working hard to make it a success. And perhaps because of its relatively small user base, Mixx avoids some of the pitfalls of other social sharing sites, such as spam, irrelevant content and abusive users. And you can bet users want to keep it that way. That’s why it is of the greatest importance to Mixx responsibly. This means keeping your submissions relevant, diversifying your content and not over-promoting your own agenda.

Mixx is new and growing and that’s precisely why it’s a good time to get involved. You have a real opportunity to become an influencer in this community and brand your website in the process. The Mixx blog promises updates and new features in the coming weeks which should add to the site’s appeal and recruit even more users.

Join the Web Professionals Mixx Group!

Time to Start Mixxing

Mike Phillips — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:51:00 GMT

Social news aggregator and Digg competitor Mixx.com has announced the launch of their API, allowing developers to get their hands dirty creating new applications. And that means more attention and more traffic for Mixx and those who leverage the site to their advantage.

The API will allow items to be viewed, submitted and commented on from any other site across the Web. Already, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times includes buttons on stories to submit to Mixx and many other large media sites are beginning to follow suit.

Mixx does not see anywhere near the traffic as Digg, but a look at some data shows they are playing a mean game of catch-up. Compete shows traffic booming - soon after launch, in September 2007 Mixx saw about 30,000 unique visitors, compared to over 180,000 in March 2008. In short, quick innovation, fast uptake and the attention of top developers should be enough to convince anyone to start using Mixx in their marketing plans.

Socialite Mixx Rolls Out New Features

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 13:53:00 GMT

Social news site and Digg competitor Mixx.com has rolled out a few new noteworthy features today. Users that change their mind about content submitted can now edit and/or delete with fifteen minutes of posting. Mixx has also cleared up some of their terms of use to provide a better explanation of what "spam" means and how users can and should "play nice" on the burgeoning social site. Those changes in short are 1) no spam, 2) no conspiring to create voting rings, fake accounts or using any means to manipulate the ratings or ranking of a submission, and 3) a kind request to keep the self-submitting to a minimum. Sounds fair enough.

Mixx also unveiled a feature which enables users to see "more from this site," a tool that gives users (and admins) the ability to see all the content submitted to Mixx from a specific URL. So for example, you submit this post to Mixx and when viewing the details tab you will see that Website Magazine has had fifteen stories submitted from various users.