Ok Ive been digging, proppeling, buzzing, bookmarking, and bumping all of my blog posts but so far the traffic from these sites has been minimal. How many friends on DIGG and other social sites do I need to make sure my story gets off the ground somewhat? What else can I do to get more diggs and stuff? Do i need traffic other then social sites to succeed?
absolutely yes, u need traffic other than social network to increase your traffic namely comment technique,backlink,link exchange,article submitter and others
Concentrate on one or two networks. On those networks concentrate on being a good friend. Digg other people's stuff. A lot. They will return the favor.
My advice: don´t concentrate on SocialBookmarkingSites to get traffic. I use them to get backlinks, but unless your articles get really viral it´s not really usefull for traffic. I get more traffic from twitter / facebook in a singe day than from all SBSites that I submit my articles to.