Social media can be a huge source of traffic, but making it to the front page of a major site like Digg is difficult, and the traffic is not usually as targeted as many other forms of traffic. For these reasons niche social media sites are a great solution. While traffic volume may not be as high, it will be much more targeted and it’s more realistic that your submissions will be noticed.

If you are a web designer, there are a number of niche sites that you should be aware of. Here are five with a brief description of each.

1. DZone

DZone is a community of web developers and software developers, and it probably provides the most technical content of any of the sites listed here. As the largest community listed, DZone also has the potential to send more traffic than any of the others.

How it works:

You create an account.
Users can submit a link to an article that is development-related.
Members can vote up or down for the articles.
Anyone can subscribe to the RSS feed.
Currently, there are over 9,000 subscribers to the feed of popular links.
Currently, there are over 1,000 subscribers to the feed of new links.
A submitted link doesn’t need to get that many votes in order to be made popular, but votes don’t come easily. The content is highly targeted, and anything non-developer related will be shot down and probably deleted. If one of your links makes it to the front page (and gets sent out to the 9,000+ subscribers) you can easily receive 500 or more visitors in a day. The DZone community seems to include a large number of del.icio.us users as I have had several posts rack up bookmarks and make it to the front page of del.icio.us immediately following traffic from DZone.

2. CSS Globe
CSS Globe is not a typical social media site where members vote on submissions. It specializes in web standards and design-related content.

How it works:

Members create an account (have to be approved).
Members can submit links with brief descriptions.
The links go out to CSS Globes RSS subscribers.
So essentially CSS Globe is more of a user-controlled blog than a social media website. But it sends links with descriptions rather than full blog posts. Links can receive as much as 200 or more visitors in a day from CSS Globe. Actually, this week I’ve had over 400 visitors in a day from CSS Globe. If you have quality design-related content and a good headline, CSS Globe is easy traffic.

3. Pixel Groovy

Pixel Groovy is a user-controlled tutorial directory. Topics include CSS, PHP, JavaScript, Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator, and more.

How it works:

Members create an account.
Members submit links to tutorials/articles.
Submissions are voted up and down by users.
Pixel Groovy’s RSS feed currently has over 1200 subscribers. I’m not sure how much traffic it sends to top stories because I have not used it very much.

4. Design Float

Design Float is a Digg-Style social media site that focuses on design related content, as opposed to Digg’s general approach.

How it works:

Members create accounts.
Members can submit links and vote (actually “float”) on other submissions.
Much like Digg, users can add friends.
Top stories are posted on the front page.
I’ve submitted to articles to Design Float and been pleasantly surprised with the results (100 – 200 visitors to each). It appears to be an up-and-coming community for designers.

5. DevelopersNiche

Like Design Float, DevelopersNiche is a Digg-style site, with a niche focus. It works exactly the same as Design Float, so I won’t re-write that information. DevelopersNiche is the smallest community of the sites listed here and will send the least amount of traffic. However, that means it is easier to get your submissions to the front page and get a little bit of exposure.