This is the first post in our, ‘Making Your Blog Famous’ Series. Subscribe to our feed to make sure you get each new post as they are written.
Yesterday was my best traffic day ever and it had nothing to do with Blogging Idol at all. I just happened to have two of my blog posts (Ebook Cover Tutorial and Improve Your Blogging) Stumble Rushed on the same day. In fact my traffic for just yesterday and the start of today was better than my whole traffic for may (launched blog 15th, may)
Here are my traffic stats for month on month since May:
As you will notice, after just 1 day and 7 hours I have already had more traffic than I got for the first 15 days my blog existed, AND I am well on my way of smashing last months traffic stats. ALL BECAUSE OF STUMBLEUPON.
Does this mean I am suddenly an expert in StumbleUpon?
No way. I am sure there are many people who are getting way more per Stumble Rush than I do.
Does this mean I am now in love with StumbleUpon?
Apart from even thinking about how wrong that sounds, I am undecided.
After going through my stats I can definately see both benefits and downfalls to Stumble traffic, so I thought I would lay my thoughts out here for you all to read. Nice of me isn’t it!
Benefits of StumbleUpon Traffic
I can definately see a lot of benefits that come from a stumble rush.
- A Lot Of Traffic
Who would say no to free traffic. I had to do absolutely nothing to get these visitors except write the posts. I couldn’t even help the stumble along cause my account is playing up. - Helps Sell Advertising
Woudl you rather pay $10 a month for 125×125 adspot on a blog that has 2,000 visitors or 20,000 visitors. StumbleUpon helps you alot when you are starting out to reach that second figure! - Warm And Fuzzy Feeling
Ok this is just an added bonus, but doesn’t if feel good knowing that so many people liked your post. It makes you feel valued and pushes you to continue to create quality content.
Downfalls of Stumble Upon Traffic
However I also see a fair few downfalls of StumbleUpon traffic.
- You Are Only Famous For A Moment
Once the stumble rush is over the chances of any of your visitors revisiting your blog is minimal. You only chance of getting stumbled again is writing another great post for someone to get the stumble ball rolling again. - They Last A Maximum Of 30 Seconds
Stumble traffic is notorious for leaving as quick as they enter. This not only skews your ‘Visit Duration’ stats – it pretty much just pads out your traffic numbers. During my recent stumble rush my visit duration for 0-30 seconds got as high as 83% – which is huge! And I bet if this post got stumble that the same thing would happen again. - They Don’t Buy Or Click
Out of the 700+ visitors I had today not one click on adsense and no one click on my affiliate links. This is another thing that stumblers are known for. They just hop from site to site – stay 0-30seconds before moving on the the next one.
Conclusion
I am still fence sitting this one. Because although the traffic will probably not make me famous or make me any money, the fact is that it is still traffic. People are visiting your blog because your content is valuable, which makes your ads more valuable and as a result your blog more valuable.
How To Write A Post For Stumble Readers
Right now I am probably not the best person to ask. Looking at the two post that got stumbled I am struggling to find similarities other than the fact that they were both from this blog.
Lets have a closer look:
|
|
1st Stumbled Post |
Second Stumbled Post |
|
Blog Title: |
||
|
Page Views: |
539 |
176 |
|
Post Type: |
Inspirational |
Tutorial |
|
Post Voice: |
Personal |
Technical |
|
Post Length: |
Medium |
Long |
|
Pictures: |
No |
Yes |
|
Steps/List Post: |
No |
Yes |
I know that the inspirational post got stumbled a heap more than the tutorial – which I am really surprised because the first post was actually written and posted over a week ago and contains spelling and grammatical errors that I cannot be bothered to fix.
Does this mean we should all be writing inspirational posts with a personal voice, of medium length with no pictures or lists?
Maybe, but I think there is a something else to consider here. I think their are a few reasons why both these posts were a success, and I believe if you can follow these few things there is no reason why your posts wont get stumbled as well.
- Post For Your Readers
Don’t write ‘Made for stumble’ posts. Instead just focus on writing what your readers will enjoy. anyway your readers are the ones with Stumble accounts. - Add Personal Stories
In the first post I talked a lot about how I was starting singing lessons and in the tutorial the cover I was designing was for a new project I am working on. Both included a little bit about me – this is something that people cannot duplicate because I am the only one of me in the world! - Just Let Stumbles Happen
Don’t go around begging for stumbles. Let your content do the talking, and if it is good then you will be rewarded well. If not – better luck next time.
This is just a personal look at Stumble Upon from the eyes of a publisher. I wouldn’t regard my opinions too highly as they are just observations I have made from personal experience. I will be looking at other promotion strategies through out the month of July as we look at ‘Making Your Blog Famous.’
Find out how to make your blog famous by subscribing to our feed or email updates. By doing this you are also voting for this blog in Blogging Idol!
StumbleUpon favours How-To posts, Images and Videos as the grab the user straight away.
