stumbleupon.JPGI’ll be completely honest: I love using social networking programs as a way to boost monthly pageviews and to help boost my overall website traffic! My favorite of the social networking programs is StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is the most fun for me to use, the easiest for me to use, and I consider it the current king of social networking for Andrew Pavelski dot com. Yes, I know some articles can really take off on Digg, reddit, and del.icio.us, but I haven’t played around with those as much. Within this article, I will share my current knowledge and give you some awesome tips to help you maximize your success using the social networking program StumbleUpon.

For those who don’t already have StumbleUpon:

Get it now! If you don’t have StumbleUpon, you are really missing out on one of the best ways to promote your website or blog! Submitted pages to StumbleUpon can really spread like wildfire in a very short amount of time! Below, I’ve laid out some nice directions to make things easier for you.

Directions to easily install, understand, and begin using StumbleUpon:

1) Go to the main StumbleUpon homepage.

2) Click the orange tab that says “join StumbleUpon”

3) Fill out the information boxes

4) Click “Get the toolbar from Firefox add-ons” and install it (the Firefox StumbleUpon toolbar loads pages significantly faster than the Internet Explorer version)…

5) After restarting Firefox, you will see the StumbleUpon toolbar in your browser

6) Click “Tools” >> “Profile Preferences” and configure your profile interests to fit your specific niche

7) When you are done configuring, add some friends with similar interests

8) After you’ve added friends, start stumbling by clicking “Stumble!” (left-most button on the toolbar)

9) Random webpages will appear to fit your interests (give it a thumbs up if you like it / thumbs down if you don’t)

10) Repeat steps 8 and 9 (until you are all stumbled-out!)

How StumbleUpon works:

By using social networking programs you give yourself a chance to significantly boost your website’s traffic. StumbleUpon works like this: “StumbleUpon uses thumbs up / thumbs down ratings to form collaborative opinions on website quality. When you stumble, you will only see pages which friends and like-minded stumblers have recommended. This helps you discover great content you probably wouldn’t find using a search engine.” - As quoted from StumbleUpon.

StumbleUpon: a phenomenal viral marketing technique:

Basically, when you give an article a “thumbs up” that article is shown randomly to all of your added StumbleUpon friends and fans. Out of your friends and fans, those who give that article a thumbs up, spread the article to their friends and fans! The cycle keeps continuing and potentially, your article that was submitted a month ago, could still be spreading virally. If everyone keeps giving an article a “thumbs up,” it will keep filtering through everyone’s account infinitely! This leaves bloggers and webmasters with a phenomenal marketing tactic via social networking!

More about the process:

“StumbleUpon helps you discover and share great websites. As you click “Stumble!,” we deliver high-quality pages matched to your personal preferences. These pages have been explicitly recommended by your friends or one of 4,493,158 users or other websurfers with interests similar to you. Rating these sites you like automatically shares them with like-minded people – and helps you discover great sites your friends recommend. other websurfers with interests similar to you. Rating these sites you like ( thumbs up) automatically shares them with like-minded people – and helps you discover great sites your friends recommend.” - As quoted from the StumbleUpon website.

My personal experience with StumbleUpon:

I have gotten over 100,000 pageviews on one specific article on another one of my websites just through using StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon can definitely be a huge traffic addition if you know how to properly use the program. I use StumbleUpon for Andrew Pavelski dot com articles and it definitely rakes in a significant amount of total pageviews per month. It is definitely much more efficient and easier to use than dropping 300 Entrecards, but like Entrecard StumbleUpon visits can yield a fairly high bounce-rate.

2 Reasons that I love StumbleUpon:

  • I currently really enjoy using StumbleUpon because it allows me to find other quality websites, funny websites, informative websites, and interesting facts lurking around the web.

Here are some tips for making your StumbleUpon experience successful:

Since StumbleUpon users are mostly looking for things that are interesting, funny, or attention grabbing, it definitely helps to add some spice to your blog posts. You all should check out my article: “How To Trap Entrecard Droppers” and use some of the same tips for trapping StumbleUpon users.

1) Write an article about StumbleUpon - I really hope that this tactic works for this article that you are currently reading. Being a StumbleUpon user, and from interacting with StumbleUpon users, I know that the majority of them will stop to read something that is “StumbleUpon” related. Writing an article about StumbleUpon should definitely capture the users’ attention very quickly! Another cool thing about StumbleUpon is that there is even a category entitled “Stumblers” which covers anything “StumbleUpon”-related.

