Sebastian’s Pamphlets

21 Comments to "Gaming Sphinn is not worth it"

1. Lucia on 3 November, 2007  #link

   Your posts are always worth reading.
   I submit to Sphinn if I think something might appeal to the Sphinn group. But, I also know perfectly well that I am not a professional SEO, and don’t expect many of my articles to go to hit the front page. Still, it’s often worth submitting because those people at Sphinn who do like my articles sometimes Stumble them.

   In fact, I end up seeing regulars at Sphinn stumble my article without Sphinning it! It’s all fine with me.

2. Sebastian on 3 November, 2007  #link

   Lucia, you don’t need to be a professional SEO to get your articles sphunn (hot or not). My rant addresses folks submitting crap and then either complaining why it didn’t go hot, or launching vote bots and vote clubs to push their submissions. Keep on submitting your good stuff. If you’re not sure whether it’s sphinn-worthy or not, wait a while giving other sphinners a chance to submit it. Everybody working in IM has a Sphinn account, so chances are good each of your posts is read by a few sphinners. If nobody sphinns it, write it off or revamp and submit it yourself.

3. m2 on 3 November, 2007  #link

   Sphinn may not send you tons of traffic, but I wouldn’t assume that applies to all users.

4. JLH on 3 November, 2007  #link

   “My rant addresses folks submitting crap…”

   Sorry.

5. Sebastian on 4 November, 2007  #link

   M2, I know that really good stuff about other IM topics or breaking news can generate way more Sphinn traffic. Not all sphinners are interested in the dull technical stuff I write about. However, my referrer stats can indicate that Sphinn is not a low quality high traffic machine like Digg. Why don’t you post yours?

   I’m happy with fewer visitors who read my pamphlets out of interest. Also, some of them have subscribed to my feed, and I got tons of stumble traffic thanks to sphinners.

   My point is that Sphinn sends good traffic to high quality stuff, but it’s worthless to game the system with crap or lame plagiarisms because even crap on the hot list won’t generate as much traffic as good stuff on the new list. Also, the traffic earned with crappy submissions is wasted, because sphinners don’t click on ads and most probably don’t click a link to such a site, or submitted by the same sphinner, again.

   Nothing to say against submissions to test the waters, newcomers must have a chance. I’m not complaining about such “noise” (actually, most submissions of not yet known authors are not as noisy as many say). I just don’t read/sphinn it when it doesn’t fit my interest or at least comes with something unique and somewhat attractive in title or description.

   Just ranting when rather unknown stuff doesn’t go hot in a minute, or firing up a voting bot to push a submission, will not fly at Sphinn. I thought that posting some traffic figures along with a warning not to burn a reputation for a few useless hits might make sense.

6. Sebastian on 4 November, 2007  #link

   Hey JLH, you didn’t submit crap.

7. Brian Wallace on 4 November, 2007  #link

   Sebastian,

   Nice one. Can everyone just write / find good stuff and stop beating this dead horse already?

   “Sphinn is an eldorado for attention whores, but not everybody is an experienced high-class call girl. Most are amateurs giving it a (first) try, or wrecked hookers pushing too hard to attract positive attention.”

   There’s something just wrong about a wrecked sphinn hooker

8. Sebastian on 4 November, 2007  #link

   > Can everyone just write / find good stuff and stop beating this dead horse already?

   Yep Brian, in an ideal world. It should be my first and last rant on this topic, now that I’ve a link to drop if necessary.

9. nsm seo on 4 November, 2007  #link

   Its difficult for some to realise that the best way is just write something worthwhile in a blog post, do a few social submissions, and if its any good it’ll be picked-up.

   Trying to ram content into the publics view via sphinn is the wrong way to go about things. Trying to ram content into the publics view via sphinn and then whining about why its not gone hot is just plain stupid.

   Some good content does go unnoticed I’ll admit, and it can be frustrating when you see a hot topic featuring some lame funnt pictures and your post buried, but that’s just life.

   You carry-on, you learn, you produce better, you’ll get sphunn.

10. Sebastian on 4 November, 2007  #link

    NSM SEO, that’s sooo true.

11. Lucia on 4 November, 2007  #link

    @Sebastian: I hit the front page of Sphinn a long time ago– just not recently. I just meant that I know most my stuff isn’t “primo” SEO material, so even if some might be of interest, I don’t expect tons of votes. That is to say: I try to be realistic about how things are likely to go– and for this reason, you’ll never see me posting one of those “complainy-whiny” posts.

    I agree with you on the people complaining. There is rarely any point in complaining your own stuff doesn’t get the attention it “deserves”. Some of those complaining simply overvalue their own material. Some just don’t really get how social media work. Yes if someone I trust posts an article, I’m more likely to read it and then Sphinn. So, yes if no one trusts you, you may not get votes even if you article is good.

    It takes time to build a good reputation.

12. pat on 4 November, 2007  #link

    Sebastian’s stuff is indeed always worth reading.

13. Sebastian on 4 November, 2007  #link

    Thanks Pat.

    Lucia, perhaps I didn’t make it clear enough. Just because a SM (Sphinn/Digg/Reddit/…) submission doesn’t hit the home page that doesn’t mean it’s crap. As you rightly point out, many folks out there overestimate their content quality. And yes, trust is a major factor.

14. gamermk on 4 November, 2007  #link

    Wow, well I’m glad I could be inspiration for your post. You completely missed the point of my comments, but the free attention ain’t a bad parting gift

15. Sebastian on 4 November, 2007  #link

    Hmmmm, when I’ve missed your point completely, why do you think I’ve particulary addressed your comments? Because sucking up gets you nowhere?

16. Josh Garner on 5 November, 2007  #link

    Sebastian,

    Nice post. I couldn’t agree with you more about spammers and crap articles written solely for the sake of the Sphinn Submission. However, I do have a question for you.

    I’m a decent SEO (at least I like to think so), but a horrible blogger. I’ve never been one for copywriting (I make the writer do that for clients), or the social media game. Alas, if I’m to run a blog, then I need to better myself. So, I use Sphinn (conservatively of course) to see what posts I write get me what kinds of responses. Honestly, I feel I’m getting a lot better from the passive feedback I’m getting. I’m able to see what types of articles get me somewhere, and what writing attitude I submit gets a response. I could read hundreds of blogs posts out there to tell me these things, but if I don’t experience the process myself, then someone is just giving me a fish. Besides, the regulars at Sphinn are the successful ones. Who better to put my stuff in front of than them…and you?

    So, what are your thoughts on my thought process for Sphinn?

17. Sebastian on 5 November, 2007  #link

    Josh, your blog isn’t horrible, really. I think submitting your posts to Sphinn is a great way to find your blogging style. I wouldn’t call that crap submisisons, not even noisy, and I hope that most sphinners agree.

    Just an idea: If you decide to become as evil as I’ve suggested in my comment on your I hate spammers post, you could document the process in a humorous way and get it on Sphinn’s greatest hits page in no time. This might be considered a post solely made for Sphinn, but when it’s classy and high quality there’s nothing to say against it IMHO.

18. Josh Garner on 5 November, 2007  #link

    Sebastian,

    Thank you very much for the positive critique. Yeah, your idea is awesome. I commissioned a real designer to take care of the blog’s look (I’m horrible at that stuff) and I believe there will be a nice little section for stuff just like that. I’ll Sphinn it and see what happens.

    Thanks again. You rock.

19. Igor The Troll on 6 November, 2007  #link

    Thanks for Sphinning Igor The Troll..:)

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