Jeremy Adam Davis

Note: I am shameless stealing the Moral of the Story titling for this post from Naomi’s post titles of the same format because it just fits.

Who are you writing your posts to?

I know you may say the obvious, “My readers, of course.” But what if that post you just hit the publish button for were to be read by 26,638 more people than you expected. And that those people have no idea of who you are other than what you just wrote in that post. That might change a few things wouldn’t it. You might want to double check some grammar or clarify some things so that your ideas and thoughts don’t get misconstrued. Maybe you would position yourself differently. Place yourself as an expert or show your vulnerabilities. Or maybe you wouldn’t even hit publish.

I would just like to reflect on how having my What I Hate About Design post getting dugg to the front page has influenced me and hopefully help you consider some things to improve your post writing in case the Digg monster comes knocking.

1. Backup what you are discussing.

The number one problem with that post was that throughout it I discuss things that happen to me as a designer, yet I have no proof of being such. I have no portfolio or even a custom blog theme. To my credit, I only claim to talk about things happening to me as I am ‘becoming’ a designer, but don’t be naive enough to think that the Digg masses will be understanding. Not only would I have taken less heat if I had my custom theme finished instead of in my sketchpad, but I also would have gotten good exposure.

The lack of design credibility was also a distracting element for the visitors. Instead of relating to what the post discussed, people become fixated on my lack of design proof, therefore making the post’s message less effective.
Moral of Story: If you can talk the talk, be prepared to walk the walk. If you even hint as to being something, be prepared to prove it.

2. Explain yourself better.

When I wrote that post I truly only expected my 20 or so normal readers to read it and maybe 1000 if it made the front page of a small niche social media site like design float or design bump. Because I expected only those people who were familiar with my story to read it, I didn’t preface the post to explain that I am still very much in the learning stage of becoming a designer. Doing this might have saved me some negativity. Also humor and sarcasm might want to become more obvious. It cracked me up how many people took some of my statements that were purely humorous as though they were my exact intentions.
Moral of the Story: Not everyone is on the same page, throw them a bone and help them out.

3. Pretend everyone is a first time reader.

Along the same lines of number 2, I would have better clarified myself if I had expected so many new visitors. This is something I am going to work more on as my blogging continues. After my post is finished, I am going to reread it as if this were my first time visiting the blog and that this post is the only writing that someone will base their entire opinion of me. This step is increasingly important for a personal-branded blog such as this one. That one popular post brands my character and my skills. If the post was written in a haughty manner, then the readers perception of me is the same.
Moral of the Story: You only get one first impression, don’t screw it up.

4. Take steps to mitigate the bandwidth boost.

As most of you are familiar, there is something known as the Digg Effect. It is essentially the huge spike in traffic a site receives the instant it reaches the front page of Digg. If your site crashes under the boost in traffic it can really hurt your first impression. Thousands of visitors that want to read your content will never make it. Others will become frustrated by the slow loading time of your site and cause a negative reaction before they even get to your content. I too was worried about what might happen if I ever was dugg and I’m glad to say my host held up well. There are a few things that you can do to help the bandwidth though.
If you are on WordPress, install the WP super cache plugin. This plugin can help save some bandwidth by not having to run the PHP scripts and database queries on every visit. Also scale down some of your posts pictures. If your post’s entry width is only 500px wide, resize and save the picture as 500px. It might only be a few megabytes of difference but it adds up over thousands of visits.
Moral of the Story: Trim the fat from your posts.

5. Not everyone will love you.

Digg users are notorious for being very harsh to the post authors. They often take things completely out of context or focus on elements unrelated to the idea you are trying to relay. Don’t let it get to you. Be confident in why you wrote the post and why you will continue blogging. If some hate-filled teenagers’ comments are enough to get you depressed then maybe you shouldn’t have written the post in the first place. Granted they will say things that are true, but often say it in such a hateful way that it defeats the comment’s purpose to be constructive criticism. Try to find ways to improve based off of the negative comments.
Moral of the Story: When life throws pies atcha, you make yourself a tall, cool glass of piemonade. -Strongbad

So thats what I learned. I hope to be better prepared if another one of my posts makes it to the coveted Digg front page. And I hope these steps can help you when your post reaches the front page also. Social media truly is a viral atmosphere. All it takes is a couple popular people to like your post before it displayed to tens of thousands. Don’t get caught unprepared.

Thank you to all who read, dugg and commented on the post. It was a very cool experience and something I can check off my blogging goals list.

If you have any of your own lessons you’ve learned from receiving the social media bomb, I’d love to hear them.