There are way too many social media sites and you may not be using the best ones or get the maximum exposure. StumbleUpon is often an underutilized source for traffic; it does not boast the same user volume like the big boys – Facebook and Twitter. It certainly has some moves you should check out. This Infographic will show you how to use StumbleUpon to drive traffic and market your content.
What is StumbleUpon?
- A Social Bookmarking Site – Similar to Delicious. Allows users to save links for future viewing. You can randomly discover a new page using their “STUMBLE” button based on your interests.
- A Social Voting Site – Similar to Digg and Reddit. If you like a page UP-VOTE; if you don’t like DOWN-VOTE.
- The More UP-VOTES the Better Chances of Being STUMBLED.
Why Use StumbleUpon?
Over 30 Million Active Monthly Users
StumbleUpon does not have the user base like Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest does but it can deliver good steady traffic as opposed to just spikes like Reddit does. When you hit the 1st page on Reddit you get a big spike in traffic, the next day you get nothing much. Pinterest has a user base of 100 million and provides the 2nd highest referral traffic (see image below) but the competition is also quite stiff. This does not mean you ignore Pinterest but using Pinterest and StumbleUpon together would definitely give you an advantage.
You may have guessed the 1st social media traffic source as Facebook and that is correct.
Social Media Traffic Statistics Courtesy of Shareaholic
- StumbleUpon provides the 4th Highest Social Media Traffic Referral (behind Twitter & ahead of Reddit)
- Can Provide 3 Times More Traffic than Reddit
- Can Provide More Traffic than Google+ and LinkedIn Combined
- It’s Fun and Interactive
Potential to Bring in Viral Traffic
StumbleUpon can bring in viral traffic and the best part is it can be ongoing. Check out how many times some of these web pages have been viewed. If you are a blogger or a business, would you say ‘no’ to free traffic and marketing?
Random screenshot from StumbleUpon to illustrate traffic potential.
Paid Stumbles can be Super Targeted
You can target your audience by age, gender, location and device type. You can then select an interest or search for one. If you are using the paid service start with one campaign with a small budget, for example $10, then let the campaign run for a few days and see the results; take what you have learned to craft your next paid project. The beauty of the paid service – it throws some free stumbles if the audience vote up your content. Unlike, other social media sites StumbleUpon sends direct traffic to your site where as in Facebook, Twitter you buy a small ad space and hope the users see it.
How to Use StumbleUpon?
- Go to StumbleUpon.com
- Sign up for free and select your topics of interest
- Download the “STUMBLE” toolbar (optional)
- Start stumbling!
Tips for Getting the Best Results Out of StumbleUpon
Add a Profile Image
You need your profile to stand out and the quickest way to do that is to add a profile image. This could be your image or an avatar you use.
Add a Link to Your Website or Blog in Your Profile
Other stumblers will check out your profile if you ‘like’ similar content to their preference. So provide a link back to your blog or website to get more referral traffic.
Connect Other Social Profiles
If someone likes your content page then there is a good chance they will visit your blog or look you up in other social sites like Twitter and Facebook. Make sure you cross link your profiles to make this easy for fellow stumblers.
Don’t Just Vote for Yourself
This is a standard rule in any social media site nowadays. If you only post or like your content then why should anyone return you the favour? So vote and stumble others content. This also allows StumbleUpon to recognise your likes and it will try to present content based on your likes.
Produce Content that Demands Attention Above the Fold
If your content is not scroll worthy or attention grabbing then you are going to lose the StumbleUpon traffic as soon as you get them. Try including an engaging image above the fold. Here are 28 free image sources that can help.
Incorporate Awesome Headings
Like most social media platforms, your title or heading is what gets displayed first and if that is not engaging you are not going to get further attention from the viewer. You can use CoSchedule Headline Analyzer tool.
Follow Other Stumblers
To build a network of stumblers you have to follow first. Find content you like and follow the user who submitted that content.
Add Appropriate Category for Your Stumbles
If your categories are not selected properly then either you will not get any traffic or the traffic you get will not match your industry. If you can’t find a category for your niche then find the next best match.
StumbleUpon Controversies
There are some concerns regarding StumbleUpon and for a complete picture they are included below. Don’t be alarmed or get put-off – one size does not fit all.
Categories in StumbleUpon are too broad. For example, ‘Marketing’ is not a good category for online marketing. If the content above the fold is not engaging then users will bounce off. Also StumbleUpon users love hitting the ‘STUMBLE’ button and keep randomly discovering new sites.
Traffic Does Not Convert Well
StumbleUpon (SU) is awesome for getting free traffic for new bloggers and new business websites. Some established sites may find SU traffic might not convert as well other referral sources. This is something you will have to experiment and measure.
