PureBlogging

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!

Popularity: 54% [?]

The following guest post has been submitted by Steven Snell of Vandelay Website Design.

For new bloggers who are looking to find more readers and grow their blog, forums can be a valuable resource. While forums may not directly result in large numbers of visitors to your blog, there are substantial benefits from participating in forums.

Why Are Forums Useful?

1 – You can learn from others and get your questions answered. The information you gain may make the difference between having an average blog and a standout blog.

2 – You can help others by answering their questions. If you are able to be a valuable source of information to others they will remember you and will be more likely to become a reader or refer other readers to you.

3 – Forums are an excellent way to network with other bloggers. Blogging is very community-oriented by nature. All successful bloggers have effectively networked with others. Your network can be a source of information, advice, and links.

4 – You can use a signature that includes a link to your blog. If you actively participate on forums with a link in your signature, some other users will click-through to visit your blog. While this type of traffic is nice, it is not the best that forums have to offer.

5 – You may be able to promote your blog posts. Most forums have specific places where you are permitted to “advertise” or promote your own work. Like point #4, this traffic is beneficial, but it should not be your focus when you’re using forums.

How Can You Effectively Use Forums?

As we have seen already, there is a lot of potential with forums. However, most bloggers who are trying to drive traffic through forums don’t use the most effective methods. While there are ways to get visitors to your blog directly from forums (points 4 and 5 above) that traffic is very unlikely to amount to anything significant. Most forum users are not there to find other blogs to read, so it is difficult to generate big results with this approach.

Instead, here are some tips for maximizing the potential of forums.

1 – Schedule time to use them. While forums are an excellent resource for bloggers, they can also be a huge time-consuming activity if you aren’t careful. If you plan your activities ahead you can be sure to participate on forums without sacrificing time that you need for other priorities.

2 – Provide help and feedback to others. This is the best way to be recognized at forums and to get others to notice you. Don’t be afraid to ask your own questions of others, but focus on providing assistance and you’ll quickly increase your value to other forum members.

3 – Focus on networking, not direct traffic. The key to effectively using forums is to focus on building relationships with other bloggers. Earlier we mentioned that click-through traffic was not the best that forums have to offer, networking is. Forums may not show up in your statistics as large sources of traffic, but you may meet other bloggers at forums that will wind up linking to you, or will be willing to post one of your articles on their blog. This is where forums really become valuable and this is where efforts should be.

4 – Ask for feedback from other forum users. Most forums will have an area for you to introduce yourself and get feedback from other users. Blogging-related forums often have a place to provide a link to your blog and get the opinions of the other users about your blog design and content. Be careful to solicit this feedback in the appropriate places. Some forums are not friendly towards this type of communication if it is not in the designated areas. When I was designing my blog I got some valuable feedback from others that I was able to use to improve the design (some of it I still haven’t gotten to yet).

5 – Use an effective signature file. As you post to forums you messages will include a signature file that can (and should) include a link to your blog. Rather than just providing a link to your blog, give a quick description of the blog or something else that will interest others.

6 – Follow your messages and build ongoing communications. Most forums will email you when someone has replied to one of your messages. Be sure to read the responses and try to engage in a continuing dialogue. This is a big part of networking.

7 – Be polite. This one should be obvious, but sometimes it’s not the norm. If your goal is to network and build relationships you can quickly ruin those opportunities if you are rude or demeaning to others.

8 – Focus on one or two forums. With the large number of forums available it’s tempting to try to use them all. What usually happens if you try this approach is that you will not use any of the forums enough to really be able to network effectively with the other users. At least when you are first getting started with forums you should focus on one or two. The focused approach will allow for the best networking potential. Once you have used a particular forum for a while and you feel like you could be more effective somewhere else, move on and try one of the other forums.

9 – Use an avatar or picture if possible. With an avatar other users are more likely to remember seeing you on other parts of the forum. It helps to build your identity.

10 – Focus on the subjects that you know well. Most forums will cover a wide variety of topics. If you are looking to network by providing help and assistance to others, you’ll have the best results if you focus on topics that you know the best.

11 – Look for win-win opportunities. One of the keys to effective networking is finding win-win situations. If you meet other bloggers that write on the same topics as you, try to find areas where you can help each other. Maybe you can write a guest post for another blogger and a particular topic that you know well. This would be good exposure for you and it would provide valuable content for the other blogger. Link exchanges are also common.

If you are looking for some forums for bloggers, here are a few to get you started:

• Authority Blogger
• Sitepoint
• Bloggeries

Popularity: 46% [?]

The following guest post has been submitted by Steven Snell from Vandelay Website Design.

All successful bloggers have been able to create quality content for their readers. Unfortunately, creating quality content doesn’t guarantee success for a blog. Without readers to notice the quality of the writing, nothing is gained. If you’re having trouble getting readers to notice you, consider using some of the methods listed below. They all focus on getting your articles in front of new audiences, which will increase your exposure and your subscriber numbers.

1 – Article Directories

One of the oldest methods for marketing yourself through articles is to post them on article directories. There are dozens of directories online with thousands of articles that other webmasters are free to use on their own site. You give them some great content and in return you will get to display a brief author bio at the end of your article with a link to your website.

