StumbleUpon 101: A Beginner’s Guide

Biannual Blogathon BashWelcome fellow bloggers and participants in Biannual Blogathon Bash for June 21 – 24, 2013! The Blogathon is a biannual online event for bloggers to help us improve our blogs, meet and connect with fellow bloggers and share valuable information to make us all even more awesome!

 

 

Challenge Intro

In our mini challenge, I will explain the basics of StumbleUpon and how to utilize it to drive additional traffic to your blog.

What is StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is a site that helps you (and your potential readers) find new and interesting items on the Web.  As you “stumble” through different websites, you tell the site what you like and dislike so it can learn what will appeal to you.  StumbleUpon has approximately 25 million users and over 1 billion monthly page referrals!

A Beginner's Guide to StumbleUpon

 

Getting Started With StumbleUpon

Once you create your free account, download the StumbleUpon toolbar. It’s very simple to use and the main features you’ll be utilizing at first are the thumbs and the stumble button.  Hitting the stumble button will load a random page based on the interests you selected during your account setup.  It’s not mandatory to give a page a thumbs up or down, but doing so will help the website determine how much it’s shown.  Thumbs up will help it be shown to more users, thumbs down will make it be shown less.  When giving a thumbs down, it’s good to utilize the thumbs down menu (see arrow button next to it) – this lets StumbleUpon know why – not of interest to you personally, spammy, 404 error, etc.

StumbleUpon ToolbarOnce you find great content, you can add it to an Interest list to easily access, add your comments or thoughts for other users to see and share it with others via Facebook, email or your StumbleUpon circle.

StumbleUpon Share Toolbar

 Finally, we’re going to do a quick introduction to your StumbleUpon Profile page.  This is where you’ll be able to easily access your likes, specific lists you’ve set up, comments you’ve made, your overall StumbleUpon history, a snapshot of everyone you follow, follows you, your interests and channels you follow. Currently you can only follow up to 500 people at a time.

From your profile page you can quickly add a page to StumbleUpon or search to find new content based on key words.

StumbleUpon Profile Page

How StumbleUpon Can Help Your Blog

The key with StumbleUpon is sharing websites, utilizing the thumbs up and thumbs down options and writing reviews and/or adding comments to sites. This helps the site know what is worth sharing with others.

Over-sharing your own sites is not recommended and can get you banned from StumbleUpon.  Major blogging sites have faced this battle in the past.  My suggestion would be to share posts that truly are informative and would be relevant long-term.

Stumble regularly – I’ve added this to my daily blog routine for social media.  As I make my blog visits, I will hit the stumble button for articles that really stand out to me.

Network with other Stumblers that share similar interests to yours. The sharing of Internet content among bloggers and users cannot be underestimated in this age of social media.

By properly categorizing your post and utilizing key words, you increase the visibility of your post to new readers. Consider adding a StumbleUpon button to your sharing buttons so readers can easily and quickly submit posts they feel are “stumble-worthy” to the site.   StumbleUpon has quickly become one of my top three sources of referral traffic – and I will admit that I have not utilized it as regularly as I should

 Mini-Challenge

If you don’t have a StumbleUpon account, create one, set up your Interests and begin stumbling relevant content. Submit one relevant blog post of your own and at least three of other bloggers.

If you already have a StumbleUpon account, but aren’t utilizing it regularly. Consider adding StumbleUpon to your list of daily blogging tasks.  Begin connecting with other StumbleUpon users and adding them to your following list. I challenge you to utilize the Stumble and thumbs buttons to find and recommend content you come across. Add at least 2 relevant comments each day you utilize the site. 

  • I have an account but don’t use it enough. I am off to do some stumbling, and it is added to my daily to-do list!

    http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/brookeblogs

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  • Once you create your free account, download the StumbleUpon toolbar. It’s very simple to use and the main features you’ll be utilizing at first are the thumbs and the stumble button. Hitting the stumble button will load a random page based on the interests you selected during your account setup. It’s not mandatory to give a page a thumbs up or down, but doing so will help the website determine how much it’s shown. Thumbs up will help it be shown to more users, thumbs down will make it be shown less. When giving a thumbs down, it’s good to utilize the thumbs down menu (see arrow button next to it) – this lets StumbleUpon know why – not of interest to you personally, spammy, 404 error, etc.

