Do You Thank Your Stumblers?

Great idea, Caroline. I’ve started doing that recently - and I also thank people who add me on MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog. It certainly doesn’t hurt and I might make a new friend. Great post!

Standing out from your competitors through good manners is about the perfect way of gaining extra attention.

I don’t get Stumbled often, but I did receive a large volume of Stumble traffic earlier this month. I thanked some of the Stumblers privately and on my blog I publicly thanked the person who initially submitted the site to Stumble. I did this by linking to his blog several times.

Your blog is very much controlled by your readers. Thanking them when they need to be thanked (your top commentators, for example) shouldn’t be under estimated!

Fantastic post, Caroline.

Great write up again caroline. I actually used your other stumble upon article yesterday when I was testing SU. I ended up doubling my traffic yesterday from people who came to my site.

Keep up the good work.

When someone thumbs up my blog’s post(s), I add them to my friends and send them a message. If they keep doing it, I even review their SU profile…

Dear Caroline -

I don’t usually do this because it looks like shameless self promotion.

But I just wrote an article I think you can use.

So I am calling this a public service announcement just for you!

Hope you enjoy it!

http://www.personal-growth-with-corinne-edwards.com/worry-worry-worry-and-more-worry/#comments

Warmly,

Corinne Edwards

This post couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time for me as to understand why traffic from SU hasnt been as great lately for as it used to. Most of the times my posts are stumbled by friends and its usually the same people so I can see why this is happening.

Also they call ” thank you” the magic word because it does work. Appreciating others of their effort and contribution is a sure fire way to get recognized and stand out from the crowd of unnoticeables

Great post Caroline. I think it is true that blog owners should really take time to thank the viewers for their love and support.

-Mike

As a stumbler with over 500 fans after over 2 years on SU, I get “Thank you” crap like this clogging my inbox EVERY DAY. WE DON’T LIKE THIS. I know I speak for nearly all my friends, many of whom are Top Stumblers. We have had forum discussions for years about this very topic. There is an actual term on SU for what you are doing: SPAMBLERS.

If I like your blog, I might send you a note, add you as a friend, etc. I have done this numerous times over the years. If I get some unsolicited “thanks for stopping by! :)” SPAM (because that’s EXACTLY WHAT IT IS), or God forbid, some sort of “review” which is actually another self-serving ploy to get me to read your blog, I usually do the opposite: I BLOCK you. I have gone as far as to report a few especially aggressive bloggers to the SU management.

My point is this: If you put out a well written, informative blog, many stumblers will like you, and it’s likely that you’ll increase your traffic, if this is your agenda. If you bombard us with unsolicited spam, not because we “stopped by”, but because MOST OF US JUST PUSHED THE STUMBLE BUTTON AND MOVED ON, you are going to be disappointed, and you will probably make the very people you are trying to impress very ANGRY.

Thanks.

Very timely information Caroline. I stumble very often, and much of the time I stumble “my friends” favorites because I find some great blogs that I might not have found by random stumbling. There’s great benefit in making friends on stumble upon; it’s just a shame too many people don’t take the time to check their profiles there to see who gave them a thumbs up or review. Thank you for these great points! :)

#Kristen, you got pretty angry, huh?

Spam is sending unsolicited e-mails that promotes or sells a product or link - directly.

The worst spam you could get is when someone sends viagra e-mails or spams your blog with a short comment, which consists of just a thank you note, or “great post” and adds his link at the bottom.

Having a sig file at the end of someone’s e-mail is normal - don’t you think?

Please, stop mixing spam with self-promotion and thank-you e-mails.

Spam is a different animal.

#Caroline - regarding 80/20 principle and time management…

I recommend this web site to track daily tasks

http://www.14dayz.com/site/ (not an aff. link!)

SlimTimer is a joke compared to this one. Plus, I did not manage to track my time properly with it.

I’ve even sent you an e-mail asking you how you did it - no response yet… still waiting.

Codrut Turcanu - “Succeeding Against All Odds!”

