I was curious a few days ago. On my own blog, I had recently posted a recap of my 2009 analytics, which included the news that Sphinn was my blog’s sixth-best source of referral traffic. I was surprised by that because, to be frank, I didn’t concentrate as much on submitting my own stories to Sphinn in 2009 as I had in 2008. On the other hand, two of my blog posts are in the top six on Sphinn’s greatest hits, so maybe that’s why referral traffic stayed so strong last year.

Curious to see if my peers in the search blogosphere (hate that word!) were also seeing good referral numbers from Sphinn, I sent out a few emails and asked on Twitter if anyone wanted to volunteer to share some of their 2009 referral stats. Some replied saying they didn’t have enough posts “go hot” to get lots of traffic from Sphinn. Others, however, mirrored my situation with Sphinn continuing to be a Top 10 source of referral traffic. Consider these replies, listed in no particular order:

• Dream Systems Media blog — Sphinn was the #6 referrer in 2009, responsible for just under 3,900 visits
• SEMpdx blog — Sphinn was the #3 referrer, with just over 2,000 visits
• Search Engine Journal — Sphinn was a Top 10 referrer, sending more than 69,000 visits in 2009
• Local SEO Guide — Sphinn was the 8th-best referrer, sending just over 1,800 visits
• Audette Media blog — Sphinn was the #5 referrer in 2009, sending just under 600 visits
• Graywolf’s SEO blog — Sphinn wasn’t in the Top 10 referrers, but still sent more than 6,300 visits last year
• Understanding Google Maps & Local Search — Sphinn was the 6th-highest source of referral traffic, sending more than 1,300 visits
• Wiep.net — Sphinn ranked #7 in referral sources in 2009, and sent just over 2,000 visits
• SEO Gadget — Sphinn was the #2 referrer with just over 5,300 visits in 2009

I’m happy to see that our users — folks with big blogs, small blogs, US-based blogs, Europe-based blogs, etc. — are still getting rewarded for their activity on Sphinn with a nice chuck of traffic to their blogs. Well done, folks.

Are you following @sphinn on Twitter?

Until now, our Twitter account has been used primarily for sending out alerts after a story has “gone hot” — i.e., reached the home page. But we want our users to also be aware of the great content on Sphinn before it goes hot. So, we’re now using our Twitter account to post when stories are picking up votes on Sphinn and “getting hot.” We started this last night, with tweets like this one:

Once we settle in to this new routine, the plan is to send out alerts via Twitter when your submitted stories get 7 and 15 votes. If we know the Twitter account of the person who submitted the story, we’ll include it in our tweet (if space allows) so that you can let your followers know by re-tweeting it. Of course, we’ll also continue to tweet when a story reaches the home page.

So if you see a little more activity in our Twitter feed going forward, this is why. And if you’re not already following @sphinn on Twitter, why not start now?

(And one more good idea: If you’re on Twitter, make sure your Twitter username is included in your Sphinn profile so we can give you credit when your submits are getting hot.)

Hey Sphinners — heads up that we’ve just posted new Sphinn Guidelines that explain the policies we use to manage this community. I’ll highlight some of the important changes below, but please do take a few moments to read the entire set of guidelines.

Longtime members should know that Sphinn began by operating under what Danny Sullivan called his Common Sense Law. In the beginning, the approach was “to have as few rules as possible and build them up organically as they seem to be needed.” As the Sphinn community has grown, we’ve built up those guidelines into what is now a more complete set of Do’s and Don’ts.

Here are some of the new things that I think are worth highlighting:

• That “Common Sense Law” is now part of the site guidelines. We want all users to consider if their behavior is in the best interests of the community.
• Submitted stories should have a date on them; undated stories may be removed from the site. You’ll find this under #2 in “News Submission Do’s.”
• Submitted stories should be non-promotional. This is #5 in “News Submission Do’s.” We’ve clarified this in response to comments from some users that the previous guidelines weren’t clear enough. As part of this, we may consider users who only submit their own stories to be spamming Sphinn. We want users to actively use Sphinn and promote all good content, not just their own.
• We won’t allow submitted stories to have special URLs with tracking codes just for Sphinn. This is #6 in “News Submission Don’ts.”
• We’ve clarified the language on how we’ll handle stories that get multiple votes from the same IP address. This is #3 under “Voting.” Companies with several Sphinn members participating from a single IP address should be extra cautious when using Sphinn.

As I said, those are some highlights of the new Sphinn Guidelines. The page as a whole has been re-organized and is hopefully easier to read and follow.

We want everyone to have an enjoyable experience on Sphinn, to find and share excellent content about internet marketing, and to have valuable discussions with industry peers.

Just a quick note that, as promised, the Submit News page is open again on Sphinn. And members have already begun populating the Hot or Not? page with stories.

So, happy new year from all of us at Sphinn — and get busy submitting new stories and voting up existing ones!

– Matt