Stumble Your Way To Success
January 7, 2009 by BloggerNewbie
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If you are a blogger you are no doubt familiar with this logo! StumbleUpon – one of the many, many (too many) social networks in the blogosphere.
What is a social network?
Social Networks are just that ~ social gatherings for people to network and connect. Social Media – What difference does it make? Social Media makes all the difference.
Being involved in the social aspect of blogging has many benefits.
- Make great friends
- Share and connect with your peers
- Get help – give help
- Find resources -share resources
Great idea ~ Sign me up!
Okay, so how do you get involved in these social gatherings? Well, you join of course. You can join any of the dozens of social networks. The vast number of social networks can be overwhelming. There seem to be as many social networks as there are blogs sometimes. It is important to pick and choose only a few sites you can focus on.
Once you join a network, you have the opportunity to meet different people.
Take Twitter for instance. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter ~ I have met many great people on Twitter. I like to use the social aspect of Twitter for the most part. I throw out my newest post every so often but the majority of time spent on Twitter – social. I joined Twitter and didn’t know what was going on for months! I can’t say I entirely know what is going on now, but it is what it is. I think that is the best way to describe Twitter. It is what it is.
One of my other favorite social networks is StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon is a free service that helps you discover and share websites with others who have similar interests. The more you use the service, the more likely it is that you’ll “Stumble” across pages you like.
To get started on StumbleUpon:
• Start Stumbling on from the home page using the Web Toolbar to become familiar with the service.
• Create an account to save your favorites and to connect with other members.
• Download the Toolbar to access all the features available and to share sites you discovered.
So how do you Stumble your way to success?
The business of the online world has various similarities of the business of the offline world. You tend to do business with friends or people you like.
That is one of the advantages of StumbleUpon. You discover, review and share sites that you “stumble upon”. If you are going to benefit from StumbleUpon and take advantage of the business influence then you need to know how this whole social network operates. If you are not already a member of StumbleUpon it is time to get started.
First things first. Sign up for StumbleUpon. Click on the graphic below and go sign up for StumbleUpon then come back.
Second – Download the tool bar. Click on the graphic below and download the toolbar for FireFox. You do use FireFox don’t you? If for some crazy reason you do not use FireFox as your browser, StumbleUpon has toolbars for others as well.
The toolbar makes it so easy to “stumble” your favorite sites. StumbleUpon is a collection of sites that are matched to your interests. If we break down each section of the toolbar, it will be easier to understand how the toolbar will help with your searches.
This button on the toolbar, when clicked, will bring web pages that match your interests from the categories that you chose when you signed up. After you have stumbled a few sites, your interests will be tagged by the number of sites you like in any given category. If a number is shown next to the Stumble button, someone has sent a site to you that they think my be interesting. Click on the number and you will be brought to the site that was sent to you. This is where your Stumble friends usually send you the posts they wrote hoping you will vote in favor of their site. When a site is sent to you through the toolbar, there is also a message line that you can reply to.
You either like the site (thumbs up) or it’s not for you (thumbs down) or you simply don’t vote for the site. Either click the number again or click the Stumble button to move on to the next one.
This button allows you to “tag” a site with categories. When you are searching for sites you like, the tag is how they are categorized.
Do you have a brilliant post that you want to send to some of your friends? This is the button. When you are on your post or on a site you want to share, simply click on “send to” and all of your StumbleUpon friends are listed. You can simply click on your friend’s name and a message box will pop up allowing you to enter a short message about what you are sending.
Channels – you can choose your sites by channel – news – videos – popular sites, specific interests, etc.
Just like it sounds. This button will bring you to your favorites or recently viewed sites in your StumbleUpon account that you indicated you liked . It is a great way to keep all of your favorite sites in one place for later review.
Your friends are just a click away. You can see what all your friends are stumbling. Hopefully, your site is among some of their picks!
The usual utility section. You can change your settings, add features, remove features, etc.
How does this relate to your success as a blogger?
One of our readers here at BloggerNewbie – BusinessX – wondered just that very same thing.
You discover, review and share sites that you “stumble upon” with all of your friends. When your blogging buddies stop by your site and read wonderful posts, they Stumble them and share them with all their friends. Your site now has the exposure of all of your friends’ friends. If ten of your friends like your post and they stumble it, then ten of their friends see your post. You now have exposure to one hundred people. Can you see the snowball affect and increase in traffic?
Having the toolbar installed on your browser makes it convenient to send websites, particularly yours, to some of your friends. When you write an extra interesting post you can click the “send to” button and the list of your friends will be shown. Click on one of your friends, a message box will pop up, you can type in a little message and click send. Your friend’s toolbar will show a number next to the Stumble button indicating someone has sent them an interesting site. When they click on the number, your site will come up and your message. You can send a message back from the toolbar if you like.
A few words of wisdom
- Everyone loves you and everyone knows you are brilliant. Please don’t send every single article or post you write. For one thing, it can be overwhelming to your friends. For another thing, not every single article or post you write is stumble worthy (sorry). You will get traffic for days from stumbling one post, even weeks. If you inundate someone, you will get lost in never never land.
- If you stumble every post you write or every post you read, you could be suspected as a spammer by the powers that be at StumbleUpon and your account can be terminated.