—
Read my Blog to discover Fresh, Practical and Innovative TIPS
to Make a Small Fortune Online with Affiliate Programs
- Without Paying for Advertising! -
—

Well, it’s obvious that Kristen doesn’t agree with you although I have heard other recommend just this sort of thing. I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or not but I do think you wrote a good article. People will have to decide for themselves whether or not they want to chance pissing off the Kristens in the world…

Jason, I don’t think anyone has to worry about pissing off the Kristen’s of the stumbling world. Just don’t visit her blog, or “God forbid” actually DISCOVER a post she wrote, or give her a Thumbs Up. Part of Stumbling is to not only bring attention to a post or blog we like, but also to let the author know you personally felt the post deserved increased traffic. Perhaps Kristen would prefer that no one bother discovering her blog posts or giving her a thumbs up.

I understand the possible abuse of the service, receiving notifications of Thank You this-and-that, but I would think I could edit my notifications on stumble upon and not have to worry about it. ;)

Thanks for thanking me :)

I can’t say I thank everyone, but I do send thank yous on several social media sites when someone submits my content. I think it does help strengthen your relationship with the other person and it’s just nice to do.

@Sharon, Ahh I don’t do it on MyBlogLog - for some reason on there it feels like spam.

@Ruchir, I did that at the beginning until I realised that StumbleUpon has a limit of 200 friends. Unfortunately I now have to be selective about who I add so I don’t add everybody who gives me a thumbs up :(

@Kristen, yeah I really feel the anger from the replies I get from the thank you emails.

@Jason, there’s a saying that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. /shrug :)

@Zlatan, and thank you for thanking me lol :)

I can see Kristen’s POV. I receive unsolicited emails as well, which can be annoying when you get them every day. Very active stumblers dislike people trying to ‘game’ or ’spam’ StumbleUpon and I can understand their sentiments because I don’t only use SU for traffic.

Thanking someone is a polite thing to do but it could be taken the wrong way. If you piss off a group of stumblers, they will methodically thumb down your webpages when they have a chance, thus harming your chance of getting more stumbleupon traffic in the future

There are actually StumbleUpon Bury groups around (I’ve seen them personally). People will put up links to sites they don’t like and the whole group goes over to thumb it down.

Another reason why thanking everyone is a bad idea:

Active stumblers who stumble a lot might not even remember the websites they stumbled. Or they might be just racking their stumble numbers. A thumbs up doesn’t mean they really love your site or content.

If you still want to thank SU users, I recommend 3 things:

1. Only thank the submitter.
2. Only thank people you recognize/know.
3. Don’t include URLs in your message box

(I personally see this as rather spammy and will not hesitate to delete these emails or thumb down the user’s website if its junk.)

I think it’s always important to consider the intent behind the thank you. It’s clear from Caroline’s post that her intent is sincere. If she had framed her post as ‘hey listen, here’s a sneaky way to game SU” then that would be different.

I think that acknowledging your readers or stumblers is a nice relationship builder, which after all is what web 2.0 ideally is all about.

I appreciated the acknowledgement.

What, not a 55?

Told you I was late Caroline didn’t I? Joking aside, this is something I have yet to learn about. As a matter of fact I only just starting to get the hang of SU and it is addictive.

Therefore it can become quickly a very time consuming networking tool if not controlled with some measures.

I liked what Maki said in regards to only stumbling the submitters as this makes sense. The same applies to doing it only to those we know.

I agree and have also started using this exact method to only adding those I know to my friends list too. It is so easy to get carried away in the trigger happy thumb you so nicely mentioned.

Nothing more than “Spambler” crap. Anytime I get a nonsensical TY like you describe, it is an insta-block.

I try to remember to thank anyone in the blogging community that stumbles, diggs, or even leaves good comments.

From yesterday’s inbox messages on SU:

- - - -
“Hi Dr Mani! You’re most welcome and don’t mention it! :)
… It’s the first time a big name like you has taken the
time to leave me a note. :)

Cheers!
YC”
- - - -

The world, in general, is starved of politeness and courtesy.
It’s extreme marketing cynicism to view every ‘thank you’
message as a sneaky promotion (though, no doubt, justified
in some cases - I know how much ‘Thank you’ email I get just
because the sender thinks it’s the first step to getting a
JV promotion to my mailing list)

Maki, Kristen - I hear you, and thanks for pointing out the
downside of saying ‘thank you’ too often and too actively.

