What Everybody Ought To Know About StumbleUpon
By Bryan Clark on Oct 19, 2007 in Promotion, Tools
Only recently have I really taken advantage of the social bookmarking world. In my short existence, I’ve seen thousands of unique visitors from social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon. I’ve even managed a front page spot on Digg once. Lot’s of traffic followed. I’ll get into the other social bookmarking sites in another post, but let’s start with my favorite… StumbleUpon!
Why is StumbleUpon my favorite?
Because it sends GOBS of traffic and it doesn’t take a lot of “votes” to do so. Did you know that StumbleUpon can send you thousands of visitors with a relatively small amount of stumbles? I’ve seen days with 1,500+ pageloads and only a few stumbles. You can consistently hit the 1k pageload mark if you become a proficient StumbleUpon user, or a “stumbler”.
I’ve tried StumbleUpon with little success, what am I doing wrong?
First, here are some little known facts about StumbleUpon.
- It’s not how many stumbles you get, but the quality of the stumbles that counts. Stumbles are actually a weighted tool. Just like PageRank, some stumbles are worth more than others. It’s StumbleUpon’s way of saying “this is a trusted stumbler”. The more pages you stumble, the more “trusted” you become, therefore your stumbles mean more than others.
- The number of times people click “I like it” doesn’t matter as much as how fast they do it. For example, if someone clicks the thumbs up button on their StumbleUpon toolbar it counts as a vote for your site. It’s someone saying - “I like this article”. But one of the deciding factors on how many stumbles you receive, is actually how fast you get stumbled. You’ll get more visitors if the stumbles come at a fast pace. If you get a thumbs up, and then a few minutes later you get another one, and then another one… you are well on your way to THOUSANDS of pageviews. Getting 10 stumbles within an hour could potentially bring you more traffic than getting 15 stumbles over a 24 hour span. Sounds crazy, but it’s true.
- StumbleUpon traffic comes in waves. It’s all up to the stumblers when it comes to determining how many pageviews StumbleUpon will bring you. If it’s coming in huge waves, and then you get a few “thumbs down” (the viewer didn’t like it), it will slow to a crawl. But as soon as you start getting thumbs up again, it starts all over.
The easiest way to get a ton of StumbleUpon traffic is to have your friends stumble all of your posts. I would be absolutely thrilled if every reader of One Man’s Goal would take the 2 seconds to click the “thumbs up” icon on their StumbleUpon toolbar. It takes only a few seconds, and the traffic it delivers is incredible. Another easy method for StumbleUpon traffic is to join a forum like this one, and post the URL’s that you would like stumbled. Include keywords and a description, and these folks will do all of the work for you. The only thing you have to do in return? Stumble their posts too! In case you were wondering, the StumbleUpon section of the forum won’t show up until after you sign up for a free username and password.
What else should I know about StumbleUpon?
- If you join the Stumble forum, don’t post ALL of your articles. Just the ones that you think will do well by StumbleUpon users. Remember, you can get a few hits by submitting to the forum and having other users stumble it, but your fate is ultimately in the hands of StumbleUpon users. If they start to click “thumbs down” your post gets buried, and you’ll see very little traffic from it.
- Stumblers are a fickle crowd. You have to catch their eye within a few seconds or else you are going to get passed over. A catchy headline, a great picture, or something shiny should do the trick.
- Another easy way to get stumbles is to be active in the StumbleUpon community. For those of you using the StumbleUpon toolbar (if you aren’t… what are you thinking?) click the little white speech bubble next to the “send to” button (right of the thumbs up and thumbs down icons) to comment on someones post. This isn’t the same as commenting on a blog, it actually saves your thoughts on their post for other stumblers to see. Commenting is a great way to build relationships with stumblers.
- Get out there and stumble! Remember, the more sites you stumble.. the more your stumbles are worth. Get out there and use the “thumbs up” icon… you can start with this article!!!
Popularity: 32% [?]
38 Comment(s)
By Sutocu on Oct 19, 2007 | Reply
I’m pretty sure the number of fans you have also affects the weight of your stumbles. The more effort you put into stumbling other people’s sites, the more likely they are to stumble yours, or add you as a friend. I think that’s the best strategy to Stumble Upon.
Great article there… Stumbled
By Newest on the Net on Oct 19, 2007 | Reply
This is a great article Bryan. This is one of the best descriptions of how StumbleUpon works. You make it very easy to understand.
I have also heard that the number and quality of your fans affects the weight.
By jeni on Oct 19, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the info. So it isn’t against Stumble’s terms to ask your friends to stumble your posts, or to post your urls in forums, and ask for vote exchanges? Just making sure! I’ve already seen some success with Stumble Upon, but it’s been hard to pin down exactly how it works. That makes sense about getting a ton of traffic if the stumbles come in a short period of each other - I’ve noticed that on my site.
