The Power of StumbleUpon

NOTE: I’m leaving this post intact, but be sure to read the follow-up about how I’ve been shut out by StumbleUpon.


To some these days, social bookmarking sites are almost a little quaint.  Facebook and Twitter are the kings of social media content, and bookmarking sites seem so … five years ago.  I’m here to tell you, however, that social bookmarking is alive and well as a traffic generator.  Recently, for client SleepBetter.org, I was researching which tactics we weren’t using to help people find the sleep tips and advice provided by the site.  Of course, we’re on Twitter and Facebook, and we’re also utilizing Google Buzz.  We tried Digg, Delicious, and Reddit with little success.  Then, we started submitting links to Stumbleupon.  The results were immediate and dramatic.  In fact, in the month of February, Stumbleupon was our second largest referrer, after Google.

Unlike other social bookmarking sites, such as the aforementioned Digg, Delicious, and Reddit, users of StumbleUpon don’t have to be looking for your content to find it.  I’ve often thought this was the downfall of trying to use Digg to help visitors find you.  Unless your content is tech-related or involves someone falling off of a donkey and hurting a sensitive part of the body, posting to Digg is often like whistling into the wind.  StumbleUpon is different.  In fact, the whole point of the site is finding random content that you didn’t know you were looking for. You click a button and “stumble upon” a site.  It’s much like channel surfing.  StumbleUponn can help you find random content that’s been submitted, or you can have it help you find random content within a category. Obviously, it’s an outstanding time waster.

StumbleUpon’s strength is it’s lack of the cliques found on Digg and other sites.  On other sites, it can be hard to generate interest unless you’re already well known.  In other words, if you’re well known already, you’ll get plenty of “Diggs”. Thing is, if you’re well known already, you don’t NEED Diggs to help people find your content.

So, what’s the strategy for using StumbleUpon if you’re hoping to generate interest in your site or your other content?  It’s pretty simple.  First of all, submit your content to StumbleUpon.  You can go directly to stumbleupon.com to do it, or you can download a toolbar for your browser that will help you.  Then, review others content.  Don’t give random reviews that are not well thought out.  Find good content relevant to your own, and write good reviews.  After doing a couple of reviews per day, if your content is good you’ll find that more people are reviewing and finding your content.

Pretty simple.

Happy stumbling!

6 Responses on “The Power of StumbleUpon

  1. jordan says:

    Stumbled!

  2. Ryan says:

    I stumbled here!

  3. taoorder says:

    I stumbled here!

  4. Brittany says:

    It’s 2014 and people are still stumbling here!

  5. planmyad says:

    Fully agreed. We too get fantastic social referral from Stumbleupon. Got this post through Stumbleupon only.

Comments are closed.