Stumbling Towards More Conversions

StumbleUpon has been around a while, and if you're like 5 million others, you understand what an addictive, stimulus-response type network it really is. But like with other social networks such as Digg, Twitter, or Facebook, many marketers are still at a loss for how to make the most of it.

There has to be value in it; eBay bought the thing for $75 million last year. One of the reasons was to extend its WebmasterWorld member broached the subject recently, wondering about what kind of value a link in StumbleUpon really held. The query centered on whether a link from StumbleUpon could be compared to one in a reputable directory.

The short answer is that it's apples and oranges. StumbleUpon links are nofollow, so it can't be gamed for link juice. A representative of MartiniBuster suggested the querent was "viewing the image from too close and see only green pixels." Utilization of StumbleUpon is a big-picture thing.

Edward Lewis, who is SEO/SEM Project Director at
It's not about the individual link on StumbleUpon, it's about the exposure and about the chance that someone sees your submission and blogs about it, and someone else blogs about it, and so on. Then you get not just brand recognition but nice blasts of link juice as well.

The key then, in addition to submitted content worth passing along, is to become a top user at the network of choice, a position that takes time and participation to achieve. If you thought of it as a link-building strategy, though, and then thought of all the time you've already spent building links, this route may seem like a viable option.


In other words, StumbleUpon or Digg are not places to dump pitches and glitter. They are places to build a brand. As a matter of fact, as soon as it's apparent to the communities a marketer is abusing their trust by always ptiching, the marketer will be tossed out.

A blogger named Maki has put together a comprehensive guide to 28 tips for becoming a StumbleUpon superstar, which are summarized in Invesp's "Breaking the Digg Code" program, but Khalid there claims to have increased his conversions by 400%. That's not an endorsement, but increasing conversions is sort of the idea behind social media marketing.