StumbleUpon Traffic - Ebook Review

I’m not sure what a Stumbleupon book could contain that can’t be found for free? Perhaps giving it away for free like you and I did (with Blog Monetization Strategies) would be better in the long run..

Matt Jones’s last blog post..By: 10 Free eBooks on Earning Money Online and Blogging | Toast & Egg & Me…

I think the book will do well among the noobs. I get questions every single day asking “What is Stumbleupon?” and “What do I do with it?”. We are more advanced than some so we look at things with more critique. It sounds like it will walk a first-timer through Stumbleupon easily. Good luck with it Matt!

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For someone who’s not recommending the eBook, you certainly used a lot of affiliate links to it.

this isn’t related to your post, but i had to put it somewhere so i’m putting it here…after about 6 months of subscribing to and reading *every one* of your posts, it’s time to hit unsubscribe. not that i don’t like your blog, but just that i don’t have the time to cope with the collective volume of all the blogs i subscribe to, and i wasn’t very interested in SEO/making money online in the first place.

just had to say goodbye because it felt weird if i’d just unsub without letting you know that you did make a difference (in a very positive way), despite my low level of interest in your (um) interests :)

kris’s last blog post..déjà vu

I have to agree in principle with Matt (first comment). Writing an ebook on stumbleupon and then trying to sell it is both pointless and ludicrous imho. What would pocess someone to go and spend a fiver or tenner (or whatever) on something that contains information that is freely available online- and probably ten times better as well!

@Matt and Designer Sunglasses:

I disagree. The Man compiled a report that combines useful information that was probably processed in some way to provide a fluent and coherent reading experience.

Trying to find information on the net is often a time consuming experience that would require skills of processing all that into simple truths and facts. Not everyone have time/patience/skills to do that. BTW, almost anything contained in eBooks of this niche can be found for free. So, how would you explain all of the eBooks being sold every single day?

Cheers,
Alex

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Thanks for this review, Carolyn. In addition to useful information about the book itself you have furnished a great object lesson in how to do a review. A lot of bloggers struggle with the question of should I or should I not do reviews … especially if there is any paid component (and when you are an affiliate of the reviewed product there is certainly a major financial compnent).

When you list the strong _and_ the weak points of a product in a classy, helpful manner (not the all so typical ‘this thing rocks’ or ‘this thing sucks’ reviews that say nothing) then you perform a service to your readers and even to the author … should he chose to accept constructive criticism. And you certainly enhance your own integrity and objectivity, in my book at least.

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Caroline,

Thanks for the review of my StumbleUpon Traffic book.

I just want to set the record straight, (from the author) that this book is meant to be used as a solid resource to gain a thorough understanding of the StumbleUpon site. Then show how to use that knowledge to best get traffic from the site. My goal was to Help people get a good understanding of how they could benefit from Stumble the quickest and easiest.

While I’ve been using the Stumble site for about a year with a great degree of success, I’ve received a ton of questions from my readers, asking just how I did it. On top of that, many had tried StumbleUpon and just didn’t get it. They had tried Stumbling and received little or no results from the site and many gave up, feeling like it wouldn’t work for them.

I’ve blogged about how to replicate my results, emailed people information, and even directed people to links describing some of the techniques. The fact is, many posts on the subject of using the Stumble site, including ones found on the Stumble site itself, are incomplete.

Like you pointed out, there’s an abundance of free information widely available about Stumbleupon. That is, if you have the time and inclination to seek it out. If you do, then this book is not for you. Even then, with all the information out there, you still may not know who to trust, and what to believe.

This is why I felt that this book needed to be created. I do have to strongly disagree with you on the quality of this book, as I believe it’s a solid investment for $9.00. I’ve tried and used the techniques inside with great success. Sure, if your a full-time blogger you might not find anything mind blowingly original.

That was not my intention with this book. As I said before it was to provide an easy to follow blueprint to use the Stumble site, to get great results.

Well, all said the great thing about this kind of feedback is it gives me an opportunity to really find out what areas to improve on, so thank you for that :) Oh yeah, this book also is fully guaranteed, so even if you buy, and decide it’s not for you. I’ll refund your money.

Best regards

Matthew Sherborne

Hi Carolyn,

Not a review I expected. Most are fluffy and somewhat not critical. I like your style of review. I agree with David on that point. Funny thing is that all of this information and then some can be found, if the person is willing to spend the time looking for it. Most people are looking for the easy answer. Another point: anybody can sell anything to anybody.

Greg

Greg Meares’s last blog post..Internet marketing Product Launches: Not Another One!

It is nice to see not so great reviews. We get tired of reading never ending reviews of amazingly good life changing ebooks. The low barriers to entry make it easy for anyone to write an ebook, hence a few duds are bound to make it out there.

What is surprising here is that the guy has written quality work before.

