Have you used StumbleUpon yet? If you haven’t, you really need to.

Stumble in a nutshell: You install a toolbar (Firefox or IE), and create a free account. Configure your options which basically consist of a page of interests, such as humour, science, blogs, films etc, where you put a check next to those you like. Click ’stumble’ on your toolbar and get taken to a random website based on your interests. Then click thumbs up or down depending on whether you like it or not, and stumble to the next site. SU learns your preferences as you go, and refines it’s suggestions for you, and I’ve found it to be spookily accurate. As well as clicking thumbs up or down, you also have the option to write up a review of the site on it’s Stumble page. Should you be browsing a web page and think it’s worthy of sharing with others, then you can click thumbs up on it, and be the first suggester to review it. The page will then go into SU and be spread amongst other stumblers with similar interests.

So the obvious thing that occurs to bloggers is ‘I can stumble my own pages and get more traffic!’, and it’s true, you can. However, nobody likes spam, whatever the flavour, so I would suggest the following, as my opinion:

  1. Should you stumble your own posts? I would say yes, but in moderation. I have in the past, but I have decided from now on, to do it only if I think that I have written something genuinely deserving of a wider audience, that is at least a month old. In other words, it’s good (IMHO), but has been missed and is now buried in my archives.
  2. Only stumble your very best. Stumbling your ‘What I had for breakfast’ post isn’t any fun for anyone.
  3. Be honest in your review, and don’t write in the 3rd person: ‘This blogger is wonderfully talented, and handsome too! Check them out!’ People will find out it’s you, and act accordingly.

To be honest though, stumbling your own writing is only of limited use. A far better use of Stumble, is to find good stuff for fellow stumblers and build your network that way. You can complete a profile for your SU ID, including photo (or screenshot) your blog name & address, and some info about yourself. Take some time to fill this out properly. Now start stumbling, write reviews of pages, and make some good suggestions of new sites (not your own). Here’s what you can do:

  1. Every time you land on a site from SU, the stumbler who suggested it is displayed in your toolbar. If you click on them, you get taken to their SU profile page. If you like their stumbles, add them as a friend-a single click!
  2. They can then see you’ve done this, and return the favour if they want to, by making you a friend. If you add someone, you start receiving more of their suggestions, and they likewise.
  3. If you really like a site, write a short, but useful review of it on the SU page. This will encourage more people to see who you are.
  4. Find interesting new sites & stumble them. Just click ‘I like It’ on a page, and if you’re first, SU will tell you & invite you to write a review. It’s great if you can stumble one of your friends blogs if they’ve come up with something good, and get them some new visitors. I stumbled a blog post, purely because I thought it was funny, and it resulted in over 8000 hits! A figure that high is an exception, but if the post is funny/informative/interesting it will get a massive SU boost.

Keep stumbling good stuff, write review & don’t spam, your network will grow and you will benefit. The best thing about SU though, is the sheer amount of great new sites that you’d never normally find. It results in a never ending stream of interesting stuff to blog about as well.

Be warned though, once you start, it’s hard to stop, and the mantra of ‘Just one more stumble’ will take you past 1am more than once….

My StumbleUpon Page