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#1 – Use a script: Digg is a company that has has received $40 million dollars in funding. Therefore, if you are naive enough to think that their system can’t detect when someone is using a script, you deserve to get hit by the Digg ban hammer. The bottom line is that you can’t automatically game Digg’s voting system, so if you are trying to use a script to accomplish that goal, you are doing nothing more than spinning your wheels in neutral!

#2 – Submit 5x more stories than you Digg: Although it is not as complex as the Google algorithm, Digg definitely has a very interesting algorithm. Therefore, if you think that you can get dozens of your own stories to the front page without ever participating by Digging other stories, you are lying to yourself.

The Digg algorithm is all about encouraging participation, so if you want any chance of your top notch content performing well on Digg, you need to focus on Digging other stories that are legitimately good, submitting great content from other sources and then only submitting your very best content on a very rare basis.

#3 – Spam your way to high hell via the Shout System: I actually like Digg’s Shout System, because it can be a legitimate way to expose other users to content that they are going to enjoy. However, once you start abusing this system to draw attention to every single story you submit or Digg, don’t be surprised when you get informed that your Digg account has been banned.

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I’m assuming that most reading this are already using StumbleUpon, or at least know what StumbleUpon is all about. If not, check out Tyler Banfields post from December Are You Stumbling Yet? Tyler really does an excellent job of explaining StumbleUpon, how to get started, and its benefits.

The purpose of this post is to address a legitimate concern that new and seasoned Stumblers alike need to be aware of and that is the possibility of being “put under review” by the SU gods. Being put under review generally means that you will not ever be able to use your SU account again…

Imagine you are Stumbling along, building your friends list, having a good time and about a year into it: BAM. You are “put under review” (banned). No warning, no initial explanation, you just suddenly cannot use your account anymore. This is precisely what happened to a friend of mine.

My friend, who shall remain nameless, I can say with certainty was a quality Stumbler, and definitely not a spammer. So naturally this scenario is a little perplexing to me. I decided to review StumbleUpon’s terms of service and their rules. I found mostly everything to be pretty straightforward and it seemed like common sense. Don’t do things like harass other users, promote only your website or blog and the general “no-spamming” language.

Before we proceed I’ll share with you one of the actual email that was sent to my friend that was “put under review”
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