StumbleUpon is one of the most powerful social websites you can tap into for getting viral traffic to your content. StumbleUpon can send tens of thousands of visitors to your site in a few hours, and it can also become a consistent source of traffic over time.
Because of the nature of StumbleUpon, content which people like has a very good chance of being seen by even more people.
Here’s how to use StumbleUpon for instant viral traffic.
Understand the User’s Mindset
Before designing a campaign for StumbleUpon, it’s crucial that you understand the mindset of Stumblers.
StumbleUpon is a lot like flicking through different channels on a TV, except it’s on the internet and people are flicking through different websites.
This unique social bookmarking site will serve up unique pages and websites to people when they click the “Stumble” button. If they like it, they can “Thumbs Up” the content, if they don’t they can “Thumbs Down” the content. At any time they can click “Stumble” and see a different site.
It’s very easy for someone who’s bored to “Stumble” away from your site. Likewise, if you get a lot of Stumblers to thumbs up your content, you can quickly get a flood of other Stumblers coming in.
Plan Your Pages for Targeting Stumblers
The most important factor to keep in mind when you’re targeting StumbleUpon users is that they’re in a “quick entertainment” mindset.
You need to catch their attention, and you need to do it immediately. In other words, the above-the-fold area of your website needs to have some sort of shocking or captivating headline or graphic.
People should feel immediately drawn in upon seeing your site. Remember, if you don’t catch their attention, they’ll be gone before you can say “Stumble.”
Keep Your Stumblers’ Attention
Throughout your page there should be very interesting, emotionally engaging pieces of content. It doesn’t matter if it gets people to laugh, to be outraged, or to be shocked – it just has to be emotionally engaging.
You’ll also want to tone down the ads on the page which Stumblers land on. Pages with a lot of ads tend to get downvoted, while pages with fewer ads and more engaging content tend to get upvoted.
Getting Your Content on StumbleUpon
So how do you actually get your content on to StumbleUpon?
StumbleUpon frowns on people submitting their own content. You can, but if you do it too often you’ll get your account disabled.
The best way to do it is to first spend a week or so using StumbleUpon yourself. That way you build up some usage history so it doesn’t look like you’re just there to promote; and you also get some experience with the StumbleUpon’s system.
Then, pick one of the best pages on your website and submit it to StumbleUpon. Ideally, you should get enough of a following from StumbleUpon that others will submit your content from then on.
If your content isn’t getting enough uptake, submit another piece of your own content a few weeks later. But make sure you’re also submitting other web pages from other sites and that there’s an interval between your submissions of your own content. In that way, the submissions you make from your own website look natural and you can benefit from both the natural StumbleUpon traffic and the great backlinks.
