StumbleUpon is a social bookmarking site very similar to Digg but still a lot of functional differences. Also the kind of traffic that both these sites attract is very different. So it is must to leverage both the sites. The traffic from Digg usually disappears after a day or two, but the unique algorithm of StumbleUpon makes sure that you will achieve a steady flood of traffic for days to come.
Just like Digg, StumbleUpon is not a place to sell stuff. Even getting traffic is a secondary goal. The main goal is to get your article in front of those Stumblers (stumble upon users) who have their own websites and blogs. These people are likely to link back to you in they find your stuff interesting. It is not unlikely for a blog to attract a few hundred backlinks if it does well on StumbleUpon.
StumbleUpon users install a toolbar in their browsers which allows them to stumble new pages all over the web. There is also an option available to stumble the pages in their browsers, but the toolbar makes the process easier.
The toolbar contains a button called as Stumble! Clicking that, the user will be served with all the pages relevant to his interest that he might have mentioned at the time of completing his profile. If they like the page they click I like it! button to give it a thumps up, otherwise they click the don’t like it! button giving a thumps down. The more the number of people that give you a thumps up, more the number of Stumblers will be served with the page. If it gets too many thumps down, it will quickly disappear from the StumbleUpon rotation.
StumbleUpon success stories
Many articles make it big upon StumbleUpon and analyzing them I have come at the following conclusions. Most of the successful articles are formatted as lists. Lists as a way of presenting information is an extremely effective way of getting the dual benefit of impressing the Digg users as well.
Use eye catching images within your article. Also make sure that that your headline holds the interest of the reader. Use the AIDA principle. A-attraction, I- interest, D-desire, A-All sites are very well designed.
The content that almost never makes it on the StumbleUpon are news stories, short articles and commercial content.
StumbleUpon users want some detail and interesting information.
Getting Started With StumbleUpon
Maintain an active profile on StumbleUpon. Start stumbling and writing reviews for other people. This will make you active in their community. On an average you can stumble 10 pages per day and give thumps up.
It is very important to review pages. Pages you review appear under StumbleUpon reviews and Blogs page. They also appear under Subscriber’s StumbleUpon homepage, under the discover tab. Reviews will help you reach a wider audience and build subscriber base.
Other important thing is to have an effective user profile. Now StumbleUpon says to have an effective profile you need to submit content that will be rated positively by other Stumblers. If you are able to do this regularly then you can quickly become a power user on StumbleUpon. If you are the first person to stumble stuff that becomes popular, you will be given more credit. So the important thing is to find stuff that other people will rate positively and be the first one to do that.
Tips for finding great content before anyone else
Use other popular social media sites and see what is working on those sites. Most probably what is doing well on Digg will do well on StumbleUpon also. Most of the times you will find similar topics on both the sites, but sometimes you may find an undiscovered gem.
But be careful about the topics I listed above which never do well on StumbleUpon. You can do your own experiments as well.
Another strategy is to keep track of blogs in your industry. Since you know your industry inside out, just glancing through the article will tell you the potential of that piece of content.
One way is to subscribe to the RSS feeds of the blogs in your industry, then be the first one to submit it to popular online resources like StumbleUpon and Digg.
Submitting Content Correctly
While submitting content it is required to take into account 2 important things.
When submitting a page for the first time always provide an initial review. In fact if you are the first one submitting, a window will pop up asking you review the page and tag it with appropriate keywords.
If you do not provide an initial review, then StumbleUpon will not show the page to other stumblers. Initial review is necessary if you want the other Stumblers to see what you have rated. The review just consists of a line or two giving an idea about the content on the page.
The second step consists of tagging the article with proper keyword tags. Tags have many stumblers following them and hence tagging correctly can help reach your article to a wider audience who are interested in those tags. Also remember that you need to be relevant in your tagging.
There are three resources that StumbleUpon provides you with for coming up with appropriate tag names.
Popular Tags page tells you which the most popular tags are. This is arranged as a tag cloud, the larger the font of the tag, the more it is searched.
StumbleUpon searches tell you the most frequently searches terms. So you can tag your submissions accordingly while being relevant.
StumbleUpon buzz page will tell you the most popular articles today. You need 300+ thumps up to make it here. But once here, you are guaranteed an influx of traffic on your blog.
You are allowed only 5 tags per page. So use your tags appropriately. Use broad tags as they tend to reach a wider audience.
