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Rochelle
04/20/2008 Edit: I am no longer recommending this method. Stumble (the actual site) is now banning users of StumbleUpon so using the instructions I’ve outlined below could get you banned for life. If you decide to follow this method anyway just be aware of the possible/likely consequences.
-Rochelle
Have you heard of StumbleUpon? It is a social web site where people share their favorite web sites with other members. It is a good idea to submit your niche stores to StumbleUpon for backlinks and site promotion.
Did you know there is another web site that takes StumbleUpon one step further? This web site, called StumbleUpon Exchange (or SUE), is a way to have other people stumble your niche stores for free. The catch? You stumble theirs in return.
There is no cost to this service but you do need to stumble other web sites to gain points. If you don’t have any points then other people can’t stumble your site. SUE encourages you to stumble sites by not allowing others to stumble yours unless you do the same.
Sound confusing? Well, it really isn’t once you get the hang of it, but SUE’s web site IS confusing. Their service is a great one but their lack of instructions on how to use SUE can leave you scratching your head. I know I did.
This idea was shared to the Build A Niche Store (BANS) community by BANS member skolvikings. He was kind enough to clarify how to use SUE for me within the BANS forum and he is allowing me to rewrite his instructions here. Skolvikings has own blog dedicated to affiliate marketing. Please stop over and read his blog, titled, “Jon’s Affiliate Marketing Blog.”
Many thanks to skolvikings for letting me share his idea and rewording his instructions here. BANS forum members can read his original instructions here.
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My instructions to use StumbleUpon Exchange to promote your sites: |
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| Go to StumbleUpon and create an account, if you haven’t already. | |
| It is also a good idea to install the StumbleUpon toolbar. This will make using SUE much easier. | |
| Go to StumbleUpon Exchange and create an account. | |
| During the sign up process you will need to enter your username with StumbleUpon (created in step one). Make sure you enter this correctly or you won’t be able to earn points. |
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| SUE will start you out with five points. Here is a breakdown of how to gain or lose points with SUE: | |
| Gain Points | |
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| Lose Points | |
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| Add your first web site to your SUE account. You do this by clicking on the ‘Your Websites‘ link in the right sidebar: | |
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| NOTE: Be VERY careful about what URL you add for your web site. I strongly suggest you copy your site’s URL from your browser and paste it here. If you enter it incorrectly there is no way to either correct it or delete it. | |
| Stumble two sites. You do this by clicking the ‘Sites Not Stumbled‘ links in the right sidebar: | |
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| This will bring up 25 randomly chosen sites that you have not yet stumbled. Click the title link for one of the sites: | |
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| Doing this will take you to a description of that site. Stumble the site by clicking the ‘Stumble Site!‘ link: | |
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| This will open the site in a new window or tab. When the tab or window opens click on the thumbs up StumbleUpon button: | |
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| Wait for the thumbs up image to turn green: | |
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| The green thumb indicates that you have successfully stumbled the site. When you see the green thumb you can close the window or tab. You should automatically be taken back to SUE’s web site. | |
| Claim your stumble. | |
| Do this by scrolling down to the bottom of the SUE screen (the one with the profile of the web site you just stumbled) and completing the ‘Claim Stumble’ form: | |
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| Write a message for the owner of the site you stumbled. Whatever you write will be visible by anyone who goes to stumble that person’s site. Some people like to request a stumble in return for the stumble just done. I don’t do this, but do what feels right to you. | |
| After you write your message fill in the four-digit numbers and letters in the box, then click the ‘Claim Stumble‘ button. | |
| You can repeat this process as often as you like to stumble sites. You won’t get points until the sites owners award points to you. | |
| NOTE: Skolvikings offers an excellent tip to help get points as quickly as possible. He suggests you look for SUE members who are currently on SUE’s web site and stumble their sites. I have found that he is correct, that people who are currently stumbling on SUE tend to award points right away. | |
| You can find SUE members who are online by clicking the ‘Users Online‘ link: | |
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| Click the ‘Profile‘ link for a user to see the web sites for that member: | |
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| You can then follow the above steps to stumble as many of that user’s sites as you want. | |
| While stumbling sites you may come across a screen similar to this: | |
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| You will see the above screen if a site you are stumbling hasn’t yet been reviewed on StumbleUpon. It is up t you if you want to review the site but I recommend it. Reviews are great ways to increase traffic to your site. So, if you want others to review your sites it is good practice to do so for others. | |
| Award points to those who stumble your site. | |
| Whenever your site is stumbled (or you earn a point) you will get an email telling you this. Your SUE account will tell you how many new messages you have. Read your messages by clicking either the ‘You have 1 [or however many you have] new message(s)!‘ link or the ‘1 [or however many you have] New Message(s)‘ link in the right sidebar: | |
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| Click one of these links to go to your SUE inbox. Look for messages titled, ‘New Stumble Claim‘ and click on the first one: | |
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| The ‘New Stumble Claim’ message will open up. Click the ‘You can verify at:‘ link that is provided in the message: | |
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| You will be taken to the profile for your web site that was stumbled. Under the profile will be all the people who have either stumbled your site or claim to have stumbled your site. | |
| Note: It is important to verify that a user actually stumbled your site before you award a point. It is very easy for people to simply claim stumbles without actually doing so. Reward only those who have taken the time to stumble your sites. | |
| Verify that your site was stumbled by clicking on the ‘SU Profile‘ link for the person claiming to have stumbled your site: | |
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| You will be taken to that person’s StumbleUpon profile. Scroll through his/her stumbles until you see your site. After you find your site click your ‘Go back one page’ button to return to SUE. (If you close the window with the user’s profile then you will need to log back into SUE.) | |
| Award a point for the stumble by clicking the ‘+ Point‘ link. | |
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| Repeat this step for every stumble claim you receive. | |
Rochelle
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It seems a hell of a lot of work. I don’t want to sound lazy and it probably gets easier once you have done it a few times but is it worth it?
Wedge,
A few days ago I added to the top of these instructions that I no longer recommend this method. I’ve read/heard that Stumble is now targetting users of StumbleUpon and banning them from Stumble.
To answer your question, I didn’t find that it helped my traffic at all so for me it wasn’t worth it. In fact, I got tired of people who didn’t know what they were doing thinking they had stumbled my site when they either hadn’t or hadn’t done it properly. About a month ago I removed all my sites from my SUE profile.
Rochelle
Hi all,
I am Houston, I just joined BANS about a month already, I haven’t got any sale yet, anyone care to teach me more on promoting my BANS sites? Lost now.
As for now, i will try the stumleupon method for now, thanks so much for the blog post for this!
Hope to hear from someone soon
Houston
Houston,
There are too many promotional methods for me to list here, and I no longer recommend using StumbleUpon Exchange (see the edit at the top of this post).
I’ve had success using USFreeads (I wrote about using USFreeads as a promotional method at http://www.nichestorestrategie.....our-sites/ ), using 30 Minute Backlinks (I wrote about this at http://www.nichestorestrategie.....inks-test/ ), submitting my sites to various directories, and even by submitting my sites to Google Webmaster Tools.
Rochelle