Just came home today and had a random thought “How does Digg make money?”. Almost any unanswered question that I have I usually bounce against my friend Google. Even if I know the answer, I like to go there to see if there if there is any additional info. However to search information about Digg is quite hard, due to the reason that most of the Google search queries match to some Digg article that somebody posted, and not the real info about Digg. So, today, Google did not answer my question.
Try to enter How does Digg make money in Google, and all you will see is “how to make money with Digg”, “10, 40, 250… ways to make money online” from Digg, “Digg effect” links, but no real answer to my question about Digg.
So here, I am thinking on my own…
There is a definite income from Google Adsense, but it does not seem all that much according to sources it is only $250,000.00 per month, which I am sure is cigarrette money for Digg boys. (do they smoke?)
There is another annoying source that probably brings more than Google Adsense, since that big rectangular thing in the upper left corner of digg.com is blinking pretty hard every time I am on Digg. I am not sure how much that brings, but that is a definite “plus one” source.
Now ads on Digg even talk “Congratulations, you have chance to receive … two iPods nano” – it might come from that blinking thing (flash), but also might be something totally different, so I guess it also may be counted as an independent source.
When you click “more” on a story, you’ll see a banner from (http://clk.atdmt.com) guys, hence “another one”.
How about that “http://media.fastclick.net” colorful banner on the right hand side of all the comments? “one more”.
At the very bottom of a Digg page there is “Advertise: You can buy advertising on Digg through our advertising partner Microsoft“, hence some of the above also goes to Microsoft. (just a note)
But my question is still unanswered, I still do not see the full picture. If all Digg’s revenue comes from blinking ads, it’s just boring – it is Digg after all, there should be some other cool hidden/not as obvious way they are getting that cash flow – don’t you think?
Interesting observations.
I have never thought that thorough about digg’s money, but I am pretty sure they have some services they sell. At least they have those services, so they might sell it at some point in time.
digg does not make money..
it eats’em alive!!!
Well, how about you tell us how you make money first. You are so analytical, maybe you have something to share instead of looking under the Digg’s skirt.
Digg is doing all right
Having this much traffic, it is very easy to produce good income with absolutely any idea. Those page hits do any work you’d like them to do
whats the blinky thing in the top left? i turned off ABP, disabled NoScript, no blinking
Yup, if you’ve got the traffic u can spin it around any which way. . . .
Kevin Rose admitted in a magazine article last year (Wired, I believe) that they were not yet a profitable company. I’m sure they are getting good revenues from advertising and have since launched a few new ad techniques… but I wonder if they are in the black yet.
they could be making money by selling information about website trends to marketers. Who is interested in what and so on…
Traffic is source to internet income, Bigger the traffic bigger the income, and For DIGG they dont need to digg for money they will getting pretty good Money from Digg traffic
If Digg.com were to find a more appealing ad stream that satisfied it’s users, then I would probably stand to make substantial amounts of money. From what I gather, Digg.com has some priority users that it takes very seriously when making decisions that affect usability.
I assume adsense is how they make money. These social sites can make a lot of money with adsense… take for example the story of plentyoffish (dating site) who makes a ton of money.
Google it, or find it in some news sources. A real case of how Adsense can make you rich.
Private ad sales is how everyone makes money. This isn’t much of a surprise.
Wednesday In looking for specific sites related to my search for ways to make money on the web, I found your site oes DIGG make money?. Thanks for the content, it is interesting….
Hi.I just signed up today thinking I would digg a couple hundred stories, yet there wasn’t a single story to digg. Not enough people signing up for the service? How it works?
I like to say more about making money : -
German website is making serious money from Adense. My total earnings with Adsense is $11 after 6 months.what you say ? try and reply.
Traffic is importent to make money however if it is not targeted, sales are hard to come by.
Digg Advertising is not the way of the future! Its the wave of the now! See how I did it!
“I assume adsense is how they make money. These social sites can make a lot of money with adsense… take for example the story of plentyoffish (dating site) who makes a ton of money.”
Exactly!
Digg is just like CraigsList!? One of those sites where you cant work out how on earth they make that much money but they SURE as hell do!!! CraigsList generated $53,000,000 last year alone!!..and there isnt a flashy banner to be seen
Digg is making money via:
- AdSense
- Several CPM ad networks (Value, Burst)
- Private ad selling (instead of CPM nets, vie GeoTargeting)
- Some CPA offers.
They are in black financially each month, but still in red totally for the next few months. Don’t forget that they are backed by a strong VC.
For smaller players (e.g. blogger, small soc. nets) the digg rule might be not always applicable. Inportant is to have a good overview of current monetization possibilities. E.g. a good tabular overview of CPM, CPC & CPA networks is on our homepage.
you are right…digg makes a lot of money from different ads that it shows.
