We live in web2.0 right, so it’s users that will create content, for our websites because we give them, as webmasters, the chance for dialogue. There are many users out there that never heard of social bookmarking sites and they usually search Google or are just devoted to their local websites for news.

I had my experience with Digg and StumbleUpon, hell even with Reddit and I am now ready to answer two logical questions: should my website get Dugg, and if so, should I only concentrate on getting that kind of visits or should I look for referral readers (other than social bookmarking websites)?

I bet you can imagine what the answer for the first question is. Of course, it’s great to get on those social bookmarking websites, not only for the huge amount of traffic you get for about 48 hours, but for getting exposure. Do not expect to make any sales, get any Adsense or other advertisements clicks because you won’t. The profile of those visitors (or at least most of them) is ad-blind, which means they ignore your ads no matter how flashy they are. However, Digg traffic is not useless. First of all you made it to the front page, which means you had great content, right? Then you are worth reading, right? Second of all, you could get a few RSS subscribers which may become regular readers.

Now comes the second question. Should you focus on getting first pages with your every article and count only on that kind of traffic? Definitely not, because these visitors don’t usually read your whole website and they don’t stay for a small chat. They will not contribute much to your articles, they will not leave comments on your site but on the original site they came from, and they will not stay long. As an example, average visitor on Gizmodo stays 3 minutes and you can see where they come from, here. Isn’t that nice?

So do not ignore social bookmarking websites, but never neglect getting a little exposure on other websites/blogs, because this is what will bring added value.