Boost Your StumbleUpon Traffic with Outbound Links

Thank you so much for this great post.

I have just really started to get into using Stumbleupon and with these tips I will be able to use it more effectively.

Thanks again and keep these great post coming!

Hi Caroline! Thanks for the link :) Great post…I feel compelled to second one of your points…

“2) Make Your Post Stumble-Worthy”

Linking out is a great way to get bloggers and stumblers attention…but I am very protective of my stumbles and am careful not to stumble stuff that serves no purpose fellow stumblers other than spreading a link to me. This post is a great example of how to include links to active stumblers and provide enough value to readers to warrant a Stumble :)

I haven’t dealt with Stumbled yet and I think I need to go check it out - thanks for the good info. I’ve subscribed to your blog!

Thanks Caroline for this write up, because Stumble Upon is a site I have used only briefly. The concept seems very cool and different for it and I have a feeling if done right it can bring a site some very good traffic!

I have been thinking about this technique for a while, thanks for putting it into words and allowing me to develop it. BTW, what is your stumble account, I would like to add you as a friend.

Hi Caroline! thanks for the great post, SU is great if you know how to use it right. great tips! looking forward from more…

Sorry meant “for more” :)

Excellent tips. I find that StumbleUpon is the most effective social site for traffic, at least for my blog. The few times that I have been stumbled, my traffic shot up and tended to stay higher afterwards.

@Lyndon, it’s http://cmiddlebrook.stumbleupon.com/

@Genesis, I’ve found SU to be my biggest traffic generator so far but I’m having difficulty getting the traffic to stick around - I’m still working on that.

@Dana, yeah after I wrote the post I realised that doing the standard link roundup posts that I started at the weekend probably wasn’t a very good idea because that kind of post isn’t stumbleable (is that a word??) by itself. But instead by making a post about a specific topic that happens to include plenty of links to more information it becomes a useful resource.

Trust me I’ve made up so many stumbleriffic words…anything with stumble and a suffix is perfectly acceptable with me :)

Hi Caroline thanks for the link, While I think you and hundreds of people are right more thumbs up equals more visitors so the best way to get thumbs up is to link to active stumblers the key still has to be universal appeal this tactic will only work a few times before the stumbleupon algorithm devalues those friends who are stumbling the post in an “un organic” manner.

@Tim, does that mean that if a post from the same domain is repeatedly stumbled by the same person, that the value of that stumble decreases over time?

That’s kinda silly. There are several blogs that I read that repeatedly post great content that I stumble, and that’s natural. It would be a shame if that was discounted over time.

I’m afraid so, though their is a compensation system you see each time you thumb something your account is growing an audience score, this score increases based on many factors but a big one is when you thumb up a popular page that gets many other thumbs up your score grows quite dramatically particularly if you were the discoverer. The greater the audience score the more likely you are to send more visitors.

So while your thumbs may be reduced for that site, your audience score will have increased so the effect is limited.

But
If you keep thumbing up the same site and nobody else thumbs it up then your audience score is not increasing but the stumbles are reducing each time.

So to answer yes your thumbs are being reduced its part of a balance within the algorithm to stop spammers completely taking control

@Tim, thanks for the info, that’s all great stuff to know. I don’t think it’s too much of a problem though if you just take care to only give a thumbs up to genuinely good stuff - then the chances are that other people will do and it will get organically spread around to lots of new people so it wont always people the same people doing it.

Exactly the system is designed to algorithmically get rid of spammers, ultimately a 100 spammers could thumb up the same splog but unless “organic” traffic from the stumble toolbar does like wise it won’t get very far.

Keep stumbling good posts and pages just think would you want to read it again? that’s my bench mark I rarely thumb down things but I do try to thumb up things that I genuinely like.

Hey, nice post Caroline, ta for that link, its all gonna come in real handy! Nice tips, if you find more, please post them too, mind if I add you as a SU friend?

@Francois, of course add me as a friend :)

By now , I did not think about SU this way. The recursive effect that you are mentioning are really interesting. But the question is whether this effort is proven worthy.

Especially it makes the whole issue of “Link to People Who Use StumbleUpon” makes it shaky, as how you get to know everyone so well before investing time for linking / and giving a thumbs up.

