http://blogs.forbes.com/elizabethwoyke/2010/11/10/240-to-place-story-on-digg-front-page-one-marketing-firms-pitch/

It’s no secret that landing a story on the front page of Digg or Reddit is worth money to media

The RasiFranks logo companies. These news aggregators with their large communities of enthusiastic readers can drive millions of visitors to news sites to read particular articles. Advertisers pay the sites according to page views, turning those clicks into dollars.

Enterprising sorts now see money to be made in connecting news sites with news aggregators. If a news site can get a sizeable traffic boost from prominent placement on an aggregator, it’s reasonable to think the site would pay for that benefit.

That’s what the people at RasiFranks Media believe, anyway. On Nov. 9, Rob Adams, an account manager for the Boston-based firm, sent me an email pitch that offered to place “my site” on the front page of well-known social media sites like Digg and Reddit. The cost: $240 for Digg, $80-$200 for Reddit, $70-$219 for StumbleUpon and $115 for Delicious. (The payment structure varies by site. In some cases, RasiFranks charges a base fee and a bonus if a story gets featured on the front/top of a site; in others, it simply charges a “front page fee” with no base cost.)

The firm’s methods raise a number of ethical questions including the mores of paying for readers and of manipulating social media sites and news aggregators, which pride themselves on reflecting their users’ genuine interests. RasiFranks isn’t the only startup to target this space. Its pitch–and prices–simply offer a peek into the media middleman industry.

That business can extend far beyond Digg and Reddit placements. RasiFranks also targets Facebook and Twitter and smaller networks such as online “green” community Care2, micro-community site Mixx and female-focused news aggregator Kirtsy. On Facebook, the firm charges a monthly fee to“build up” clients’ accounts and “significantly increase [their] number of real, dedicated, engaging fans.”

For Twitter promotions, RasiFranks offers three types of campaigns: $29 for a single tweet through three separate “power accounts” that boast more than 140,000 followers; $99 for a tweet that is then re-tweeted from more than 100 accounts, and a monthly plan that focuses on boosting the number of followers to the client’s Twitter account over time. If a client lacks stories to tweet about or place on a social media site, RasiFranks will write them itself, for $80-250.

The firm, which describes itself as a social media marketing site, is also willing to create blogs for clients (on the WordPress platform), produce videos, consult on “brand development” and perform search engine optimization. To encourage companies to sign on for a range of tasks, it gives bulk discounts to those that run at least two campaigns in the same calendar month. Its taglines–it has two–are “You talk, and we make the world listen” and “We talk, and make sure everyone hears.”

Business will depend on RasiFranks’ ability to deliver on its bold promises. The firm acknowledges that some of its influence is limited to “short-term traffic” but contends that increasing a client’s “exposure and social media visibility” is “crucial and a standard in today’s digital world.” It also notes that it sends clients custom reports that outline campaign results within 48 hours of launch. And it cites several “success stories”, though only anonymously. One unidentified client saw its page views climb from 2,000 a day in Oct. 2009 to more than 3 million visitors a month (approximately 100,000 daily views) today, according to Adams.

I have asked Adam for more details about RasiFranks’ background, clients and methods and will include the information in an update.

edit:tried to fix link and add text since link seems sketchy