Understand how others use StumbleUpon

As a social bookmarking site, StumbleUpon is like the bookmarking feature in your browser; however, others can view these sites. StumbleUpon also has some qualities of a search engine. Some people use the site as yellow pages, where they search for service providers; however, StumbleUpon is unique in that it provides information on sites recommended by other people. Users can vote up or down on each site, where more upvotes for a stumble increase its chances of being seen by other users. StumbleUpon users discover new sites, but can spend limited time on newly stumbled upon websites. To retain them, capture their interest in the first few seconds. This will increase the chance that they will bookmark your site and vote for your content.

Become an expert in your area

Everything you do on StumbleUpon should help build your expertise in your field. When choosing interests for your profile, select those about which you have substantial knowledge. You have the option to select up to 250 connections and you should choose them wisely. Stumbling can be done out of interest and following. Add well-written comments to your stumbled upon content to improve its credibility and visibility. If you discover content that hasn’t been stumbled upon yet, add a comment box to provide feedback. Content that has already been stumbled upon will have a speech bubble icon in the toolbar where you can add your comment.

Stumble upon only good content

Even if your content is very good and better than most content on similar topics, keep stumbling across other people’s content until you establish credibility. Be selective about what you stumble upon, as that also contributes to your standing as an expert. Initially, avoid stumbling across your own content because people generally don’t like new entrants who focus only on themselves. Once you’ve established a foothold in the StumbleUpon community, you can gradually start to stumble upon your own content. The recommended ration is 10:1, where you trip 1 of your content and 10 of the others.

Invest in your pitch on StumbleUpon

You can use paid services to launch your content. To submit your content legitimately without risking being identified as a spammer, you can opt for the paid discovery offered by StumbleUpon. You can get 100 visitors for $5, which is pretty reasonable. Pick a page from your blog or website and submit it with a specific pay-per-view budget. The basic plan charges $0.05 per visitor. StumbleUpon features the highest paid discovery in its algorithm, which guarantees views. Once the budgeted amount is used up, your content will still be visible.

Connect with a trip swapping group

To get more exposure, join a StumbleUpon sharing group. Becoming a member of Triberr can allow your tribe to be a tripping group with additional sharing buttons. However, you should be careful, because StumbleUpon penalizes content that is consistently discovered and voted on by the same group.