AffiliateBOT

If you can buy links on search engines, you can definitely buy \'Stumbles\' and \'Diggs\' on social bookmarking sites.

Just as ranking high on Google is important, getting on the front page of Digg will bring in a tsunami of visits.

Sites such as Piqqus, Autostumble, DiggFreak, and StumbleXchange are already cashing in on the phenomenon.

Most of these sites offer a gathering ground for people to exchange votes, but impatient users can also purchase votes.

Piqqus for example is selling 50 votes for either Digg, Propeller, or StumbleUpon for $15.  You can also vote for others, gaining points to be redeemed for votes in return.

DiggFreak offers 100 points for $10, but gives users a chance to make money as well, paying five cents a vote.

Of course, precautions have to be taken to avoid suspicion.

Autostumble, for instance, will stumble random URLs on top of your own and let you set a delay time between submissions.

Piqqus has a disclaimer on its site, telling members to vote and submit mediocre if not quality stories. It claims its service is simply to give content a good boost and not popularize spam sites.

Ultimately, it is a cat and mouse game between the social bookmark sites and its deviant users, with no solution in sight.

Without a doubt, these activities will distort the organic popularity of a news item, but will a little \'fertilizer\' really make much of a difference?