Sep
25
I’m a big fan of StumbleUpon. I use it to generate traffic for this site, find interesting new sites, kill time at work, and reward the top commentators on this blog. And even though StumbleUpon continues to gain users it seems that many still underestimate its ability to generate a steady stream of traffic for your blog.
Over the last few months, StumbleUpon has sent more traffic to PureBlogging than any other source (although Google is a close second). Let’s take a look at how you can drive more traffic to your blog using this innovative service.
What Is StumbleUpon?
StumbleUpon is a social website which allows its users to share and recommend websites that they find useful and interesting. To use the service, you need to register, define your areas of interest, and install the StumbleUpon toolbar in your browser. The toolbar allows you to rate and review any site that you find interesting and view the sites that others have submitted.
How Does The StumbleUpon Toolbar Work?
To get started, just press the 
on the toolbar and you will be taken to a random website that has been submitted or “stumbled” by someone else. The areas of interest you selected when signing up at StumbleUpon determine the websites that you are shown. To further refine your interests, just click the 
/
as you stumble and StumbleUpon will adjust over time.
How Does That Help Me?
StumbleUpon has the ability to generate thousands of visitors to your blog. The process starts when someone clicks the on the toolbar while viewing a page or article on your blog.
If they are the first person to vote for your blog/article, then they will be presented with a dialog box saying that they discovered a new site. They will also be asked to provide a short review and select which tags best represent the content of your blog/article. After they have submitted your blog/article, it is then available for other StumbleUpon users to view and vote on.
How Do I Get the Most Out of StumbleUpon?
There are several factors that seem to influence the number of visitors that you receive from StumbleUpon. The specific algorithm is not known but here are a few factors that I believe affect the amount of traffic you receive.
- Votes from other users - You can submit your own articles but you won’t see large amounts of traffic until others begin to stumble and review your site.
- Stumbles and Reviews - You also seem to get more traffic if your blog blog or article gets a lot reviews so shoot for stumbles and reviews.
- Build up your network – Spend some time building up your StumbleUpon network by finding and adding friends. The more friends you have, the more likely other stumblers will see your submissions.
- Participate – Always remember this is a community based on interest that relies on user participation. The community will eventually catch on if all you do is submit articles from your own blog. Stumble and review the articles of others and your importance in the community will increase.
- Broad tagging – Try to use tags that are less specific. Broader tags are more likely to be searched for by SU users.
- Stumble Tools - Remind people to vote for and submit your blog/articles by integrating StumbleUpon into your blog or by placing a StumbleUpon button on your blog.
- Stumble Groups - You can also team up with a group a like-minded bloggers or webmasters who agree to stumble each other’s posts.
That Sounds Great But Is There A Catch?
Much like Digg, Reddit, and other social websites, visitors from StumbleUpon are not likely to stick around long. The toolbar allows users to quickly jump from site to site until something grabs their attention. In general, StumbleUpon users are:
- Just surfing and will be looking to move on quickly
- From all over the world
- Web savvy
- Ad blind and hard to monetize
That being said, users are delivered based on their individual areas of interest and there are a few things that you can do make your blog “sticky” or more attractive to StumbleUpon users.
How Do I Make My Blog Sticky?
You can expect visitors from StumbleUpon to instantly evaluate your blog and decide to either browse around or continue stumbling. This means you need to do everything you can to make your blog stand out from the crowd. Here are a few things that can help you do just that:
- Quality Content - If your blog is loaded with quality content you are much more likely to get thumbs up or a bookmark.
- Site Design – Your blog is more likely to grab a visitor’s attention if it has a unique, attractive design.
- Branding – A unique logo or easy to remember URL can be a huge plus for your blog.
- Ads – Advertising is a necessary evil but too many poorly placed ads can be a turn-off.
- Subscription Links – You should make it easy for them to subscribe by prominently placing links to your RSS feed and/or newsletter.
Other StumbleUpon Resources
If you’re looking for more information about StumbleUpon here are a few additional resources.
- A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon: How to Build Massive Traffic to Your Website from Maki at Dosh Dosh
- Stumble Upon’s Fantastic Ability to Drive Traffic from SEOMoz
- Increasing your StumbleUpon audience by Neil Patel
- I Wouldn’t Submit That to StumbleUpon by Muhammad Saleem at Pronet Advertising
- Ultimate StumbleUpon Resource by Mike Bogo
- StumbleUpOn - The No-Magic Facts of Building Traffic by Terrence Chang
- StumbleUpon: Exposure That Lasts by Muhammad Saleem at Pronet Advertising
- Building Your Blog With StumbleUpon by Skellie at ProBlogger
What Are You Waiting For?
So now that you know how StumbleUpon works, get out there and start stumbling!
I have been getting quite a bit of traffic from Stumbleupon, however I need to work more on the other end of building up my own SU network like you suggested.
Thanks for all of the resources David, I’ll be checking them out!
Thanks. Very informative article about SU.
I meant to add….thank you David for the Stumbles you’ve given me, I really really appreciate it!
You’re very welcome.
Ditto. Really David, your stumbles have brought me tons of traffic in the past and I really want to thank you for that
Me too.
That aside, I think if more people were loyal to the idea of Stumble as a daily habit we’d all find ourselves with a list of bookmarked sites to die for.
Great guide to SU. Stumbled.
Thanks again, Matt! Much appreciated.
Stumbled here also!
Darin
I haven’t attempted to get the most of stumbleupon yet but with the little use I have made of it the returns have been excellent
Nice post, check out our blog Stumble Gods where we share lots of tricks and tips for making the most of your StumbleUpon experience.
http://www.stumblegods.com/
Thanks for the link… I’ll be sure to check it out.