  • Thanks for the informative post. Now, I know how to boost up my blog.

  • Oh, this rocks. Found you through a tweet and I do have an SU account and don’t use it. I will be connecting with those above and Stumbling!

  • I just use SU recently as I didn’t get it too before. Nice post. definitely helpful to know more about SU.

  • I have an account there but never really use it, thanks for the tips though.

  • What a great post!!! StumbleUpon has been a challenge for many and I never quite understood it until now. Thank you!!!

  • I always forget about Stumbleupon. I really needed the tutorial so thank you for sharing. I never understood why they frown upon your sharing your own stuff frequently. Rules are rules though.

  • Say Something Kita (@Kreative10)

    This sounds great did around here change some lol. I like it when I come on websites and I see new stuff. Great linkup I love it I will spread the word

  • becca112971

    sounds interesting will go check it out and maybe sign up

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  • Thanks Michelle for this Blogathon Challenge! I have been trying to better understand Stumble Upon for quite some time!

    I followed everyone on the list and am going to work on networking and stumbling more regularly – perhaps we can support one another in this endeavor?

    Have a great week – would love for you to share this post at Inspire Me Monday!

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  • I have a stumbleupon account but I’ve gotten out of the habit of using it regularly. Just downloaded the iPad app and stumbled a few!

    • Same here!!! Thanks for visiting 🙂

  • Meg

    You have inspired me to reinvigorate my stumble upon account! I also followed a bunch of the links above!

  • I added a few blog posts including one of my own. Thanks for helping me get restarted with StumbleUpon. I never fully got it before. 🙂

  • I have had an account for a while, and have not spent much time on it. I did stumble one of my own, and spent some time Stumbling, thumbing up a couple that I really liked. Here’s my question; if you are not really supposed to Stumble your own, how do you get it stumbled? I know of a thread where you can do the su.pr (basically a SU “retweet”) but how do I get that “tweet” in the first place to be able to submit it for retweet? I know there are FB groups of SU users who do this for each other, but I have not found one that is accepting new members. Maybe we should start one. I know there is something you have to do so the stumbles aren’t all from the same place. Am I making sense? LOL 🙂

    • Hi Kelly! Correct – you really shouldn’t stumble your own posts regularly. I usually pick one or two throughout the week and space them apart. Having a stumble button as part of your social media tools helps and helps other easily stumble your posts if they find them engaging enough. Perhaps a post explaining the different social media networks you’re a part of and how your readers can help share posts they find valuable and informative will give them a nudge to share for you.

    • Also, if I stumble another blogger’s post I will let them know when I post a comment so they’ll know.

  • When you say “submit” blog post is that the same as liking them?

    • No, when you “like” or “thumbs up” the post you’re giving posts already a part of the StumbleUpon network more credibility. Submitting a post means you’re adding a post that’s never been put in the StumbleUpon network. You can go to your profile page and you’ll see a button that says “Add a page”. Hope that helps! If not, let me know 🙂

  • Just added a blog page to Stumble but no image is showing. How do I get an image to show up?

    • Welcome to the world of Stumblers…LOL

  • Cyn

    I had a SU account already but really wasn’t using it because I didn’t exactly “get it”. Thanks for clarifying it. I’ve added it to my daily to do list from now on!

  • Kim @ Homestead Acres

    I used StumbleUpon many years ago and forgot all about it! I started a new account since I couldn’t remember what email I had joined with before. lol

    • I’ve done that before on other social networks – I like that Facebook is used for most log-ins these days…LOL

  • I am so glad you wrote about this. I really haven’t understood the concept of Stumbleupon, but now I get it! Thanks!

    • I’m glad the information was useful!

    • Hi Retha! You can go to your profile page and click History (only viewable by you) and see everything you’ve stumbled. Also, if you come across something you really like you can add it to a list to view later, too. Hope that helps!!!

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