Getting Traffic from StumbleUpon: Tips

StumbleUpon is the most popular Social Bookmarking website in Australia and over the years many webmasters have claimed to get lots of traffic from the site. Similar in ways to Digg and Reddit, users vote up and down articles and content they find interesting.

The more Up votes you get, the more prominent your content will show on the site, and therefore you will receive larger referrals of traffic.

Using StumbleUpon

Let me warn you, using Social Bookmarking websites like StumbleUpon can become very addictive. Essentially these sort of websites show the most popular/ trending/ viral content on the internet.

According to Alexa, the average user is spending close to 6 minutes on the site and over the past 2 years traffic to the site has increased considerably.

StumbleUpon Toolbars

To make your use of StumbleUpon more efficient, you can download and install the StumbleUpon toolbar which will let you vote any website / URL without having to consistently login to the StumbleUpon website.

There is support for Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera web browsers.

To download the StumbleUpon toolbar see the following page and select which browser you are using: http://www.stumbleupon.com/help/download_stumbleupon/

Search Engine Integration

When you install the toolbar, you will get an option to integrate the StumbleUpon recommendation engine and review system onto the Search Engine Results Page. This is an interesting way to see Stumbler reviews when running web searches.

Mobile Access

If you prefer there are smartphone applications available for Mobile Browsing and Access, specifically for the iPhone, iPad and Android. The download links for these apps are also at: http://www.stumbleupon.com/help/download_stumbleupon/

Filling out your Profile

Take the time to fill out your profile in full. The key fields to take note of are:
– Your interests
– You profile picture
– You bio

All users get their own vanity URL based on their username – http://stumbleupon.com/stumbler/username/

Writing Stumble-worthy Content

When writing content for StumbleUpon, take note that the headline/ title of the article is extremely important for generating interest and click-thrus, as this is the first thing people will see in relation to what you’ve written about.

The best types of headlines that work are:

• Lists, eg 10 best ways to get Traffic
• Something that is funny
• Something that is bold, outrageous, controversial
• Something that is relevant and trending at the moment
• Statistical information

Also remember that your content doesn’t just have to be textual information. It could be a funny picture, video or infographic.

Enter Relevant Submission Details on everything your Submit

When you are Stumbling your content or other content you like, may sure you fill out the submission details properly – choosing the right category is key for niche traffic and targeting.

Get ready for the traffic

This is important for several aspects. Firstly your webhosting – if you are on a shared host and StumbleUpon sends you lots of traffic your webhosting account may go offline for using up too many server resources. Whilst you may be on an ‘unlimited bandwidth’ shared hosting account, a huge influx of visitors on your site (and them clicking around – ie high server processing) is most probably in your hosts fine-print that you only get so much CPU usage.

I’ve seen countless times when a webmasters successfully draws StumbleUpon traffic, then their site is taken offline due to a cheap hosting setup. A quality VPS host should be able to take a StumbleUpon traffic surge. Install caching plugins and increase your PHP memory limit for added measures.

Secondly, this may seem obvious – but incorporate good webdesign and layout so when the traffic comes some people may subscribe or bookmark your site. Generally StumbleUpon traffic has a high bounce rate, above 70% so if you can draw in some of these users to subscribe you have done a good job.

Get more views, increase your reputation through Redirect

There is no doubt if your article already has a large number of views this increases your reputation as a quality source with interesting content.

Having a high number of Stumble-views can encourage more people to click your link, and also rank you higher on the site.

If you are sending your Stumble Link to your network, give them this URL:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/click_redir.php?t=49e34c6117e3f&src=url&u=YOUR-URL-HERE

Follow Me on StumbleUpon, Stumble my Articles!

Having a network of followers/ friends on Social Bookmarking websites can help you gain momentum.

Please follow me and Stumble my content, my profile is at: http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/socialmedianews1/