Get huge traffic spikes from CSS galleries

Many blogs and websites invest a lot of time into writing content that is Digg and Reddit ready. They focus on keywords, top 10 lists, topical entries, etc… Being Dugg is one of the rare occasions where you actually enjoy seeing your server go down and your hosting bill up.

If you’re not an “A-list blogebrity� and have a cult following reminiscent of Steve Jobs’, getting Dugg, Reddit-ed, Techmemed, etc… is pretty damn tough.

This is where CSS galleries come in. If you put the time and energy into designing a unique blog that isn’t just a template that thousands of others use, you might get featured in a CSS gallery.

Some of these galleries match the effect of being Dugg and their steady flow of unique visitors usually lasts for 4 or 5 days. With Digg, you’re lucky if you can get 2 days out of it.

When we launched the latest version of YGG nine or so days ago, our daily Alexa ranking was about 303,000. Ouch. After about three or four days of the new site being up, we were featured in a couple CSS galleries. The results? Our daily ranking has averaged about 24,000 for the past 5 days. That’s 1,262% more traffic by Alexa’s rankings (which are questioned by many but are one of the few metrics available).

We didn’t submit YGG to any of the galleries this time around, someone else did and all the secondary galleries that copy from the big boys latched on and added to the traffic.

There are literally hundreds of galleries out there that range from design, to web standards, to dark sites, etc… It can be tough to choose which ones to submit your site to.

To help you with the process, I’ve created a list of the best CSS galleries to submit your site to. Here they are, in no specific order.

CSS Vault

Design Meltdown

CSS Remix

CSS Bloom

Style Crunch

The Daily Slurp

CSS Drive

CSS Thesis

Web Creme

CSS Beauty

CSS Import

DarkEye

CSS Elite

Best Web Gallery

CSS Mania

Submit CSS

Screenalicio.us

Design Snack

CSS Clip

Inspiration King

Unmatched Style

If you look at the sites featured in these galleries you’ll see how beautifully some of them are designed. Obviously, if you’re using a default template, or your blog resembles a Lite-Brite experiment gone wrong, don’t submit your site. It won’t make the cut.

But if you have or are planning to have your blog professionally designed, CSS galleries are one of the best marketing tools available.

If you don’t plan to rehaul the visual appeal of your blog, these galleries still serve as a great source of inspiration and the pulse of online design trends. Bookmark or Del.icio.us this post and it’ll come in handy down the road if and when you decide to go the custom design route.

Also remember to make that “Subscribe to RSS� button stand out if you do get featured. Subscribers are the most important in the end.