Higher Bounce Rate
SU users are used to hitting the “STUMBLE” button very quickly to find other more interesting pages. This can increase your website bounce rate. Other factors are the strength of the headline and how engaging your content is above the fold. If you want to know how to reduce your bounce rate, check out this infographic.
Wrapping it up
Time management and social media management go hand in hand as there are new social media platforms popping up every now and then. If you are looking to get some traffic give StumbleUpon a red-hot go. SU is at least worth your consideration, especially if you are a relatively new blogger or your business website is new. Traffic from various sites can add up quickly and create a snowball effect. Let’s STUMBLE!
Reference: Why You Should Use StumbleUpon as a Marketing Tool – Goinswriter.com
Hi Cent, I will pay more attention to stumble upon after reading this article. Thanks for sharing
Great to hear and thanks for the comment Jess.
Cheers,
Cent
Nice article with infographic,the stats are amazing and I wouldn’t worry too much about the controversy. I will be happy as long as I get some traffic from stumble upon.
Glad you think so Michael. Appreciate your comment.
Cheers, Cent
I am using Stumbleupon since 2014 and it is giving me descent traffic but I want to ask only 1 question, When we should submit the URL’s to get Constant Stumbleupon Traffic?
Hi Rajesh,
You can submit your URL any time but there are only 2 ways to get constant traffic:
1) Other stumblers like your page naturally
2) You run a paid StumbleUpon campaign and people like your page. After the campaign is over you will get constant traffic but again only if people like your page.
Thanks for the question. I like your website design – clean and simple. Good luck.
PS – Let me know if you like to see a particular topic covered in an infographic here…
Cheers,
Cent
Hey Cent,
I just read your post. I struggle with Stumbled upon, it does not get me too much attention so I keep reading valuable posts like this to see what I am doing wrong, but it appears I am doing it all right. I may give it another three months and see how it goes.
I enjoyed your post.
Rachel
Hi Rachel,
Great to hear you enjoyed the post. It’s good to know you will give StumbleUpon another go. Initially I did not get much traction either. I did 2 things that has worked for me:
(1) I use ViralContentBuzz for marketing which offers Twitter, FB, SU & Pinterest marketing. So essentially these are like paid STUMBLES. You can either share others content and use the credit or go on a paid package.
(2) I did some paid StumbleUpon campaign. I used a small budget $10 and picked my best post. People liked the post and to this date (even after the campaign is over) I get some drip feeding traffic. This is not a lot but all traffic adds up. Its like you get free traffic after the initial paid traffic.
Hope that makes sense. Thanks for the comment and appreciate the tweet. Good luck.
PS: Let me know if you like to see any particular topic covered in an infographic.
Cheers, Cent
Your article is inspiring and shows that has many social media that we can exploit in order to succeed traffic.
Not to mention that social signals are also important for SEO.
Hi Luany,
Glad you liked the post. Very good pickup regarding social signals helping SEO. Not sure how I missed that. Thanks for the comment.
Cheers, Cent
Hi Cent. Stumbleupon was a major social channel for me before Facebook became popular. I developed a large network of helpful contacts who’d stumble my posts and I’d do the same for them. We communicated regularly. Although it’s influence understandably decreased, and I don’t spend time on there, I get a surprising number of visitors from Stumbleupon. All I do is submit my own posts.
I’m impressed by your use of excellent infographics on your blog.
Hi Sue,
Sadly it is true – the SU magic has decreased since the evolution of FB, TW & Pinterest but as you said it can still bring decent traffic for a relatively low amount of work. Glad you liked the infographics on the blog. Thanks for the comment.
Cheers, Cent
I have never thought SU can be this powerful tool for driving traffic, though I doubt about bounce rate.
Thanks for informative post.
Hi Harsh, We just have to monitor the bounce rate. You never know you may get a few customers and/or email subscribers. I recently read a post where StumbleUpon is being used to get backlinks for their infographics.
Thanks for the comment.
Cheers, Cent
Oh thanks of sharing this article with us.
I am happy to know that stumbleupob stoods at 4th position.
And it can help us in driving traffic to the blog.
Surely I will try this to drive traffic for my website explorecivil.net.
Hi Shabir,
You are welcome. Thanks for the comment. Great to hear you are going to give SU a shot.
Cheers, Cent
Hi Cent,
I’m so much impressed with the infographic design. I was introduced to StumbleUpon by a blogger friend and I find it very useful for driving traffic. Ever since I started using it, my blog traffic got multiplied every time me or someone else submitted my posts.
Yes, a lot of marketing experts claim that StumbleUpon can be reason for high bounce rate of your site. This is the reason why I prefer submitting my links occasionally and not always.
I’ve also upvoted this post on AmplifyBlog community.
Thanks for sharing,
Rohan.
Hi Rohan,
Great to hear you liked the infographic design. You make a very good point of not submitting all posts to SU if bounce rate is a concern. Thanks for the comment and upvote in Amplify.
Cheers, Cent