I love StumbleUpon and I use it regularly. I find the traffic somewhat fleeting, but still good. I get paid by pageviews, so it helps a lot.
I also like it from the user aspect. I get to see things that I like and can link to, if I like them. I’ve bookmarked several sites that I’ve found with SU. It’s a great service.
Got STUMBLED by stumble upon.
Thanks David for sharing the information. But I have been using Stumble upon quite a lot and I am quite happy with this site. It has no doubt increased traffic to my site.
i’ve helped many all over the world, but on another site my email was distorted purposely be stumbleupon. nothing more to say.
i just LOVE stumble upon for killing time and finding great new sites, that other ways i would have never discovered…
And now if I just had more time to kill
NICE site and good tips I added you as a stumble friend this I find helps if others do it
Stumbled this post, but I don’t guess I was the first
I always appreciate the traffic that I get from your links and stumbles, David. For that, and having this great site, you rock! 
he sure does rock
I will have to add this post to a list of resources to my Stumbleupon post. Great post David.
[...] Have You Checked Out StumbleUpon? [...]
Yes, you were right that SU can easily send thousands of visitors to your site but what good will it really do to bloggers if all that stumblers do are:
(1) hit the “Stumble!” button, and
(2) hit the “I like it!” button?
Personally, I’d prefer it if stumblers would at least leave a comment or take some time to browse the blog.
SU is about finding great content, yes I agree whole-heartedly, but what do you do when you’ve found some great content? You don’t just thumb it and leave, do you?
Unfortunately, that’s what a lot of stumblers do. They say “I like it” and move on. I, too, wish they’d stick around and leave some comments.
As much as I like SU, I don’t think too many people would pay for it if they ever started charging….
Agreed.
I dig sincere comments of substance. The interactivity of blogging is what keeps me going and navigating the social end of it keeps a fire under my rear.
Just stumbled upon this StumbleUpon post…strangely enough just as I finished another SU post for my blog and added you back as an SU friend…yep, our lives aren’t being taken over or anything
I wanted to address Pelfs comment since I’m staring at it while I’m writing…but I thought to truly show him the power of the Stumble, I’ll go leave him a comment on his blog.
Stumblers don’t comment? This one does
Yeah, you may be one of those few Stumblers who actually leave a comment, what about the other 3 million stumblers?
I am not writing this against anybody, but merely expressing my views.
BTW, if you’d take the time to browse Pelf’s blog, you would know that pelf is a female
hey pelf thats a really great blog
David,
SU has been a really good source of traffic for me. On days when I have big spikes I also see significant gains in subscribers. The % of visitors who subscribe isn’t high, but with large amounts of traffic from SU it still adds up.
Have you ever used StumbleUpon to advertise a website? I used it in the past to send targeted traffic to my blog. Unfortunately it would appear that most of the StumbleUpon visitors failed to make it past my index page - I am sure my content isn’t thatbad!
- Martin Reed
Great Article. Talk about getting off to a good start from a long vacation!
LOL
Darin
I think the system is great. It’s not wonder that it has become so popular. I personally receive quite a bit of traffic from stumble upon alone. It’s great.
your weekend links used to neutralize the traffic dip in weekends.They brought tons of quality readers
[...] of PureBlogging dot com went missing in action for a vacation and came back and want to know Have You Been Stumbled Upon? He shared with us how he got the most out of SU and how he made his blog sticky to visitors from [...]
Well you’ve got my stumble hehe:D
good article well researched
I’d recommend it as a great way to get FREE traffic. I would NOT recommend paying. I”ve spent 25-50$ and gotten nothing. I was advertising the blog forum but not even one signup. I”ve chatted w/ others who say the same. Many / most come and go at the same lightening pace. Great way to boost your stats though
Yeas David, it does work!, I got enough free traffic from there.
For me, Google brings the most traffic…I regularly stumble my post…I think I should build my network…you must be having a very large network at Stumbleupon?
I got very small traffics from stumble. The main traffics still from google. But your article is helpful to get more traffics from stumble.
I think you must try stumble more extensively it is very good to generate traffic.
Of Course I stumble your Blog, David
Because you stumble my blog too. I also stumble anyone in the Weekend list, if I like their article 
Noteworthy read. Stubmled!
few week ago my article “World’s dirties cities” was stumble upon. i recieve 25k unique visitors and few good links. if you want to see these article write me at email (i don’t want to post it here, it will be a spam)
Im hoping that you submitted this article to StumbleUpon, they love articles about themselves. Lots of traffic!
Good information! I have to check this out.
Steve
I get a lot of traffic from SU, so its a very good tool. So far I think I got 100 uniques a day or more from it.
I’ve used StumbleUpon for a while. In the early days it was useful and you’d be fed information and sites that were relevant to the content you were seeking.
My personal opinion is that there are now far too many people using StumbleUpon soley to generate links/traffic. It has certainly lost it’s appeal for me.
I’ve been stumbled, several times. I don’t get too much traffic from it, but when more people thumbs up it, I guess I will.
I’ve used StumbeUpon but traffic was a bit dissapointed.
Ilse
I use StumbleUpon whenever I need to get an article indexed fast. As for the traffic, it doesn’t convert well at all.
I have that buttons for digg.com, stumbleupon.com and some other social network websites, but nobody stumble my articles, so I think they are at the moment useless because my visitors don’t know where that buttons are for.
I tried stumbleupon before and yes it did bring me a lot of traffics, but then I realized that they are “crap” in terms of conversion