I have been an enthusiastic user of StumbleUpon for a few years now, and there’s no better procrastination tool available on the internet.

I always enjoy getting one of my sites stumbled, but gain far more from SU by using it as it was intended, to find interesting new sites to read, and sharing my discoveries with others. Whilst SU is fine to use in isolation, you will get far more from it by increasing your number of friends with similar interests, as you will receive their stumbles and discoveries, and as you build relationships you can send them things directly, using the ‘Send to’ function.

However, as Gary Conn recently explained, Stumble Upon links are ‘no followed’ meaning that none of the sites in your SU blog receive any link juice from the Search Engines. Gary has an excellent solution to this, which I’ll shortly be implementing on this blog, but how to reward your SU Friends who send you all this good stuff anyway?

Simple, shamelessly stealing the idea from Tad Chef who posted a list of 20 of his Stumble friends, here’s 20 of my 100 mutual SU friends. I have another 43 friends who haven’t added me back, so ya-boo-sucks to them

The first link is their Stumble profile, the second their personal website or blog: Check them out, and if they have interests similar to yours, why not add them as a friend? And if they have similar interests to you, it stands to reason that their blog’s worth visiting too….

1. AnitaBath – SayNotToCrack: Top stumbler, head honcho of the hugely successful random humour blog SNTC, Anita is also a top person, with a huge range of interesting stumbles.
2. Chris-garrett – chrisg.com: Eclectic range of interests on SU, Chris’ blog is more focused, on the use of blogging and new media, and is another essential read for aspiring bloggers.
3. garyconn – GarryConDotCom: Problogger, outside the box thinker, and persistent Stumbler!
4. Autorave – DoshDosh: Maki’s SU alter ego is a veritable Pandora’s Box of the expected blogging & internet related material, along with photography, graphic art, humour and much more…..
5. auer1816 – Epic Edits Weblog: I have been a fan of Brian’s excellent stumbles for a while now, usually noting his name against my favourites. Today is the first time I’ve visited his blog – why? An excellent photography resource, I can’t believe I’ve only just found it – I shall be back.

Well that’s a lesson learnt already – check out your favourite stumblers blogs, you never know what you may be missing! I am a photography fan, and I particularly enjoy the new photos SU brings me. Ok, on with the list.

1. RTCunningham – Untwisted Vortex: Regular readers of this blog should already be regular readers of UV. RT’s, Stumble persona is like his blog, eclectic, useful and always interesting.
2. Wackygoose – N/A: No personal website unfortunately, but a quality Stumbler of photography, internet & blogging, humour and more.
3. SomersetBob – Somerset Bob’s Place: Ex-radio DJ turned writer, and interesting and eclectic stumbler with a like-minded blog that I have also not seen before…. Another Flickr add too.
4. K-InTheHouse – ShanKri-La: Another long time Blog-Op supporter, K’s SU profile is again reflected in his excellent blog. Tech, internet, humour, science and lots of brilliant Open-Source stuff, it’s all here.
5. Onreact.com – SEO 2.0: Tad only joined SU last month, but I’m already liking his stumbles, and his blog. How did I find him? He very kindly gave a thumbs up on my Problogger ‘song’ and I followed the trail back. Proof of social networking in action……

Do take the time to check out these profiles, and if your interests match, to add them. The great thing about these people is that they will add you back. Finished? Cool, let’s carry on…..

1. crpitt – A Little Piece Of Me: A regular contributor to Blog-Op on all matters Blogger related, Claire also has an excellent and very busy personal blog, and comes up with some great Stumbles.
2. AndyBeard – Andy Beard: Andy states that his stumbles are related to the main themes of his blog, namely niche marketing, SEO, blogging and WordPress, and he certainly delivers with a wide range of interesting and useful stumbles. He’ll also occasionally stumble some rubbish song parodies – thanks Andy!
3. ffnstuff – Blog About Your Blog: Matthew runs the very successful BAYB which allows just about anyone to author a post and share their knowledge and tips with others, and is a must-do for any blogger who’d like a wider audience. His stumbles reflect this, and he’s a very selfless stumbler, always looking to promote other peoples work which is cool. It stands for ‘Fantasy Football and stuff’ IIRC…..
4. Problogger – Problogger: Oh come on! Surely I don’t need to explain this one? Is this the real Darren Rowse? Well, he seems to have a liking for Problogger and DPS, so it could be. Good stumbles regardless.
5. FrancescoMapelli – Mapelli.info: Excellent range of stumbles and articles on blogging, internet and web design.

You know, i’s probably been hard work going through all these links. Why not just grab my RSS feed and come back to it later?

1. JohnFTM – Finding the money: I wouldn’t ordinarily add a blogger who appears to have dropped off the radar since April, but the archive of stumbles & posts is too good to ignore. Add, read and hope he comes back.
2. AJMarques – Inspiration:Ambiguity: Beautiful photography, beautiful words, and an excellent stumbler.
3. Skedaddle – Daily Chronicles of the American Civil War: A long time Stumbler with a massive 13k pages stumbled over a wide variety of subjects from history and photography to hiking and web design.
4. Tharion – Bloggers Journey: The blog is all about helping you to build a better blog, and the stumbles are related, with lots of good stuff on web-design, open source and software, with a few random humour stumbles thrown in.
5. Brown Baron – Brown Thoughts: Another name that frequently pops up in my Stumble bar alongside an interesting stumble. Both the blog and the Stumbles are heavily into web, software, blogging and internet issues, with some great photography and humour stumbles mixed in.

OK, that’s 20 of my Stumble friends in no particular order. Adding anyone (or all!) of these people to your Stumble friends will only enrich your SU experience, as will checking out their blogs.

I’m always looking to add to my list of Stumble friends, and you can find me by clicking on the badge below – I’ll add you straight back, and look forward to what you send me.