What in the World is StumbleUpon?

Umm… okay… for those of you who do not know, StumbleUpon is browser plug-in wherein stumblers (the members) can store, share and discover new websites, images and videos of their interest.

When a stumbler clicks the “Stumble!” button which can be found once the plug-in is installed, he will be redirected to a page which suits his interest (he picks his interests after he registers). If he likes the site, he will most likely click the “I like it!” button. If he does not, he’ll hit the thumbs down button.

When a website, web page, video or image gets a thumbs up from a person, the stumblers within the network of that person will be able to stumble upon by the page once they hit the “Stumble!” button. In effect, the more people who visit the site (and the more thumbs up it receives), the more and more traffic it gets.

Getting Traffic from StumbleUpon

Driving traffic to your site by using SU is easy. You just have to stumble your site and wait for people to find it. If the people find it interesting, they’ll give it a thumbs up and you’ll get traffic! Wait a second there, buddy… don’t just go and stumble your site’s pages! Maintaining the traffic coming from SU is a little bit harder than you think…

So how do I get all the people who stumble upon my site to give it a thumbs up and give me more traffic?

First of all, your content should be really interesting and viral — people should be intrigued by what you made! Original, informative, funny and controversial stuff usually get lots of stumbles. Why? Because people are stumbling simply because they want to be informed and/or entertained! They don’t click the “Stumble!” button because they want some serious headaches; they do it to have a good time.

If you’re having a hard time when it comes to writing content, be sure to check the article from The WWW Observer entitled Tips on How to Write Great Content. I’m sure that it’ll help you.

I’m getting stumbles, but the people are just staying on my pages for 5 seconds! Help!

Now that you know what content to publish, you have to know where to place it so that the stumblers don’t click the “Stumble!” button immediately after they land on your site. People tend to have a short attention span and they’ll often leave a web page when they can’t find what they’re looking for, so you really have to make sure that your AWESOME content will land right where they’re looking at.

Here are some tips to do that:

• Put your content above the scroll. You don’t want your visitors to scroll up and down just to find out what’s interesting in your page!
• Don’t make your font too tiny! I guarantee that if you do that, the stumblers will despise you for that. They will just leave your site, they won’t give themselves a hard time by trying to read your little text.
• Brighten up your articles with pictures. Not all people want to read and read and read. Some will just go to a site to see how a thing looks like, so you better put some pictures with your articles!

Also keep in mind that some people get into your site because you have chosen the wrong tags, so be sure that when you are adding your pages to StumbleUpon, you are selecting the right tags and category for your website.

Oh, don’t forget that the loading time of your page counts, too. A simple page loads fast, so it’s best if you keep your pages neat and tidy! There’s no need for fancy background music and glittery GIFs, people won’t waste their time by waiting for your crappy pages to load. Here’s a nice acronym that you should always remember: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!) Well, sorry for using the word “stupid”. Let’s continue with the post…

I’m getting lots of hits and the people are actually paying attention to my stuff… BUT they’re not buying my products and/or clicking my affiliate links! I need guidance! I’m panicking right now!

Buddy, you have to calm down and think about it for a moment. You can’t expect your visitors to buy from you just because they’re actually reading your stuff. Most of the time, stumblers aren’t even the people that you can expect to have a credit card with them wherever they go. You have to wait for the TARGETED prospects to visit your site so that you can generate some sales (and unfortunately, this rarely happens)! I guess that you should rely on your CPC (cost-per-click) advertisements if you want your visitors from SU to actually convert.

Things to Avoid

You should try to stay away from buying or exchanging stumbles. The effect of the said “schemes” do not last long, and you won’t really benefit from them. You will also be contributing to the “end” of social bookmarking if you purchase stumbles from others. Just keep it cool and play fair.

Remember guys, StumbleUpon can bring tons of traffic daily if you have the right content and right placement. Check back soon for more articles from The WWW Observer! And oh, as usual, feel free to comment on this post (and vote on the poll if you have some spare time). Thanks!

Other posts that you might find interesting:

• Is the Social Bookmarking Era Starting to End?
• Traffic Generation Methods
• Seven Sites to Submit Your Articles To