Stumble can be your best friend or worst enemy (okay, maybe just a not-friend…)

Before you read this I want it to be clear: Stumblers don’t want to be SPAMMED! So don’t spam them with crap posts.

StumbleUpon.com has with out a doubt been the number one contributor to the traffic I’ve been receiving since this site’s inception. On a day-to-day basis it accounts for about 25-40% of my total traffic and on some days has sent me 1400+ visitors to a single post.

If you’re unfamiliar with StumbleUpon.com, heres a quick rundown on it. StumbleUpon.com is a social bookmarking site with a unique twist. It’s users set up a profile with their surfing preferences indicating what type of websites they want to visit according to personal interests. They then install a toolbar in their web browsers and when they want to “StumbleUpon” a website, they click the stumble button and are sent to a random website that best matches their interests. If they like the site they’re sent to they click a “thumbs up” button, if they don’t, a “thumbs down”. The more thumbs up a site receives the more often it is displayed. Too many thumbs down and the site is removed from the system. Pretty simple. Here’s a quote from the StumbleUpon site about how it works:

StumbleUpon uses / ratings to form collaborative opinions on website quality. When you stumble, you will only see pages which friends and like-minded stumblers () have recommended. This helps you discover great content you probably wouldn’t find using a search engine.

StumbleUpon.com has over 4.5 million users and delivers millions of “stumbles” everyday. I love it and stumbleUpon great sites everyday.

My recommendations

Since the realization that Stumble could be such a benefit I’ve done a bit of research and experimentation to maximize the traffic I receive from them and this is what I’ve discovered.

First, become part of the StumbleUpon community

I HIGHLY recommend you become part of the StumbleUpon community before you do anything. Create a profile, make some friends, StumbleUpon some sites. The more active you are in their community, the more you will get out of it. Before you follow any of my advice below, become a real part of the StumbeUpon community. This is a MUST.

Content is king!

Again, Stumblers don’t want to be SPAMMED! So please, don’t spam them with irrelevant, crappy, spammy posts.

To be successful on StumbleUpon you need to produce good content. It doesn’t need to be Pulitzer prize winning material, but it has to be decent. If you’re posting get rich quick schemes, a site with nothing but affiliate links and the like, don’t expect to receive truck loads of traffic from Stumble, you may in fact get banned. I’ve found the best success with short and very relevant posts.

Don’t abuse StumbleUpon. I’m only giving these tips as StumbleUpon can be a great way to get traffic if you’re trying to promote quality content, so only use StumbleUpon to promote just that, relevant and quality content. Remember: NO SPAM!

Getting in the StumbleUpon system and then getting hits

The most effective way of utilizing StumbleUpon is by having someone else “discover” your posts. With out a doubt I’ve found this to get my posts in their system the quickest and produce the largest number of hits. I think this is because I originally discovered most of my own posts and now the Stumble system associates my user account with the TysBlog.com URL. They grant less weight to posts I write and discover.

I find the best success promoting my posts in forums, and if the other forum users like the post I can get stumbled.  The only problem with this is you can’t control the first review, tags, and category associated with the post you want stumbled. And you can’t directly ask Stumble users to Stumble your posts.  That’s against StumbleUpon’s TOS.

Another issue with getting randomly stumbled in a forum is many people just stick a blog post in the “internet” category automatically when they stumble it. Very often it should more likely be placed in “blogs” or “weblogs”.  Or if it’s a story about something off your normal topic, and should be placed in a totally different category like “society”.  All these things are factor.  You want your posts to be as relevant as possible to the category you’re in.

With a service like StumbleUdon.com you can. although using a service like this is also against StumbleUpon.com’s TOS. (comment me if you want an invite - lol.)

I think the best way to get the ball rolling in the Stumble system is to make friends in the stumble system and have them stumble your posts.  I mean, it is after all a social bookmarking site. I don’t see a problem with sending it to your friends via the stumble bar.  And be active in Stumble and give the thumbs up to all the sites you like, don’t just promote your own.  If you come across a super spammy adsense farm, give it the thumbs down. If you’re friends think you’re sending them crappy posts, they don’t have to stumble them and will eventually drop you as a friend.

Stumble is a self policing system.  If you’re posts are good they’ll get thumbs up and stay in the system, if they’re bad you’ll get thumbs down and get booted.  Seems fair enough to me.

Good content in the right category

Submitting really good content while using  very relevant tags and the most relevant category is invaluable as it will help direct your posts to users that are actually interested in what you’re writing about. If the Stumbler comes across good post with relevant content you get a thumbs up and continue in the system.  When Stumbling a new page, pick only a few relevant tags (don’t tag spam), and put it in the most accurate category as you can (use the drop down list, not just the list presented).

Additionally, the readers directed to your site, if it’s tagged correctly and in the appropriate category, are more likely to appreciate your blog.  They’ll bookmark it, and come back for more (here’s a link to an article who’s writter discovered my blog via StumbleUpon and then wrote a positive review about it!).  This is what you really want, RETURN visitors!

The day and time of day matter

From my experiences I’ve found the best success when a post gets stumbled in the evening between 4 pm and 9 pm my time (I’m in the US mountain time zone). Another good time seems to be in the morning around 9-11 am. I’ve noticed good levels of traffic at this time on Fridays. Mondays seem the be the least successful day of the week for me. The same time frames above go for Saturday and Sunday, Saturday being preferred.

Conclusion

• Write worthwhile posts. Crap doesn’t cut in on Stumble.
• Have someone else discover your posts.
• Posts discovered between 9-11 am and 4-9 pm get the most traffic (seems to for me).
• Mondays suck. And they’re not good for stumbling either…

Good luck with your Stumbling and feel free to comment here if you want an invite to StumbleUdon.com or have insight or tips my readers (and me) can use too!

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