Understanding Friends and Subscriber on StumbleUpon
Friends and subscriber essentially mean the same thing. Like most social networks, StumbleUpon is based around sharing articles with other users who have similar interests. It has a built in Friends feature by which you can connect with other users and share pages you have found. Friends are also required for making your profile look more natural.
On StumbleUpon you can subscribe to other users favorites. If those users like the collection of articles that you have stumbled and reviewed, then they are likely to subscribe to your favorites. Once you are mutual subscriber, you can always use the built in Send To feature to send them your articles. If they like and give a thumps up to your article, it won’t be long before your article gets viral on StumbleUpon.
Finding and Adding Stumblers
The best way to find stumblers who would be interested in befriending you is by finding people who have liked and rated the page that you liked. On your toolbar by clicking on the word “bubble” you will find the list of such people.
Now click on the profiles of these people and you will be taken to their profile page. Click on the Subscribe link on the right sidebar, so you can subscribe to their favorites. If you wish to receive favorites to your toolbar, click the Accept shares to my toolbar link.
Also once you visit the profile page of any stumbler, you will be recorded in the visitors tab to that profile. Since people like to check who has visited their profile, they will add you to their friends list if they like what you rate and review.
Additional tips for increasing your friend network
Connect with people you already know and are present on the StumbleUpon network. On your friends page there is an option to directly import your address book from email providers. These people are more likely to accept you as friends. This will get you some instant credibility.
Use a simple username. The username should be easy to spell and should not be connected in any way to your business or domain name. Since you will be submitting paged belonging to your domain, you do not want to appear overly promotional.
Use avatar in your profile. This makes it easy for people to remember you. You can use either your personal picture or some animated stuff. Do not use anything that will be called as vulgar or racist in nature.
Join StumbleUpon groups related to your interests. This way you will more likely be served with pages submitted by people in those groups and they will be shown pages submitted by you. You need to tag your submissions with keywords relevant to the group.
Using the share feature
Now that you have built a list of friends it is time to send articles to those who have accepted to receive notification to their toolbar. The more the number of people who will accept your article and rate it, the more popular it will become.
To send the article to the subscribers who have agreed to receive your article, make sure your browser is on the page that you want to send and then click the Share button on StumbleUpon toolbar. The list of subscribers will come up and you will have to select people individually. You can also include a short summary of what the article is about. It is not required that you mention explicitly that you need them to review and vote on your article as it is well understood within the community.
Try and send only one article per week to each subscriber. If you send them too many articles, they may get irritated and unsubscribe you. So it is recommended that you have a large number of friends as you can rotate them accordingly.
Tips for improving the power of your stumbles
StumbleUpon algorithm is a very uniquely guarded secret. However some things have become evident which will help your article gain popularity quickly. 10 trusted StumbleUpon users giving thumps up to an article is more significant than 100 thumps up that come through new users.
The number of people who have stumbled your pages. The more the number of people who stumble your pages, the more popularity it generates.
Your friend network makes a difference. Having friends makes your profile look natural. Also more friends’ means more people will be shown your content increasing the chances of being rated.
Number of people who have reviewed and given thumps up to your profile page. I am talking about your profile page that you make while signing up and not your submissions.
Number of pages you have rated and reviewed. This helps to demonstrate an active user profile.
Flying under the Radar
People like us are present on social media sites not to stumble articles of others but to promote our business and websites. Guess what…….the people who run these social networks are aware of the same. So they try and ban such people who appear to be overly promotional. The algorithms have become sophisticated enough to understand recurring patterns.
As with StumbleUpon the more frequently to stumble a particular domain, the effect of the stumble reduces. Also they have an upper limit on number of time you can summit a particular domain.
The first way to get around the problem is to submit 10-20 pages from different domain for every page that you submit from your own. The second method is to ask one of your subscribers to submit your page. Make sure that the person includes a review about the page otherwise StumbleUpon system will not give it the importance it deserves.
Using StumbleUpon Ads
StumbleUpon allows you to buy traffic to your site at rate of $0.05. If the person viewing your content likes it and gives it a thumps up, it will be shown to more number of people. This additional traffic will be free of cost. When begging your StumbleUpon journey you may not have the required number of friends to make your campaign successful. If you are confident that you have a great piece of content, then go ahead and invest $10 in the ads. With 200 visitors liking your content you will make it to StumbleUpon popular pages.
Finally I have provided you will all the information you will need to succeed with StumbleUpon. Social media requires commitment and StumbleUpon is no different. Making StumbleUpon a part of your regular net surfing will help you save time and bring rich dividends.