First Things First Using Stumble Upon

It's not uncommon for many to wonder how to use the Social Bookmarking and Social Media sites effectively, especially when you're new to the Internet or Internet Marketing world. StumbleUpon is one of my favourite Social Bookmarking sites.

Like most, I was unable to understand the true benefits of it's huge power - that is another subject where you can find the best information on why StumbleUpon is great for social media here at - Windmill Networking where Neal Schaffer states:-
"There are 4 compelling reasons why you should start using StumbleUpon"
1) StumbleUpon Helps You Discover the Best of the Web…in Less Time
2) StumbleUpon Helps You Find Interesting People to Follow
3) StumbleUpon has a Unique Advertising System: You Can Buy Traffic to Your Website
4) Yes, Using StumbleUpon Will Lead to More Traffic to Your Website…Organically

Since learning more and more of the power of this great social bookmarking site - I have had a couple ask for some tips - as I proceeded to answer an email I found myself getting so involved with the response - it led me to write this blog post

So First Things First Using StumbleUpon - (this is after you've signed up of course)

1. What you need to do is download the StumbleUpon Add-on for your browser, if you haven't already got that - this makes it so much easier to share your stumbles as well as save them.

2.  Be sure to set all your stumbling preferences on your settings page under heading- manage interests.

3. Whether you're looking to stumble great sites, meet people, or maybe you're here for business reasons, like many others - it is highly recommended that you write something about yourself - what you're about - what you do - your interests etc. this, in-turn, might encourage like minded people to subscribe back to your SU Blog. See diagram below

4. Start Stumbling Websites and other Stumblers directly from your toolbar or surf the net and start saving favourites of interest to you. ***Tip*** the more favourites you have - the better for you - it shows that you're active here - people will look at what you're stumbling at - regardless of how long you've been here - especially if you've been here a short time and you have hundreds of favourites saved - they tend to like that (this is only my opinion though) - if you have your own blog posts - thumb those too - then share with your SU friends. But be ware people are not happy for you to continually asking them to thumb your own things. Share your own things maybe once or twice a week and let them decide if they want to thumb and/or review - most times if you say something like "This is my latest post let me know what you think - or maybe I just posted this today thanks. Just use your own words but don't be pushy. A fellow stumbler told me not to mention thumb review like directly because it might damage the chances of you getting ranked with SU. I did not know this till last week either.
The "All" tab on you SU browser toolbar - is where your preferences are saved so you can click on this to stumble - Videos - Photos - Websites etc
To Stumble other stumblers from your tool bar - click on the "All" tab - drop down to "Society"--> Click on  "Stumblers"
To share from your tool bar you can only choose one stumbler at a time - however if you're on your favourites' page you can click "share" from under the particular favourite - where you will find that a drop down box of all your "Allow shares to my Toolbar" subscribers are, from there you may click on however many of them you like to share something with. You are also able to save friend's email addresses at the browser toolbar -  people who are not SU users - to send them a direct link of something you think they may be interested in - from the site you're on. Pretty neat I think - I just discovered this one the other day.

When the friends that you've ticked "Allow shares to my Toolbar", send you something - to the left of the thumb up - will be a little white square and a number next it - when you click on this you will get a narrow drop down box that may have a message or not but will tell you who it is from. From here you're able to reply to the friend. (this is the same type of thing we all see when we send and receive from SU browser button) toolbar
(FYI - I only "allow from toolbar" the ones who reciprocate shares direct - you can do what you like - it is personal preference - not a requirement)

So there you have the First Things First Using StumbleUpon in a nutshell - feel free to leave your comments and advise if anything is needed to be updated as I am writing only from experience and not of a qualified StumbleUpon Techie - I hope this helps even 1 person - I would be happy.


Urzay G is my name and am COO of Take The Plunge Coffee.com - about a year ago I followed Ewen Chia video course, which I received as a bonus from one of my many internet purchases. This was where I initially learned about StumbleUpon, although only a small amount of its huge potential. But since being online - meeting new people - I found myself learning more and more about the internet, online business - and free targeted traffic to our website at http://taketheplungecoffee.com - where I supply first class coffee to Australian residences and businesses delivered via Australia Post.