Digg is a big internet business!
Digg people are tech-savy and can detect ads with their x-ray vision. Furthermore, most webmasters say that traffic from digg converts poorly. Go figure.
Traffic for digg DOES convert badly
Interesting search challenge. I searched for digg “revenue” and was able to get some suggested ways that Digg make money. I guess sometimes search is not as easy as we think. You do have to put some thoughts into operators to use and strategies.
Hi,
I thought I would check this out to see for myself what information was available.
After doing an exact phrase match I have to say I’m no wiser than I was before.
Oh well back to the drawing board, LOL.
All the best
Costa
I guess sometimes search is not as easy as we think
Traffic is definitively the source to internet income, The more the the traffic the bigger the income, and For DIGG they dont need to digg for money – they have huge traffic.
Thanks a lot for the informative post. I have wondering if you make money from pay per post too? I heard that is not bad for a good pagerank blog.
Fatcow Coupon,
No, I am not making money from pay per post.
Once I did a review on small hookah, but instead of the money, I asked for the hookah itself
I do make some money from google adsense though.. Covers tolls to work
So if traffic equals $$$, then how do we increase our traffic? That must be the million dollar question.
I agree. Google ought to do a better job of not putting so many of the search results from the same webiste, especially Digg. This seems to be the reason why information about Digg is hard to find. Thanks for the article.
How much would it cost to buy DIGG do you reckon?
Well according to blogprofit they are making 800K a month from ads only..
But overall Digg worth about $300 millions. Here is what “techcrunch” has to say:
“Digg is prepared to take less than the $300 million. Google will likely bid $200-$225 million, which Digg would likely accept.”
So here are your approximate numbers..
I figured Digg makes money like everyone else online. Through Advertising Revenue.
My vote goes to Adsense… Imagine if Google stop giving ads to Digg… how long we will see the Digg Stories
)
Cheers…
well, I guess long enough, until Google stops giving out links to them also
I agree that Google to do a better job of not putting so many of the search results from the same webiste, I have wondering if you make money from pay per post too? I heard that is not bad for a good pagerank blog. Thanks for the article.
@Ranjana,
No pay per post here
Probably because the initial purpose for this blog was to just “share and communicate”, and not “pay for sharing, communicating”…
But you’re right, pay per post will give you a good page rank (if the content is good, of course).
In case of Digg, their TOP content is always (subjectively) good, hence their page rank is up there.
– Toly
I found this page because I typed “how does digg make money” exactly…soo now your page is the top hit on google! Also, i’m still confused, cause i’m on Digg constantly and never see ads…
Just like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and 99% of all other tech companies getting an insane about of buzz, Venture Capital money, and traffic. Digg makes no money. In fact they have all been losing money (Link here: http://joeduck.com/2008/12/20/digg-losing-money-despite-huge-traffic/,http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_52/b4114082618241.htm, & http://www.drama20show.com/2008/12/21/digg-no-money-no-problems/)
So you may be thinking how can a company that makes no money still be popular and have a estimated value of $300 Million? For further explaination go here: http://www.drama20show.com/2009/01/09/web-20-revenue-models-and-profitability/
Its amazing how sites actually do make money, you are right. Most of how a site makes money is hidden away from the public eye, so they won’t do it. Good Article!
I believe makes about $2mm in revenue every month.
Comscore said they have 17.4 million uniques.
You calculate how much money they make like this.
(Uniques/1000) * Average CPM * Average Pageviews per visitor * Number of Ads
Average CPM, they have leatherboards, and huge 250×250, plus some ads, and now sponsored diggs… so that number must be ranging between $15-$30 (maybe even more)
Average pageviews, put 2 to estimate low, but people tend to see more than 2 digg pages, maybe even 3 pageviews.
Number of ads, count 3
17,400 * $20 * 2 * 3 = $2,088,000 a month in revenues.
And I’d say it’s more. They gotta have other business models not visible to us, maybe stats and analytics for marketers, plus just redirecting traffic to other internet investments of them can generate more ad impressions on sites they don’t have to disclose to the public that they’re partners or even owners.
And you ask, How does DIGG make money??? How does it not make money.
Digg have a deal with Microsoft now not Google and they make about 2 million dollars a month but they have huge overheads like Youtube do.
I might also add that online advertising is not working out like hoped for and Youtube are working at a loss just like online newspapers are. Ads need to improve if many sites don’t start charging for use.
Digg have a deal with Microsoft now not Google and they make about 2 million dollars a month but they have huge overheads like Youtube do.