How to Spin a Story to the Top of Sphinn

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A couple weeks back, I had an article from Winning the Web (6 Things You Don’t Know (but think you know) about SEO) become a “Hot Topic” on Sphinn. If you’re not familiar with Sphinn, it’s basically a social media site for Internet marketing and search related topics. Much like Digg, you vote for articles and discussions around the web, and as they become popular with a certain number of votes, they become hot - thus receiving front page exposure.

Why you should use Sphinn

So why should you use Sphinn and try to get your articles on the front page? First of all, the networking opportunities are amazing. If you’re involved in SEO, SEM, blogging, web design, or online business, it’s absolutely essential that you join in on the Sphinn discussion. You will connect with very knowledgeable people, stay up to date on the latest online trends, and learn some new tricks to improve your website or business.

Secondly, you can increase your site’s exposure and popularity by submitting to Sphinn. Assuming that you have an Internet related site, popular articles that you write will get you loads of quality traffic from Sphinn, attract links, and help you get noticed in the industry. Sphinners are also active in other social media sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, and Mixx so popularity on Sphinn can spill over into other arenas thus creating a snowball effect for your site’s traffic.

Benefits of a Sphinn Hot Topic

Just to show you the type of exposure that I received from my Hot Topic article, below is a screen shot of my traffic from Sphinn in Google Analytics:

As you can see, a significant amount of traffic can be attained with a popular article on your site. Repeat the process of writing Hot Topic type posts and you’ll become an authority in no time. The rest of this guide will outline what I did exactly to ensure that my article received attention on Sphinn.

Spin a story to the top of Sphinn

Rather than trying to guess what members of Sphinn would like and creating an entirely new piece, I took the tried and true approach of sticking to what works. I used an already popular story and wrote another offering an entirely new perspective. You’d be surprised at how effective this method really is. If you want to be a top Sphinner who consistently pumps out Hot Topic articles, follow the steps below.

1. Find a popular article on Sphinn you can spin
   This is the first step and probably the most important in the spinning process. You want to look for popular posts that are recent, have lots of votes, and are controversial. Some articles are just begging to be refuted, improved upon, or criticized. Find these posts and use them to your advantage. For example, articles focused on things like opinions on a recent issue, top lists, best methods, and criticisms work well for this cause. I picked 6 Things I Know (or think I know) about SEO because it was a well organized list with a set structure I could follow and because the items discussed were easy to counter by taking a different perspective.
2. Spin the article
   Now that you’ve found an article that has potential, it is your job to twist it in a new and unique way that will gain attention. Depending on the type of article you’ve selected, your strategy will probably be different. For example, you can add to a list of “Top 10 Methods of Building Links” with a post called “10 More Methods of Building Links”. Or you can counter my hypothetical post called “My Thoughts on Paid Links” with another called “Why Gyutae Park is Wrong About Paid Links”. You get the idea. In my own example, I took Vinny Goldsmith’s post called “6 Things I Know (or think I know) about SEO” and refuted all of his points in an article entitled “6 Things You Don’t Know (but think you know) about SEO”. It was very well received and started some very good debate from Vinny himself. Ultimately what you want to do is to use the previous post as an outline, then add your own thoughts while making it clear what you are doing.
3. Promote your article on Sphinn
   After creating your new spin piece, you want to promote it to popularity levels similar to those of the original article. How do you accomplish this? Easy. You notify the same people who read the original and voted for it. Since Sphinn displays the members who voted for a particular article, you want to individually contact each of these members and ask for their opinion on your new article. Mention the previous article that they voted for and ask for feedback on your new version. This will usually result in quick votes, new friends, and hopefully good discussion.
4. Optimize your traffic
   Reaching the front page of Sphinn isn’t the end. You still need to optimize your traffic to achieve the best long-term results as possible. Make sure your server can handle the traffic spikes that a front page Sphinn article can bring to your site. Also, if visitors leave comments on either your article or the Sphinn post, you want to follow up and respond as soon as possible. This will help you to sustain the buzz and to develop relationships with interested people in the industry. Capitalize on your traffic.
5. Rinse and repeat
   While the spin method works effectively, you don’t want to overuse it. People will grow tired of your constant piggybacking on other articles and this could be detrimental to your reputation. Use good judgment and be sure you have something substantial to add to the community.

I’ll see you at the top of Sphinn.