Interview with a Top StumbleUpon User

Glen Allsopp / 16 Comments / September 3rd, 2007 / Subscribe via RSS

Being a big fan of the traffic StumbleUpon can send, I’ve been looking a lot more into the service and how it operates. One of the things people tend to be interested in is the Top users page and how people actually become a ‘top stumbler’. With that In mind I arranged an interview with one, Chris from Succeed Socially.

Interview

Why did you first join StumbleUpon?

I think I initially joined it when I first set up my site back in October 2006. At the time I was pretty green and naive about marketing my site and I just signed up for every social bookmarking service I knew (they were all new to me).

I used it a bit, and then forgot about it. A few months ago I read an article about how using StumbleUpon can drive a lot of traffic to your site. Like the article said, it was an easy thing to do because I was on the web anyways. I just voted lots of sites to try and drive up my stumbling authority; if that’s even how it works.

According to your profile you joined in March, does that mean you joined again?

Yeah, I joined again, because my site was initially under a different name.

What sites did you want to drive traffic to and how’s the result been?

I wanted to drive traffic to my main site, Succeed Socially. To be perfectly honest, the results have been okay, but nothing that great. A few articles have gotten 5000+ pageviews, but my hunch is that’s more because other people liked them, not just me stumbling my own stuff.

My main page had a burst or two of 2000 pageviews. The rest of my articles, I stumble them and I’ll get maybe 100 hits. So even as a recent Top Stumbler, the power of my one Thumbs Up doesn’t give me a ton of guaranteed traffic. Maybe it’s because my content is fairly specific and niche oriented, not a photo of a cute bunny or anything.

You are the no.3 stumbler (in terms of most recent to be one). Why do you think that is?

Honestly, I’m really surprised myself. I just got into the habit of reading Digg and Reddit every day, and if I see something good I’ll give it a thumbs up. It’s a total habit by now. Once or twice I’ll be watching T.V. and I’ll catch myself instinctively looking for a ‘thumbs up’ button on my remote when I find a good show.

I just vote for stuff I like. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least somewhat conscious of trying to vote for entertaining sites, but mostly it’s stuff I like. Hardly ever leave reviews, and I only add friends if they add me first. I definitely could be less half-assed about working the system.

You’ve just mentioned you read digg and reddit. Do you use them as well to drive traffic?

Digg has been pretty much useless. I used to submit stuff but they never got more than a vote or two. I’ve heard it’s hard to do well on that site if you’re not a power user, but maybe I’m just looking for information that confirms my preconceptions. Maybe if I tried to team up with people to vote up each other’s stuff I’d do better.

Reddit, I’ve had an article or two hit. One was the stereotypical one that has nothing to do with most of your site and catches on anyways. Another was one I wrote for fun and which has ZERO to do with my main site. I submitted it as a linkbait type experiment. That one did okay. The rest, the usual 1 vote then nothing else. A couple more that got a vote or two, pretty typical.

I should mention at this point that I’m aware of how these sites can give you traffic, but I’m kind of a lazy guy about really pushing their potential to the limit.

You say that you don’t leave many reviews, but are a top stumbler. Do you find that you can leverage traffic a lot better being a top user?

I’d have to say no, not really. I always thought being a Top Stumbler meant your word meant so much that with one Thumbs Up you would send 100’s of pageviews to any page you deemed worthy, but no, I haven’t found that to be the case.

Actually, maybe I thumbs up other sites, then the next person or two likes them, and then they get a ton of traffic, but when it comes to my own pages that I can monitor, I haven’t gotten a ton.

You’ll notice I have only a vague understanding of how StumbleUpon works, i.e., what factors go into a page doing well. That’s mostly pieced together from various things I’ve read on it. Again, my casual webmaster mindset.

I’ve noticed your site is about social skills, do you think your social skills offline are getting used by people online these days?

Yeah, I think people are paying attention to social media marketing and using the “social skills” of online networking. It’s not something my site talks about though really. I know many others do though, and if you want specific info on that skill, then I’d check them out. Personally, I network a bit, but only as well as the next guy, and I read elsewhere for info.

Are there any perks to being a top stumbler? Do they alert you, do people add you as a friend a lot more?

I don’t get a ton of emails, maybe the odd one every week or two. Most are obviously cut and paste ones bluntly saying “Please stumble my site at: xxxxx.com” Like, “Oooh, you want something from me.”

I don’t find people add me as a friend more than anything. I don’t even have all that many StumbleUpon friends. If someone adds me, I’ll add them back though. Even if they send me an email asking to check them out, I may at least look at it. If it’s good, who knows? It’s in my consciousness now. It doesn’t hurt to bug me really. But so far, no one good has emailed me.

So there’s no secret room? (I had to ask)

Maybe there’s a whole other world for people who join these sites and really get into them. I’m much more casual in my internet usage. Like I don’t join Digg and spend hours in the comments section, for example.

I’m not a big reviewer but I like stumbling, you’ve made me think I have a chance!

Yeah, it’s weird. I really don’t feel like I’ve done anything outstanding in how I approached this. Like, “Ooh, a neat article on videogames. Stumbled.” I guess it added up. Maybe I have a weird knack for picking sites other people will like. I have no idea what variables go into Top Stumbler status though.

My one strategy is every day I’ll go on Digg and Reddit, and vote up a handful of stuff I like. I try to stick to the light and fun stuff, like Movie Top 10 lists, quirky factoids, and videogames. I like my science articles as well. The odd piece of news. nothing too heavy or political, maybe the odd entrepreneurial or self-improvement article.

How did you know you were a top stumbler, just check?

I think it was when the first person or two emailed me out of the blue wanting me to look at their site. That’s when I checked the Top Stumbler page. I checked it again the other day and I seem to be more in the middle now than the bottom.

There’s some really passionate users on the site. One person has stumbled 130k pages

Yeah, I checked a few and they were on it for years, having stumbled like 30 pages a day. I’m sure the insanity drops geometrically as you go down the list, but that made me pause.

Great answers mate, I’m sure our readers will appreciate them. Thanks for your time Chris

No problem.

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