Top 10 Blog Posts about Sphinn in 2007

Since we are winding down the year of 2007, I thought it would be appropriate to put together what I thought are the top 10 blog posts about Sphinn that have been written in 2007. Certainly there have been a lot of interesting blog posts about Sphinn.

So, without further delay, let’s get on to what I think are the top 10 blog posts about Sphinn for 2007:

Note that I have not put these in any particular order.

The First (un)Official Sphinn Awards
The Sphinn Awards, even though they’re the unofficial ones, are definitely something that should come on an annual basis. I didn’t choose this Sphinn blog post because I happen to have one a Sphinn award, but just thought that if it’s an award about Sphinn it should definitely be on this list.

Sphinn Launches: Social Voting Community for Search Marketers
DoshDosh, as always, did a great review of Sphinn, full of screen captures and everything. Even outlines part of the the submission guidelines that we all need to remember:

Yes, you can submit your own stories. In fact, we’d rather you directly submit your own stories you think are of interest to the community than have someone do it for you.

Yes, you can submit your own blog post about a news story you read. However, we’d prefer you only do this if you’ve added something unique to the general news topic, such as an extended opinion or further clarification.

Sphinn: Our Social Site For Search & Internet Marketing Professionals
Danny’s explanation of Sphinn back in July is a great overview and recap of Sphinn. I just had to put this in the top 10 list.

By no means do we envision Sphinn as replacing general news sites like Digg. We just think the story submission model can work and be powerful in a specialized area such as search, as well.

Add Sphinn Bookmarking To the Share This WordPress Plugin
I cannot put together a top 10 Sphinn blog post list without mentioning the Sphinn WordPress plugin. Sorry, but I just had to do it. If you use WordPress then you just have to use this plugin.

Please Don’t Ask Me to Sphinn Your Stories
Tamar’s commentary and rant about Sphinn is a classic one. Definitely my vote for the top 10 Sphinn blog posts of all time.

It’s no longer a “the familiar faces dominate the front page” mentality. Instead, it’s the “please Sphinn me” requests that are overflowing on other communication mediums, particularly Facebook and StumbleUpon, that is causing this to happen. You ask me on IM/Facebook, I appear to be active, and I am not the type of person to ignore your request so I feel obligated to comply. However, it’s not fair to other people who may not know me or other community members so well and don’t solicit votes like you do.

Sphinn Is In – But Is It Better Than Digg?
This has got to get into the top 10. Great post comparing Sphinn to Digg. Lots of great points brought up and it’s interesting to see why Sphinn beats out Digg.

The button is nice, but how good is Sphinn? Is it really worth it?

It depends. I’ve had some stories on there that got a few sphinns. Never made it to the home page though…

Even so, it has sent me a few visitors. And Sphinn visitors seem to stay an average of 1:20. Not bad, especially because it was 97% new visitors. However, most referrals were better, and even StumbleUpon users (over the same time period) stuck around an average of 1:35.

How to Reach the Front Page in Sphinn
This one is pretty much a no-brainer. If you Sphinn stuff then you need to know what does well on Sphinn and how to get your stuff on the home page.

feeling…So far I have Sphinn many articles but with little success so I have began to analyzes the Sphinn website and what will make a post reach the hot topics page.

This can be broken down in to 5 key areas:

20 Top Sphinners You Should Know
I’m not putting this in the top 10 list because I’m on the list. Really, I’m not. But pointing out the top 20 Sphinners is helpful, and Gabriel Goldenberg does a great job at picking out the Sphinners you really should get to know.

I was having a glance through Sphinn’s top users rankings as well as their top content, and I realized that while I know a fair amount of those folks (know who they are, I mean), there’s a number that I don’t. I had a look at 20 of the top unknown (to me) Sphinners’ sites and have the following to share with you as a result.

Why Rand Is Wrong, And Sphinn Is A Popularity Contest
I have to admit, there are some pretty good stories on Sphinn’s home page but you do keep seeing the same Sphinners time and time again. Does that really mean that it’s a popularity contest?

TannerC argues that the stories which are dominating the homepage of the site, due to the number of votes (or Sphinns) which they have received, are predominantly from the big names in the search sector; people such as Rand, Lisa, Vanessa, & Todd. He also suggests that this is a de facto status quo that makes it hard for newbies to break into

Why Sphinn Needs a Dumbass Button
We still haven’t gotten a “dumbass button” on Sphinn, but we at least have some moderators who do a pretty good job at taking care of Sphinn spam.

Now normally, I’m not a big fan of Digg’s “bury it” function, but in this case, I think it’s warranted. If we can’t get Danny to give us the ability to make a stupid post go away, then at least give us a big red Dumbass button that will flag the post as one not worth clicking on.

I, too, am not a fan of bury functions, but it seems as though there are some pretty annoying posts that need to be buried from time to time.