They can be useful on other blogs if you are lucky enough to get stumbled by people in your niche!
wow thats great stats! this why i love SU :D
I also got some StumbleUpon traffic that was pretty similar to yours in terms of duration and bounce rate. Ah well, every bit helps :D
Rajaie AlKoranis last blog post..Three Steps To Perfecting Your Theme – Part Two
Nice post. I got stumbled once and agree that it’s a great source of traffic but is very temporary. I recently got farked too and that was a HUGE source of traffic!
Adam Pieniazeks last blog post..Super Cyclist Troopers
I found stumple upon traffic to be very hard and very fast.
Very similar to a hurricane, it can get you a lot of traffic if used properly. Taking that traffic and making use of it is hard though.
IronBloggers last blog post..Missing Those RSS Subscribers?
Huge stats! I don’t use StumbleUpon very much. My main source of traffic is Entrecard.
I’m not exactly a huge fan of StumbleUpon for the disadvantages you mentioned. When I have been stumbled, the traffic increase was nice but it was short-lived (they didn’t come back or leave comments) and there was a very high bounce rate and very sort stay duration.
Nicks last blog post..It’s been a year already!
I don’t know but su doesn’t work well for me… Do i need to have many friends on stumbleupon to make stumbles easier for me… Normally i only get less than 10 hits on su…
Melvins last blog post..I Forgot The Top Commenters!
I’ve heard very mixed opinions on SU traffic. Fact is, like you said, it works….it’s free traffic, and, as long as your hosting is setup properly to handle the influx…go for it.
I also agree about not creating “made to stumble” posts. Just keep true to your content, and people will stumble it if they like it….
SU traffic is gud
I have received over 2000 visits from SU sometimes :D
I knw its not a handsome figure but ok for a boom :D
Siddharths last blog post..Clicky :- The new age stats
SU traffic is ‘feel good’ traffic and that’s it. It is meaningless for determining the value of a blog or for selling advertising.
Organic search traffic isn’t that hard to get in most niches, “Make Money Online” and “Blogging about Blogging” being two notable exceptions. With a little thought and work selecting the right keywords and doing link building you easily build a blog up to 500-1000 unique search visitors a day within 3-6 months time. And, these visitors do click ads and you make money.
The bottom line is that search traffic pays, SU, EntreCard, Digg and other social traffic doesn’t. But it does make you feel good about how your blog is performing. Maybe that’s worth something.
Frank Cs last blog post..Bill Engvall – Dork Fish
I don’t think people in my niche have even heard of stumbleupon – got any tips for encouraging them to join and vote?
Scams last blog post..Bouncing Breasts – A New Healthy Lifestyle For Men
You need more stumble friends. You should see traffic returning to those posts over time, as more people find them and give them a Thumbs Up.
Update us on the traffic after a few more days and let us know if a bunch more people visited.
Bill Austins last blog post..Mark David Gerson’s New Earth Chronicles
I see stumbleupon more as a personal playground to experiment with than anything serious really, and I have made some rather funny observations with it that way.
For example a post displaying lamborghini police cars:
http://www.slevi.net/2008/06/15/lamborghini-police-cars-the-ultimate-toy/
It has gained over 21k views of which most through stumble and still receives about 500 a day through SU.
When compared to more “serious” entries though the number of stumbles lies noticeably lower, more in the order of 300~500 overall.
The main increase in traffic on stumbled posts comes through having others stumble it, it’s sort of like digg. If you have a lot of friends within your niche to boost up your post with 30~50 thumbs up or so you’re going to get results increasing exponentially. But with the high bounce rates from SU it remains the question whether it’s worth the time, visitors coming in through search usually are a lot more rewarding.
Slevis last blog post..Boost those cholesterol levels for better memory
I’ve got 95 friends on SU which is a fair amount (I think) and yet I never get more than 1-2 visitors for any post that finds it’s way on there.
For that reason, I’m still waiting to find out if that sort of traffic is even worth having!
[...] an excellent (and humorous) post on how to game the Digg system. You can also read Tom’s post about StumbleUpon traffic. Bryan has written a post about social [...]
Yeh thats what i get with my blog… traffic is temporary… i am thinking of adding something of real value like say 365 days of traffic tips with a sign up page.. get them into an autoresponder and that will maximise that effort… or give away some ebooks
also have some strategies for stumble posts from 50 different authors.. visit http://www.traffic2mypage.com/traffic-hot-tips/increase-web-traffic-with-stumbleupon-50-tips-by-50-authors/
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A nice post; realistic and beneficial in all means. gives a real picture of stumbleupon.
A nice post; realistic and beneficial in all means.
Google affiliates last blog post..How Google Affiliate Will Change the World
Hey! Can I ask what’s this template you are using in your blog? thanks.
I have never really tried to get stumble upon traffic nor do I ever have any intention of doing so. I will throw a Digg button on a post here and there and if the post gets Dugg or Stumbled Upon then great, I am not going to chase this kind of traffic because what you said at the end, they do not click or convert into cash traffic. Really just take up a lot of bandwidth…
dave@home improvements´s last blog ..How To Fix a Leaking Faucet