This used to be the #1 way to spread your articles across the internet. Recently though, search engines have aimed to keep duplicate content out of the SERPs (search engine results pages), which means your article distribution with this method will rarely result in a lot of search engine traffic. Even worse, if the article is also posted on your website you run the risk of search engines identifying your website as having duplicate content. Also, the links from sites duplicating your content are unlikely to boost your search engine rankings.

That being said, article directories still have value. The key to using them successfully is to only use articles that you are not posting on your own site. This way you will not be penalized for having duplicate content on your site/blog. Even if the inbound links from your bio are not helping your rankings, they can still be a good source of click-through traffic.

Some of the most popular article directories are:

• EzineArticles.com
• GoArticles.com
• EasyArticles.com

2 – Write for Other Blogs

Most bloggers spend so much time focusing on creating content for their own blog that they neglect one of the best ways for reaching a new audience. Regardless of what topic you blog about there are probably plenty of others that have a similar audience. By writing a post for another blog you instantly increase your visibility and name recognition while potentially gaining new readers for your own blog.

Every blogger has a need for valuable content (original articles only, not something that’s already posted on your website), and if you can offer high-quality writing to another blogger they are likely to accept. Start with the blogs you read on a daily or weekly basis and look for those that might be a good fit with your writing. You can find blogs who are looking for content at Guest-Blogger.com (and create your own account while your there).

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Popularity: 19% [?]

If you’re like many people, you are beginning to find Digg to be more trouble than it’s worth. I see many bloggers complaining about a certain element at Digg who like to bury stories just because they don’t like the topic and trolls who just seem to want to cause trouble. And unfortunately, the powers that be do not appear to be concerned with the situation.

But, there may be alternative…

JohnTP and Shivaranja have been busy developing Blogg-Buzz, a Digg for Bloggers:

So what can you do in Blogg-Buzz? A lot…you can submit stories in Blogg-Buzz, comment on stories, spy on who is buzzing, find out the Top Buzzers, add friends and even send Private Messages to other Buzzers! So, it can be real fun once you start using it.

Blogg-Buzz can be useful for those who want to find the best content on the Blogosphere as well as for those who want to get extra traffic to their Blogs. And we will also try to improve Blogg-Buzz and make it something more than just a ‘Digg like site’.

I’ve been playing around with it the last couple of weeks and I’m impressed. They have categories set-up for just about any blog topic and if you don’t see one that works for you, just suggest a new one. It only takes a minute to submit your articles and right now it only takes 5 buzzes (votes) to get to the front page.

While the traffic you get from being on the front page is not nearly what you would get from Digg, it does bring you some new visitors and as the site grows the numbers will surely increase.

I suggest you sign up and check it out. And don’t forget to add me to your friends list!

Popularity: 14% [?]

It seems that the moment internet marketers discovered that My Space was a profitable business tool, social networks geared toward business began popping up. I’m not saying it’s a new thing, but lately there have been some great social networks opening that are designed for internet marketers. Though the networks vary in features, they are all based on the same general concept of other popular social networking sites. The two I’m discussing in this article – Apsense and Free IQ – are my favorites of the new IMSNs (Internet Marketing Social Networks) popping up all over the internet.

Apsense

This new IMSN is in pre-launch right now. You need an invite code to join (the link above includes one) for free. If you’re one of the first 2,500 members you will be given the chance to upgrade to a VIP membership for free for one year. The VIP membership costs $19.95 a month. That’s a $240 savings without spending a dime. I honestly can’t figure out what the benefits of the VIP membership are, but I’m guessing it has to do with an increased number of times your ads are shown and/or the number of groups you can create. The site says “click here” for membership comparisons, but there isn’t a link attached.

Aside from the standard social network sites features of messaging, adding friends and customizing your own page, you also have the option to blog on the site. On social networking sites, I tend to create one blog post linking to my main blog. It’s a good way to build some links and also you won’t spread yourself too thin trying to post on several different blogs daily. I think being a member of social networking sites is a great way to build your business, but it’s also very important not to overextend yourself. Be careful that you don’t get caught up and spend too much time on social networking sites. They can be fun and addictive so make sure you remember that you’re there for business.

Apsense has some interesting extras that make it unique. Apsense Express is an application you install on your desktop to serve ads. Desktop marketing tools (like Desktop Lightning) are becoming more popular as people become less wary of willingly installing advertising applications on their PCs. These programs aren’t adware or spyware, they are legitimate viral marketing applications that allow you to broadcast directly to your network. As more and more of these types of applications are created, more people will realize that this is not malicious software. It’s really just the next logical step for internet marketing; joining together traditional ad formats with the ability to deliver instantly and to a targeted audience.

For a site in pre-launch, Apsense is very promising. There are some features that aren’t very clearly explained, but I’ll give the creators the benefit of the doubt and assume that’s because the site is still in development. Overall, I’d recommend joining now so you can get in on the ground floor and watch this site really come to life.

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Popularity: 14% [?]