Money.Power.Wisdom

Recently, I wrote a short article called ‘17 POWER Tips For StumbleUpon Beginners’. It was a hit with many readers, some of whom have started using Stumble Upon more actively after going through it.

In 48 hours, this article was read by 749 people. It was ’stumbled’ by 43 fans. 7 people reviewed or commented about it. 14 bloggers linked to it from their blogs. And it all happened for FREE!

Not surprisingly, I received many questions about the article. To answer the most frequent ones and to give more detailed information about the process that helped even a beginner at StumbleUpon like myself get such amazing and fast results, I decided to write this in-depth guide to getting more StumbleUpon traffic.

This is not a comprehensive guide to StumbleUpon. If you’re looking for that, here are 2 resources that will give you a LOT more detail about StumbleUpon (but be prepared to spend hours on your research, these are MASSIVE content-rich collections):

So let’s get started learning about how to get more StumbleUpon traffic - quickly, and for free.

Jump In - Start Stumbling!

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It’s as easy - or difficult - as that. While you could read and research about StumbleUpon for a year, that will NOT bring you more traffic. What will, however, is if you just jump in and do things on StumbleUpon.

So, first - yes, even before you read further - click here to join StumbleUpon if you are not already a member. Just register, download and install the toolbar, and come back to read the rest.

Done? Welcome from a fellow SU member. Want to be my friend? Click here and add me to your friends list - just click on the ‘Add him as a friend’ button at the right top corner.

Finished? Great. You are ahead of 90% of the readers of this article who will just read it - but do nothing with the information. Your chance of getting more traffic from StumbleUpon just went up a notch!

Now keep on reading and you’ll learn about some cool - and easy - things you can do to drive a flood of targeted visitors to your blog or website.

Commit To Participating in the StumbleUpon Community

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It came as a mild shock to me first, because I joined SU thinking it was a social bookmarking site that would get me more traffic. Kind of like Del.icio.us or Blinklist or Furl.

Within 2 days, I changed my mind. StumbleUpon is more than a traffic tap. It’s a powerful social NETWORK - an online community where you connect with PEOPLE. People like you, who have the same interests, like the same kind of things - and are ready and willing to share them with you, so that everyone benefits.

Get this core principle into your head and you’ll reap rich rewards from the StumbleUpon community - and have great fun as you drive more traffic to your site.

In just 2 days of networking, I have made 19 friends, am a fan of 48 others, and re-connected with many online friends I know from other places. StumbleUpon gives you some powerful, easy to use tools to make this process as easy as clicking a few buttons. Use them - and profit.

But won’t that take time?

Of course it will. And you may not have a lot of it. I understand. My life is just as crowded and hectic as yours.

Here’s the point, though. Of all online traffic driving systems I’ve researched lately, StumbleUpon is head and shoulders above EVERYTHING else in terms of delivering targeted visitors to your site - for FREE.

From a purely business-like ‘return on investment’ angle, the time you spend on StumbleUpon will very likely deliver more traffic to your blog or website than any other effort - except maybe pay-per-click traffic, where you need to spend money.

Can you find the time to participate on StumbleUpon? You decide. All I can say is that it’s worth finding.

“I Want To Be TOP DOG - a ‘POWER’ Stumbler” - Fuhgeddaboudit!

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Far too many people get into social media networks with the traditional mindset of conventional media like search engines or directory rankings. Numero uno (number one) is valuable for listings on Google or Yahoo!, for sure.

Not so with social media, where your ‘voice’ matters more than your ‘rank’.

So stop obsessing over becoming a ‘power’ stumbler. Don’t set your target as wanting to beat the 100,000+ score that the top stumbler has. Instead, focus your attention on adding value to the SU community - by bringing interesting stuff you come across online to the notice and attention of your network of friends and fans.

Stumble often. Stumble a lot. Stumble good stuff.

That’s easy, isn’t it? And effective too.

