Advertising on Digg
While we are all trying to get our content or service featured on the front-page of Digg, most of us have managed to over look the simplest way of getting there: Advertisements. So how much does it cost, and is it worth the price?
A quick look at Digg's Federated Media page reveals the following:
Selecting the cheapest advertisement and the minimum possible number of impressions, the total comes down to a whopping $40,320.
Assuming that your advertising budget permits for such an expense, is it worth advertising on Digg? Not necessarily. According to an analysis from Chitika, Digg users have a click-through rate of 0.30%, which is one third of the click-through rate of Google (or referral) traffic. Ultimately, you're better off using Digg (and social media in general) to create a passionate following (which ultimately becomes your customer, etc.) than to try and make a quick buck.
**Disclaimer: I am a Netscape Navigator.
Enjoy the post? Here are some more that may interest you.
Trackbacks (0)
There are no trackbacks for this post yet.
Reader Comments (10)
- Nomadishere, April 10, 2007
-
FYI - that CTR is about accurate with my experience with Digg traffic. And you're right about building a passionate following, the social media crowd is engaged and happy to participate.
- Roger Wong, April 10, 2007
-
Those rates are "rate card", you'll get lower from negotiating with your sales rep if you're spending enough.
To be honest, a .30% CTR is not that bad for some large advertisers and although I agree that social media is best used to create dialog with your audience, there is still value in the banner beyond driving direct traffic/sales in brand exposure and of course exposure to Digg's influential audience. In particular, if your company/product is relatively unknown but extremely compelling, buying impressions may be a good way to get traffic quickly.
- Hashim, April 10, 2007
-
.30% CTR is not bad at all, especially for a community site.
- Mark, April 10, 2007
-
The 0.30% number needs some clarification: the number is referring to the CTR from visitors coming to a site from digg, not visitors on digg itself. I would guess that number is quite a bit lower.
- Sam, April 11, 2007
-
For that 40 grand you could just hire someone for a year to post everywhere about your site. That will get you an infinite amount of traffic.
- HMTKSteve, April 11, 2007
-
Why would anyone pay for CPM advertising on Digg? Those 2.8M impressions would be eaten up in a manner of hours!
Aside from that, the advertising on Digg is in competition with Digg itself! When you go to Digg you don't leave via advertising, you leave via a story link.
- Jaan Kanellis, April 11, 2007
-
Exactly what I was thining HMTKSteve. Total waste paying by CPM on Digg.
- Smaran, April 12, 2007
-
Interesting! I had no idea advertisers have to pay such hefty sums to advertise on Digg, a site fuelled by user content. I find it really odd that users not only don't see a penny of that, we don't get much acknowledgement anymore either.
- Loren Baker, April 16, 2007
-
A healthy alternative would also be advertising on the sites which make it to Digg homepage on a regular basis.
- Angelina ------, April 18, 2007
-
I dont think its worth it to spend that much on advertising. It would be ideal if unique and interesting content is submitted and you come up organically ;)
