Tool Tuesday: StumbleUpon

If you have just started a new website, it can get really difficult to bring in some visitors. I usually promote my new site via my other sites. While this is good, it means I am limiting my horizons to only visitors to my current site and that too only a percentage of these may actually visit the new site.

What if you had a service that got you all these visitors?

Enter StumbleUpon.

So how do I get started?

You first need to install the StumbleUpon Toolbar. This works with both IE and Firefox.

Immediately after installing the toolbar you are ready to start “stumbling”. Well almost, you will first need an account, the toolbar will guide you through that.

Stumbling is basically a random phenomenon, based on the interests you select. The toolbar will automatically direct you to a website. From my experience, newly submitted websites are given priority. And more the number of thumbsup from “stumblers”, greater the chances of you stumbling on that site.

Ok, I got all this, but how do I promote my site?

Promoting your site is as simple as hitting a button and filling a form. A new window will open where you can fill in the description, tags and select a category and then submit.

Done. Now what?

That is all there is to promoting your site. You can also submit individual posts. Also get your friends to submit individual posts from your sites. You can get them to review your submissions. Remember that the more people liking your posts, the more the hits it will receive.

I see a lot of visits, but people aren’t returning

Now, this is something that SU cannot help you, nor can I, nor can anybody else. The only thing that gets a visitor to return to your site is quality content in a good presentable layout.
Realize that there is no substitute for this. The key to retaining visitors is to give them something they want and like I always say, something that they didn’t know they wanted until you told them so

Can I do anything else with SU

Besides stumbling onto sites and reviewing them, SU also offers a minor social network. You can find other stumblers, make friends and participate in discussions.

Are you a stumbler? Add me to your list.