For the vast majority of readers and Stumblers, though, it’s
still a nice way to appreciate someone for taking the time
to visit my page, rate it, and maybe even review it.

I’ll keep saying ‘thank you’ - just because it’s a nice thing
to tell someone who has helped you, even in a small way :)

Thanks for the nice post, Caroline. You’re on my ‘must read’
list going forward.

All success
Dr.Mani

When someone says “thanks for visiting my site” and I don’t know them and haven’t ever conversed with them before, doesn’t make me any more likely to do so. Probably (as Kristen said), I was just hitting the stumble button and got there by accident. But having someone say “thank you” and leave it at that, certainly isn’t offensive.

But, I only add people as friends or thumb sites up whose CONTENT I find relevant to my own tastes, and not because they were nice to me. In this way when I click the button to “stumble content from my friends” I don’t get stuff I won’t be interested in- I know I’ll get good quality. So while it may be fine to try and find ways to get people to like you, when it comes down to it, you have to make sure there IS a reason to like you beyond that you are polite.

Caroline,

I found your blog and this post by following a link on another post and I must say that I am glad I did.

Your point about thanking others for stumbling a post of mine is a great idea that I am a bit ashamed that I hadn’t even thought of.

I think this is a great idea and just makes sense. Reciprocation is where it’s at!

Thanks for the reality check.

Greg

You’re welcome!! (And I gave you a thumbs up, too) ;)

@Maki, some good points there. The strange thing is that until this post, I had never received a negative reaction. In fact my thank you notes have many times led into an ongoing conversation and I have made new friends from it.

I think what it boils down to is how people see the world. If somebody is generally happy, optimistic, they’ll see a thank you note and smile and perhaps mail back with a “you’re welcome”. But if somebody is generally negative and dislikes marketers they’ll automatically assume it is spam / a marketing ploy etc.

There is nothing that I can do to control how my actions are received by others - that is in their control. But going on my results, and aside from the negative reactions to this actual post, it’s all been extremely positive.

If I say thank you and that finds its way to a like minded person, they’ll appreciate it. If that thank you finds its way to somebody who takes offense then to be honest, my blog is probably not what they were looking for anyway because I project my personality and my philosophy into everything I write.

So I figure, nothing lost.

@Dr Mani, yes you are right - there is a lack of politeness and courtesy. I’m not going to stop because somebody thinks I’m out to exploit them in some way.

@Jana, I’d just like to clarify - I only thank those people who actually gave the thumbs up. Those people haven’t just stumbled though, they stopped to click the button and show their approval. I don’t think somebody would thumbs up by accident.

And yes regarding friends, I only add people who have very similar interests as this allows me to stumble through my friends stuff and find lots more that I am bound to be interested in.

@BlueSky, Thanks Greg and I just watched your video - pretty cool :)

Caroline, thanks for the tips - it’s been interesting to follow the conversation here too.

I thank reviewers (those who’ve written a few words about a post or my site). As you say, it seems to be a good way to make a connection and people have written constructive things back to me, including some areas where I could improve my site. I’d never have known those things without contacting them to begin with.

Thanks for letting me know how to check for past messages too - I was searching for a sent messages feature yesterday without success so this came at a good time.

Joanna

I remember e-mailing first time commentators, I remember replying those mails that came in through my Contact Me page but I forgot about this. I think I forgot to thank you that day as well.

I learnt something here on how to recognize new faces who stumbled me and thanks for the whole article. I felt so regretted not to thank all my stumblers that day when my traffic shot up for more than 500% and now, no one stumbles me any more.

Oops, before I end this, thanks Caroline for stumbling my article. ;-)

You know, you’re missing a huge opportunity right now to draw traffic to your stumble page by not including a stumble button that links back to your SU profile.

And if it did, I would go there, and give you a thumbs down, because what you are doing is manipulative and irritating. I hate it when people PM me after I’ve visited there page with a smarmy note of appreciation. If the feeling is genuinely based on an interest in the general style of stumbles on a particular page, then it’s nice to hear from the like minded.