By Michael on Oct 19, 2007 | Reply
I am pretty sure it is against TOS to do stumble exchanges. I know because I used to do it and it would bring in great traffic. I then stopped because I heard it was against the TOS. Its a shame really.
By Ruchir on Oct 19, 2007 | Reply
I agree, SU is the best social site. First of all, it’s pretty easy to get traffic to your blog post and secondly as the traffic comes in intervals, your server doesn’t get too loaded so your site remains online. Also, I’ve seen that the bounce rate of SU users is pretty low, which is good…
I actually promote my posts myself. I get between 100 and 5000 visits each time I stumble my own posts. I recommend you do it too Bryan…
By Ognjen on Oct 19, 2007 | Reply
Great article. I subscribed with StumbleUpon just recently and I’m going to folow these tips in the future.
Thanks,
Ognjen
By Michael on Oct 19, 2007 | Reply
I’ve played around with using StumbleUpon but I guess I just haven’t gotten in the habit of using it as often as I should.
By simon on Oct 20, 2007 | Reply
i found getting a group of friends to work together to stumble each other always helps….
By vnrozier on Oct 20, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the post. It might help me at long last to figure out how stumble upon works. I’ll get back when I hit a thousand a day. In ten months blogging I have trouble hitting a hundred a day with all my blogs and websites combined.
By Make Money Online | David Elefant on Oct 20, 2007 | Reply
I was stumbled last week and that day I received around 120 unique visitors. The visitors gave me $1 in adsense revenue and 3 new subscribers to my feed. Not much but its a begining my blog is only going to be 2 months old.
By Telling It Like It Is on Oct 21, 2007 | Reply
I really appreciate this post. I stumble pretty often and was very unsure as to whether it really works. Even if I stumble upon a site I don’t like for some reason, I hardly ever give it a thumbs down because I don’t want the author to know and feel bad.
Thanks! This helps me a lot!
By El Yanqui on Oct 21, 2007 | Reply
Great article. I didn’t realize the power of Stumbling or how to optimize it.
Gave you a thumbs up!
By Weddings on Oct 22, 2007 | Reply
This is a great article Bryan. Thanks for the information.
By Lawrence Cheok on Oct 29, 2007 | Reply
Great post Bryan.
I have read many posts on SU, but not one demystifies it as well as you do. Thanks.
By Matt Ellsworth on Oct 29, 2007 | Reply
THanks for the great overview. I like others above - have read countless things on stumble. but this does a great summary of it!
By caile on Oct 30, 2007 | Reply
Great little article here. However, I would like to add that in addition to posting your own articles, be sure to incorporate a lot of variety into your SU blog/thumbs selections that have nothing to do with your blog or personal goals (as you will be seen as an avaricious spammer). The more well-rounded your SU blog and the more generous you are toward other SU members in your reviews, the more reciprocal they will be and the better received your “plugs” for your own non-SU blog or site will be in the long run. Keeping visitors’ attention is as important as posting reviews/thumbs up of your own content that you want incorporated into SU’s traffic stream. Variety, variety, variety. That and including visuals as well as good writing ~ all very important in increasing readership and, subsequently, “thumb weight.”
Just a marketing suggestion for those who might be interested.
Sincerely,
caile~
By Toronto SEO on Oct 30, 2007 | Reply
I have read a lot of article on Stumble upon But none was better than yours. It contain some very valuable information.
By Steve Peto on Oct 30, 2007 | Reply
I must say I am still a little perplexed with the community side of SU, I click thumbs up and down on a few sites but im not really sure how to get the most from it
By Jabulon on Oct 30, 2007 | Reply
stumbleupon rocks because of the amount of traffic it generates. this is true, but there is a nuance (or how its spelled, aspect) ive not seen defined yet on the various salutes from grateful writers/hosts. And that is that with stumbleupon, youll see several hundred pages. Unlike digg, where youll have to manually enter the sites that seem interesting, stumbleupon delivers them to your door in a never ending succession. this ups the amount of sites id otherwise bother clickin on to. So, the true value of SU isnt that ull easily get a few click (well, that too) but that each SU user will visit thousands of more pages within a couple of weeks. Thus, stumblers will be more active on the webs than regular users. This means that SU is a great increaser of traffic, in a whole, greater so than any other social bookmarking site. Also, every stumbler seems to be grateful for the sites, and if theyre filled with BS theyll usually just skip along, never bothering us “serious” users, just see how kind and well-thought out SU’ers seem to be.
But back to my point, SU actually increases the total amount of pages visited on the web, and in this way it “revives” the already stale routines and patterns mindlessly practiced by most surfers (im looking at you myspace/youtuber/news surfer.
