What I Learned By Getting up on Digg’s Homepage

To quote Chris Farley in Tommy Boy - THAT… WAS… AWESOME!  

Getting up on Digg’s homepage was completely unexpected and, unfortunately for me, was probably a one shot deal.  Not to say that I’m not grateful, because I certainly am, but I think I just happened to write a post about a topic that was of interest to a lot of people who use Digg.  As I told many of you who were kind enough to email me, I think I just caught lightning in a bottle.

After spending some time reflecting about yesterday/today (I know it sounds sappy and ridiculous, but it felt pretty freaking cool), I came up with a list of things that I learned by getting up on Digg’s homepage:

1. It’s awesome.  I know I sound as giddy as a school girl, but getting up on Digg’s homepage was pretty sweet.  I got a lot of emails from people asking about my site, some potential partnership opportunities and hopefully was able to build some repeat traffic to The New Business Blog.  Needless to say, there was a reason I walked around all day with a big goofy smile on my face.
2. If you’re running a WordPress based site, you absolutely have to use the cache plugin.  The nifty little WP-Cache plugin probably saved my site from crashing yesterday.  Essentially the plugin reduces the load on your server by storing your site’s pages, which allow them to load faster and reduces the amount of bandwidth you use.  Thankfully I had already installed the plugin on my site, so all I had to do was turn it on once I realized I had hit the homepage.  However, if you don’t have this plugin running and you’re up on the homepage for an extended period of time, chances are you’re going to cause your site to crash.
3. Don’t expect a huge jump in Adsense or affiliate earnings.  I already knew this before I hit the homepage, but if you’re Digging for dollars you’re going to be left relatively unhappy.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed doubling a typical day’s revenue – it’s just that it took me a 4,000% jump in page views to do so.
4. Be ready to deal with a lot of negative comments.  Getting negative comments comes with running a blog or a website; it’s just that they tend to be a little more frequent and a little harsher when you end up on Digg’s homepage.  Suddenly you’re an idiot with useless ideas who happens to run a terrible website.  Just tell yourself that these comments are coming from people who are jealous of your new found celebrity.
5. Expect a lot of self imposed pressure to replicate your success.  I can’t tell you how terrified I am to write this post thanks to all of the comments and emails that ended, “Great post, I can’t wait to read your next one!”  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not delusional and expect that all of my posts will now be homepage worthy, but at the same time, I don’t want to write a crappy post and let people down.

Anyway, thank you to all of you who helped me get on Digg’s homepage, for all of the comments, emails, suggestions, etc.  I feel like I’m giving an Academy Awards acceptance speech, but it really does feel pretty good to be able to say, “I’ve made it up onto Digg’s homepage.”

And on that note, if you liked this post, please feel free to Digg it!