Interesting post anyway , and I did gave you a thumbs up. :)

@Wordpress Guru, it’s not really much effort because for most articles I have already done a bunch of research and I’ve already gathered some links together to enforce the points I’m making so it’s not like I have to go on a link hunt just to get the extra SU traffic.

I’ve read a lot about Stumbleupon but I haven’t tried it yet. I guess I’m thinking that I am not confident with my posts.

But, better late than never right Caroline?

By the way, nice blog though.

@MrLoo, it is best to only post your best stuff but sometimes you can be too critical of your own work. If you’ve not tried it yet why not look through your archives, pick the very best post, submit it and see how it does? If you get lousy traffic, try and write something better next time. You might be leaving a load of traffic on the table but being under-confident.

nice tip - never thought of it that way. I’ll be looking more into your link on how the algorithm works.

Good thoughts carol. I feel though stumbleupon gives you huge traffic the traffic many are useless traffic.

I have been searching the internet and testing ways to keep the flow of traffic from stubmleupon consistent. Most people see an early boost then drop off. I think this strategy is a great idea, I’m going to try editing one of my stumbleupon posts a little bit based on your suggestions. THANKS!

I really appreciate the golden information I’m gaining from your posts. It’s indeed so valuable especially for affiliate marketers and bloggers. I’ll definitely follow all your posts.

How much visitor you get with stumbleupon?

@WebHostinGuide, In October it was about 8000 visitors, I haven’t done full stats for November yet but it’s way more than that! Seriously, SU sends me massive amounts of traffic.

well

That’s a great guide. I’ve only recently started Stumbling, but I have to say I like it much more than Digg. It’s much quicker to use and feels more like a community.

There is one problem I have with this post — it takes our focus off of creating value and instead attempts to use a gimmick to earn traffic. Perhaps that will work in the short-term (perhaps) but it doesn’t sound like a solid long-term strategy to me at all.

You should link to other people because there is a value in doing so. You want your content to be top quality and your marketing strategy to revolve around that. Creating post with meaningless or pointless links undermines that value IMHO.

Be well,

Moshe

@Moshe, did I say that the links should be meaningless or pointless? Of course not - the idea is to ENRICH the content you are creating with outbound links to other relevant material that enhances the overall post. This creates a win-win-win situation because it’s good for the reader because the post leads to more great content, its good for the other bloggers you link to because they get some traffic and its good for you because you may get a few extra thumbs up leading to a little extra traffic.

Nothing I write about on this blog is about gimmicks.

Hello Caroline,

Sorry if I misunderstood you - it seems I should have read your article a bit more closely.

My only point is that first and foremost one should concentrate on writing high quality, valuable content and then on figuring out how to market that content.

In particular, I think people need to be careful when they start producing their content for marketing purposes. Obviously one needs to be aware of traffic and other marketing issues when one creates their content, but they just need to make sure that content comes first (IMHO). This is particularly true given that there are a numerous ways to market a site - since we have other options there is no reason to sacrifice the quality of one’s article or post for marketing purposes.

I agree, by the way, that when done well it’s a win-win situation. I’d even add one more benefit — if done well quality outbound links can lead to partnership opportunities if someone notices that you are linking to you and decide to contact you as a result.

Again, my apologies for not reading your post more carefully.

All the best,

Moshe

Moshe’s last blog post..What is Social Bookmarking (or why is del.icio.us so yummy)?

@Moshe, I would never advocate creating content just for marketing purposes but this blog is all about Internet marketing so I often talk about marketing. I usually assume that the requirement to produce good content as the first consideration is a given.

I was wondering, how ist that possible Caroline, that you have so much Visitors from SU. I live in Germany, ther are not that much Stumblers among us here. On my analytics Stats I get 95 % of traffic only throu Google.
You are doing greate Job there.

@Lernen, that’s a very broad question and the answer would cover more than I would put into a comment. Have a look through my archives for StumbleUpon posts. I am seriously considering writing a little ebook to cover everything I know about marketing with SU so look out for that.

Your tips make sense, as a new user of StumbleUpon creating outbound links to boost traffic is a marketing strategy I will start to use. In a short period of time I have secured a lot of in bound links now I will take the next step and link to quality material. My profile at StumbleUpon is http://inspirationforch.stumbleupon.com/

Hi, In regards to stumbling people who link to you, I find it is handy to go through my web stats to stumble referring sites.