I’m currently participating the the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge with the SITS Girls community. Day 29′s task is to develop a plan to boost your readership and this post explains how you can do that with StumbleUpon. You can grab the workbook and get started on your own 31 Days to Build a Better Blog at anytime.
I’ve been using StumbleUpon for well over a year now and have read a lot of theories on how its secret algorithms work. The geek in me just can’t get enough of a good algorithm and I’ve developed my own system to effectively use StumbleUpon.
The number one thing to remember with all social media is you get what you give. You’ve got to use it like it was meant to be used if you want to reap any benefit from it.
In May 2009, ProBlogger suggested the following as an effective blog promotion strategy:
Join the three most relevant social media sites and work to build value. Promote 10 times as much of other people’s material as you do your own. And don’t forget: sincere, relevant, and valuable.
First thing you need to do is set up a StumbleUpon account and install the toolbar.
Once you’ve done that, use the Stumble button in the toolbar a lot to get a feel for the system. Don’t submit any new content to the system until you’ve gotten a really good feel for what kinds of posts the StumbleUpon community likes.
While you’re doing this initial stumbling you’ll likely discover that you don’t like being recommended pages for contests and giveaways that ended a year ago, deals that are long since expired, and seasonal posts that are totally out of season. StumbleUpon will keep recommending posts for months and years to come so timeless content will do best. You’ll learn that you don’t want to submit a post that wouldn’t be relevant a month or a year from now.
StumbleUpon is a 3 part system based on ratings, friends (people you’re following and people following you; you can add me), and similar users. The time you spend stumbling before you start submitting builds your profile so that when you do submit new content, the StumbleUpon system has all three pieces of the puzzle and knows who to recommend the sites you submit to. If you’re only rating your own pages, you’re only giving StumbleUpon a third of the information it needs to recommend those pages to other users.
Don’t just thumb up every post the recommendation engine gives you. You want to build your interests, relevancy, and value so that the similar users StumbleUpon pairs you with are truly similar and likely interested in the content you later plan to submit. I rarely use the thumbs down option, it’s reserved for posts I especially dislike. Posts that I just don’t find interesting or appealing don’t get a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
When you’re finally ready to start submitting content make sure to maintain at least a 10 to 1 ratio. Promote at least 10 times other people’s content as your own. If I have a post I want to submit to StumbleUpon, I start by using the Stumble button in the toolbar until I’ve found 10 new posts I like, then I go to my page and like it, and then I stumble until I’ve found 10 more other people’s posts to like. I only want to like other people’s posts when I actually find them relevant and valuable so it usually takes me 15 minutes to half an hour to submit one post of my own with this system but that effort typically results in hundreds or thousands of hits on the post (20% of the total lifetime traffic on this site has come from StumbleUpon).
Submit the content of others too (it looks bad if all you ever do is submit your own content) but don’t just submit a post because someone asked you to. An easy way to help your friends on StumbleUpon is to check the box to accept shares in your toolbar on their profile page, but again only give a post they send your way a thumbs up if you really like it. Always keep in mind what you’ve learned about what types of posts do well on StumbleUpon and keep it sincere, relevant, and valuable.
Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links.
Related posts:
Reflecting: How to Make the Most of StumbleUpon #31DBBB
Getting Started on StumbleUpon
How to Make the Most of Follow Friday
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{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
Visiting from 31DBBB, and this is a super useful post- thank you.
I’ve only recently started on Stumble Upon, and have shared many of the same thoughts as your own. It’s nice to have some insight from someone who’s been using the system for longer.
Great post! I’ve never joined stumble upon, but have surfed it a few times. I saw you stumbled one of my link roundups last week (which totally boosted traffic) – thanks!
Thanks for the great tips! StumbleUpon is really hit and miss for me so I am going to try your strategy and spend more time stumbling other’s posts. In fact, I stumbled this one!
StumbleUpon is such an interesting source of traffic. I really like finding sites through it. I find more frequently I stumble (and review discoveries) the sites I’m already on instead of using the Stumble! option in the toolbar. I do like taking a Stumble often as well though.
Great tips.
Stumbleupon wants you to find what’s already in their system so they won’t give you as much “power” if your only adding new discoveries.
So you don’t count discoveries in your stumbleupon numbers? Good to know, Carrie. I wonder why it counts discoveries less? I like your method (though aren’t you doing a 20 to 1 ratio?) a lot. StumbleUpon is such an interesting, yet underutilized tool!
sometimes i do 10 then 1 of mine then 10 then 1 of mine then 10, etc so it’s not always 20 to one but it’s always at least 10 to one at a minimum
Hi thanks for the tip. I logged onto Stumble Upon for the 31DBBB challenge but was confused on how to use it. I Will try your Technique as part of my routine and see what happens. L
This is great info! Thank you Carrie. I signed up for StumbleUpon but I had no idea what I was doing. I will be using your suggestions.
Are you finding it is building your readership?
95% of my stumbleupon visits are from new readers and about 1% are subscribing. but i know from my own experience surfing with the stumbleupon toolbar that i start to recognize certain sites after i get them via stumbleupon a couple times and that leads to recognizing those bloggers later on twitter or when i get linked to their site from another source. it does build recognition.
