Using Stumbleupon To Build Traffic Can Backfire
More than a few social networking gurus will tell you that it is easy to use Stumbleupon, and other services to promote your website.
And indeed it is, if you are a paying advertiser.
Otherwise, you could be classed as a spammer, and banned from the service altogether.
Asking people to exchange links to stumble, or participating in a scheme to orchestrate this can cause you to lose your account indefinitely, as you can see here!
And this link, advises that your account will be frozen if you use your account for promotional reasons.
Stumbleupon will allow you to submit your own, non commercial site a number of times, but if you approach the limit, you could be identified as a spammer, and frozen out.
Using social media to promote your site via paid advertising could bring great rewards, but building a network of friends and then getting booted for spamming defeats the purpose.
Including great, well laid out content that attracts and interests readers will give you a great chance of being bookmarked on SU, as well as other sites such as Digg and De.licio.us
You can learn more about safe stumbling here!
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You raise valid points Allan. I do think however that drawing attention to one’s site and asking for it to be bookmarked if people think it’s worthwhile is reasonable promotion. It’s a funny thing, but you can let 1000 people know about your site, but if you don’t ask them for a comment or a bookmark, the vast majority won’t do it.
I think it’s referred to as a “Call To Action” in sales circles.. 🙂
Cheers mate..
Ric Raftiss last blog post..How To Protect Your Web Site Copy
Good points, Allan!
I heard recently that StumbleUpon is finally starting to ban people who don’t stick with their TOS. I say finally because actually, it’s been needed for a while.
Many people don’t realize that part of the TOS actually says you can’t trade stumbles or ask specifically for a stumble for a site. When I mentioned this in a workshop a while back, someone asked about the “send to” button. That button isn’t for asking for stumbles either, but to share sites with your friends that you think they’ll like.
All that said, I still think SU is one of the best sites out there for building traffic, it just depends on how you use it.
I recommend not stumbling your own pages more than once every month or longer. People usually suggest thumbing up around 20 pages before you thumb yours up again, but although that might be soon enough to keep from being labeled a spammer, it still reduces the traffic you can pull in.
I’ll stop here, SU is still one of my favorite Social sites and I could easily write a book on it. 🙂
Teegs last blog post..The Simplest Way To Get Accepted As A friend On Facebook
Hey Teeg, great to see you 🙂
I’m waiting for the book, I’m sure that it would be a winner!
Cheers