Tom Beaton’s last blog post..Introduction to social networking

Caroline mentionned a few times in the past that her blog is not just a frontpage to generate sales, but a place for her to write about her journey as an Internet Marketer, leaving room for more personnal posts. Therefore, I do not read reviews from Caroline as I would read the ones from Michael Kwan @ johnchow.com. I expect Caro to get more personnal, and this is what she did in this one. In this case, she did a review based on her knowledge of SU, and it turns out she is a power user. So I think she did a very honest job. And the last paragraph says it all.

Patrick

Patrick’s last blog post..Using Humour To Extend Your Reach

I’m hitting the “unsubscribe” too. Another review trying to sell an ebook to newbies. It gets old after awhile.

@Matt, yeah reading it made me want to write my own! I must just do that heh.

@James, well of course! I still made a sale from it despite my review.

@kris, I don’t suppose you’ll see this now, but byebye :) I’m sure people unsubscribe all the time, that’s just life but not many people take the time to say goodbye lol.

@Dave, I think it’s harder for people who do paid reviews - where they are actually paid to do the review itself rather than being paid on commissions. There are always affiliate products to review so I don’t need to worry if I review one that I don’t recommend. And I still made a sale from it anyway! Honesty is always the best policy.

@Matthew, one thing I should have pointed out is that I write my review with my own readers in mind, and they are not necessarily the masses. StumbleUpon is one of those topics that I personally have blogged about a lot so my own readers probably know more about it just from this blog than many people in general. So where I certainly feel your book is good value overall, I didn’t think that many of *my* readers would get as much value from it as say readers of Yaro Starak’s blog - I don’t think he’s a Stumbler for instance.

And sorry, should have mentioned the money back guarantee - I’ll edit the post and put that in.

@Greg, yeah that’s right I guess what both you and Alex are saying is that an ebook author who takes the time to compile freely available information call sell it as a package of convenience.

@Jason, I always wonder why somebody reads a blog about making money online and then becomes offended and unsubscribes when the blog owner attempts to make money online…. One of life’s eternal mysteries I guess.

@Matthew, I just went back to your sales page to see what guarantee you offer but it’s not there - looks like you forgot to add that!

Caroline,

The guarantee is under the P.P.S and has been there from the start.

Since you missed it, it looks like this…

P.P.S. — Stumbleupon Traffic is completely guaranteed. You’re covered by my personal guarantee, if you try this program and it doesn’t work for you, I’ll refund your money, simple as that.

Matthew Sherborne’s last blog post..Create Ebooks For Online Income

Great review. This post for me, lays out a nice formula for reviewing other ebooks as well as any you write yourself. Excellent.

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@Matthew, ahh yes I see that now. I think the problem is that I have been so conditioned to sales letters all looking the same these days that I was looking for one of those fancy graphic blocks with a 30 or 58 days guarantee :)

Caroline,

As always your reviews rock. You wrote it for your readers, knowing that many here are already halfway or more to understanding SU, and that we’d want in-depth info or a few “insider” tricks in a good e-book. Most loyal readers at any blog do know the basics about SU and others. I suspect the book has more to offer to those who find it in other ways.

Excellent point about links in pdfs. They’re easy to build and should always be there.

Not going down the sales letter route this time, eh?
:)

Matthew, although you were stung a bit, you were also gracious. Kudos.

I think the point about finding out about SU for free is true, except that it’s also true about just about anything these days. The point of a book (electronic or otherwise) is that it saves you the hours or days of searching for the info and sorting the wheat from the chaff, puts it together logically, and then takes you in-depth and gives personal insights, too. You exchange dollars for time (my large library shows I make this exchange quite a lot; my crammed schedule makes it a happy exchange).

Always happy to exchange my time for your insights, Caroline.

Regards,

Kelly

Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week

Caroline and all,

If anyone is wondering if Matthew knows what he’s talking about, I’ll just tell you that he Stumbled my site today and I thought something was broken with my stats, so many folks dropped in. It took a bit of digging to figure out what started the avalanche!

Now, Matthew, not just gracious, but obviously as much of an expert as you write, if only they’d all stayed around, read six more articles, left lots of comments, subscribed, and become clients of my firm, I’d think you were a magician. Thanks for dropping by! What a crack-up it was to figure out who caused all the fuss!

Regards,

Kelly

Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week

Ahh, the ethics of affiliate marketing…. a subject dear to my heart.

If I were to throw my hat in the ring my opinion would be along the lines of this: If you don’t think the product is valuable then it is unreasonable to profit from somebody buying it.

Your negative review carries a good deal more credibility if you don’t stand to profit from the attention your review gives to the product.

Guru Bob

@Guru Bob, I disagree. My review is my personal opinion of the ebook and although I have not recommended it, that is not to say that it wont still be of use to some people out there. My opinion, is just that - the opinion of one person.