Great info Carrie! I’ve made so many ‘stumbles’ along this blogging path it’s ridiculous. And yet I’m still plugging away. This seems like a great system and I’m going to give it a shot!
Thanks!
This is great information, thank you! Because of the 31DBBB I am planning on joining and trying out SU and this is so helpful!! It’s great to know all of this prior to joining. Thank you!
WOW! This is such an awesome post. I admit, I have a stumble upon account but I never used it because I have never gained anything from belonging to it. So now that I know all your tips & trickw & how to use it, I’m totally going to start up again!!!
SINCERELY, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
Thanks for posting this! I have been intimidated by Stumble Upon and uncertain how it works and how I can use it for my blog. I am bookmarking this and hope to branch into the world of stumbling soon.
Carrie,
A stumble fan! I love StumbleUpon! It can be hard to sort out what’s going on when you first land on the site. This is a really useful guide – well done! The best feature of stumble is the opportunity to go on a stumblerun where you click stumble and a new page is presented for your enjoyment based on your preferences.
I didn’t realize that stumble appreciates us going on these stumble runs and voting for posts more than discoveries. That’s another good reason for me to make sure that I go on a 15 minute stumble run every day.
Plus, it’s an excellent way of discovering new blogs and generating post ideas.
Fabulous!
This is a great post! I didn’t realize it mattered to have friends on SU, so this is an area I am lacking in for sure. Very helpful!
Carrie – correct me if I’m wrong – but don’t you get Stumble suggestions from the pages your friends have liked? (If not, that’s the way it SHOULD be)
I’m not sure, but I know the more I add like-minded friends and like pages, the more awesome stuff I find via the Stumble toolbar!
that’s part of the algorithm.
i do most of my stumbling via the “people i’ve subscribed to” channel in the toolbar which means when i’m in that channel all of the pages i’ve stumbled are stuff my friends liked.
Excellent. Again, great to know. I never really paid attention to the drop-down in the toolbar that lets me set that!
Thank you so much for this post. I really want to use SU, but just don’t know where to begin. I’m goind to try to start out slow, but I need to start using it regularly. Your SU tips are great.
I have never thought of doing stumble upon before. It sounds interesting and I like your tips for doing it.
I am visiting from 31dbbb.
Also a quick question, I love the widget you have in your header, where people can get your RSS feed, twitter info, facebook, etc.
Where did you get that? What is it called?
Great post. I’ve been wondering how to effectively use Stumble Upon! Thx!
Hi Carrie – Thank you so much for writing this post. It was perfect timing for me. I literally just got off of SU because I was confused as to how it really worked. Your expertise really cleared things up for me. So…thank you…thank you…thank you!!!
So many people, including myself, use SU but really don’t have a clue about its full extent. This is such a great and informative post. Well done!
stumbleupon loves recipe posts so you’ll have it easy
Thanks for this. I signed up for SU at the start of 31dbbb but couldn’t really work it all out! You’ve laid it all out for us confused stumblers! Will be trying this system soon. Thanks once again!
I’ve just started using SU and this post is a huge help! I think my Momcomm Monday posts have potential to really go somewhere on SU so I need to up the ante in participating on SU. Thanks for some motivation!
Thanks for taking something that was confusing and a little intimidating and making it seem simple. I have been a SU user for years, but had never thought about using it to promote my blog (Until reading your post and participating in 31DBBB, that is). Now, I have a great place to start!
Visiting from SITS.
Thanks, It’s a very informative post –
and I’m sure I’ll now be using SU more in the future
Best wishes
Will
I was just telling someone on Twitter that I don’t really get what to do with SU and she pointed me here. Thanks for the tips.
NEVER used StumbledUpon and I appreciate your insight here! I love the quote you used from Darren @ ProBlogger. So true! Thanks!!
I use StumbleUpon all the time, it’s quickly become one of the biggest drivers of traffic to my blog! It’s even better now that it’s an App on my iPhone! So easy to use and convenient. The biggest thing to remember and I’m glad you hit on it, it’s called Social Networking Karma. The more you do for others, the better it’ll be for you.
You can find me there
I’m following you there (and twitter & facebook) now too. http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/shasher/
I actually recommend never using thumbs-down with Stumble Upon. When you thumbs down a page you don’t enjoy, you’re telling Stumble that you don’t like that type of page, when in reality, you just didn’t enjoy a specific page.
For example, if cars are one of your Stumble interests, and you come upon a page showing a car you don’t like, if you thumbs it down, the result will be that you’ll receive less pages about cars. If you don’t like Mustangs, and you thumbs-down a page about Mustangs, Stumble won’t think, “Oh, this person doesn’t like Mustangs”, it will think “Oh, this person doesn’t like car pages as much as I previously thought”. In which case, you’ll end up missing out on pages about cars that you probably would have wanted to see.
Thank you so much for joining my Stumble Upon hop and I even learned a bit
Very useful post! Thrilled to Stumble it for you.
Thank you! I am a stumble upon account but have been discouraged on how to get going. I will look into starting to stumble!