The StumbleUpon Effect - Definitely Worth It
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So there i was with my $50, not sure if i wanted to actually spend money on traffic, since i think traffic can be “acquired” using so many other methods. But it proved to be a really good way to get exposure. So I funded my stumbleupon account with 50 bucks, and opened the traffic gates. For $50USD you get 1000 hits ($0.05 a click) so i thought it was a fair price since it’s somewhat targeted traffic.
What are the results?
I got a total of 1400 hits in 4 days, so it’s actually 400 more than what i paid for, which, of course, makes me happy. And the best part is that it seems it won’t slow down, and i’m still recieving hits even after my campaign ended, free hits that is! Stumbleupon, of course, let’s users “rank” the site they visit, only 2 options there, either “i like it” or “i don’t like it”, and seems 78% or stumblers liked my site! (welcome to you people coming from stumbleupon! Nice to have you here!). I’m not sure if 78% is actually good, but i’m satisfied.
What were the benefits?
The first thing i noticed was an increase in RSS feed subscribers. I got from around 80 daily rss readers, to almost 200, and now it settled down to around 115-120 rss readers, which is really interesting. It also helped increase my alexa rank, no doubts there. And last but not least, i got feedback from many many people who sent me e-mails through my contact form, which is plain awesome! (thanx a bunch! it’s appreciated!)
any downsides?
I can honestly say i’m amazed by the quality of the traffic i recieved. The only downside, and it’s definitely nothing major, was when i created my campaign, it said “will be approved in 24 hours or less” and it took almost 72 hours. But it’s not big deal really.
What about you?
I’d like to know if anyone else used stumbleupon before, or is planning on using it. What do you think of the service, the traffic, the ease of use. Did it meet your expectations? In what category have you created your campaign? (i created mine in “entrepreneurship”, but will probably try different categories next time i buy traffic from there).
If you’ve never used stumbleupon, it’d also be interesting if you could tell us why, it could benefit others to know what people think, and why you haven’t started using SU.
Thanx!
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20 Responses to “The StumbleUpon Effect - Definitely Worth It”
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Funny thing about timing. I was checking my stats and noticed that I had a link in there for Stumbledupon. So I clicked on it and apparently somebody added one of my post.
So, I hadn’t really thought about using this service but I am going to take this (my stats and your post) as an omen and sign-up.
Thanks
Greg
Hi Greg, thanx a lot for replying! Please make yourself at home!
Honestly i’m starting to love stumbleupon, i’m not sure if i’d spend a lot of money on SU (under $100 is fine i think), but it sure does help to get some exposure and feedback :)
I’ve never paid for SU traffic, but was always pleased with the result they bring.
I get a few thousands hits from them montly…
Hey Kiltak, that’s pretty good, do you get some feedback from stumblers? I recieved many e-mails and comments about my blog, well exposure is always good :)
I hvae just about heard about Stumbleupon, but after reading this post l am definitely going to look a little more into this. 50 bucks is no big deal for the benefits you have mentioned. Catch you on skype soon.
Cheers and take care mate.
Hi Robin, cool, let me know how it goes for you with SU. You’re right $50 is not much considering around a thousand people will visit your site. Catch you on skype soon!
Hey Jon,
Glad you got some value from SU. They’ve got a great ad program.
I also experienced a bump up and then a drop back down in RSS subscribers when I did this. Not sure what that’s about.
But I’m going to play with it some more in the future for sure. It’s great exposure.
Hey Shane, they definitely have a great ad program. Yeah i got a huge bumps in RSS subscribers too, but i noticed that many of those (about 40-45) were bots, so doesn’t count, now it’s around 115-120 “real” people :)
My brother and I should look into investing 50 dollars later on. Since we did just launch our new website, that’d be great exposure…I had a post submitted or something (not quite sure kind of confused still) and I got quite a few more hits from SU users.
Gregg, if you invest some money in SU, i think a good way to keep it going is to either submit your posts or invite people to do it. I recently installed the gregarious plugin, that “Help Spread The Word And Share This Post With Others!” thing at the end of each posts, and it seems people are using that so it’s great, free traffic :)
But, in a way, it’s also about keeping the content updated often, and try to write relevant stuff too. I’d much prefer seeing a huge increase in “natural” traffic than paid traffic.
I love Irony.
Weds I just had a extra 500 hits and 1000 pageviews from stumbleupon.com I never even heard of it. Then I saw this post hah!
I have no clue why I randomly got 500 extra hits one day. But I will be sure to take a look at it!
Hey Brett! hehe it’S always nice to get more traffic than we expect, probably you got that traffic because someone submitted one of your post to SU, and it got somewhat popular. I think that’s the way to get traffic from there :)
Hi, Jonathan. is this consider like traffic exchange . will this violate Adses TOS. ermm it would be nice if u can give a shot at traffic before and during SU effect. thanks
Hi Kucau, first welcome to SWR, thanx for commenting :)
Well SU is not a traffic exchange site, in the sense that you don’t have to send traffic in order to recieve traffic. You could see this more like a community site, people voting for stuff they enjoyed reading or watching, either positively or negatively. I don’T think it would violate adsense TOS, since those are targetted visitors, and not any sort of “hit bot” or anything like that, those are real visitors, and you can actually “stumble” posts, either your own or others’ posts to SU, and not necessarely pay, but of course if you spend some moeny you get traffic faster and greater exposure, which is always nice :)
I’ve been using it for a bit, usually to to randomly go to a site when I’m bored lol.
lol, yeah I do that sometimes too, or browse through digg, and wonder why my posts never make the front page, i gave up! hehe
Thanks for sharing your results. I’ve heard several blogs getting great results with SU. I’m might consider this myself in future. I’ve just signed up to http://bla.st with a free card but at present you can a top spot for under 50c a day, nearly signed up for a month.
Hi Daniel, SU, to me, is a “sure shot”, just gotta try it, it’S worth it :)
I signed up with bla.st some time ago, and i’m still recieving some traffic from them, i didn’t pay, but i’m sure it can bring some quality traffic, just gotta have a nice appealing card. Lemme know it does for you, i might try it out a lil more.
Hi,
It’s good to hear you’re getting great results with Stumble Upon.
It has been part of my traffic strategies too, but what I have been doing is to Thumbs-Up my own personal development blog posts, and so far this free technique of mine has seen its fair share of subscribers, commenters and even customers.
May I know exactly (or roughly) what niche or category in Stumble Upon did you invest that $50 on?
Do you think with the results I had mentioned for my personal development website, if I decided to multiply it and invest some money for SU traffic too, I would get multiple times the results I already got for free SU traffic?
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