So there are several advantages offered by SU, all due to their groundbreaking interface increasing the amount of pages visited. Also the quality of pages is amasing. Most sites are actually worth the read, atleast if theyre within your preferences.
Therefore i salute SU and all of its benefits. I cant even begin to explain the amount of info and the quality of it, that ive found throught this ingenious invention. There is however lousy material found here as well, but compared to regular surfing, this is next to nothing (need i say more fellow youtubers?)
so keep on stumbling =)
see you around =)
By Xtine on Nov 1, 2007 | Reply
“Stumblers are a fickle crowd. You have to catch their eye within a few seconds or else you are going to get passed over. A catchy headline, a great picture, or something shiny should do the trick.”
I realise this may come as a shock, but some stumblers actually prefer intelligent content to shiny things. Turning StumbleUpon into a sea of spam is a bad idea.
By TigerTom on Dec 4, 2007 | Reply
What narked me about StumbleUpon was that its links are nofollow, if my memory serves me correctly. Otherwise, I’d do more about exploiting it.
By Bollywood -Hollywood on Dec 8, 2007 | Reply
even i m getting lot of hits from stumble upon despite 2 reviews
By clai on Dec 30, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for sharing the great idea! I just started a new blog. I will use it after a period. Thks
By Gene on Jan 1, 2008 | Reply
I like Stumble Upon and use it a lot.
I read the questions in comments about the TOS and whether it is against TOS to ask friends to stumble sites or exchange stumbles. I think it is acceptable to ask someone to review a site and stumble it if it genuinely interests the looker but not a definite stumble mine and I will stumble yours site.
Stumble also offers paid services where a site is including as a sponsored site at the rate of $0.05 U.S. per click. It is a useful tool to build traffic and is cost efficient.
A Traveler On The Journey!
Gene
By Collegerut on Jan 20, 2008 | Reply
Once again you have provided some very useful information.
No wonder why I come to visit often
By bdurfee on Feb 1, 2008 | Reply
“Getting 10 stumbles within an hour could potentially bring you more traffic than getting 15 stumbles over a 24 hour span.”
Wow, nice tip. I had no idea that timing made a difference. Of course it makes sense now that you say it.
Thanks for the insights.
By Jeanine on Feb 9, 2008 | Reply
Great post! I just started using stumbleupon this past week, and I am still learning the ropes. This was very helpful.
By Alex on Feb 11, 2008 | Reply
Good post Bryan
It’s true indeed stumbleupon traffic comes in waves,still i get a lot of traffic from them.
I’m kind of addicted..(69%):P
http://alosblog.com/you-are-69-addicted-to-stumbleupon/
By Deca on Feb 12, 2008 | Reply
I’ve got a lot of traffic from Stumble Upon
By JRowsey on Feb 16, 2008 | Reply
Great article. I am new to blogging and am trying to figure out how to get more visitors to my site. Thanks for the great info.!
By Greek on Feb 18, 2008 | Reply
StumbleUpon traffic definitely comes in waves. One of my sites typically only get 50 - 100 unique visitors a day. One saturday morning I woke up and checked Google Analytics. I already had over 1,000 unique visitors for the day, and it was still morning! Almost all of the traffic was from StumbleUpon and all of it to one page. However the traffic slowed down that night and went back to the typical 50 - 100 the next day. The total for that day was over 2,000 uniques.
By Mirjam on Feb 19, 2008 | Reply
I only recently started using SU but sure am noticing a difference in traffic, thanks for all the advice, I am sure it will help me grow my blog!
By Rex on Feb 24, 2008 | Reply
I gave this article a Stumbleupon thumbs up. I get a lot of traffic from Stumble with very little effort. I just give a thumbs up when I like a site and occasionally I write a review.
By Clara on Feb 26, 2008 | Reply
Great information. I wonder if Stumbles coming from the same web address have an effect?
By Emz on Mar 19, 2008 | Reply
I’ve only recently started using stumbleupon, I’m not sure if I’m getting any success out of it but only time will tell
By Omaha SEO on Mar 22, 2008 | Reply
This is a good article for anyone who has tried out SU. Way to point out the inertia aspect of SU, by the way. There are still a lot of people who don’t understand it.
By Miltski on Apr 23, 2008 | Reply
I luv stumble, but highly addictive. I have to limit myself to a few hours a week.
Miltski
By Rhonda on Apr 23, 2008 | Reply
Fantastic tips on how to use StumbleUpon. I am a new user of StumbleUpon. I have found it is fantastic not only for traffic but also branding and awareness of a new site.
My profile at StumbleUpon is:
http://inspirationforch.stumbleupon.com/