Do you surf the Web often? Surely you come across some nice photos, a cool widget, an incredible content resource, a funky design, a heart-warming initiative… Stumble it.

It’s as simple as clicking on the ‘thumbs up’ icon on your StumbleUpon toolbar. Then write a short, pithy, passionate review about the site, telling briefly why you like it, and why others should bother checking it out.

That’s all. Do this consistently and often, and you’ll be a StumbleUpon superstar very soon - and your traffic hit counter will be spinning so fast, you’ll get dizzy staring at it!

And even if you’re just getting started, you have as good a chance at being an ‘instant hit’ as the best stumbler - as long as you pick the right sites to spread the word about.

Getting Started - Some Tips for Beginners

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If you’re just getting used to StumbleUpon, it can be confusing and daunting. I know, because I experienced the same baffling scenario not too long ago.

Here are some tips to get going:

1. Click on the STUMBLEUPON icon on the left corner of your toolbar. You’ll be asked to pick some preferences, depending upon your interests. Select one or a few. Based on your choice, the service will present targeted websites for you to stumble and review. As each page loads in your browser, you can rate it - by either giving it a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’… and move on to the next.

2. If you surf the Web regularly, you can go about it the usual way - except that now, when you come across a site that impresses you, click on the ‘thumbs up’ icon on your SU toolbar - and it gets added to the StumbleUpon database (if it isn’t already in it).

A short explanation about this is in order. If you are the first person to ‘discover’ a cool site, it could be very effective in driving traffic if your ‘find’ gets popular. How? Each site’s review page and listing will carry your name, profile photo and link as the ‘discoverer’ - which means WIDE exposure across the network.

This is the biggest incentive to actively stumble useful resources that help many other users - because then these people will want to be part of your network, and will join your fan base, giving you increasing influence and leverage when it comes to creating buzz around sites you discover in the future - including your own!

Give first - get many times more in return later!

3. Start with people. At the top of your StumbleUpon page, there is a tab titled ‘PEOPLE’. Click it. You’ll get a random list of members. Click on the icon to go to their StumbleUpon blog. There you’ll see a list of the sites they have stumbled. Start exploring, rating and reviewing.

4. Or pick a tag to go. On the right sidebar is a ‘tag cloud’ - a list of words on popular topics, based on the choices you gave indicating your preferences. Clicking on each tag will take you to a page listing people who are also interested in the subject, and sites stumbled by other users. You can visit each and rate them. If you prefer video and multimedia, there’s a section devoted to it, again linked from the navigation bar at the top of the page.

5. Make friends first. That’s another way to get going. You may find someone you already know on StumbleUpon. Click the ‘Add Them As A Friend’ button to be their fan. If they choose to, they can in turn pick you to be a ‘mutual friend’.

And in this way, you can even approach people you don’t know yet - but think you’ll like knowing, based on their interests and profile - thus enriching your network. Remember what I told you before - StumbleUpon is not merely a ‘traffic tool’ - it’s a SOCIAL network!

Driving Traffic To YOUR Site From StumbleUpon

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Now, I’m sure you’ve been scratching your head wondering how all this is going to help YOU. After all, by stumbling someone else’s website, aren’t you really driving traffic to THEM?

Yes, and now we’re going to look at adding your own sites to the mix - so some of that juicy StumbleUpon traffic is directed towards your online property.

First realize this - in a people-powered social network like StumbleUpon, it is harder (and really not worthwhile) to try and ‘game’ the system. Sooner or later, you’ll get caught out - more likely sooner.

If you think you’ll slap up a SU profile and spam the bejeesus out of your network by posting every one of your websites and blog posts ad nauseum, think again. You’ll soon have a grand following of ONE - yourself!

Instead, approach it from the angle of how YOU would like to be treated by someone in your network. What would make you follow everything that person does? Why would you hang on to their every word? When will you begin to TRUST them?

The answer is obvious. When they start adding value to your life - and for as long as they keep doing it - right?

