My StumbleUpon Page

When I first started blogging I had no idea what StumbleUpon was. I quickly learned the basics, installed the toolbar, “stumbled” a few articles, and had a few of my articles stumbled. Sure, it was fun. And the spike in my blog traffic was great when my articles got stumbled. But beyond that I didn’t see much potential to gaining consistent blog traffic, so the novelty slowly fizzled.

But, I discovered that Fred at Newest on the Net is compiling an Ultimate List of StumbleUpon Articles. So, this was a good reason to give StumbleUpon a second look. And, boy, am I glad I did. There is so much potential there that I did not see the first time around!

The Basics of Stumble Upon
I am not going to delve into the basics of StumbleUpon. Much of this you can find out on the site in their help section. After you install the toolbar, you can start stumbling. Every time you hit the stumble button, you will be taken to a new page in the categories that you defined when setting up your profile. You then rate the page with a thumbs up or thumbs down. The more you stumble and rate, the more personalized your stumbles will become so you should find your stumbled content to become more and more interesting. This is where I stopped previously. Fun, yes. Increase blog traffic - hmmm.

Harnessing the True Power of StumbleUpon
The true traffic power of StumbleUpon lies behind the “friends” function. I never thought of StumbleUpon as a traditional social networking site - but it really is just that, with a twist. In StumbleUpon you can add friends just as you do on other social networking sites, But choose your friends carefully - the maximum you canhave is 200. (Of course, you can add and delete at will.)

Picking similar minded stumblers as friends is important to success with StumbleUpon. When you choose someone as a friend - you will see an updated list of all their stumbles. This gives you a pool of articles and new blogs that you may find to be interesting. You will also get that person’s attention, and they may come over and check out your site. If you stumble some of their articles, hopefully they will take note, read your blog, and stumble something of yours. This is where the viral nature of StumbleUpon takes hold. The more you stumble, the more attention you will get.

As with anything else, this process takes time. You cannot expect overnight results. Focus on StumbleUpon for a set amount of time everyday. Do this for a month. Be generous with your stumbles. Anytime you read a post that you like on any blog, use the social networking/share this button at the end of the post or the thumbs up (or down) button on the StumbleUpon toolbar. If you are the first to submit the article you will have the opportunity to tag it and write a short review. Take the time to do this and do it well.

When the author sees that his/her article has been stumbled, he/she will most likely press the (infobutton) on the StumbleUpon Toolbar. Here he will find the identity of the person that submitted his article, as well as others who have stumbled it. He will then probably click over to your site and possibly reciprocate.

The result: Consistent use of StumbleUpon is sure to increase your blog traffic.