Why Bloggers Should Be Using StumbleUpon

Ok, so I don't normally try to give blogging advice or talk much at all about the behind the scenes craziness that goes into running a hobby blog. With that said, oh my goodness why aren't more bloggers using SumbleUpon?! Seriously though! I see in a lot of blogger groups where people ask what SU even is and how it works, and I think to myself, how do you not know?! I'll admit it can be a bit confusing, but when I go to stumble (think pinning for Pinterest, we stumble for StumbleUpon) another blogger's fantastic content, it drives me bonkers when they aren't set up with SU. I really can't figure out why more bloggers are not using this great social media tool to drive up their numbers?

Here's a basic and quick 411 on how StumbleUpon works... first you sign up with an account, simple enough. You make a profile and add a picture like you would with any other social account. Then, you pick different categories of interest, say, travel, and then SU will find pages from the web all about travel just for you. Once you've read that page or seen enough, you simply rate the page with a thumbs up or thumbs down and hit the stumble button at the top of your screen and a new page -about travel- will pop up. Cool right? Also, all your liked pages will be saved for referencing at a later time.

Here's how all this benefits bloggers... if you have a blog or website you want others stumbling your pages. The more thumbs up your blog pages get, the more likely your site is going to be stumbled by other people. The chances of your pages getting stumbled grow larger each time your pages are stumbled. And heck, if you don't want to have a StumbleUpon account, you can just add the SU button to your blog so that those of us on SU can stumble your content. However, I will say that I've heard it is more beneficial to be active on SU in order for your pages to do well but I'm not sure how accurate that is, just saying.

Here's the difference between Pinterest and StumbleUpon. When you post something to Pinterest, pinners can go pin crazy on your pins but not actually be linking back to your original post for content. I do it, you know, pin for later. So the blogger or site owner doesn't actually get the page views right away. With StumbleUpon, the blogger gets the pageview {and potential new reader/follower} immediately. Now, I have seen bloggers complain that because stumbles happen so fast {page views go up}, the time readers are spending on their blog goes down. However, the benefit of getting new readers and exposure to the site might outway that a bit.

With more and more people joining SU and stumbling pages on the web, the more exposure this brings to bloggers. I have seen huge increases in my numbers since joining SU last year. StumbleUpon is my number one traffic source and has been for months, with Pinterest in second. I don't spend nearly as much time on SU as I do Pinterest, but if you take time out of your day to join Facebook groups and pinning groups, then I think StumbleUpon should be on that list, too. At the very least adding a button to your blog so that your content can get stumbled can't hurt!

Oh, and for those of you who do decide to join the stumbling club, you can add an extension to your Google Chrome to make stumbling pages even easier! ... https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stumbleupon/kcahibnffhnnjcedflmchmokndkjnhpg?hl=en

***Just a sidenote, this is seriously a very basic intro to SU, there is a bit more to know about how it works {ie: discovering} so please look to the site for more info! http://www.stumbleupon.com/about

This post was not sponsored, I just really want to see other bloggers get the benefits of using SU ;-)