2) Get a catchy website design and logo - This suggestion won’t only help to get more quality StumbleUpon traffic, it’ll help you get more frequent visitors and RSS subscribers. The importance of having a good logo, and design can really make up for a lack of content. When you have a design that is visually stimulating to people, they will be much more likely to stop stumbling and actually read some of your articles. Luring in readers with a quality design is definitely half the battle to trap “stumblers!”

3) Post up an interesting video collection - One of my most successful “stumbles” for Andrew Pavelski dot com has definitely been “Superbowl Commercials: My Top 5.” From just that article I got 800 views in one day - which is a very substantial amount compared to my other articles! As an active StumbleUpon user, I love to see video collections. What helped with this submission was the fact that I submitted it the day after the Superbowl. The other thing is, I didn’t just pick the same top 10 Superbowl commercials as were posted everywhere else, I put the commercials that I personally enjoyed the best!

4) Stumble an interesting collection of pictures - I personally love seeing an interesting picture collection on StumbleUpon. And guess what? So does everybody else! A large collection of funny, inspiring, or unique photos will get virtually everyone’s attention and will go viral very quickly! Other stumblers will “tag” your interesting photos and add them to their profile. It’s a viral blog promotion tactic through StumbleUpon: The more profiles your pictures are tagged on>>>the more potential for incoming traffic to your StumbleUpon profile>>> the more people that will want to add you as a friend, and the more overall traffic you bring to your site via StumbleUpon! If you haven’t been having much luck with StumbleUpon, this is definitely a good tactic to try! Be sure that the images are noncopyright or that you have rights to submit your pics, I don’t want to hear of a lawsuit because you got “stumble-happy” and submitted photos that you stole from other websites.

5) Make your submission funny - If there is one category that virtually all stumblers love, it’s definitely: HUMOR. If you can write a good joke, post a funny picture, or even a funny video, it will definitely make your blog get more exposure in a very short-period of time. I have found some of the most hilarious things that I’ve ever seen via using StumbleUpon!

6) Make a long list - Whether most StumbleUpon users like a long-list or not, I don’t exactly know. What I do know is that most of them will give credit where credit is due: if you take the time to compile a lot of information and combine it on a long-list, you will definitely get the thumbs up. If fellow stumblers actually read the entire list, I’d be surprised, but they will reward your efforts if you post a long list of worthy information. One of my most successful Stumble-Upon submissions was a long-list on my other website. Though it was only the site’s second month, I got over 101,000 visits to just that article in 30 days: pretty impressive!

7) Make a simple list with famous quotes - I have seen people compile a bunch of inspiring quotes, write a brief life lesson or shed some insight below each quote, and these lists were stumbled like crazy. I haven’t tried this technique, but I think that I may experiment with it fairly soon and report back with results.

8) Add pictures to your blog - If you just want to submit regular blog posts with hopes that they will take-off and give your traffic a huge boost through StumbleUpon, adding pictures are a must. I try to take my time on StumbleUpon, but I’m usually looking right away for something that’s interesting or attention-grabbing! If you do not have pictures on your blog, you are cutting your chances that fellow stumblers will take the time to actually read your post. When you post up interesting pictures, you will get the attention that your articles deserve!

9) Have a catchy title and an interesting article - If you have a catchy article title, it will give fellow stumblers a reason to read your blog. The title alone won’t do it though, you’ve got to back up a good title with some interesting writing material. When you see a great title as the heading of any article, you begin to read it to find out more. That introductory paragraph is key! If you can get the writer’s attention and fill the rest of your article with quality information, you’ve just won over another reader! Most stumblers want to keep moving from site to site: when they see something interesting (i.e. a catchy title name) they will be much more inclined to stop and actually read your article!

10) Submit all content - In the end, what matters most is that you are submitting quality content. You want to develop a good reputation for your website on StumbleUpon. When someone likes one of your first submissions, they will be much more likely to take the time to read your other submissions and give them a thumbs up! Keep submitting all of your content — you never know what may take off and become popular. A short little rant about why you hate blogrush or think entrecard sucks, could really skyrocket in the “humor” and “blogging” sections! Since you never really know what will and will not work well, do yourself a favor and take the time to submit your articles!

