Every Webmaster should be using Stumbleupon
Stumbleupon is a very popular, award winning, web 2.0 social site that at the time of writing post had over 4 million users world wide. The free service allows web surfers to discover new and interesting websites while recommending sites they have found to be interesting and useful. All users need to do is register and download a free, easy to install toolbar and they can stumbleupon new discoveries while recommending web destinations for their contacts and friends.
The Stumbleupon Toolbar
The stumbleupon toolbar is what makes the service so accessible easy to use. The toolbar is compatible with the two most popular web browsers, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. While browsing just click the thumbs up icon for a website you like or would like to recommend or click the thumbs down button for a sites you dislike or would not like to recommend. Clicking the general stumbleupon icon would allow you to view a site that fits the interests you entered when registering for the website. An online demo available on the stumbleupon website does well to explain many of the features of the toolbar.
Stumbleupon toolbar with text labels turned off in Mozilla Firefox
Remember to Socialize
To get the best out of stumbleupon you will need to be a participating member of the stumbling community. Fortunately this is not a difficult process as just adding a free existing stumbles to your friends list while and also recommending stumbleupon to you friends does well to build up your stumbling reputation and authority. Actively stumbling or marking websites you like or dislike regularly is quick and easy and pretty soon you friend list will grow automatically.
Why is Stumbleupon Useful?
Apart from being free, easy to use and fun, stumbleupon can be a very important traffic generating tool for web developers. Unlike other social sites like Digg which may be biased to certain topics and offers dismal traffic unless you hit the frontpage, SU is a tool that fits any kind of website covering almost any topic as SU users have already decided what their interests are from their profiles. The web developer’s work should then be spent ensuring that their web pages are “sticky” when stumbled upon so that visitors who discover their pages will return. So if possible be sure to install and use stumbleupon tools and buttons on your webpage, participate the SU community and do your best to trap as much as the traffic send to your website through the Stumbleupon.
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