How to get the most traffic out of StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is a social networking website that
rates and reviews webpages so people can find interesting and fun stuff on the
web. Any website or webpage can be reviewed and commented on through the
StumbleUpon's website. The most interesting websites get good ratings and tons
of traffic. StumbleUpon is a great way to get traffic to your website or blog.
SU can to increase traffic because everyone that gives a "thumb up" to what you
submit helps to promote the page on their account. It's like a snow ball effect, the more people who give it a
"thumb up" the more likely people are to see it and visit your site.
So all you really need to do is get the ball
rolling. So how is this done? Well I should start off by saying it will take
time. You have to build a fan base of people who like and trust you to send
them good content. So this is where we will start
Getting Started and Building a Fan Base
The Setup
First you need to sign up for an account. Once you
have done this fill out your profile to some extent so people know you are a
real person and not some kind of spammer only out to get traffic to their
website. Don't name your account something like freecoupons.com use your name
or some other name that people will assume is an average person on the web.
After your profile is setup get the StumbleUpon toolbar. This is the easiest
and fastest way to sent and receive pages on SU. I know, not another toolbar,
you can turn it off when you don't need it to cut down on space.
Building Friends
The first thing you want to do is stumble several
popular or trending stories or articles that fit in with what you are planning
on submitting to SU. You want to do this before friending people so they can
see that you like interesting and relevant articles. The second thing you want
to do is decide what demographic you are trying to hit. If you are going to be
submitting articles about computers then you need to friend people who like
articles about computers. Your article will fall on deaf ears if your friends
aren't interested in what you're sending. In order to do this go to
StumbleUpon's website and click into a category that will fit what you're
planning on submitting. On the right sidebar you will see a grouping of people
who like this category. These people are your audience so friend them J .
The Right Kind of Friend
When you friend people you want to let them know
you care. So when you send them a friend request go ahead and review their list
of favorites. Say something nice about their collection of websites and try to
be genuine. This will let them know you took the time to promote their page and
they will appreciate it. You are only allowed to friend 25 people a day with a
maximum of 500 friends. So if you hit the maximum every day and you added
friends 5 days a week it would take you a month to hit the maximum.
Don't get SU Blocked
StumbleUpon has a filter so you can't submit all
your pages to StumbleUpon in one day. They will block you from submitting websites
from a URL if you abuse it. A good rule of thumb is to only submit 5 articles
from the same URL a week. This will prevent them from classifying you as a
spammer and you can keep your account and all your friends.
Play the Game
To be a good stumbler you have to play the game.
If one of your friends sends you something and you like it give it a thumbs up
and review it. It will give them confidence in you and we hope they will return
the favor by helping you with your submissions. You can't ignore your friends
and never respond to what they send. Talk to them and always try to be nice.
Don't send too much stuff in one day or people will start to complain and will
unfriend you.
Sending Content
You can send a page to just one person at a time
or you can send it to all your friends from your favorites page. Hover over the
thumbnail of the favorite you want to share, and in the bottom right corner you
will see a share button pop up. Click it and it will give you a box to send the
page to all your friends. Type a message that will get their attention or ask
them something related to the page that might get a response. Try and engage
the user as much as possible. Don't only send pages from your own site make
sure to send other content as well. If the only thing they see from you is the
same site they might unfriend you or report you for spamming.
Conclusion
So there you have it, a good start to building a
successful StumbleUpon account that will build your traffic to your website or
blog. This is only the beginning so keep trying to figure out ways to make your
friends list a more productive and traffic building network.