Don’t Trip When You Can StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is a fun way to both discover new sites and blogs and it’s a great way to promote you own if you have something that is worth sharing.
Success in StumbleUpon really depends on having fun,engaging content, a great network of friends to help promote, and a little bit of luck.
Below I’m going to share with you a few of the basic concepts for drastically increasing your reach on the StumbleUpon network.
- Stimulating Content: StumbleUpon can deliver visitors that provide an incredibly high bounce rate. That’s not good. The way to curb that and to promote people sharing your content is to develop content that is actually worth sharing. Use lots of vivid images, easy-to-read typography, engaging content. Educate, entertain and engage.
- Reviews…not Just Thumbs: After a little bit of testing, I’ve discovered that when you thumb up a page that you like…very little happens. However, when you thumb it up and leave a review then traffic starts moving. I’ve even seen people leave reviews that start with, “From the Page:” followed by an excerpt from the article.
- Rally your Network: As with any social network, those items that get the most up votes and reviews are the ones that will get the most attention. Of course, don’t call all your friends in at once or they’ll think you’re gaming the system but it is alright to ask your friends to take a look at your content and vote for it if they like it.
- Use the Share Feature: StumbleUpon allows you to share content directly to your StumbleUpon friends. If you use this feature too often, people will remove you. Use it once in a while and you’re friends will often very happily rally around you and support your work.
So now if you’ve enjoyed these tips go ahead and leave this article a thumbs up and an awesome review!
Dev - Technshare.com said:
Hey Nick,
Stumbleupon is great source of traffic for me. I never did any reviews on stumbleupon, but now i think i should do some reviews.
One of the best ways to succeed on Stumbleupon is to get really involved. It is a great source of communication.
Anyways, Thanks for sharing this great Post.
~Dev
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Really getting involved on StumbleUpon will definitely help you to make the most of it. I’m glad that you enjoyed the post.
Kharim said:
What you have said about the bounce rate is so true. I was testing out how to get traffic from StumbleUpon and I got good amount of traffic but the I see my bounce rate moved from 1.99% to 16% so quickly.
Also with the review, if you thumb up a page and don’t write a review you will get little of no visits from that stumble. Write a great review and have an outburst of visitors.
Nicholas Cardot said:
First off, there is no such thing as a 1.99% bounce rate. There is something wrong with the way that your tracking code calculates it for it to be that low. That means that 50 people visit your site and only 1 clicks away. There is no way that happens on any site on the internet and you won’t be helped any by thinking that is the case…unless you don’t have anyone visiting your site and those 49 are you…which wouldn’t help you any either.
I see a lot of people looking at stats through rose colored glasses and doing that won’t help you assess where you truly are so that you can continue to grow. I had another friend tell me that his bounce rate was less than 1%. When you’ve been in this game as long as I have then you realize that stats like that don’t exist.
I agree that your overall bounce rate might increase as you factor in that traffic but it’s still a terrific source of finding real people who may or may not enjoy browsing your site.
Kharim said:
Well my blog is just a little over 4 months old. My Google Tracking code says I have 2,012 unique visitors per month, and as I say my bounce rate is now going up, it’s now at 21.12%.
My alexa rank is 167K. Guess I am going to have to look into some of these stats some more. I am still kinda new to this. Just 4 months in the blogging world.
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Blog Angel a.k.a. Joella said:
I confess that when it comes to Stumbling I fall down a lot. I know this might sound natural, but with these great tips and ideas maybe I can reform.
Maybe, just maybe I can learn to Stumble without falling down on the job.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Ha ha. Anyone can learn these concepts, Joella. They’re not difficult. Just find some friends to start building your network with and start sharing pages that you enjoy.
Dany Vilela said:
Hi Nicholas!
Stumble Upon is a great source of traffic for my blog, but it’s so much more for me.
Discovering Stumble Upon has been truly a mind-opener. To make it simple: that’s how I discovered the Internet. It is my favourite social network.
Here’s my profile! Follow me friends…
http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/Dyvantity/
Regards
Dany.
Nicholas Cardot said:
I’m glad to hear that. It really is an amazing way to discover all the hidden assets that the internet has for us.
Mikkel Juhl said:
I think that, Stumbleupon really has lots of potential, when it comes to bring in traffic.
It can bring in loads of traffic, with not much work, and bring in even more traffic with a bit more work. I just think that somehow the traffic that comes from StumbleUpon is really irrelevant to building a blog. It is a good way to get some attention and stuff, but I really think that there is lots of other ways to get consistent traffic.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
I tend to disagree. I believe that as easy as the traffic is to get from StumbleUpon that it is a great way to find new people to view your blog and just as I mentioned in my comments to Jillian, if you take the time to develop a site and content that is worth interacting with then people will notice and they will enjoy it regardless of where they come from. You have to meet Stumblers with a powerful first impression. Of course, if you’re unable to do that then sure that traffic is worthless…but hey, if you can’t do that then any traffic is worthless.
Murlu said:
I really need to get back into using SU. It’s been very good to me in the past both for traffic and when I’m just looking around for content online but I guess I get too busy to kick back and really appreciate the service.
Thanks for reminding me, gonna make an effort to really get back into it.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
I’m glad that this serves as a good reminder for you and I hope that you’re able to jump back in and really find the success you’re looking for in StumbleUpon.
Jillian said:
This is really helpful. I love using SU for random browsing around the net, but I don’t really post my own items there.
I’m in the middle of redesigning my site, which will make my content easier for readers to stumble. We’ll see how that goes
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Nicholas Cardot said:
That’s good. A design is important as Stumblers have to be met with a powerful first impression or they will immediately hit the Stumble button again. This is why many people dislike Stumble traffic, but if you take the time to develop your site into something great then this shouldn’t bother you. If you offer something good then people will like it.
Onibalusi Bamidele said:
Really great post about Stumbleupon,
You really revealed some points, I never knew the importance of reviews on stumbleupon.
What do you see to submitting your own content, is it advisable?
Thanks a lot,
-Onibalusi
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Ben said:
As an active user of StumbleUpon, I can say that if a person submits every one of his blog posts, that person will receive very few visits on those posts. The best thing is to let someone else stumble your blog posts. just a tip:)
Ben,
my SU: http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/efreak1/reviews/
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Nicholas Cardot said:
I completely agree plus if you think “every single one of your posts” if worthy of full promotion to everyone then you’re mistaken. You should really only push the best of your content and let others as they find usefulness in your articles share the rest.
Ben said:
Exactly:)
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K. Praslowicz said:
Quick Tip in regards to #2. If you have text highlighted on the page when you hit the thumbs up button in the tool bar, the highlighted text automatically gets added as to the review form with the text ‘From the page’ pre-populated.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Can you show me an example of that somewhere? By highlight do you just mean bold or is there a tag that you need to use?
K. Praslowicz said:
Highlight the text on the page you want to review like you are going to cut & paste it. Only, instead of actually cutting & pasting, leave it highlighted while you hit the info button in the toolbar. Instant review.
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Nicholas Cardot said:
Ahh. I get it now. That makes sense. Very cool.
Reza Winandar said:
Build conversation and you will get some traffic, build grat conversation, you’ll get more traffic, build unlimited conversation, and you’ll get unlimited traffic.
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Sari Venskoske said:
There is obviously a bundle to identify about this. I think you made various nice points in features also.
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