In a previous article we talked about how to import your contacts, send webpages to mutual friends, and email pages to non-StumbleUpon users. This article goes in depth on who to send content to and who to avoid for the webpage to benefit most from StumbleUpon.
Step 1: Find a Webpage
With StumbleUpon, this should be quite easy. If you don’t already have a webpage in mind, Stumble through different categories on StumbleUpon using the ‘Stumble’ button. Once you have found a quality page you wish to send, you can move onto the next step.
Tips to find great, new content:
- Search Wikipedia. Wikipedia has many fascinating articles and their database has a growing number of articles each day.
- Keep current. Read news articles to keep current on world events; there is always something happening.
- Be social media active. If you don’t already have an account for Digg or Reddit, get one. There are many great articles submitted everyday and not every one of them has been submitted to StumbleUpon. Do SU a favor by submitting the most interesting and highly voted articles.
- Try Entrecard. Entrecard has many small blogs which go almost unseen. By searching through the thousands of blogs you are bound to find something. If you submit the quality articles, not only will you give yourself a boost, but the author as well.
Step 2: Finding a Relevant Friend
If you already know your friends interests, this should be easy; however, if you are using StumbleUpon the way I do (by adding those who have the same interests), this can become tiresome. Since my interests are wide-ranged, I have mutual friends ranging from web-design to sports to politics. Yikes!
The best way to find a relevant friend is by going through your “Mutual Friends” list one-by-one. Since this will become exasperating if you have many contacts, keep notes on each one so next time the work will be easier.
Step 3: Sending the Page
Sending the webpage is probably the easiest step of all. Just click “Send to”. If your friends username isn’t listed directly below, try going to ‘All Friends’ to find them.
Once you found your friends name, click on it. A small dialog box will appear with an input box. Enter a short message about the page and click ‘Send.’
Who to Avoid
When sending webpages it necessary to send only to contacts who will be interested in the content. Otherwise, the page is likely to be ignored (so you wasted their and your time) or the page will be thumbed down immediately (which is counterproductive).
What to Avoid
- Avoid acting like an advertiser
- Avoid sending pages too often
- Avoid sending spammy or otherwise annoying pages.
What You Should Do
- Share interesting content
- Share different types of content
- Use the comment function
- Send pages to relevant friends
Written: Jul 28, 2008
Kari
July 28, 2008 @ 3:39 pm
Excellent tips, Gary! You’re right – relevancy is key when sending content to your network. Another tip is to look for the Power Stumblers. If you know who in your friends list are Power Stumblers, and you send them content that they subsequently thumb up, their vote has a little more weight and will earn you more traffic.
China Business Watch
July 28, 2008 @ 10:51 pm
I’ve been a long time user of SU, but for me it’s not easy to find link-minded friends there. Thanks for your tips.
Gary R. Hess
July 29, 2008 @ 5:42 pm
Don’t worry, that article will be released very soon, I promise!
Caroline Middlebrook
July 29, 2008 @ 5:50 am
@Kari, I would be wary about sending pages to ‘power stumblers’ because they are likely to get quite a lot of them which could be quite annoying for them!