People say nothing lasts except death and taxes.
I beg to differ.
I’m happy to say our StumbleUpon group is still going strong.
It’s been a year since I started the StumbleUpon group, the content curation site which results in massive traffic to blogs and other websites.
In that time, bloggers’ posts have been stumbled, bloggers have stumbled others’ posts, and the bottom line is the same– we are continuing to get mega traffic from StumbleUpon, and you can too.
What is StumbleUpon?
StumbleUpon.com is a social media and content curation site. It’s reputation precedes it. Bloggers flock to SU as a result of the site’s reputation for bringing blogs massive traffic.
Do all good things come with a catch? At least this one does. The catch is as follows: supposedly, the more you stumble your own posts, the less likely you are to get the massive influx of blog traffic.
My experiences support this. Danny from DannyUK.com also advises against self-promoting too often.
My Experiences with StumbleUpon
My post How To Make 1,406 People Look At Your Site in 1 Day explained I received 1,000 page views from the site  in less than a day. That was almost a year ago.
However, since then, I frequently receive 50 hits from StumbleUpon in the course of a day. While many report peaks and valleys in regards to SU traffic, I feel the traffic flow is stable depending on how active I am there.
50 hits in a day is not an abnormal occurrence for me, and a statistic I am quite happy with. The screenshot included in this post (see Advantages to Using StumbleUpon) shows I received 74 page views in one day from the site. These statistics are consistent for me. Instead of the peaks and valleys others report experiencing, I am experiencing a plateau, one I am quite happy with.
Testimonials
1. I have had my first success through StumbleUpon, and it’s a direct result of your post and stumble. Thank you so so much! ~ Mainy
Mainy also wrote,
Morning Janice
I have continued to enjoy stumble visitors to my blog most days since joining your group, so I’d like to say a big thank you! ~ From Mainy
These results are not isolated. In June, Mainy wrote:
Hi Janice, I am loving the results of my visitors from using your stumble group. Thanks so much.
Subsequently, Mainy wrote:
Hi, Janice, hope you’re well:) I was wondering if you’d be able to stumble my new post, please. The results are always so good!:),
Other commenters echoed the praise.
2. I love the traffic that I get from StumbleUpon ~From Rachel
3. StumbleUpon gave me great traffic: maybe not 500 hits a day, but significant!! Thank you for all the help! ~ From MattÂ
4. I had a post reap over 1,000 views when it was stumbled. ~ From Molly
5. StumbleUpon has always been a good source of traffic for me. ~ From Harry
6. I submitted a page to SU and got over 1500 views the next day! ~ From Lorraine Reguly
7. In her post, I Went Viral on StumbleUpon! Here’s How I Did It., Coach Debbie Woodruff explains her blog traffic increased seven times as a result of using the site and continued twice as high in the coming weeks.
Screenshot Courtesy of Coach Debbie Runs.
Changes at StumbleUpon
Recently, there have been so many changes over at StumbleUpon, people don’t recognize the site.
According to the powers that be at StumbleUpon, the social aspect of this social media/content curation site has decreased. “The new update does remove private messaging…”
Despite these changes, there are still many advantages to using StumbleUpon to try to get mega blog traffic.
Advantages to Using StumbleUpon
- StumbleUpon is a great content curation site. If you are browsing the web and find an article you might want to reference in a blog post or read later, click the thumb up. This will put the article on your list of “likes”. You can always organize your likes later by putting them in a list.
- StumbleUpon is an excellent source of traffic. The more you get stumbled by other people, and the more they stumble your articles, the more traffic you should receive. That is the beauty of our StumbleUpon group. The page is structured to facilitate both the stumbling and being stumbled aspects.
- StumbleUpon traffic often results in search engine traffic. Consider the screenshot below.
As I explained in my post which described how to increase search engine traffic, I used to receive 2 hits a day from search engines. As can be seen, on May 29, the day I received 74 hits from StumbleUpon, I received 52 hits from search engines, a massive increase in organic traffic for me.
Because SU is so helpful in getting visibility to your website, socialmediaimpact.com recommends it for marketers.
- Today, it is easier than ever before to get traffic from StumbleUpon. You get traffic from stumbling other people’s articles. More and more people have StumbleUpon buttons which facilitate this. Even the new social media/content syndication site Niume allows you to stumble articles.
StumbleUpon Strategy
Although people recommend various methods to receiving mega traffic from StumbleUpon, there are strategies that my observation and practice prove effective.
This post has already shared the need to stumble and be stumbled. If you are a Mostly Blogging subscriber, I am happy to stumble your posts for you, but your results will be far more effective if you stumble other people’s posts as well. These are my suggestions.
In addition, if you want massive traffic from StumbleUpon, you should follow these other bloggers’ tips:
- According to Olivia Derby, You need to slow down and actually read and engage with the article the site presents to you. She recommends a minute on the post.
- When stumbling, you should come from different sites, not always their blog. Stumble articles from their site, from Pinterest, and from Facebook, for example. The StumbleUpon Blogger Adventures Group so adheres to this strategy, that if anyone posts a blog post URL in the group, the admin deletes it from the stumble request list.
There is support for this strategy. According to SEO Expert James Kosur, “Don’t stumble from the same location like my blog or a FaceBook group. That way SU won’t get a heads up that there’s collaboration going on.”
Danny, a UK blogger, confirms this. He advises, “Be both a consumer and a contributor of stumbles.”
Do I follow this strategy? Absolutely. The StumbleUpon Group is a perk for my blog subscribers. When I receive stumble requests, sometimes I stumble from their blog; other times, I copy the URL and paste onto the StumbleUpon “Add a Page” option.
3. According to Coach Debbie, you should not “like” every post that you see. Be truthful. The advantage to giving a “thumbs down” is that you won’t get articles like the one you found uninteresting. Also, according to Debbie, it will help increase your traffic from the site if you give honest assessments of the articles presented to you.
Concerns
Bloggers express concern that they don’t have people following them at the site. According to Popularization.Info, having followers can actually hurt your ability to get blog traffic. “The more friends you have, the less other non-related strangers are there to push your discovery.”
Also, you may not realize your posts are getting stumbled since you are not the one stumbling them. The people who stumble your articles (like me, if you are in my StumbleUpon group) receive the notification.
As you can see from the screenshot, Barbara stumbled my article Are You Wasting Your Time Promoting at Social Media Sites?. Therefore, she was the one notified by the site when the article received stumbles (likes that give my post visibility).
Conclusion
In closing, a year has passed since I cross-promoted groups with Michael Rios. I promoted his Reddit group, while he promoted my StumbleUpon group.
If anyone would like their links stumbled, please let me know in the comment section of the StumbleUpon Group page.
Two tips:Â
- Please put one link per comment box.
- Remember to stumble others’ links too. You are more likely to get traffic if you stumble as well as get stumbled. The StumbleUpon Group has a URL directory Stumble those links, I will stumble your links, and you will be that much more likely to get traffic from the site.
Readers, what are your experiences with StumbleUpon? Do they support the findings of the people whose testimonials I quoted? Do you have additional strategies for getting traffic from the site you can share? I look forward to your views in the comments section.
Please share so other bloggers, marketers, and website creators feel confident they can use StumbleUpon to dramatically increase their site’s visibility.
Related Posts:
Previous StumbleUpon articles
Other Content Curation Sites with the Potential To Send You Massive Blog Traffic:
How to Get Swarms of Free Blog Traffic with Flipboard
How to Get the Kind of Blog Traffic You Want with Reddit
How to Blow the Roof Off Your Traffic Using Pinterest
