If you are planning on buying a blog then you will need to know of something called “the Digg effect”, and you will need to learn how to detect it. If you don’t, you may end up paying a LOT more for the blog than it is worth.

What is Digg.com?

Digg is a social news website that is hugely popular. Blogs and news based websites can get huge bursts of links and traffic if they get on the Digg homepage.

Why does this affect buying blogs?

There are thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of blogs that have experienced the Digg effect, so if you buy blogs, then you are likely to experience this.

Why is this a bad thing?

It is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something that can artificially raise the value and stats of a blog.

For example,

Site A gets 100 unique visitors per day, then, one day it gets on the Digg homepage and gets 50,000 uniques in 24 hours.

For the next month the site averages over 1000 per day, and then two months later it settles at around 150 per day.

If you were to buy this blog during the 1000 per day period, it is likely you would pay up to 10 times the actual value of the site.

So for example, a blog worth $2000 may be listed for $20,000

The Digg.com curve

Being on digg can have long term and even permanent effects, but it is the short term that it appears most impressive. Therefore, buying a site within 2 or 3 months of a major digg experience is likely to cost you a lot more than the blog is actually worth.

How to avoid this?

Simply check the stats for any Digg referrals. Also, check Alexa and look for any big spikes in the past 6 months. If you see one, then ask what caused the spike and check the stats to confirm.

Summary

I am not saying you should deduct all factors from the Digg effect, overall it is certainly a positive. But you have to know that you may be paying for something that has already finished. It would be like paying full price for a 2006 Superbowl final ticket.