Like this post?  Vote for it on inbound.org.

If you haven’t visited inbound.org, try it. It’s a nice aggregator of digital marketing and design news.  User submitted, and user promoted.  Sound like Sphinn?  Yup.

I bailed on Sphinn pretty early.  Back then the SEO rockstar thing wasn’t as big as it is today, but it was still in play.  I’ve been blogging since 2008, and never got anything “sphunn” up to a visible level, even though I had a few really good articles.  I received thousands of visits off Google for a post I did about SEO friendly link shorteners (before SEL came and did the same article… bastards!)  It was a highly searched topic, and I was first to market, but on Sphinn, I was shit.  I pretty much determined it was because I wasn’t endorsed by a regular Sphinner.

This happened a few more times.  I couldn’t break in to get any traffic.  I couldn’t get any endorsements.  Now I don’t have heaps of empirical data, but I have come to the conclusion that it became a popularity contest.  That reminds me of High School, and I hated High School.  More bastards.
 

Let’s not let this happen again.  Here’s what you – the community – can do to prevent it.

1. Click the “Incoming” button.  Don’t just troll the “What’s Hot” – I promise you that plenty of awesome content lives there.  I promise you find so many more posts that are relevant to your interest.  Give them a vote.  Unlike the SERPs, there is life on the second pages.  In my opinion, the “Incoming” page should be the homepage.  How’s that for a twist?  Give all the people the same power!

2. Don’t submit low quality.  If it’s not something that’s new, or a fresh perspective, pass on it.  Even if it’s written by your favorite repeat SMX speaker.  Is it actionable?  Is it something that’s going to get people thinking?  Is it something that will garner a lot of comments?  A lot of the rock star SEOs post the same generic stuff over and over because they’re flushed for ideas.  This is a great way to build your real-life authority as a curator.

3. On the same tip… don’t vote something because the person who submitted it is a rock star.  It doesn’t make you a rock star by default.  It makes you a sheep.

4. Please don’t try to game it.  It’s not a sophisticated system.  History shows that all these “gamed” voting sites end up blowing up after they’re manipulated to hard.  

5. Please don’t spam it.  I’m pretty sure I don’t need to say this, but my OCD wanted me to make this a Top 5 list.  So there you go.