My Journey To Joining Mixx
Apr 14 2008 
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For the past week, I’ve been debating whether or not to join Mixx, a social bookmarking and news site similar to Digg. These sites take a lot of work and I don’t like joining sites that I don’t plan to participate in, otherwise, what’s the point? Thanks to Sarah Perez’s article "Why "Add To Mixx" is on My Site Now", for planting the seed that sparked the curiosity that started this journey. Here’s a look at how I came to my decision on whether or not to join Mixx.
No Digging For Me
Sure, my articles are sometimes "dugg" on Digg, but Digg doesn’t send me an immense amount of visitors and I’m well aware of the quirks involving Digg bringing a site visitors. However, with all the recent changes to Digg and the way it now operates, I have no desire to participate on Digg. It seems rather confusing and too much work just to help an article make it to the top.
About Other Alternatives
To be honest, all the other alternatives seem to be dominated by a handful of people or they simply don’t cater to the Social Media niche. I paid close attention to this because one of the reasons I wanted to join Mixx is because it catered to everyone and didn’t appear to be dominated by a handful of people. If you look at Sphinn’s homepage, you’ll see that 90% of the articles that make the front page are controlled by some of the same names. Where’s the fun in that?
Researching Mixx Using StumbleUpon Web Service
Before joining Mixx I decided to do some serious research. I wanted to know if it would be worth the effort. I need to know the pros and cons of the site and the overall atmosphere of the users of Mixx. I’ve only heard good things about Mixx users, so that was already a brownie point for Mixx. However, I decided to take it a step further and instead of asking or even "tweeting" on Twitter whether or not I should join, I figured I’d do the research myself using the StumbleUpon toolbar.
To find articles on Mixx that were "stumbled" by others, I used the ‘Search’ feature on the StumbleUpon toolbar. This is located in the ‘Channel’ section of the toolbar, where you would normally see ‘All’. Clicking on ‘All’ will open a drop-down menu, where you can find the ‘Search’ feature. Once you click ‘Search’ and small box will pop-up asking for your keyword(s). Here, I typed in ‘Mixx’ and proceeded to ‘stumble’.
There was a host of articles that I ran across. I used LinkRiver‘s ‘Save It For Later’ feature (see LinkRiver Is My Personal Techmeme for more) to conveniently bookmark all the articles that helped me come to my decision. Here’s a link to those articles:
New to Social Media? Check Out Mixx.com
Hello, Goodbye. Mixx, Digg. (and 11 reasons why)
Mixxin’ It Up For N00blenders: Tips from a SuperMixxer | SOCIAL IMPRESSIONS
Mixx’s Secret Upgrades Rock! | Matt McGee
How To Build a Devoted Online Community, by Mixx.com | Matt McGee
a1-fan-fun » My Mixed Views on Mixx
So Far So Good!
After going through these articles, and bits and pieces of a few others, I was ready to commit to Mixx and I love it! I found a few of my friends who are already on there and have already begun submitting articles from yesterday and today. I’ve also joined a few groups that relate to the niches that I’m exploring and that I can be an active participant in. The atmosphere has been what I expected and what I’ve heard: smart, but reserved.
If you’re on Mixx, don’t hesitate to add me (Corvida On Mixx). You’re more than welcome to send an article my way. However, I’m warning you that I don’t do link exchanges.
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Mixx doesn't yet seem to bring the traffic of Digg, but it's a much more lovable site!
I think you may have talked me into it!
You should definitely join!
It doesn't, but I think the type of visitors it would bring to a site would
be people that would actually stick around rather than someone who's just
reading the latest craze.
Exactly!
Smaller communities will produce a larger return. Expect to be bombarded with “Joe Shmo has shared a link with you on Mixx”, etc. etc. Go there occasionally. Was totally turned off by their policy of self-submission. Once in a while we all write a post that we consider important and time critical??!! I got called on it first time out.
I've definitely submitted my own content lol whoops. I think I did it once
here and the article I wrote on Read/Write Web. I never pay attention to
policies. But if they call me out on it, I'll be sure to just get someone
else to submit it for me next time lol.
The one thing I don't like about the groups is that they don't seem very active. So I'm actually searching more so for users and placing less focus on the groups on Mixx until I see more activity.
Good read, Corvida. I just mixxed it. :-) I'm sure others will find themselves going through the same thought process as they learn about Mixx, too.
You talked me into it, but then again, you're good at that. Thanks for another interesting tool.
I am not good at persuading. I try though. Look me up on Mixx. :)
Nice post and Welcome aboard! I look forward to seeing you on Mixx
Welcome to mixx, Corvida! The community is certainly a friendlier bunch than “the other place”. As mentioned, traffic is quality over quantity. Wasn't aware of a self-submission policy though?
Maybe it's no longer in effect. I'm seeing quite a few people do the same.
*shrugs* I'm not going to participate too much in it though.
I have not joined yet. But I might just go and check it out and find out first hand. Perhaps it has evolved a little by now.
Oh i didn't know much about Mixx . Thanks for the information. I guess its great to join their site.