You know, StumbleUpon has been around for a couple of years now, but has only been discussed and used in the blogosphere more recently. Just about every blogger mentioned how SU had driven massive traffic to their site, but despite reading a long list of such articles and trying to apply them, I hardly saw a trickle of a visit generated from SU.

It was not until I stumbled upon Shaun’s definitive SU guide that the haze was slowly lifted over my eyes. Forget the technicalities and oft-treaded SU paths everyone habitually puts in standard lists. In short, this is how you REALLY get massive long lasting traffic blasting your blog to the top of the blogosphere. No need for Stumble exchanges! Call them evil, call them despicable gaming practices - but hey, if you do it with good intentions, it ain’t what it is!

1. Get as many SU friends as you can, with the same interests
Gather a long list of like-minded individuals in the SU universe. You like what they stumble and read, they will like what you have to offer (ahem, stumble).

2. Get as many SU friends as you can. Period.
Well, not everyone has the same interests, but you can still be friends.

* Note that you should be out to make friends. Do not underestimate how easily it is to spot insincerity.

3. COMMUNICATE with your SU friends
Nobody becomes friends just by “adding”. Drop them a note, say hi, and try to connect! Not all would respond, but those who do, you might be having coffee with them 20 years down the road.

4. Review, review, review
It is all good to click “I like it!” on sites, posts, articles. But separate yourself from the ordinary and potentially spammy by leaving a review of what you stumble. There are many SU users who also check out stumble reviews, not to mention content owners. I have made many great friends who appreciated the reviews I had left of their content. You should also review your friends’ bio pages if possible.

5. Stumble good content and tag properly
Everybody hates seeing bad and irrelevant content. SU is structured such that when you click on the “Stumble!” button, it only shows you pages that have been tagged in your preferred categories. That is still open to wrong categorisation by stumblers. So when you do stumble and tag content, keep this in mind - be considerate to other stumblers, tag good content and tag well - everyone’s time is precious!

6. Provide good content
Ok, so you really want to get as much of your content into SU as possible, to maximise hit rate. But make sure they are your best content. Unless of course, your readers and friends decide that everything is good. :) This should also motivate you to put forth your best effort each time you create an article.

7. Stumble your SU friends’ good content
It might be tempting to stumble everything, to practise reciprocity. But be mindful that it can actually backfire on your friends as it has been known that sites with too many stumbled pages were prioritised lower for short periods. Always concentrate on bringing the best to others, because you also wish the best to come to you.

Now, with the above in place, what you do next to put it all in action and see your traffic stats BALLOON…

a. Announce your good content to your SU friends
b. Politely ask them to stumble the content if they like it. Many of them would anyway.
c. Introduce SU to other friends. Ask them to stumble your good content when they join the SU network.
d. Go back to (1) and repeat.

There are many other levels of colour you could add to the mix to make it more interesting, for example the use of StumbleXchange.com, StumbleSwap.com, creating a dedicated network of friendly stumblers, stumbling incoming links that actually lead back to your own content and so on and so forth. But this is the most straightforward and easiest to implement. In fact, it is actually incredibly simple! It has brought me consistent traffic from SU everytime, and it would do the same for you.

Keep the basic principles in mind - be sincere and be friendly, put yourself in others’ shoes and provide only the best that they truly deserve as much as you, write good content and do not be afraid to market that!

If you wish to add me as your StumbleUpon friend, you may do so here! I would love to be part of your community!

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