- Some friends will send you sites that are just not your interest. Don’t stumble it. You don’t have to stumble everything you come across. You can click on the thumbs down, not for me tab. I usually just continue on to the next one. I don’t stumble anything with profanity in it. Just my personal preference.
Skelli from Skelliwag wrote a great post on ProBlogger with some great tips on how to grow a young blog with StumbleUpon. I am still reading referrals to that post. ProBlogger also wrote a post and listed 271 StumbleUpon ProBlogger readers and their username to connect with.
How do you use StumbleUpon? Do you find it helpful for traffic? Do you just use it for personal use of keeping your favorite sites in one area?
Toodles – Blog Happy!
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“There is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose,
the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it…”
~ Napoleon Hill
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I just stumble to see what comes up. I don’t really use it as a social networking site. I’ve been on it for over 4 years. I stumbled and reviewed this post and added you as a friend – my tag is skedaddle. You might get a few more visits as a result my thumbs up.
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What a great explanation of StumbleUpon! I understand a lot more about it now. Will retweet your tweet about it.
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Mike:
I like to share great sites and great finds with fellow stumblers too, especially after we have been discussing hunting for something and I find it! I found you on StumbleUpon and added you as a friend. Thanks!
Techandlife:
Thank you. Sometimes the social media sites are complicated and sometimes we complicate something simple (like twitter?) I see you have a post on Twitter which will probably tell me it’s not as simple as I think. I’ll let you know!
Hi Dee! I LOVE StumbleUpon! When I first started using it, I was mainly interested in getting my name out there for exposure purposes. Now, I love that it bookmarks all of my favorites so that I can easily reference them at a later date. It’s sooo convenient!
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I like what you said towards the end. Friends send me articles, etc for me to Stumble and I have mixed feelings about it. I want to support them, but on the other hand, I want to do it only if its Stumble worthy.
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Dee,
Thanks for this comprehensive tutorial about Stumbleupon. There can be some very creative ways to use the service and yes, it can bring people to your site. One post I did back in October brought in over 13,000 visitors.
Yes, there are some important things to keep in mind so that you are not banned. Try and keep the purpose in mind.
In terms of what you send to your friends there are a couple of ways to do it. Early on, I came across a post that suggested friends group up and send each other whatever they posted. There was no obligation to review or thumbs up, but if the article had any merit, friends in the group would more than likely stumble it. This has worked very well and I’ve got a core of about 20 that participate in this process. After a while, my friends list had built to 50 or so and not all of them were part of the core concept. I still send most everything I post to the entire friends list. What I did do, though, is send everyone a message about what the core concept was and asked if they still wanted to participate or opt out. I only received one opt out request – the others seem fine.
The other thing to remember about stumble is that it is important to use the stumble function and mark the pages that you like. Mark a whole bunch of them. This allows your friends to see what you like when they visit your profile, and it shows Stumble that you’re not just using them as a posting service.
Even to this day, about 89% of my site traffic is stumble referred. I’m gradually moving my direct and search referrals up.
I also tweet every post, and sometimes ask for RTs. My twitter referrals are steadily increasing as well.
So there ya have it!
Cheers
George
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Hey Rachel:
I like all the bookmarks of all my favorites too. It’s fun to see what other people find interesting, it’s also fun to see that others like your site as well and that your site has the opportunity to be in front of their friends. Hopefully they will check you out! That’s what I like about StumbleUpon.
Hi Carla:
Some people have the wrong idea about StumbleUpon. It’s not their advertising forum! I have friends that actually send me sites that I would be interested in, not just their own! If I object to the site or post or if it is just something I am not interested in I am not going to stumble it. If my “friends” are just using me and StumbleUpon to further themselves then they have come to the wrong place. So use StumbleUpon as YOU like it!
George:
WOW, I don’t think I have had 13,000 visitors since I started the blog!
“Try and keep the purpose in mind” is great advice. Like I said to Carla, StumbleUpon is not anyone’s personal advertising forum.
I think some people that participate in the group theory have the wrong idea.
I don’t like to ask people to stumble every thing I write for a few reasons. One, even though my kids think so, not everything I write is stumble worthy and two, I’m thinking that if a blog is stumbled too many times it will get lost in the shuffle. Once or twice a week is plenty. Visitors come to your stumbles for days even weeks.
Well that’s my rant for today!
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Dee, now THAT is a great tutorail! Well done
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Hi Dee. I really like StumbleUpon and have met many great people and sites through it. It’s also been kind to me in terms of traffic (though not even close to 13,000 visitor kindness levels!). When I first signed up I Stumbled all my posts … first time I got around 150 visitors, second time 100 .. by the fifth post in as many days it was down to zero.
I wisely gave up Stumbling by own posts (though I still do if it’s been Stumbled already) and concentrated more on using the site for what it’s intended – discovering great web content. Ian
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Ciara:
Thank you, I did work on this post for a bit!
Ian:
I don’t usually stumble my own posts or toot my own horn. Using stumbleupon for it’s intended purpose of finding, tagging and sharing sites is the main focus, hoping someone will stumble and share your great work will hopefully get a little traffic to your site and develop some loyal readers, just like any other social media. Some people are too impatient. Social media is all about relationships and relationships take time, you can’t buy love baby!