I have been studying how the traffic from StumbleUpon works. There are not many articles out there on it, but I think I have caught a whiff, on how it can be so powerful. I have attempted to draw up a diagram of the traffic flow and explain how an article can get so many hits. If any of this information is incorrect, please give me your extra added insight so I can update this in the near future.
Click Image For Larger Picture
Let me explain what this diagram is telling us. I will start from top and work my way down the list.
Review - The first step is to review an article that you like. You find an article, push the thumbs up on your StumbleUpon bar, and then proceed to write a good review. If you do not review the article you thumb, you are simply saying you like the page, and give the page extra weight as a vote for search results and stumble button bonus traffic. The article will not be pushed to all your fans if no review is written.
If you want an article to get massive traffic, you must write a review.
What’s New - Once the article is reviewed it will be pushed to the top of all your fans “Whats New” Page.This is the page you see, every time you click the home tab, on the StumbleUpon website. The first page you see, when you push the home tab, are the pages your mutual friends have reviewed, and anyone you are a fan of. You want the articles your promoting, to show up on all your fans “Whats New” Page. None of your fans, will see the articles on your “whats new” page, unless, you write your own review for your fans to see.
The more fans you have, the more exposure your article will get.
His Favorites - Many friends, fans, and users will check out your profile. Some one a regular basis, most while looking for new friends. Your latest reviews will remain on top. This will give some articles a chance to get some extra traffic. If you are reviewing page after page, minutes apart from each other, then your articles will not gain much exposure as they are pushed further down the list. I have noticed many “Top Stumblers” leaving favorite articles on the top of their list for days.
Only Review Pages You Really Want To Get Traffic
Stumble Button - I have noticed that some articles get a stumble button bonus. This is usually random traffic from users pushing the Stumble button while channel surfing. This traffic has been know to be junk, with an average visitor of 1 - 5 seconds. However, if you get Stumbled by someone with a lot of weight, and they thumb (Vote) for your page, you may get a massive amount of traffic. Many websites have reported results in the thousands, within minutes. If you can get just 1, out of every 500 Stumblers, to actually like your article, you could end up with 10 - 20 new loyal visitors.
The Stumble Button Bonus Is Based On An Unknown Algorithm
Search Bar - People may search StumbleUpon, and if the article is popular, it may appear in the search results. From what I have noticed, the search results are based on the tags assigned to the article, so be sure to pick the tags wisely. Tags like blog, blogs, blogging, internet, and websites, get tagged a lot so the article popularity must be high to be shown. If the tag is rare like “shoemoney sucks” you may end up being the only search result. It is recommended to tag articles with broad, and commonly searched tags, so when it gets enough thumbs (votes), and reviews, it will show up under that search term.
Use Broad Term Tags That Are Commonly Searched For
Send To - You can send articles to mutual friends who you know would enjoy the article you are reviewing. Hopefully, you know them well enough, that they will also know to review, and tag the article appropriately. You may also send them an article you have not yet reviewed, in case you want to allow someone with more power to be the first to review and give the article more, initial weight.
Only Send Articles To Friends Who Understand Your Goals
So lets do some basic math.
If you have 100 fans, and 20% read the article, 10% thumb the article and 5% review the article. You will get 35 unique visitors, right off the bat, and get 5 reviews for that article.
If the 5 reviewers each have 100 fans and, 20% read the article, 10% thumb the article and 5% review the article. You will get 175 more unique page views, and 25 more reviews.
Do you see how the next mathematical computation can get out of hand?
Of course, these numbers are only theoretical, and results may vary based on who your fans are, and who their fans are.
In conclusion for this article, what do you really want? … … … Fans and Mutual Friends. But not just any friends, and just any fans. You want friends who will review your reviews, and you want fans with lots of fans.
In my next article I will be covering what I have learned so far about finding the right friends and fans.
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