But you state that you barely take the time to take a post in context of the page it’s on. May africanized bees find your page and leave a thousand welts on it.

“Why Thank Stumblers? Well first of all, it’s just a nice thing to do isn’t it?” Frankly, no it isn’t. Random thank you messages clog Stumblers’ inboxes with anonymous, insincere notes from complete strangers. No one wants that! It doesn’t inspire or encourage return traffic. On the contrary - when I stumble an uninspired blog and am immediately thanked for stopping by when there is absolutely NO other common interest or connection, it creeps me out.

Invitations for a return visit or a review are simply SPAM. Reading these other reviews here reminds me that I have the option of thumbing down and blocking these people.

Here’s how to encourage repeat visits to your website: interesting content. If you capture your visitors’ attention with content, THEY will decide to come back. If they aren’t interested, a thank you is just a reminder for a site they still don’t want to read.

You, Maurice, Dr. Mani and possibly one or two more are the only people who have thanks me for stumbling them and you’re right, it makes you all stand out. I’ve added all of you as friends and stumbled more of your posts since then.

Geez Caroline,

Who would have thought that the concept of being kind would elicit such an emotional response. So much for being nice, eh?

All, Caroline gave me a personal lesson in Stumbling today when she Stumbled one of my post.

Caroline thank you so much

Great post about Stumble. I just may start doing this; it never dawned on me before. I guess it makes sense to do this with all social media tools as well (ie. digg, delicious, reddit, etc.)

But I have to say that there are some seriously rude and obnoxious people on Stumble….lol.

@Wayne, I’ve thought about emailing first time commenters but it’s tricky to be sure if they are first timers or not and that’s not something I would want to use a plugin for, which is what many blog do.

@Jonathan, indeed - it’s quite sad really. But you know what, the thumbs up to this post speak for themselves - they far, far outweigh those that thumbs down.

The thing I find odd, is that it’s one to find it irritating, annoying, whatever - but I’m surprised at the level of personal abuse that some people have chosen to hurl my way due to this post.

I think myself very lucky that this thing here is virtual, I mean, can you imagine the likely consequences of meeting one of these people in the street and accidentally smiling at them? Heaven forbid!

@Michael, hmm might wanna leave out Digg - very hostile crowd. I thought Stumblers were the friendly lot :p

Wow Caroline, you did a good job of finding the “Web2.0 social elite”, a conglomeration of people who think they own said web2.0 site.

Anyone in marketing will tell you that a thank you note is appropriate. Most people like a little bit of appreciation, except certain “elites” perhaps.

Mike

Wow muthabroad, trying to fit the bill there or what? Yikes! I don’t mean tihe bees comment, that’s pretty funny. Smarmy? You would’ve hated the days before road rage, huh?

@Caroline- Perhaps there is a difference between Stumbling and thumbs up.
I’ve been the first to Stumble some pages. Often, if I felt it was valuable to me or others, I really make the tagging/description a thoughtful process.

At those times, people have acknowledged it.
And I appreciate that. They realize that even if I’m “just stumbling”, my time is also valuable.

I would NOT expect a ty for a thumbs up.

As we (YOU) get busier and more famous, it may become unrealistic.

Sorry for being so genteel.
; )

Found this post from your Twitter!

I don’t thank the regular thumbs-uppers, but I do thank submitters. Just in a friendly way–nothing sought, just a quick “thanks for submitting it, glad you liked it.”

Anyone who organizes some kind of ban against you for thanking them is, well, sad.

And frankly, SU traffic is nice and once in awhile you get a keeper (a submitter who I thanked has become one of my subscribers, and I subscribed to her blog + newsletter as well), I’m not going to start quaking in my boots or being rude just because someone threatens my SU traffic.

ahhh…well…looks like you’ll never stop trying to popularise your blog…i hope you have a good reason :D

dunno why, but my perception of you is gradually changing from “smart commentator on the online world” to “sneaky user of psychology to get others to read what you write”, and threatening to veer towards “downright manipulative”

well…i guess it doesn’t matter as long as i’ve subscribed to your blog.

i wonder what you’ll come up with next. i’m half expecting flowers at my doorstep tomorrow morning. you never know, it might just change my opinion of you too…for the worse. but it also *will* guarantee that i’ll never ever unsubscribe from your blog.

