Like Google, digg and other social bookmarking sites don't offer official algorithms to display the results on the front page. But I analyze the algorithms of these bookmarking sites, in particular digg.com, which you find logical and convincing.

It's not just that you submit a link to these sites, and you'll expect result on the front page. Please, understand their algorithm, which is semantic in nature, and works on the pattern of 'collective intelligence of human beings'. 'Referral' is given heavy emphasis in their algorithms, which is deemed as Vote. The more number of user bookmarking a site, the higher is the ranking and vice versa. Make sure your site should not be 'buried' lest it would be spammed.

So what counts finally is the rapidity of votes. If your site gets larger vote in terms of higher number of bookmarkings, your site will definitely be on the top of the result page. For each category, digg has set minimum limit of bookmarkings. If a site crosses the limit, result appears on the first search page. For 'Technology and sub categories', for instance, about 50 diggs are required while 'Gaming and sub categories' require 30-40 diggs.

In fact, it's almost difficult to say the exact number of diggs required to ensure a good search result yet the search results appearing on the digg are believed to have highest number of bookmarkings.

Give a thought over the results of del.icio.us. It heavily relies on the 'Quantification of Votes' to display the result. The 'inverted pyramid' results of the site can be well understood. A site with highest number of votes gets the top position while sites getting lesser number of votes get downward positions on the search result page. Though digg's method of displaying results is somewhat different from del.icio.us, but I think its algorithm based on 'collective intelligence of human beings' is more or less the same like del.icio.us.

Digg, in order to trick analyzers, displays results not on the Yahoo's del.icio.us pattern, but follows its own discretion. However, I guess its algorithms must have been similar to del.icio.us, and other bookmarking sites.

It's still to be verified if digg looks 'server' into account while measuring the votes or just a single factor of 'referral'. If it takes the former in its algorithm, it becomes Herculean task for marketers to get the top positions on the front page. But, if it takes the latter, here lies the advantage of marketers to ask their team to digg a particular site to increase number of votes and thereby influence the ranking on the front page.

Mere submitting a link to hundreds of bookmarking sites don't guarantee the highest number of hits and traffic. Select a few popular sites, and ask people to digg or bookmark on a regular basis.

Here are my suggestions to increase traffic through digg and other popular social bookmarking sites.

1. Ask friends or anyone you know to digg your story/website if they can.

2. I don't recommend having more than one Log in ID to trick digg for increasing number of votes. This may not work if digg takes server address into account while measuring the votes.

3. A site with highest diggs (votes) appears on the front page even though it gets a few buries. It takes more than 15-20 buries for a site to drop its ranking on the top page of digg.

4. Also, write comments on the link you submit. Digg may look at the negative comments and consider the site as 'SPAM'. So, abstain from writing any negative comments. Ask your friends/networks to write good comments for better rankings.

5. Approach a community of your interests within digg or other social bookmarking sites and share your experience with them. You digg their sites and so do they.

6. While digging a link, always remember to write an exciting and powerful title, and description, enough to receive higher CTR. The yellow marked on the tags (you look for) verifies that digg emphasizes tags incorporated into title, and description.

7. It's always advisable to give some unique tags (your keywords) while submitting the link. Your title and description must contain the tags. Although you have privilege to give tags on your own, it's always better to do some research on popular tags as per the theme of your site.

8. Last but not the least, endeavor to build huge online and offline social networks. So, socialize your approach to sell your products/services through social platforms web 2.0 has offered to us without misuse.