Hot Seat w/ Neil Patel – Shotgun Round
April 9, 2007 by Pablo Palatnik
As soon as the I started to figure out how to use the social bookmarks to my advantage, I saw the importance but never the full potential until I heard Neil Patel speak at the Elite Retreat.
I’ll get straight to the point and ask Neil questions you guys are probably curious about.
1- For those who work and don’t do this full-time and are trying to get traffic to their sites, etc..where should they focus most of their time in terms of strategizing (for digg, Myspace..) Which one would you recommend?
Neil: You should focus on the social site that your target audience hangs out at. If your website is related to mortgages then you probably don’t want to target tech related social sites.
2- How many times (Approx) have you made the Digg homepage?
Neil: My company blog has made the Digg homepage 20 to 30 times.
3- What was the most number of Diggs you’ve ever had for one story?
Neil: I personally have had stories that reached 2000 plus diggs. I have submitted random stories that have gotten upwards of 4000 diggs.
4- Where do you see social media sites going in the next 2-3 years?
Neil: In the next few years we are going to see social media sites becoming more communication oriented. In the future, you will be able to carry over your friends from one community to the next.
The other thing about these sites is that currently many of them are easy to manipulate. In the near future they are going to start becoming more advanced thus making it harder to get to the homepage.
5- Is there some secret strategy you still have not revealed to make it to the Digg homepage (not asking you to reveal anything?)
Neil: There really is no secret other than submitting good content as well as coming up with good titles and descriptions.
6- I ask everyone this question, really intriguing to me…Why do you think in such a competitive market and growing steadily, do people like to share their strategies/secrets to the public, more so than any other industry?
Neil: I am not sure why we all like to share our strategies, but I personally share them because I enjoy helping others. When I first started in the industry many people helped me out by sharing information and now I believe it is my time to help others.