He, he. It’s so funny to see people reading a marketing blog and getting upset that you dare to market it.

Caroline, DON’T send flowers to Kris. Send them to me. I’ll stay subscribed anyway, but I’ll appreciate your kindness :-D

I think Maki makes some sound counterpoints that help to clarify the need for balance and commonsense. I have said thanks to other Stumblers in the past, usually with additional comment, but in the main, to people who I know as friends either from SU or other social networks.

I feel sorry for the people who seem to need to spew invective and poison around the web from behind the safety of a keyboard. I think it says a lot more about a person’s general lack of character and manners than the contents of your post does.

As for the toilet mouthed and juvenile rantings and attacks on the SU reviews, I think it’s shameful. The world’s worst, showcased in all their pitiful unpleasantness.

What on earth is the matter with you folks? Didn’t your mamas raise you right……?

Caroline, to be fair to those criticizing your ‘advice’, there are indeed situations where one gets overwhelmed by ’seemingly’ sincere posts that are merely veiled pitches for promotion/selling.

Having been on the receiving end of those, not on StumbleUpon, but on various other media/channels over the last 10 years, I know how irritating it can be to wade through the stuff. Blog comment spam is just one recent avatar of the menace current social media users may be more familiar with.

That said, I stick with my original comment that it would be ‘extreme marketing cynicism’ to paint the behavior itself with broad brushstrokes - as there are at least a few, if not many, who sincerely are reaching out to say hello and make the Web ‘human’ in a nice way.

Slapping their wrists is certainly not good manners!

All success
Dr.Mani

@Kris, your comment makes me think of something that John Chow said a while back. He gets a lot of negative comments and people often threaten to unsubscribe but they are just too interested in seeing what they come up with next, so they keep coming back.

Personally, I have a personality, a philosophy and I will inject it into everything I write. Some will like it, others won’t. It doesn’t matter - that is life. That’s what’s makes people and the relationships between them interesting.

And no, of course I’ll never stop trying to popularise the blog!

@Dr Mani, If I send a thank you note, I have no idea if that arrives in an empty inbox, or in an inbox with a hundred other similar messages. That is a factor outside of my control.

Great article on stumbling Caroline!! I judge quite a bit of what people say by their intentions. After reading so many of your blogs and articles - I can only say that you have the best intentions for your readers. I know that you would not teach us anything or suggest anything that might be construed as unethical. I know that you only meant well. In fact I’ve truly, truly appreciated how quickly and politely you have responded to me in the past.

Thank you for the “thank you” and the lightning quick responses!!

Wow, Caroline. I’m subscribed to your Twitter feed and this blog, so I had to visit this page to see the goings on for myself.

Who would have thought that the “thank you for stumbling” concept would become so polarizing? I can see valid points for each side; I hate unsolicited messages of all sorts, so mysterious “thank yous” would end up in my spam filter.

On the other hand, in an increasingly callous, jaded, and cold-hearted world, it’s nice to know someone is interested in personally reaching out. The most treasured messages I’ve ever received were from people whose opinion I valued who responded to me after I sent them a note expressing my appreciation to them for their unique qualities. I value your blog and twitter posts very much, and am using this venue to pass along those same well-wishes to you for your diligent effort to learn by teaching. Don’t let the negative ones, or “thumbs down” to get YOU down.

Provide an open channel for people to communicate with you via interesting content and frequently-provided contact info or other upstream mechanisms, and let them come to you. Thank them when they came, and send them on their way a bit happier knowing that you listened to them. Don’t worry about reaching out to the masses.

And with that, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

@Chris, oh it would take a lot more than this stuff to get me down :-) In fact the traffic figures for this post tell a very different story than what these potty mouths may be trying to have me believe as I’ll be sharing in tomorrows post.

I find it very obnoxious when websites talk about stumbling in posts not directly about StumbleUpon (as is the case almost every time I see this), let alone address stumblers.

Honestly, this isn’t something I would normally read all the way through, but I did!

I don’t own a website, or even care a lot about “traffic”, but somehow this interested me. Maybe because you seem like a good person!

