You’ve probably seen this symbol before.
…and you’ve probably overlooked it completely.
This is Stumbleupon’s logo. Pretty neat, right? It sometimes appears at the bottom of web articles. Some sites use it, while others don’t. Maybe you’ve heard of it, but odds are you haven’t really tried it out.
It’s cool.
No worries.
I’m here to tell you why Stumbleupon is awesome. Not only for web surfers, but for authors, artists, and internet content creators of any kind.
First, some facts:
- Here at Tessera Guild, Stumbleupon accounts for more than 50% of all our site hits. Meaning hundreds of clicks every day and thousands upon thousands every month. That’s a lot. It’s invaluable to us, generating tons of new visitors every single day with minimal effort on our part.
- At my personal book/art site, DowntheDarkPath, Stumbleupon accounts for 30% of my site hits, which is still a large percentage. Once again, it’s invaluable.
- Stumbleupon is fun and easy to use.
Now, we could spend hours talking about how great Stumbleupon is for web surfing. How quick and easy it is to set up a profile, choose specific interests, and wander off on a ten-year long click safari. All these things are great, and totally worth checking out.
But today I’m pitching it to authors, artists, and anyone who has ever published anything on the web.
So…
You say you’ve got a website. You’ve populated it with high-quality contents, graphics, and cool links to cool things. But…you’re struggling to get clicks. Facebook and Instagram earn you a few, while Twitter and Linkedin are graveyards. What other source can you possibly hope for to direct traffic your way?
Yeah. You guessed it. Stumbleupon.
I guess that’s an S and a U. Whatever. Decent-looking logo.
How it works:
- People (usually content creators or readers) submit content to Stumbleupon with just a few clicks. Submitting takes between 3-7 seconds. Super easy.
- Other people click the ‘Stumble’ button on top of Stumbleupon’s main page, at which point the site will redirect the person to a random article or website. Only…it’s not entirely random. The more likes a page has, the more likely it is to be ‘stumbled upon.’ Meaning, if you’ve got an article or blog that a lot of people click ‘Like’ on, it could go viral. (This has happened to Tessera Guild multiple times, often resulting in 10,000+ page views in a matter of hours or days.)
- By curating enough high-quality content on your website and adding some of it selectively to Stumbleupon, you could see residual visits to your page for many months.
- More visits mean more exposure. And whether you’re selling something or simply trying to start a web-wide conversation, this is good news.
Oh. And here’s a huge piece of advice for people who use Stumbleupon to promote their stuff:
- Don’t exclusively submit your own content. In fact, submit and like other people’s stuff more than your own. Also, if you can avoid it, don’t submit stuff that’s purely sales pitchy. Add funny, cute, informative, or awesome stuff instead. The sales or engagement will come from visits to your website…assuming you’ve got quality material.
- Some people will say to ‘never’ add your own content. Nonsense. Just be super-selective.
Now it’s true…most people I’ve met have never even heard of Stumbleupon. They surf the web the old-fashioned way (with Google.) There’s nothing wrong with that. Google is awesome. It’s just that Stumbleupon refines the process, guiding surfers to random, fun stuff in a cool way. It also appears to have a tendency to ‘go viral’ more often than other outlets like Facebook or Twitter. And content with enough likes will keep getting hits indefinitely, meaning way more residual clicking than other social media.
Look, I’m just saying,
If you’re a surfer, give Stumbleupon a try.
Or if you’ve got something cool, smart, and engaging to submit, use it as another sharp tool in your exposure arsenal.
Oh, and here’s the one lil’ old article I submitted that convinced me to start stumblin’ forever.
LUB (Love you, bye)
