Monday, February 05, 2007

How Does StumbleUpon Help Bloggers?

Yeah, I feel a little bit silly and sheepish about it, but I must admit that I don't really get StumbleUpon.

The idea behind the site is pretty simple: a downloadable tool bar add-on allows you wander around the Internet (via pressing the Stumble button) with the presumption that the more you interact with the tool (rating sites along route with a thumbs up or down) the more it knows what you like and helps you to discover cool sites that you would likely never find on your own.

I get that part. It's not something that I would personally get into, but it's a nice little service. Where I start to lose grasp is in understanding how StumbleUpon has become "a substantial driver of traffic," as Mathew Ingram and many others have noted, and how publishers are supposed to take advantage of the site to harness the stumblers.

Getting the toolbar installed and logging into StumbleUpon was a somewhat clunky experience for me, but perhaps that was an aberration. Figuring out what to do next as a publisher was, however, where I really got lost. I was eventually able to figure out how to submit a site URL, but I was left confused as I've seen other writers note how they've used StumbleUpon to drive traffic to individual stories.

After spending a fair amount of time investigating, I realized that there's a tagging feature in which you can add tag words to individual "pages." I'm not sure if adding tags to an individual "drilldown" story page in effect submits that story into the StumbleUpon system with those tag words attached, or if you're simply associating tag words with an entire website or blog.

I like to think that I'm a relatively savvy Internet user, so if I'm confused, I'm guessing others are as well. For non-publishers, for those people just looking to stumble around and find cool sites, the service is likely less of a headache to figure out. But I'm genuinely curious to hear from bloggers who utilize StumbleUpon as part of ongoing promotion efforts. Is it necessary to tag your own pages every time you publish a story, for instance? Or is some other action involved?

There's also a social networking side to StumbleUpon where you can find and socialize with other stumblers who have interests similar to your own. Again, I'm guessing that there are those that find this to be an engaging feature, but I've never really believed that social news or social bookmarking sites have an overwhelming amount to offer in terms of social networking. In other words, when I visit Reddit I'm interested in finding stories that I'm into and don't really care connecting with others who may be as well. Maybe I'm just a curmudgeonly electronic loner though, who knows?

A standout exception to this is MyBlogLog, which does a great job of building community around the blogging experience, playing into the inherent need for bloggers to self-promote and connect with fellow online scribes.

In any event, I'd love to hear from those who have had some experience with StumbleUpon, particularly from the publisher/promotional perspective.

In essence: is there more to get than I've gotten?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hell if I know. I've just realized that I simply don't have time to do optimization, socialization, randomizing, tagging, blogging, hoping, preying and a little voodoo thrown in. I'm lucky to manage my two pro blogs, my 40+ hour job and my 24/7 kid. Plus, business trips to NYC every other week.
What's a girl to do?
Sushi and navel jewelry shopping. In that order. Much more fun than SEO and all that.

Anonymous said...

escuchar musica
bajar musica
musica cristiana
descargar peliculas
juegos mario
barbie juegos
juegos de casino
juegos de casino gratis
juegos pokemon game boy
musica mexicana
juegos sangrientos
game boy
barbie game
selling business
craft
art craft
witch craft
overseas job
overseas money transfer
pool deck
commodity future trading
future trading system
poker chip trick
magic wand
hitachi magic wand
casino magic
casino magic biloxi
compact binoculars
digital camera binoculars
aterproof binoculars
car cover
car seat cover
bingo
online bingo
bingo site
paxil
buy paxil
life insurance
term life insurance
credit card rewards
rewards card
sweepstake
contest
kinko
kinko 39s
simm
simm slot
free simm slot
john simm
simm associate
irene simm
piel
piel frama
la piel
piel canela
enfermedades

Anonymous said...

state employee credit union
american express travel services
pentagon federal credit union
navy federal credit union
michael stipe
scabies rash
artemis fowl
hen parties
batting cages
guinea pigs
sims nude patch
madcap flare
losing virginity
best selling toys
brand new
nubian goats
heritage foundation
drexel heritage
atsu blackboard
bloodrayne nude
baby laugh wav file
losing virginity
exelon corporation
lidocaine patch
oblivion walkthrough
william ayers
alton brown
elder slut
situs cerita
heart healthy
kite runner
galeri foto
niedersuss dressag
odi doll
phintermine
video seks
evenrude
geometric
inguinal hernia symptoms
inguinal hernia
chain hoist
cordless phone
wedgwood pattern
discontinued wallpaper
croscill bedding
comforter sets
nautica bedding
barche usate
pavimentos muebles bano
banja board
board3 cgiworld dreamwiz
voodoo board
godsmack lyrics
whatever you like
what really happened
powter daniel

sujiiit said...

hi..
what a nice blog you have?very good site,really i like your blog.thank you so much...
Work at home jobs

e-Definers Technology said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

StumbleUpon is a great help to all bloggers...Thanks for posting this I learned a lot.

Dumpster Rental Andover