Thumbs up.

#
Mike Carlson, on November 15th, 2007 at 11:53 pm Said:

Wow Caroline, you did a good job of finding the “Web2.0 social elite”, a conglomeration of people who think they own said web2.0 site.

Anyone in marketing will tell you that a thank you note is appropriate. Most people like a little bit of appreciation, except certain “elites” perhaps.

Mike

Well now there’s the thing - not everyone who uses StumbleUpon is “in marketing”. Get this, I’ll write it nice and calmly so you can’t “feel my anger”:

We are only able to keep a limited number of inbox messages at a time, therefore every time we get a message thanking us just for stopping by, we lose a message that might have been from an online friend or acquaintance. Okay?

Now for the next bit, nice and polite now: there’s been talk of social niceties here, let’s be realistic - if someone walks past your front door, you don’t immediately follow them to their house or apartment and push a note through theirletterbox thanking them now do you? Social niceties in reality require an appreciation of social skills. Surely people “in marketing” require those if they don’t want their business to fail, likewise if you’re going to take people’s negative responses so personally. People don’t want it - they don’t have to be “nice” about it - it’s their inbox. Your response is guaranteed to create more hostility. To use the comparison, a good business listens to its customers and you and your followers have no business advising newbies to do something that is deeply unpopular on StumbleUpon then getting arsey when people object.

I await my inevitable passive-aggressive trashing along with the usual spam, pervy “compliments” and er, fake gratitude for stopping by somebody pages.

P.S. “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail”? What’s the point? They’ll only get submitted to SU anyway by some website traffic obsessive.

Caroline - You should have done a bit more research before advising your readers to thank “their stumblers”. It is common knowledge that stumblers do NOT like spam - and do, in fact see your self serving ‘thank you’s’ as such. We’re tired of all the marketing blogs with no other content except for posts on how to gain traffic via stumbleupon. Here’s a novel idea - try posting something interesting. You would be much more likely to get stumblers positive attention. Any form of marketing to stumblers via their in-boxes is a bad, bad idea.

Let me give you some stats - I get approximately 400 visitors to my SU blog, per day. At least 40 messages per day - one SU message page lists about 10 messages - so 4 pages of messages per day. Currently, the only way to delete messages is one..at..a..time. All the spam pushes messages we might actually want to read and respond to pages away. This is annoying..guess what makes it even more annoying? That’s right - when tons of the messages we receive consist of just ‘hello’s’ or ‘thanks for stopping by’. Also annoying is the fact that stumblers are not ’stopping by’, they are stumbling on your page.. and would like to be free to do so without having their inbox filled with yet another (spam) message.

Be honest, Caroline.. if you were just a very polite person there would be no need to feature ’saying thank you’ on a marketing blog with the tagline ‘Making money online - or trying to!’ Why are you acting so shocked that people see this as spam? And to top it off, you give a snarky reply to an actual stumbler (kristen) who was giving you a different viewpoint… and one that MANY stumblers share.

After reading this and your follow up post, I would suggest you start anew and learn from your stumbleupon faux pas here. Do a little more research if you want to get anywhere with SU - insulting the intelligence of stumblers is not good marketing.

Reading this article and the comments just made my head swim. Are you people really serious? Some of you are names I recognize and have butted heads with…especially the one that thinks everybody thats friendly is a perv LOL! Some of you I’m friendly with. How could a friendly thank you piss anyone off. Sheesh. Lighten up.

thank you for the complement and your welcome:)

How about sharing some money with stumblers!

Just joking. :O)

Lazar’s last blog post..Do Alexa.com ratings mean anything?

Don’t forget the other “stumblers”. You know. The ones who stumble upon your site from who knows were. You may find the same kind of payoff just by recognizing any new visitor/commenter to your blogs. At least you got me thinking about it, and I have to go back and review my site for that kind of recognition.

Just getting around to reading this (I’m slow). Great points, it’s easy to forgo quality for quantity stumblers. Seems like if you thank folks, you’re going get quality stumblers, and hopefully that translates to return web page/blog traffic instead of one time and out page views. Besides, civility is nice.

Dave Laffertys last blog post..Paolo and Francesca