You aren’t even registered are you? Oh, you’re registered, but you never log in? Isn’t that the place that 
generates the “bad” traffic? So for all those unaware of StumbleUpon or non-believers, please take notice.
What is StumbelUpon? – StumbleUpon is a veteran in the Content Discovery space. SU was founded way back in early 2002. SU has over 20 million users, and a Global Alexa Traffic Rank of 125. Nice numbers, but not exactly Facebook. SU’s platform allows their users to discover new and interesting sites across the internet. SU uses a thumbs up/down grading system and determines what each individual likes and puts similar content in front of the user moving forward. SU loves new content. Earlier today I Stumbled over 50 sites in the topic Technology. Over 75% were articles from 2011, and the remaining from 2010. They just changed their interface and logo at the beginning of December. “Easy” is not the first word that comes to mind when trying to navigate. I witnessed many complaints from super users, with many demanding the old interface, which is still available. That’s the bad news, now for the good news.
Traffic, Traffic, Traffic – Back in August 2011 Statcounter came out with some surprising numbers. StumbleUpon (50%) has surpassed Facebook (38%) in referral traffic from Social Media sites. Wow. Really? Even if you don’t take Statcounter’s numbers at face value, you need to take notice.
Last month it was reported (Fast Company) that StumbleUpon’s Mobile growth rose 800% in the last year. That equates to 200 Million Stumbles alone in December 2011. Expectations are for 40-50% of SU’s volume to come via mobile over the next year. Are you starting to believe?
The Proof is in the Pudding – Until recently, I fell into the “don’t log in very often” group. I had joined years ago, and recall Stumbling on sports and technology topics. I became focused again after speaking with Saul Fleischman, who leads one of my Triberr groups. Saul made me a believer after sharing some of the positive traffic results he experienced to his site OsakaBentures.
Lisa Illman writes a blog called Kritters That Twitter. I was familiar with the blog and noticed that Lisa had over 2500 Favorites in StumbleUpon. I reached out to Lisa and discovered some incredible numbers. Are you sitting down? Lisa’s visitor count went from 2K in August 2011 to over 100K in October 2011. These are jaw dropping figures. Lisa credits StumbleUpon with the dramatic rise. I mentioned “bad” traffic at the start. Sort of like “bad” pizza, even when it’s bad it’s good. Eyeballs on your blog are always a positive. While Lisa admits that many stumblers hit her site for mere seconds, she has become more “social” with many stumblers to improve the quality of the visit and generate comments.
Discovery – If you discover your own blog posts, but never like or discover any other content it is frowned upon. However, if discovering your own post is a small percentage of your participation within StumbleUpon, then it is perfectly acceptable. By doing this, all users have to do is click like or thumbs up. It also allows you to choose the relative topics where it can be found.
Share Buttons – I’ve seen my fair share of blogs, especially over the last few months. My unscientific study shows that far less than 50% of bloggers have a StumbleUpon share button on their site. You’re missing traffic everyday you don’t have this share button in place. We all have Facebook and Twitter share buttons. Heck, Twitter came in under 5% on the report. Do yourself a favor, and get that StumbleUpon share button on your blog. Your blog will thank you for all the extra attention it gets.
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