Interview with Brajeshwar, A Digg Top User

Brajeshwar is the first Indian to become an Adobe Community Experts and ranks among some of the well know Digg Top users. I am happy that I was able to interview someone like him.

When did you join Digg and How fast did you climb onto the Top?
Brajeshwar: I signed up for Digg long back but never look seriously at it save for the fact that I subscribed to the Front RSS Feed. One fine day, I decided to study the nature of Digg (Digg was becoming more and more commonplace at that time) and well, I experimented, felt the pulse and went ahead with it. Honestly, I had no intention to make it to any Top Rank or anything like; it just happened.

They say good stories don’t make it to the top without getting proper exposure. How did you initially manage to get your stories onto the frontpage?
Brajeshwar: I think there are no sure shot way that your stories will get dugg to the front page. That would be a different story for Kevin Rose (all his stories are for the front page). It will be a folly to reveal all that I tried but here are some (a) make friends specially hungry diggers (b) reciprocate friendship request from other people (c) subscribe to good RSS Feeds which are industry experts, forerunner bloggers and thus you stay ahead of the news (d) don’t live and die with Digg, have a life (I spend just about 2 hours a day with digg, it started with about 4 when I was studying the intricacies of Digg)

As of today, you rank 116 on the top list and 123 diggers have befriended you. How did you convince them to add you as their friend?
Brajeshwar: Digg don’t really have something called convincing friends or a way to show them that you will be good and thus be your friend. Digg don’t even give a link back to your URL in your profile. However, when I started seriously with Digg, I made friends after carefully looking at profiles of good diggers and befriended them. Many reciprocated. And when my digg rank rose, it became natural for others to befriend me too. Then I think it is a vicious circle. I add friends, they add me, I reciprocate to them. So, friend circle grew and is still growing.

Do you digg stories submitted by your friends randomly or digg only stories which are worth hitting the frontpage?
Brajeshwar: Well, you may feel weird at my behavior (as I am not sure of other diggers) but this is how I do. There are so many upcoming and I cannot look at all those within my stay with Digg everyday (about 2 hours per day). So, I open “Submitted by Friends” and look at the title and description and digg which I feel are good and of course I read the ones which I digg (So, I digg and then read/browse). I know that is funny. And I go from 1 page till 10 from “Friends Submission”. If I have some extra time then I go for the Friends Dugg roughly from Page 1 till 5.

These days, Digg Gaming Communities like User Submitter or Spike The Vote are popping up like weeds. How long will Digg survive?
Brajeshwar: Hey, I am not that influential enough to give those Kick-Ass Comments, Predictions but Digg will stay for quite sometime. And with the look of Digg’s people, they are smart enough to change their tune to cater to the rising need of the people. It will be like “People won’t stop using mails due to Spam”.

Imagine you lost your Digg account and you’ll have to start it all over again. What would you do to get onto the top again?
Brajeshwar: I still don’t digg for the rank, I just like this new wave. So, if I lost my account, I will ask the Digg people to get me back. If they don’t then I will blog and request them to give it back to me. I mean I will do some way to get it back. Even if my rank is reset, I don’t I would mind much now but I don’t like my datas lost (that’s a paradox, right. ;-) )

So you Digg for fun and not for the sake of traffic or popularity right?
Brajeshwar: Traffic is good, I mean I got lots of good traffic from Digg but Digg is still at the low rank (it is about 15+ down in my referral log) when talked about Referral links from outside to my blog/profile. It does sends spikes at times whenever my story goes to the front page. Popularity — I am not sure how to respond to that but Digg is not really the reason for me being known in the blogosphere. I might even totally stop Digg some day down the line and that might happen soon.

Thanks for the Sweet Interview Brajesh, We surely learnt a lot from you. Have a great day!

Stop by Brajeshwar’s Blog to say ‘Hi’

This post was published by on November 28, 2006

About the Author: Thilak Rao works as a Social Media Expert. He is one of the first professional bloggers from India, and he loves to write, travel and click photos. Follow him on Twitter @thilak

  • http://www.anirudhsanjeev.org/ Anirudh

    Frankly, I’m annoyed by the fact that only certain users have monopoly over frontpage news and most of it nowadays are about very small insignificant things. I’m thinking of a new type of digg where digging is made possible only by captchas and nobody can see who dugg the story or who submitted it so there will be more quality content hopefully. I’m writing a little php for that and hopefuly things will work out for that.

  • http://www.brajeshwar.com/ Brajeshwar

    Thanks for talking to me. The pleasure was perhaps all mine.

  • http://tech-buzz.net Thilak

    Anirudh: I surely agree with you, but captchas will drive away diggers, I think hiding the submitter’s name or digger’s name should solve everything.

  • http://blogosquare.blog.mu Hans

    Nice interview Thilak…I learned lots of tips and tricks for Digg up there, thanks for these.

    I think Newsvine is also doing a great job, wouldn’t it? But then it isn’t a traffic centre as Digg.

  • http://www.WiseTome.com/splat Vyoma

    Yes, I too find it rather irrating that only stories dugg by some group of induviduals see the front page. But there is nothing much for me to worry about, cause the articles that I try to put are a bit more timeless in nature. If it is really worth, it will gain popularity naturally and gradually – some one diggs it or not.

    Moreover, I feel the quality of digg-driven traffic is a bit low in terms of stickiness and return visitors. They are more on the look out for on the toe kind of news and not something that remains after a storm.

    About solving the issue of gaming Digg, just hiding the names of the diggers and submitters would solve it to a great extent.

  • http://tech-buzz.net Thilak

    Vyoma: Yeah, that’s what concerns most of us. Why not be a part of it. I have set a short term goal of being a digg top user.

    BTW, I can read your blog, I’m getting Time Out Errors

  • http://www.wisetome.com/splat Vyoma

    @Thilak

    That is odd. I can see my blog alright. Could you check it up again, please?

  • http://tech-buzz.net Thilak

    Vyoma: Oh.. It was just a temporary issue. Sometimes, I get so silly :(

  • http://abhisays.com Abhishek Kumar

    Brajeshwar is one of the oldest bloggers of India. He is a big source of inspiration for bloggers like me.