How to ensure success in StumbleUpon:

  • Add like-minded friends. Adding like-minded friends is key to success in StumbleUpon. If you add too many friends that don’t have any interests in the content that you are submitting, you’ll get the “thumbs down” every time. Most stumblers don’t even have a blog to promote: you’ve got to realize that most are just using the program for pure fun and entertainment purposes! So be sure to only add like-minded individuals to your friends list.
    • What if I have 2 blogs with different niches? If you’ve got 2 blogs with 2 different niches, I highly recommend either: A) Adding a mix of friends B) Trying to find friends that are interested in both topics C) Creating 2 different separate stumbling profiles (be sure to add your other account as a friend if you do this…)
      • If you do decide to create 2 different profiles, it will be a lot more time consuming. If you have the time, it may be worth it. It is probably not a great idea to combine a make money online blog’s StumbleUpon’s friends with a science related blog’s friends… the friends from the opposite blog will likely be uninterested in the other’s articles and vice-versa.
  • More about adding friends. When adding friends I like to look for the most active stumblers to see if they have any similar interests. If they do, I quickly add them to my friends list and send them a message asking them to be a mutual friend. What should you say in your message? It can be anything - be creative! I usually say something along these lines: “I noticed that you and I share an interest in (insert topic here). I have added you as a friend and hope that you add me so we can both have like-minded stumbles. By the way, here is my website: (insert URL here), feel free to check it out! I currently have quite the crowd built up for one of my other websites and it seems to get at least 400 visits a day just from StumbleUpon! One cool feature of StumbleUpon is the fact that you can search for friends based on certain topic interests. After completing a search, about 20 StumbleUpon profiles are shown. When adding friends to my StumbleUpon profile, I first do a little bit of scouting and compare our interests. Right click on all of the 20, open their profiles in separate windows, add them as friends, and send them each a nice message asking them to be your stumble buddies. If you share the same interests, most people won’t mind adding you as friends and you can build up a big friends list in a hurry!
  • Send “stumble requests” to friends. If you have written a very worthy article that you consider to be great, sent it to your friends and encourage them to stumble it. How can I do that? Look at your StumbleUpon toolbar. Next, find the “tab” that says “Send To.” Find your article and sent it to “All Friends.” For this to work properly, you must have “mutual” friends. I currently have over 100 “mutual” friends that I can send my stumble requests to. I haven’t tried this feature yet, but am definitely going to start with my other website! Once you send your friends a “stumble request,” there will be a red number next to their stumble button indicating that there is a message. The next time your mutual friend clicks on the “Stumble!” button, they will be sent to the page you that you requested them to take a look at! You can send a small text message that appears in a bar beneath the StumbleUpon toolbar that encourages them to stumble your article if they enjoy it!
  • Participate. Be an active Stumbler! I personally don’t like to add friends that are not active StumbleUpon users: neither should you. If you are going to use StumbleUpon to submit your articles, try to be an active member other than submitting your own articles! Try to StumbleUpon other bloggers’ articles that you enjoyed! When someone looks at your Stumble profile and all they see are stumbles of articles linking to one blog (yours), they will probably not want you as a friend because they will see that you are only concerned about helping yourself. You’ve got to participate by stumbling other websites, not just your own. Other stumblers like to see participation out of their friends. The program StumbleUpon can actually be quite addicting, so participation shouldn’t be too tough once you start stumbling!
  • Let friends Stumble your article. One of the best ways to reach success in StumbleUpon is to let others take the pleasure of submitting your articles. If your articles don’t get submitted after a few days, then it may be time to submit them with your own account. But, if another person stumbles your article, it will probably be more successful than if you keep submitting your own!
  • Put a cool graphic or hot babe as your picture. I personally have a cool little graphic as my profile picture for StumbleUpon. What I find funny is everytime I see a sexy mama as someone’s StumbleUpon profile picture, she has more friends and more reviews than everyone else! You can be relatively new to StumbleUpon and have a great looking picture, and easily make new friends. Don’t take a random picture off the internet and don’t make the picture too exposing, because then people get a bad impression too. If you upload a great looking picture though, you will probably have more fans and many more pageviews than someone who doesn’t. Whether you like it or not: having a good looking profile picture will help you get more stumbles!

Good luck and happy Stumbling!

Hey guys, I want to wish you all the best of luck with using StumbleUpon! The advice provided within this article should really help you out if you’ve been struggling or have been having second thoughts about using a social networking program like StumbleUpon. Be sure to stumble this article and some others that you’ve enjoyed from Andrew Pavelski dot com. I work hard to write quality content and appreciate any extra traffic you can send my way!

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