Mob vs Smart Mob: 7 Reasons Why StumbleUpon Traffic Is the Best Social Media Traffic

StumbleUpon traffic

Do you think Digg and Reddit or Twitter and Facebook are the places to go nowadays? Never used StumbleUpon until now?

You should try StumbleUpon, both as a user and a webmaster.

  • Users get highly relevant content that matches their preferences, that's the way of social browsing.
  • Webmasters get substantial, steady and recurring traffic.

Especially new and small non-profit blogs like this one can get a regular, even daily traffic boost. That's not all though to say about StumbleUpon, it's not just any traffic, it's the best and most targeted traffic you can get from social media.

Let me present 7 reasons why StumbleUpon traffic is the best traffic compared to other social sites:

  1. It's very targeted! StumbleUpon is like channel surfing the Web. The users subscribe to certain topics. So people already interested in your topic stumble upon your site or blog. Unless of course someone adds your post to the wrong category. For instance this post here is fitting for the SEO, marketing and StumbleUpon categories not technology or computers.
  2. New visitors: StumbleUpon traffic means over 95% new visitors, new visitors that are really interested in your topic not just any visitors. On Twitter or Facebook mostly people you already know click the links.
  3. Recurring: This post is the best example. It has been written originally in 2007 and it still gets traffic from StumbleUpon after all these years. After all it's still valid. Digg, Reddit, Twitter and Facebook traffic happens once and in most cases never again.
  4. Steady: There is no server outage caused by StumbleUpon! Digg can mess up your server, cost you much money and damage your reputation. StumbleUpon traffic comes in steadily with occasional recurring bursts. SEO 2.0 has been stumbled numerous times by now, almost all articles have been submitted by users not myself. Some have been stumbled repeatedly like this particular post. It means that every time a user decides to "like" this post you get a burst of traffic, which in many cases amounts to approx. 100 visitors. This is not much you might argue, but for a new blog like mine that had less 100 visitors daily without social media it's substantial.
  5. Less flames: Digg and Reddit users hate you for no apparent reason because those services force topics upon people whereas StumbleUpon mostly sends you those who like your subject matter anyways. I noticed that I was dugg by the stupid flame comments "you suck on the internet" on my post. Most StumbleUpon users in contrast behave like surprise guests because they stumbled into your party in a way. So they don't offend you. On a side note: I was submitted to Reddit and was buried in an instant, probably for being an SEO.
  6. International: While Digg is predominantly white, middle class Americans and Europeans StumbleUpon even brought me some of the rare users from Africa. SU has a more varied international user base.
  7. Instant: While new blogs and sites won't get any significant traffic from Google and it takes a while to get traction on Twitter and Facebook StumbleUpon in contrast can jump start your blog. A complete stranger is enough. SU is not about getting friends. I wasn't an SU user myself by that time. My blog was stumbled on day two of SEO 2.0 at a time where Google sent 2 visitors per day. The first significant traffic from Google began to pour in after two weeks but still amounted to 20 - 30 visits. After a month I received more traffic from StumbleUpon alone than from Google's organic search.

Conclusion: If you set up a new blog or site that targets a niche, you are on shared hosting and you do not want your hosting bill to skyrocket or you are non-profit anyways try to target the StumbleUpon audience and skip the "you suck on the internet" mobs of Digg and Reddit. Then make the people who stumble your stuff friends you on Twitter and Facebook.

StumbleUpon does not allow self-submission, friend votes do not count on SU and the system does not support social networking. So you better don't engage on SU as a webmaster. Focus on attracting existing StumbleUpon users.

Also do not concentrate on Google. Google does not send any significant traffic to new sites to prevent spam. So only older authority sites can built upon organic Google traffic.

In case you rely on commercial success concentrate on StumbleUpon by using the Su.pr URL shortener first. This way SU users are more likely to find your content.

Then other social media will follow. By then you can afford the 300$ hosting bill and your success makes you immune against flame comments of the mob.

Instead of the mob following the lowest common denominator choose the smart mob of StumbleUpon and other social browsing services.

Last updated: August 14th, 2010.

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