Is it ok to continue to Digg or Stumbleupon your own articles when you're first starting out? I heard that this can give you a bad reputation? I'm creating my own new blog, and trying to familiarize myself with how internet marketing works.
It is good if you try stumbling content of others to gain the "power" that when people gives a thumbs up to the contents you have submitted, you will have a higher authority. This will give a higher effect when you stumble your own article. Anyway, I don't recommend you to stumble your own articles. You might be banned for stumbling your own site if some of the stumblers find it out.
Marking your own site can be risky. Lots of people get banned for that very reason. There is a section in this forum where people exchange stumbles/ diggs. ie. you stumble their page they do yours, leave comments, etc. That's a safer way.
First make a lot of friends & fans on digg and stumbleUpon. Then submit your pages. Digg has introduced a feature called 'Shout'. You can shout to your fans. Shouting is a good source of getting more diggs and thus more traffic.