StumbleUpon is one of the most powerful websites you could utilize for getting viral traffic to your content. StumbleUpon can send tens of thousands of visitors to your site in a few hours, but it can also become a consistent source of traffic over time.
Because of the nature of StumbleUpon, content which people like has a very good chance of being seen by even more people.
How To Use StumbleUpon For Instant Viral Traffic
Understanding the Mindset
Before designing a campaign for StumbleUpon, it’s crucial that you understand the mindset of Stumblers.
StumbleUpon is a lot like flicking through different channels on a TV, except it’s on the internet and people are flicking through different websites.
StumbleUpon will serve up unique pages and websites to people. If they like it, they can “Thumbs Up” the content, if they don’t they can “Thumbs Down” the content. At any time they can click “Stumble” and see a different site.
It’s very easy for someone who’s bored to “Stumble” away from your site. Likewise, if you get a lot of Stumblers to thumbs up your content, you can quickly get a flood of Stumblers coming in.
The Most Important Thing for Targeting Stumblers
The most important thing to keep in mind when you’re targeting StumbleUpon users is that they’re in a very “quick entertainment” mindset.
You need to catch their attention, and you need to do it immediately. In other words, the above the fold area of your website needs to have some sort of shocking or captivating headline or graphic.
People should feel immediately drawn in upon seeing your site. Remember, if you don’t catch their attention, they’ll be gone before you can say “Stumble.”
Keeping Their Attention
Throughout your page should be very interesting, emotionally engaging pieces of content. It doesn’t matter if it gets them to laugh, to be outraged or to be shocked – it just has to be emotionally engaging.
You’ll also want to tone down the ads on the page which Stumblers land on. Pages with a lot of ads tend to get downvoted, while pages with fewer ads and more engaging content tends to get upvoted.
Getting Your Content on StumbleUpon
So how do you actually get your content on to StumbleUpon?
StumbleUpon frowns on people submitting their own content. You can, but if you do it too often you’ll get your account disabled.
The best way to do it is to first spend a week or so using StumbleUpon yourself. That way you build up some usage history so it doesn’t look like you’re just there to promote; and you also get some experience with the StumbleUpon’s system.
Then, pick one of the best pages on your website and submit it to StumbleUpon. Ideally, you should get enough of a following from StumbleUpon that others will submit your content from then on.
If your content isn’t getting enough uptake, submit another piece of your own content a few weeks later. But make sure you’re also submitting other things and that there’s an interval between your submissions of your own content.
What’s Your Experience?
How has StumbleUpon worked for you? Share in the comments below!
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
HiThanks for writing this. I signed up for Stumble upon awhile ago, but never did anything with it. I’ve heard it’s a good source of traffic. I wonder if it will continue to be a popular sites? I LOVE the way Pinterest has taken off!! It has brought a lot of new visitors to my blog!
Betsy @ Romance on a Dime recently posted..50 Habits of Thin People: Week 3
It does look like Pinterest is doing really well for a lot of blogs!
My friend once ask me if stumbleupon is good. I said no because i haven’t really use that thing. Your post enlightened me on that matter. I should have used that one in my campaigns. Such a good tool to get random traffics.
Farrell recently posted..The Year to Improve Eyesight
Glad to help, Farrell – it’s taken me a while to warm up to the idea of StumbleUpon, too, but I have seen that it is really possible to gain quite a bit of traffic from it.
Interesting! I’ve never even heard of it before, but I’ll have to check it out.
Renee recently posted..How can I get $1 Million if I don’t win the lottery?
StumbleUpon works wonders for my blog and brings in good traffic. If you have a list post on your blog, it works even better.
Adeline recently posted..How to Download YouTube Videos Using GreaseMonkey Script
Great tip on the list posts, Adeline – thanks for commenting!
I need to give stumbleupon another try I guess. I tried using it, but I was having trouble with the toolbar. I thought I was stumbling others posts, and I don’t think it was working.
If you ever want another place to link up, I have a weekly fri-monday anything goes linky. Hope to see you soon.
Mindie recently posted..Spring Inspired Jewelry I Have Been Making
YES! I love StumbleUpon and use it religiously. I have the SU toolbar installed and love to thumbs up blogs as I read. Some of my posts have done fabulously well after being stumbled. Some take off….others don’t. But it’s still totally worth the time as a blogger to share the love and stumble other people’s posts.
Lolli @ Better in Bulk recently posted..Tips to Get Kids Involved in Laundry {+ Giveaway}
What a great way to look at it, Lolli – supporting other bloggers along the way!
I never used StumbleUpon and only heard of it by name. I’m going to look into it. Thanks for this article!
I have only been using StumbleUpon for about 3 weeks now, and I find it difficult to get followers. I finally have 4, though I am following almost 50 users. I’m also not sure how to get users to stumble my posts. It will definitely take some learning for me to be successful with it.
Kecia, perhaps a post alerting your readers to the benefits of StumbleUpon and showing them how to use it might help get you more stumbles.
I stumbled many links of mine. But for only one post Stumbleupon provided a good amount of traffic. Likewise reddit also provided me a good amount of traffic for few post i submitted
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