So the real secret to becoming a ‘power’ stumbler is to establish that position of trust and influence - with your network. And the way to do it is add value to their life.

And if your own website, blog, business, service, product, membership or anything else you do online is likely to bring light into the lives of your audience - why, it is your DUTY to let them know about it!

That’s how you drive traffic - huge floods of it - from StumbleUpon to your website. By providing something of great value on your site, and telling your online community about it in the same way you always tell them about helpful, useful, valuable sites you came across.

Do NOT use hype.

Do NOT hard sell.

Do NOT be pushy.

StumbleUpon audiences are discerning and know what they like and enjoy. Just point them in the right direction, and sit back to watch. If they do not like it, see if you can make your resources better or more appealing, instead of trying hard to herd them back… that won’t work.

Here’s a critical mistake you must avoid. Do NOT send visitors to the homepage of your blog or site. Instead, link deep to the specific content that will interest them. That way, you can target many different, narrowly defined niches within StumbleUpon - based on selected keywords or specific interests - and deliver perfectly tailored content to each group.

It also helps your blogging, because you do not have to create all your content in the hope of getting StumbleUpon visitors. Write for your regular audience, but sprinkle in a few posts directed at StumbleUpon readers - linkbait for SU fish!

What Content Do StumbleUpon Readers Like?

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Tough question. Hard to answer. Test it for yourself.

Some generalities:

- people like lists e.g. 101 top Wordpress themes, 69 ways to get more website traffic, 17 POWER Tips to StumbleUpon Beginners

- SU readers enjoy learning more about SU and other social media

- Hot news… juicy gossip, breaking news, what’s happening TODAY

- Photos and pictures

- Cool sites… design that rocks, gadgets, widgets and games

These are very broad, general guidelines. StumbleUpon has a VAST user base of millions, and their interests are diverse and varied. Since you will be appealing to people in your network who anyway share your interests, chances are good that what you find interesting will be attractive to them too.

A bit of data about StumbleUpon visitors based on my early experience (others have reported similar results).

1.66 pages/visit (average)

46.96% bounce rate

00:01:40 average time on site

What does this mean? The ‘bounce rate’ is the number of visitors who left the site without exploring beyond the page they arrived at. Typically, for services like Digg, this figure is around 85%. As you see, with StumbleUpon it is 46% - which means about one-half of visitors did click around to explore other pages on my site.

The fact they spent one and a half minutes (on average) is also significant, as the article I linked to would take barely 30 to 45 seconds to read - less to skim. Chances are many stayed back to read a few more posts.

StumbleUpon visitors are valuable to a website or blog owner. They are more than curiosity seekers flicking from one site to another. Catch their interest and they’ll stick around.

The key to it is providing great value - informative or entertaining content, presented in a pleasant, aesthetically appealing style, without clutter or crowding, and minimal or no advertising that’s annoying and ‘in your face’.

Technical Tips for Content Creation

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Now that you’ve seen what kind of content appeals to StumbleUpon readers, here are a few technical tips to help you get maximum leverage from your StumbleUpon traffic.

1. Longer articles with more links to explore may work better. The more ‘thumbs up’ votes you get, the greater the chance others will stumble across your page. And longer, more informative and comprehensive content is likely to get voted more often than ultra-short snippets.

2. Use eye-catching photos or visual aids to grab visitor attention.

3. Craft compelling headlines to attract readers and suck them into the content.

4. Label and tag every post. Use broad category tags like ‘money’ or ‘health’ which get searched more often rather than less frequently searched terms.

5. Take care to offer most content ‘above the scroll’ - before the visitor has to click a mouse button or scroll down. Chances are they won’t - unless you give a convincing reason to do it.

6. No advertising. Or at least, not intrusively or aggressively. You may use a form to sign up visitors to a list, dangle a juicy gift or run a contest as a hook, and even offer a freebie giveaway. But do not use Google Adsense or other flashy banners or do anything that appears to be pushy advertising or you’ll lose your StumbleUpon audience fast. After all, they found you from a click on their toolbar - and another click takes them somewhere else equally interesting!

