Do you visit social news sites? My favorite two are Reddit and Fark. Both sites allow users to share news articles via links. Participants of the sites can then comment on the links, sharing their thoughts, jokes, and ideas on message boards. Social news sites can be great places to get visitors to your site, or to sell your products, but you have to understand the community you target before submitting items.
Reddit is free for users, with all content accessible. It is organized into sub-categories called subreddits. Subreddits are created by users. I most often comment on r-books, the subreddit dedicated to books and moderated by the creator of the category. There are categories for everything from programming to pictures and beyond.
Reddit harnesses the wisdom of the crowds with a simple voting mechanism. Redditors can vote up stories, as well as individual comments on the boards. The more people up-vote my comments, the more "comment karma" I earn, so Reddit karma is a big deal within the community. Getting your submission promoted to the front page depends on any number of factors, including diversity of voters, number and speed of votes, the story's category, and even what time the story was submitted.
Unlike Reddit, moderators decide what makes it to the front page on Fark. Their "green-lit" news stories can be viewed and commented on by all users. If you want to see and comment on stories not on the main page, Fark sells $5 subscriptions that label subscribers as "TotalFarkers." TotalFarkers get access to more message boards and their comments are labeled with the TotalFarker badge. The badge conveys a sense that the user is a "real" member of the community.
Fark's clever headlines are the main attraction, with users creating alternate headers for popular news bits. For instance: "Teen crashes into bowling alley. While car does not strike anyone, front of building is split open. Owners say timing of the accident helped spare those inside from any injury." Headlines vary, but generally the more clever, the better chance they have of getting green-lit.
Other social news sites include Digg, Mixx, Sphinn, Tip'd, and Kirtsy, just to name a few. Each has a distinct mix of people, and their own rules of engagement. Your content will do better on some sites than others, so you have to do your homework before submitting. Also, it's important to consider whether or not it's worth the time to market on social news sites. Becoming a power user takes time. In addition, a huge amount of traffic does not equate to higher sales, so consider carefully whether your efforts will be worth it.
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