Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Let's Talk About StumbleUpon and How It Can Work For You

For those of you who don't know what StumbleUpon is, first let me say that once you start stumbling it will be very hard to stop. But seriously, StumbleUpon is a website where you can find and share some really great stuff on the web.

To get started you will need to open an account (it's free). Then you can install the sites toolbar to make stumbling easier. You can choose from a large list of topics so when you stumble you will be brought to sites that are more likely to interest you. Once on a site, you can then vote as to whether or not you like it and if you do you can review it. When you discover a new site not yet on StumbleUpon, a box will pop-up for you to submit additional information about the site. You can add tags to the site, but make these general so the site you're submitting can be found easier by other stumblers.

So, how can StumbleUpon be beneficial in regards to your shop and blog. Well, for starters, once you have established yourself within the community, when a influential stumbler stumbles your content it can bring you a lot of visitors. This won't happen overnight, but if you stumble regularly you will start to reap the rewards.

Take advantage of the social network within Stumbleupon. Make friends with people who have similar interests. Establishing relationships can direct attention to your shop and blog and from that you can acquire some incoming links to the content on your blog.

Basically, StumbleUpon is another way to get yourself 'out there'. It is a huge community with a ton of potential buyers.

A few last thoughts....

Post a link to your StumbleUpon profile on your blog so your readers will know you're there - here's mine

Write reviews on things you come across, the more you review and make your online voice heard the more people will notice you

You don't always have to choose the homepage of a site to submit, look within the site for the most interesting content and submit that.

and.....

have fun and stumble :)



4 comments:

Michelle

I agree it is hard to stop. Thank you for writing this.. I had not thought really about using it for my blog or shop.. I just end up in there for hours stumbling onto all sort of great sites.

Gee

Hi! Thanks for the beautiful message you sent me in my site. You have a great blog here too....Care to Exlink? Just send me a message ..Thanks!

Mea Culpa Bath and Body

I could never really get into Stumble...everything else that I do takes just too much time..especially entrecard :-(


Btw, Tag! You are it! Visit my blog if you wanna play along :-)

Sinje Ollen

thanks so much for posting this. How helpful! I am going to stumble upon right away... :-)