We knew it was going to happen. Digg users try to game the site by copying articles and then passing those said articles off as their own work. Also users engineer written works in the Digg user base to increase popularity and thus forth increasing traffic to their site.
While other Digg users have gone off to forums such as DP and sitepoint in “Digg-trades” whereas they can gain a vast amount of diggs for relatively cheap or for returning other users’ diggs. (.30 each for 50 diggs in the current example)
However unethical it may be, it is being done and these “Digg Gamers” are taking advantage of the tremendous amounts of traffic sent from digg. Even with the traffic not being the best in terms of monetization (Digg users tend to know not to click ads, and will only do so by accident most times), it is still traffic, and that means return visitors and maybe future sell’s for you and your affiliates.
An article I read over at SEOmoz, titled “The anatomy of a Super Digg” explains exactly how he gamed Digg users with viral articles written simply for the basis of gaining quick readability and interest.
Over the coming weeks I am going to attempt to “game” Digg with some viral marketing and some catchphrase titles, I may use the Digg systems used on the forums however I am afraid I may be penalized by Digg for using these unethical methodologies… only time will tell. If anyone has any experience with using Digg-trades please let me know how it went for you.