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digg it: the niched edition

By November 10, 2008November 12th, 2008How To, Networking

As far as social bookmarking tools go, Digg is up there. It’s huge, and so is its playing field. The point of Digg is to allow anyone to post and share any good web content they find – whether it’s from a mega-site or a small blog – about any topic and from any perspective. They claim to be leveling the field by giving anyone a chance to be seen in this central place. And, this does happen. In the end, though, it’s all about the best content making it to the top….sort of. Right now, on the front page of Digg, there’s an article titled, “The 6 Biggest A**holes in the Animal Kingdom” – to be honest, I didn’t read it, maybe it’s a fantastic read.

Lauren Weitzman decided that the Digg pool was just too big. She’s right, you know. Why should people looking for political news wade through sports content? Why should gamers wade through celebrity fashions? And, why should moms wade through everything that is un-mommish?

Lauren’s (that’s @mommybar to all of you Twitterheads) solution was to develop MommyRanks. A site that allows Moms to post content about every subject you can imagine and then vote, or rank, the content. Just like Digg, the cream rises to the top. Yet, the field has narrowed because the common denominator is now Mom, whereas on Digg, it’s ‘everything Web’.

I asked Lauren what gave her the kick in the pants to create MommyRanks.

“I wanted to create a new type of site.” She said, “Most social networks are all looking the same lately, so I didn’t want to create another one of those. The social bookmarking and voting sites are a new breed and I enjoy participating in them, and I thought there was a great opportunity for the mom niche in this arena.”

And, why do Moms need their own social bookmarking site?

“Most of the big social bookmarking sites are great, but they are very broad. I thought that I could fill a need for mom bloggers. Also, mom bloggers love to promote themselves and their posts, and MommyRanks caters to this. Finally, with the new dsesign of MommyRanks, not only can moms promote their own site, but a screenshot of their webpage is embedded into MommyRanks for all to see. The slogan for mommyRanks is ‘Submit*Vote*Comment*Discover’, and I think that the site allows mom bloggers to do all four of these very easily.”

I think so too…and there’s a little more elbow room, more space (because it’s smaller) to let yourself step up and be heard. I would never suggest that a mom blogger somehow can’t play in the Digg sandbox (sorry, couldn’t help that), you know I think mom bloggers are uber-powerful…but for those of you just starting out, isn’t it nice to know that you can start here? Lauren will even help you if you need it…just ask.

Addition: If you read the comments below, you’ll see that Sandra, who is a fantastic mommy blogger, isn’t totally wowed by MommyRanks – and I think this opinion is totally valid and deserves some explanation on my part up here. MommyRanks is not Digg…yet. It’s still young, so neither its validity nor its impact has been proven. But I think there’s hope. And one of the best ways to grow it as a powerful site is to spread the word and encourage people to visit it and use it…so here I am, talking to you.

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