chrisbrogan.com - Latest Comments in The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

youtube downloader — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 11:32:02 -0000

Part of what one does to build influence, awareness, authority, and eventually trust, is to attract more exposure from a larger audience, so that you might better reach the people you need for business (or whatever your goal for making media is- you tell me)

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

WanderingTrader — Sun, 30 May 2010 23:04:40 -0000

I keep reading article posts on how to increase traffic to your blog, they all refer the social networking sites but time after time I see stumble as the main one that everyone likes to use.. very good article thanks you

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

resma — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 05:48:18 -0000

Everyone get shocked after seen this link!!! Its mind blowing…

Look here…
http://allamerican.yrals.co...

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Thornton Sully — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:38:05 -0000

This looks great! I can now be mis-understood with greater frequency by a larger audience.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Gizelle Manuel — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:42:36 -0000

Great post. I also get a high percentage of referrals from Stumbleupon. Compared to other social bookmarking sites.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

lec — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 09:08:22 -0000

I have been trying hard to use stumbleupon to increase my blog traffic but so far the results are not too encouraging. However, I shall adopt your strategy and let Let's hope it works. Thanks

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

nancyallenlife — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:02:09 -0000

Stumbleupon is the greatest way to explore the internet. I've made some great friends too. I find things I would never find on my own, and my friends recommend pages they think I would like.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

jack — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:14:59 -0000

This new news? LoL oh i didnt read all that ,stop!!

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Chris Cree — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:32:14 -0000

I've long been a fan of StumbleUpon. I hear what Brian Clark says above about it oftentimes being "low quality" content.

The thing is that SU is interest driven, unlike other sites which just look at general popularity. By filling out your own profile accurately (and, um, honestly) and connecting with other folks with similar interests you join a pool of like minded people.

I've found that a wide variety of niche sites can attract quality traffic via SU by simply staying true to their network's interest. Tagging accurately & adding a review of the stumbled site really go a long way towards filtering out the junk traffic.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

thaumata — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:16:44 -0000

I've never worked for a site that DIDN'T get massive amounts of SU traffic. For some of the people above me, I think it's important to realize that you will never be successful at ANY kind of social media if all you do is sign up and promote yourself. You have to bring a lot more to the table than that, specifically your willingness to listen to what people around you are saying.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Sonja — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:57:33 -0000

I have just started using stumble upon. However I am a bit confused about how it works. Can anyone please clarify. Does anyone know why i get a huge spike right after i submit it to Stumble Upon and then it seems like it disappears off the face of the earth? I just dont understand their system

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Michael Sherrin — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:34:17 -0000

Just over the past two days I had a record-breaking traffic spike thanks to StumbleUpon. More than 20,000 hits over 2 days so far. I've never been an avid Stumbler, but I gotta respect the power of the system.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

buzzoodle — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 08:41:53 -0000

Hi Chris.

That is great traffic. Stumble Upon seems to do great in spikes for me.

There is one thing that you stats cannot show you that you might find interesting.

I found you from GREAT word of mouth. I was on the phone talking to Phil Gerbyshak http://makeitgreat.typepad.... and he told me he thinks every word you write is law.

He spoke so highly of your blog that I checked it out and have been coming back time and again.

If Google Analytics could track phone, email and personal recommendations, I do not know if it would be the #1 source but I bet it would be some of your most frequent readers.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Anita Cohen-Williams — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 06:32:05 -0000

Chris,

I totally agree with you about StumbleUpon. I have been using it since 2004. The traffic from SU is constant, unlike Digg where it is active for 24 hours and then ends.

But, there are good and bad ways of using it, as in any website. I have been picky as to which sites I Stumble, so my followers know that they can trust my choices.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

charlieanzman — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:06:01 -0000

Chris - I think there's an argument to be made on where your particular 'fans' hang out. I find my referrers vary on any given day but I think the most important reference on the graphic is the Google feed sharing, and somewhat surprised that Friendfeed isn't there at all.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Jay Moonah — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 23:42:04 -0000

@Chris: Maybe. :-)

I think about it like this -- you said "BoingBoing drove... 3 TIMES the traffic I’ve ever received. Only 100 new RSS subscribers." I'd want to evaluate the success looking at a few things:

1) How much traffic vs. how many new subscribers do you usually get on an average traffic day? This would be your benchmark to compare to traffic from new sources. (Is it much more than 33? If not, based on what you said here I'd say BoingBoing did a pretty good job.)

2) What have other traffic bumps done for your subscriber numbers in terms of proportionate numbers of visitors, relative to your benchmark? This to me is the relative measure of success, assuming your sole aim is to raise your immediate subscriber numbers. (Did a site that drove half the traffic of BoingBoing drive more than 50 new subscribers? If yes, I'd call that a higher quality traffic driver.)

3) Based on what you know about comparable sites with comparable goals, how well do you think they would convert on similar traffic? This would be, for lack of a better term, your rough competitive benchmark, and could inform things like your need to optimize better, as you mentioned. (Since you mentioned Penn, I think his blog would be a good example of one to compare to immediately. How would his blog convert on similar traffic?)

4) Do you have other goals for your site? (Maybe average time on site, pageviews, whatever?) What are are your benchmarks for THOSE, and how have particular traffic bumps move the needle on them?

See kids, this is what happens when you work as a marketing strategist -- you stay up nights posting lists in the comments on the blogs of strange men. This is why friends don't let friends work at agencies. :-P ;-)

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Brian Clark — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:45:22 -0000

Stumble brings some of the worse traffic on the web unless you're selling page views, in which case it's great (except for your advertisers).

Which means it (eventually) sucks then too. :-)

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

chrisbrogan — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:37:53 -0000

@Jay - maybe my expectations are too high?

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

lawton chiles — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:35:01 -0000

Chris, i have noticed as well that STumble upon brings me about 10% of my overall traffic, which is nice!

I think maybe if you made your rss feed more prominent and make your "free ebook" much more prominent. If you need a graphic, i'm not the best at it, but I could be something together, that is done well enough to spark action.

Or I could write a great headline. Just thoughts.

P.S- your RSS is blue which is not a very passionate color. well it's like teal which is worse than blue. Make it red, orange, something exciting. This does make a difference.

Rock on though!

I wish i had 7,000 subs!

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

strato — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 17:24:26 -0000

fact..i am so confused with stumbleupon

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

CreditMom — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 16:35:39 -0000

My blog is only up since May so it's a bit new. However, I am generating 50% of my traffic through stumbleupon. I've noticed however, that I get a huge boost immediately following the post and then it falls off dramaticallly. In addition, I don't get many repeats or multiple page views. However, it's a great volume driver and I will continue to use it.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Jay Moonah — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:46:46 -0000

Chris, with regards to your earlier comment on the traffic from Boing Boing : would you say your only measure of traffic success is conversion to subscription? Do you look at other factors such as time spent or pages viewed? Just curious, as these tend to be the factors that I'd argue most sites use.

Also, I hope you know that most folks would _kill_ for a conversation to subscription rate of 1% -- the fact that you got 100 new subscribers primarily from one source in one day actually sounds quite impressive, at least to me.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Chiara Lorè — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:36:14 -0000

I discovered a lot of interesting websites through StumbleUpon... and I think that S.U. is easier to use than digg.

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

Henrico Dolfing — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:19:34 -0000

I signed up for SU today. Let's see what happens ...

Re: The Raw Power of StumbleUpon

chrisbrogan — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:14:42 -0000

@Colbie - well cool! Love it when something is useful to others. In fact, that's really the only reason I write here. : )