StumbleUpon is an extremely popular social bookmarking service.
StumbleUpon users install a toolbar directly into their browsers, which allows them to stumble upon new pages all over the web.
It’s sort of the Internet version of channel surfing with your TV remote!
If the user likes a page, they click the I like it! button to give it a thumbs up.
If they don’t like it, they can give it a thumbs down.
The more thumbs up a page gets, the more often it gets served to other Stumblers, increasing the number of people who see it.
Pages that don’t get many thumbs up, as well those that get too many thumbs down, are dropped out of the StumbleUpon rotation.
How Can I Make StumbleUpon Work for My Site?
Like most social media traffic, Stumblers almost never buy anything or click on ads.
That’s why one of the most important laws of social media marketing is… don’t try to sell direct to social media users!
Try to sell Stumblers something and your traffic will quickly disappear under an avalanche of thumbs down.
Instead serve Stumblers the kinds of content pages they want to see, so you can attract links to your site from those Stumblers who have their own blogs and websites.
“Stop Selling Me Your Stuff!”
How Do I Create Resources that Stumblers Love?
Stumblers love to give the thumbs up to comprehensive resources, especially resources formatted as lists.
Your article needs to look like work went into it and it took some time to put together.
Besides providing a detailed, interesting, and valuable resource, you’ll also want:
Great Headline. You should put as much thought into your StumbleUpon headlines as you would for your important sales letters, because your headline will make or break your StumbleUpon submission.
Eye-Catching Images. Each article has a great image right near the top of the page to catch the interest of the reader. There’ll also often be several images positioned throughout the article to maintain the reader’s interest.
Compelling Lead-In Paragraph. Your first paragraph needs to capture the reader’s attention, draw them in, and sell them on reading the rest of the article. As great copywriters have often noted, the entire point of the first paragraph is to get the reader to read the second paragraph, the entire point of the second paragraph is to get them to read the third, and so on…
Attractive Design. A clean and professional-looking site and logo go a long way towards people taking your content seriously.
Stumblers want interesting, useful and/or entertaining content.
Content that almost NEVER succeeds on StumbleUpon:
Short articles. Short posts might work well on a blog, but they die on StumbleUpon.
Overly commercial content. Limit the advertising.
Regular site pages. Simply submitting your homepage to StumbleUpon is a sure way to fail!
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