The REAL Secret of StumbleUpon Traffic - Relationships

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StumbleUpon is a social network. Incidentally, it also drives huge volumes of traffic to sites that its users consider popular or valuable.

How to get a sizable chunk of StumbleUpon users to rate your website or blog as ‘popular’?

The answer is one word: RELATIONSHIPS.

That’s why social marketing is today’s equivalent of the earlier era of email and web based permission marketing - where coercion will not work, only convincing and co-operating will.

Yes, building relationships takes time.

Yes, growing relationships takes effort.

Yes, consolidating relationships is neither instant or easy.

So you have to take the long-term view about growing a powerful presence on StumbleUpon - all the while enjoying short bursts of traffic and visitors during the process of developing a sustained presence.

The trick is to balance both, so that the benefits your quick results bring will justify the ongoing effort and time you’ll spend to reap even richer rewards.

Let’s look at the relationship building process on StumbleUpon.

Your Mirror to StumbleUpon

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When members of the StumbleUpon community look for you, the first thing they come across is your profile. It is important in creating an impactful ‘first impression’ that will knock their socks off!

Remember to brand. Your username and profile picture must extend the brand of your website or blog or business to StumbleUpon readers.

Create a customized version of your homepage, selecting your interests from the topics listed on the sidebar to match the theme of your StumbleUpon presence.

Pick your topic, interest and keyword choices carefully, as they will determine the kind of people from the community who get exposed to your profile and site picks through SU’s matching algorithm. By placing your selections in front of the correctly targeted audience, you greatly enhance the chance that they will find what you select interesting - and vote you to prominence quickly.

Personalize your StumbleUpon homepage. To do this, click on the PREFERENCES tab and start customizing. In your PERSONAL PROFILE, you are allowed to post a brief introduction message - in which you can link back to your regular website, blog or even sales page or other social media websites.

Start Growing Your Network

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Connect with fellow stumblers. Pick a theme or keyword, and see who else is interested in the same topic. Visit their blog/homepage to see the kind of sites they have stumbled. If there’s a match, add them to your list of friends - and sign up as their fan.

You can take this further and send a message - just click the link on the sidebar and type. The first contact could be just a brief introduction, with a quick mention of how you found their site and what you liked about their stumbles. Then wait for a response - and keep the conversation flowing.

There is no way to automate this correctly. You must invest the time and effort to do it right. You cannot outsource or mechanize human relationships - and those are the kind you develop on SU.

After you enter their orbit, do something to help your new friends. On StumbleUpon, the best thing you can do to help is to vote up their content. Check to see if it is good, because by stumbling and rating poor quality stuff, you will harm your own reputation in the long run.

But if the content is good, stumble it - and rate it with a ‘thumbs up’. Don’t stop there. Write a review. Far too many reviews are short, standard and not compelling. Stand out and be different. Write a RAVE review - one that will get other visitors to the page take notice, and definitely will grab the site owner by the eyeballs and bring you to their attention.

Trust me, they will notice - and reciprocate your effort to help them. A friendship has begun… and all it takes is some passionate writing.

An even better way to get on a Stumbler’s radar is to review their SU blog (homepage) itself. Click their photo to go to the blog - and then pick the link on the sidebar labelled “Review Their Blog”. Write a rave review of the person, or the content on his/her blog.

A StumbleUpon blog with many reviews carries higher ‘authority’ - and every SU user appreciates action that you take to boost that authority. Writing a review is one of the surest ways to a stumbler’s heart!

One more way to grow your network is by making friends with your readers. StumbleUpon shows you how many people visited your homepage, and their details. It’s a flashing icon at the top of your right hand sidebar, next to the inbox icon. Click on it, and you’ll get a list of recent visitors to your StumbleUpon blog.

These are people who were curious enough to check out your blog. You have the opportunity to convert them into friends, fans or at least repeat visitors. A click on their profile photo takes you to their site, where you can add them as a friend, or send a message or review/rate their site picks and profiles.

