The Ultimate Guide To Leveraging StumbleUpon

August 29, 2007

Build Massive Traffic to Your Website or Blog

I’ve been using StumbleUpon to drive huge traffic to my posts, since the inception of this blog. When used properly, StumbleUpon can be an extremely potent tool to attract short bursts of sustained traffic to your website, due to its extremely viral nature. In some instances, StumbleUpon can provide repeat traffic to the same post over and over again, and is therefore one tool that is a must-use in any webmaster’s arsenal.

In little over a month, I’ve taken the time to learn the ins and outs of optimizing the traffic I get from StumbleUpon, and I’ve decided to share my strategies with you. In this guide you will learn advanced strategies involving:

• How to Build a Power Stumbler Profile
• Viral Tactics to Increase Traffic Using Wordpress
• Mistakes You Should Avoid When Using StumbleUpon
• How to Win Friends and Influence Stumbles

The Power of the Stumble: Some Basic Facts

StumbleUpon has accounted for 55% of this blog’s traffic on a consistent basis. Amazingly, Stumble traffic has one of the lowest bounce rates when compared to Digg, Netscape, and other referral sources. Compared to other traffic sources, StumbleUpon traffic generated 94.72% new visits, with visitors sticking around to read my content for a decent 2:02 minutes. What does this mean to you? Stumble traffic represents a huge opportunity to attract repeat visits, subscriptions, and possible goal conversions for a completely new audience to your site.

Community StumbleUpon Tactics

I’m not going to argue about ethics in stumbling here - how you get your traffic is up to you in the real world. That said, if you already have a successful blog or website, stick to white hat promotion methods. Community based Stumble Upon strategies come in 2 flavours: Instant Traffic and Residual Traffic.

There are three methods that currently work to influence (or game) StumbleUpon votes

• Digital Point Stumble Forums - This should be your first stop towards getting instant traffic to your posts. Simply start a thread or participate in an existing one to exchange a ratio of stumbles. For example, you can stumble 1:6 - meaning that for every one stumble you do for another user, he or she will return six for your posts.
• StumbleXchange - Aiming to increase the efficiency and equity of voting for stumbles, StumbleXchange provides a bartering system for users. You return someone’s stumble and get your posts stumbled in return.
• Avuw - A similar system to StumbleXchange that provides an equitable system for stumblers to exchange votes.
• Authority Site Stumbling - If your post has been linked to by an authority site, stumble their post regarding your’s as well and get thousands of visitors from referral traffic. Props to Loren Baker came up with this awesome sneaky tactic

I’m afraid I can’t link to StumbleXchange or Avuw, so I’ll leave it up to you to search for them through Google.

How to Build a Power Stumbler Profile

The strength of each of your StumbleUpon votes works in the same way exponential math does. StumbleUpon uses a couple of factors in its algorithm to determine the value of each stumble, but there are two main factors that users can influence.

• Reciprocal Addition of Friends - Adding friends to your StumbleUpon profile increases the power of each stumble. Participate in friend exchange requests on Digital Point to build up a significant group of friends, that you can rely upon whenever you are in need of stumbles.
• Personal Profile Reviews - Positive reviews of your personal Stumbler profile can reflect positively to the quality and quantity of traffic that is directed to your website or blog post. This is especially important in establishing residual traffic, which can trickle in weeks after your post has initially been stumbled.
• Contact Top Stumblers - Getting in touch with the Top Stumblers in your niche can be very advantageous in driving massive amounts of traffic to your site. As your authority increases with the number of reciprocal friend additions and profile reviews, you will also find other stumblers contacting you for exchanges, as you become one among the Top Stumblers.
• Provide a Stumble Button for Each Post - It’s simple to do and your readers won’t thank you enough if they’re accessing your post from a computer without the StumbleUpon toolbar.

Viral Tactics to Increase Stumble Traffic through Wordpress

With over 3 million users using StumbleUpon worldwide, sometimes you cannot afford to not show-off your stumbles with pride.

StumbleCrumble is a Wordpress plugin that allows bloggers to show off their latest stumbled posts in their sidebar. Popularity breeds popularity, and this may lead to even more stumbles for your post inventory.

The improved Share This plugin modified by Ian Fernando adds support for Stumble Upon for your blog’s readers. Given that most stumblers have a severe case of ADD (I know I do), the easier you make it for them, the better

On a side note, StumbleUpon also offers a Facebook application that shows the most recent stumbles on your profile. You can check it out here

Mistakes You Should Avoid When Using StumbleUpon

Stumblers are a like the “channel surfers” of the web. If they don’t like the design or content of your website immediately, they’ve got a trigger happy clicking finger that’s itching to stumble the next random site. When you have such fickle traffic, you have to ensure that you’ve got your bases covered, such that you don’t turn potential subscribers or repeat visitors away:

Here’s a list of easy to follows Don’ts of using StumbleUpon:

• Don’t lead stumblers to your blog or websites main page! This is akin to committing Stumble Suicide - Instead, direct them only to the relevant post you would like a massive amount of traffic for.
• Plastering your landing page with Adsense and other advertising units is not recommended. Stumblers will only perceive your website to be spammy, and will not contribute a single cent to you. You can kiss that low bounce rate good-bye if you do choose to employ Adsense with StumbleUpon.
• If you’re expecting a significant amount of stumble traffic, clean up the look of your blog and make sure that it is visually appealing. Always position content that has ‘call to actions’ above-the-fold.
• Don’t rely on buying stumbles to gain traffic. If you are buying stumbles through StumbleAds or Subvert & Profit, position your strategy to only provide the initial momentum your campaign needs. Rest assured, natural stumble traffic will bring in the rest.

How to Win Friends and Influence Stumbles

Notice the catchy sub-title? Building a Stumble Team involves some hard work and diligence in finding individuals that are relatively in the same niche as you are. The Digital Point Forums are always a good place to start in finding individuals that are willing to have a mutually beneficial stumbling relationship.

Of course, if you want to befriend with Top Stumblers you’ll need to do a little more than ask for a friend exchange and a review. Following the same rules as asking for link bait will give you good leverage for establishing a relationship with Top Stumblers. Be respectful, do not beg, and provide value back to them by stumbling topics that they are already interested in. Provide real feedback and genuine praise by writing them a stumbler review, and you’ll be sure to catch their attention.

Closing Comments on StumbleUpon

When leveraged correctly, StumbleUpon can easily become a killer source of traffic to your website or blog. I love using the service daily, and it has helped me promote this blog very well. While I don’t make any real monetary gain off StumbleUpon traffic, I gain in other aspects such as Alexa Ranking, Brand Promotion, and Reader Retention. That said, I hope you’ve enjoyed my complete and ultimate guide to leveraging StumbleUpon - Please spread the word about this post by stumbling it now

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