The Next Stage/ StumbleUpon
Lately I have submitted a few things to StumbleUpon and watched my stats take off like someone just gave them a shot of epinephrine. But today things have calmed down and I really am wondering why even bother. Except that I really like StumbleUpon and go there to wander through the world wide woods. You find interesting stuff. So when I read this article by Shaun Low this morning I wondered for the nth time if there wasn’t some way to really, really be involved and be happy in the web place with the strange name. I particularly like Shaun’s suggestion about sending content to friends. It’s number four on his list and is called Simple (legit) ways to increase SU traffic. There are some other things that are interesting as well. But this seems especially good. If anyone is interested in forming a small network of friends to send pages of INTERESTING content back and forth please let me know. It reminds me of when we used to play catch in the backyard with neighbors as children. Nice…in other words. Let’s see if I can do the trackback thing. Be sure to let me know, Shaun, if it works!
Update: Here’s an idea for Shaun or any of the folks who have been saying nice things about SU lately. I bet if someone actually got down and dirty about SU and explained to some of us who can’t figure out how to use it what to do…. I don’t know but I think that maybe doing this would open it up to many more people. Maybe thousands of readers would be interested in a post like this. Hey! If you decide to run with this idea don’t forget to share the love!
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I had a few very informative bookmarks to some posts which I’ve lost in a recent puter crash, but I’ll ask some friends if any of them had saved the links I sent them to share.
I’ve found Stumble to be one of the best ways to drive traffic. The key is to Stumble posts worthy for visitors once they get there so as not to disappoint … save it for some of your posts that you’ve worked hard at to create and you’ll receive future traffic from visitors.
How you USE Stumble to drive traffic is key.
Once of the most important factors is having multiple friends Stumble your post, and particularly shortly after the first Stumble. It’s not so much the first one that counts, but how many Stumble the post within the first hour in particular, and how much authority the Stumblers have. What had been stated in the post that recommended this procedure said that your first hour of Stumbles will will drive more traffic if you receive a number of them, which will work more to your benefit than receiving countless more hours later.
It was also recommended to not Stumble your own posts, but to have friends do it for you. Digg works much the same way.
I’ve tried this method and it really does work. I’ve received thousands of visitors doing it. Sites with low allotments for bandwidth can even find their site temporatily taken down, much in the same was as the ‘Digg Effect’ does from posts hitting front page, so be warned.
The great thing about the traffic you receive is that it doesn’t always bring traffic crashing thru your blog in a very short burst, rather, you’ll receive visitors over a series of several days. It’s also been said by those who’ve written posts where they’ve tracked the stats that Stumblers often click other pages on your site and you’ll receive return traffic to a much higher degree than you will from Digg visitors.
Another sie note is that you can only have a maximum of 200 friends, so be selective when adding friends.
You can gain authority by reviewing other sites i.e. Stumble the post, and take the time to write a review, select an apropriate category for it, and assign proper tags. The more reviews you receive for your own site also boosts your authority.
I’m a big fan of the site for these very reasons. It’s great to have a network of friends who will help one another to Stumble posts. I also have a number of friends whose sites I don’t often have time to visit (and vice versa), but we always take the time to help one another whenever anyone asks for a Stumble. Some use the comment box to ’send’ a page to friends … I don’t know about others, but attempting to open the function always crashes my browser.
Thanks, Deborah. This is very helpful. I know you are very busy and it means a lot that you took the time to share this information. I’m feeling it!!