A final tip that works well for some power users is to go out and search for prominent bloggers who also are active StumbleUpon users - and then you stumble their posts! Do you see how this benefits you? Active SU members understand how your action was responsible for their blog getting extra visitors - and will return your favor at some time in the future, even if you don’t ask for it!

Any of these actions could become the seed of a fruitful friendship - don’t knock it until you’ve tried doing this.

Deepen Relationships With Your New Friends

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Think about friends or family you have in real life. Which kind do you like most? The ones who constantly keep asking you for something? Or the kind that keep GIVING you something you want?

The latter, of course. It stands to reason.

And so, just as in the real world, your online relationship building should begin by giving your new friends value.

Introduce yourself with a personal note. Ask if you can help in any way. Offer your services and assistance with something. Reach out to them and make first contact. Your approach will pay rich dividends in a short while.

Here are 3 more things you can do to help your friends:

- Stumble their content. Visit their blogs and websites. If you find something you like, stumble it - and then write a review. They’ll be sure to thank you for the flood of traffic you unleash.

- Rate and review their picks. You can do this by visiting their blog and browsing through the links they’ve stumbled. How does this help? SU ranks users possibly based on their utility to the service. A stumbler who picks great websites that many other users enjoy should therefore rank higher. By giving your friend’s pick a ‘thumbs up’, you are boosting your friend’s authority within SU.

- Send them your top content to stumble. As a StumbleUpon user, you can send pages to specific friends, or even all of them. When you write or create something that you think all your friends will love, and stumble as their own discovery, send it to them. You’re helping them, while helping yourself indirectly.

Key tip: NEVER explicitly ask an SU user to vote up or stumble your content. It is considered bad form, and reflects poorly on you.

Over and Above - The ‘Last Mile’ of Social Bonding

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There are no traffic jams on the last mile of online social relationship building. You are virtually all alone, ahead of the pack and faster than it - if you implement some common sense practices.

Even simple ones like - saying ‘Thank you’.

Guess how many do it? Not many! Sad, but true. Make the impoliteness of the crowd your competitive advantage.

Thank everyone. Thank the friend who stumbled your post. And the friends who ranked it or visited your site or reviewed your blog. Thank the person who wrote the article or blog that you just discovered and stumbled, or reviewed.

Courtesy is so rare it is always noticed!

Comment on blogs about posts that have already been stumbled. When visitors from StumbleUpon read the blog, they might see your comment - and follow a link in it to your site.

Don’t abuse this function. Always be sure your comment is in context and contributes to the conversation. Never use this as pure link spam. Karma is a strange thing… it comes back to bite you in the back!

Plus link spam is easy to spot - and no power blogger or stumbler will endorse a link spammer. It’s a strategy that’s penny-wise, pound foolish.

Evangelize great posts. No, not just on StumbleUpon - everywhere. Blog about it. Email your list. Twitter or Utterz it. Bookmark it on Del.icio.us and on other services.

Doing this positions you as a ‘value adder’ - and the beneficiary of your efforts will be extremely grateful to you. When it’s their turn, they will gratefully drive a rush of visitors to your site or blog.

To Put It In a Nutshell…

There’s a LOT of information in this report. Yet you can boil down the essence to one quick summarizing statement:

“StumbleUpon is a network of people looking to find interesting, exciting, useful content on the Web; they respect, cherish and admire people like you who help them achieve this goal; and helping them is the quickest, easiest way to get huge surges of traffic from StumbleUpon”

The rest is detail. Technical excellence is of little advantage in a human powered network. Human empathy matters more. That, and a commitment to growing and enriching the online community you participate in.

StumbleUpon is one such awesome online community. It has the ability to drive a huge torrent of website visitors to your online properties. Take advantage of this potential - but do it ethically, effectively and enthusiastically.

To your StumbleUpon success - and may your web server crash from the flood of visitors thronging your site!