There are many articles and tutorials about how to become a top user and get on the front page of Digg but if your ultimate goal is attracting links, how do you maximize your submission’s potential to gain links? That’s where Dan Zarrella, social media consultant, steps in.

Maximize Your Digg Submissions Link Potential
Dan took 33,322 of the 39,000 stories that went popular on Digg in 2007 an analyzed them beyond my comprehension. I was fortunate enough to get a sneak peak at his report and in it you’ll find all the information you need to maximize your link building efforts via Digg including the best categories and sub-categories to submit to, what day of the week and time of day to submit, which keywords result in maximum links and more.

From ReadWriteWeb.com’s Story on this Report and the tools Dan has created using the same data:

The Keyword Tool analyzes a specific word or phrase and returns the average number of links a story mentioning that keyword got in 2007. While the Title Check Tool analyzes an entire title string and shows you which words tend to increase links and which tend to decrease links. These tools can be used by webmasters or social media consultants to help them tweak their copy for optimal social media link attraction, or by other researchers looking to expand on my work.

Overall, I’m really impressed with the report and the tools that have been generated from gathering this data. I can only imagine how time consuming this project was and impressively, it’s available for free. I’m sure this data is invaluable to someone who makes a living off of social media optimization and using Digg.com as a link building tool for clients.

Day 1

• Wake up in Orem, Utah at 3:30 a.m. to catch our flight to Vegas.
• Arrive in Vegas, catch a cab to Circus Circus. Survived several near death experiences with the cab driver who appeared to have some serious shakes from who knows what he was on.
• Unfortunately we were too early to check-in so I got to carry my backpack which contained my laptop and everything else I brought with me around the conference hall. Some of my conference-experienced co-workers were smart enough to pack their laptop and clothes separate so they were able to leave their luggage at the hotel.
• Managed to somehow stay awake through several PubCon sessions. They were interesting but 3:30 a.m. is even earlier than it sounds.
• Return to the luxurious Circus Circus where I can finally unpack my bag. Tried to be positive and convince myself I was experiencing the “historic” side of Vegas while I sat down on a bed that appeared to be a rock covered by a wood board covered with a stained comforter.
• The night picks up…off to see Blue Man Group. Lucky enough to hear a new dirty joke from the cab ride to and from the show. The Blue Man Group put on a good show and we all enjoyed it.

Day 2

• Head back to the conference hall and enjoy another day of PubCon sessions. It was fun to see/hear some of the popular SEO experts speak on various panels.
• Raided the exhibit hall for some schwag…picked up some good stuff from IZEA, Best of the Web & others and had some interesting talks with various link brokers/blog review companies. It should be interesting to see how and which paid linking companies evolve as Google cracks down.
• One highlight of the day had to have been the live domain auction. I was expecting to go for just a little bit and see some domain auctioning action but it turned out I was with a domain buying h igh roller who bought coveted domains such as DogShowTickets.com and cBatteries.com.
• Checked out the Wynn Buffet which was pretty tasty except for the sushi which Alex talked me into eating. Overall the buffet was excellent but unfortunately the sushi didn’t stay with me through the night. Thanks Alex!
• Wandered the streets of Vegas and took it easy.

Day 3

• Checked out of Vegas’ finest hotel, Circus Circus and got to carry all my laptop, clothes and schwag around for the rest of the day.
• Most of the PubCon sessions weren’t of any particular interest to me on this day but I heard the live site reviews were good so I checked some of those out and they were pretty interesting. Might have been nice if they screened them beforehand so they weren’t just “you need more links”.
• We took our final taxi ride/dirty joke to the airport and finally headed home.

Although it may not sound and probably didn’t look like I was having a blast (I was sick pretty much the whole time), I really had a great time. The sessions were informative and inspiring and listening to Chris (co-worker) carry on unusual conversations with cab drivers made me laugh harder than I have in a long time. Overall, PubCon was great and I hope to make it to more conferences in the future.

1. It’s truly paying more per click than adsense.
2. My adsense clicks are substantially lower than most publishers so what I think are high earnings with Widgetbucks are just average earnings for publishers who are better than me.

Either way, if Widgetbucks continues as it is, I will be much happier with this little side endeavor. If you’d like to try it, click the link below. Yes, it is an affiliate link and I will make money off of you. It’s okay though..would you rather Widgetbucks keep all the money or help out your good friend, Bryan?

If you review this amazing business opportunity, you’ll see that Dan received a fortune cookie stating that he will be traveling and coming into a fortune. Here’s where the story picks up…the following are pictures of the fortunes I received… on the same day. Coincidence? I call it fate.

****Images have been cropped to protect the ugly.
So when I was confronted by Dan and invited to buy some shares of his potential fortune, I knew the fortune cookie never lied and bought big.

I know what you’re thinking….so does this mean that you’re actually friends with Dan? Well, that’s a little bit of a stretch. We’ll go with friend/coworker. All I know is that I was confronted with an unlimited opportunity by a friend/coworker who is known to do some traveling. So now, it’s just time to sit back and wait for the train. The money one, not the one that blows its horn past my house 8 times a day.

SEO Master - 97%Are you an SEO Expert?

This was a new SEO quiz available on SEOMoz.org. It’s a fun little quiz to try out and apparently a very successful link building tool as their link is included in this neat-o badge you get at the end.

***If you’re on a feed reader, you’re missing out on the sweet SEOMoz graphic