Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Many SEO`s I talk with daily recommend stumbleupon and to post links to my customers there to get inlink(s) to my customer`s site.
Ah, you might want to disassociate yourself with those "many SEOs". Do your customers have something worthy of being Stumbled? If not, then move on and look for other more appropriate links.
Its not the link from Stumbleupon that is the value, it is the sheer number of eyeballs that may see if its the right Stumbler who got you. :)
Stumbleupon has been in my top referrers for a couple of sites I have. They have consistently been there for quite some time too, that is a large community of users. Personally, I wouldn't even think about the link value from an SEO standpoint. The value will come from all those Stumblers who happen to Stumbleupon your site and like it. That's when it goes viral...
Just be careful, read the TOS, and don't stumble your own sites - else you will get banned like I did.
Some of what is link building is simply getting people who link to discover your site.
Top Stumblers create a snowball effect that is kind of neat to watch. Once a Stumbler gets ya, then all their freinds start and it becomes viral. And those stumbles appear to have some power in the overall scheme of things. I know, I've been Stumbled quite a few times, some of them years ago and they show up "all the time as referrers", every day as a matter of fact. That's how busy that community is. A good Stumble will last forever. ;)
The point is to get people to find your site. Those who like it may give it a link. If I'm not mistaken, links from stumbleupon are nofollowed and don't count as backlinks so forget about it. You are overlooking an opportunity by focusing on something small. Step back, look wide.
No, you won't get banned from search engines if you stumble yourself. You'll get banned from Stumbleupon if you're caught out as an SEO.
Yes, I see the big picture and the value of Stumbleupon and I will use it, but not for my own site. Don`t want to risk getting caught :-)
Then wait a while, log in through your normal IP and real SU account and stumble your site. You'd probably be safe as long as you didn't "discover it" (the sockpuppet did).
I'm not sure how sophisticated StumbleUpon is, though obviously enough to call me out as an SEO like martinibuster mentioned. I wasn't being careful.
Technically, you could use a proxy and create a sockpuppet account. Beef it up to look casual and stumble your website(s).
Let's not even go down and/or discuss that path. How about we discuss the right way to go about it? Before you even think about becoming a Stumbler, it would be a good idea to review and assimilate the StumbleUpon Guide...
Getting Started with StumbleUpon
[stumbleupon.com...]
After you've read the Guide and fully understand the terms and conditions of being a Stumbler, then there are 3 Steps you'll go through to become a Stumbler...
Step 1: Join StumbleUpon and become a Stumbler...
[stumbleupon.com...]
Step 2: Connect with friends if you have them in that network.
Step 3: Install the StumbleUpon Toolbar...
[stumbleupon.com...]
Step 4: Start Stumbling.
As with any "social network", you will need to develop a reputation within the StumbleUpon Communities and there are many. With 4.99 million Stumblers, there are all sorts of "arms and legs" inside the community.
Your goal is to of course become a Top Stumbler and that only comes with tenure. Don't expect things to happen overnight. Think of StumbleUpon like a Digg or Sphinn...
Top Stumblers
[stumbleupon.com...]
Many say that there are a high number of visitors but a low return rate. Who cares? Someone liked your site enough to Stumble it, be happy! And, the visitors do convert if you have the right product and/or service and most importantly, price point. Stumblers appear to be budget conscious. Stumblers also thrive on Tutorials!
Many say that there are a high number of visitors but a low return rate. Who cares? Someone liked your site enough to Stumble it, be happy! And, the visitors do convert if you have the right product and/or service and most importantly, price point.
In ecommerce, SU can really mess with site analytics, lowering goal and sale conversion rates, time spent, etc - and raising bounce rates to the point of being totally unnacceptable.
It seems great for blogs and articles though!
how do you stumble your own sites? Do you visit your pages as normal and then click add to stumble upon?
I wouldn't. I'd focus on Stumbling other's sites. Stumblers pay attention to being Stumbled and vice versa. Remember, its a "social network" just like any other. 4.99 million users is a respectable size audience. Play by the rules and reap the rewards of being a Stumbler. Its just like any other community.
:)
IMO the question to ask is: do you have something to offer this type of audience? Is it worthwhile for you to adapt your site to them?
...
It's always fun to see how many links emerge from users' own sites within a week after the end of a rush. I kinda consider that a quality factor of our own content. Stumblers will check out each others' recommendations, but when the ball is over and dozens of them blog about you/link to you, and a good percentage comes back for more... now that's a good feeling... and tells you - yet again - that the content was worthy for a second/third/fourth check after all.
...
It's a networking tool, eyeballs on site. You're site needs to be optimised for Stumbleupon to take advantage of it (targeting subscrbers etc) but decent content wins the day.
My advise is to use Stumbleupon as it was meant to be used. Network and get the results.
Kids?
I've seen complaints from publishers with Adsense. They say stumblers visit but don't click on their ads. CTR goes down. It's doubtful ecommerce potential is high. The eyeballs thing is so 1990s. Pre-dot-com bust. It's probably a teen thing now. "Hey, look what I found."
"Wowee."
p/g
One thing to consider is that there are many anti-seo stumblers who may harass you to no end if you're outed as an SEO trying to work their system. And can you blame them? Who wants to be spammed?
What would happen if someone registered a blatantly SEO user name, something with the words SEO and Social Media Promotion in it, then went nuts stumbling stuff?
the discussion is about the link development benefits of stumbleupon
Of course, but link development isn't solely an SEO topic ;)
The eyeballs thing is so 1990s. Pre-dot-com bust.
You're not going to get pre-qualified e-commerce traffic, granted. I'm sure there are some people out there who buy things based on clicking on the 'show me a random link' button, but I imagine they are not the norm.
The point is, you can get an instant influx of free traffic - what you do with it (and whether the impact might even be negative, as mb alludes to) is up to you.
Personally, I'm a fan. When you look at the data you get, it's like a quirky usability study ;)
Just be careful, read the TOS, and don't stumble your own sites - else you will get banned like I did.
erm, I don't know what kind of stumbling you were doing, but being overly self-promotional is the behavior that gets you banned. If you are a "healthy" stumbler and also submit other content, you're perfectly fine. If the only content you're submitting is your own, that's when you run into such problems. And not everything you write is Stumbleworthy either -- that's a misconception that has impacted a few people I know. Be sporadic and think about the audience when you submit to SU.
And as a blogger who seeks out SU for content ideas, it's quite true -- the right content that catches my eye will definitely be written up somewhere. ;)
I don't even consinder the link pop.
Outgoing links were no-followed on the pages I looked at.
