Stumbling November
December 13, 2007 · Written by Melissa Donovan
Last week, I experienced a surge on my blog, thanks to Brian Clark and his post “The Cosmo Headline Technique for Blogging Inspiration” on Copyblogger. That post inspired me to write “The 22 Best Writing Tips Ever,” and the results were staggering. In the days that followed, my site visits increased 48% from the previous month, and my ad revenue jumped 6%. Needless to say, I was quite pleased.
Contributing Factors
As I saw the numbers skyrocketing, I poked around to see what was happening and found several contributing factors:
- StumbleUpon was sending hoards of traffic to Writing Forward, and the post itself was getting rave reviews on Stumble
- People were bookmarking the post on del.icio.us - over 100 of them
- The post inspired almost five times more comments than the posts on Writing Forward usually receive
- Other web sites and blogs were linking to the post, and to Writing Forward
Writing Forward is still in its infancy, so I was completely overjoyed. As I was perusing the sites that were linking to the post, I started Stumbling them.
For those of you who don’t know about StumbleUpon, it’s a site and application that allows you rate web sites as you surf. It installs a few buttons on your browser. When you come across a web page you like, you just click “I like it,” and that site’s rating goes up. If the site hasn’t been Stumbled, you will enter it into their database. The sites in the Stumble database are accessed by another button your toolbar, “Stumble.” Click the button and it takes you to a random web page, predetermined by categories and topics that you’ve told Stumble you’re interested in.
A Bright Idea
I was surprised to find that almost all of the posts I Stumbled hadn’t yet been submitted to StumbleUpon. So, I ended up submitting most of the posts, rather than simply rating them. Then I thought, why not Stumble all the posts that are linking to Writing Forward?
Thank You!
I decided to start with November. I rounded up all the incoming links from last month and Stumbled the posts that were linking to Writing Forward. Thanks linkers, you’ve been Stumbled:
Blog Review - Writing Forward - Writing for Writers - The Writer’s Round-About
Writing Forward’s New Home - The Lost Saga
Give Thanks and Pass it On - Here to Create
Blogroll Additions - Here to Create
Procopywriters.com Steals its Content - The Writer’s Resource Center
Writing Down the Bones - Twisting and turning
Plagiarism or Just Sloppy RSS Usage? - Web Writing Info
Blog Plagiarism: A Close Call - Catalyst Blogger
We Made the Short List! - Catalyst Blogger
This is Fun, Let’s Do More!
I was having so much fun stumbling all the web pages that linked to Writing Forward, I decided to do the same for all the commenters from November as well.
Rebecca Laffar-Smith
Brad V.
Denise
Tarab
Ashley Scott
CSS
Georganna Hancock
Michele
Sharon Hurley Hall
John freelancer
Taylor
lornadoone
IrreverentFreelancer
WereBear
Kat French
Aaron
Essie
cindy
Heather Strang
Beth K. Vogt
Dana
Eric
John Hewitt
Jennifer
James Chartrand
Julia
Courtney
Thanks commenters! Your sites have been Stumbled!
Now What?
Stay tuned, because I’ll be doing something similar for anyone who links to Writing Forward in a post in December. I’ll also do something for the commenters, but only the top ten, so come back and comment often!
Note: Sploggy posts and spammy commenters were not eligible!
Now, Tell Me
If I missed anyone, don’t hesitate to point it out. This post can be updated! I’d like to know what you all think of this. Is it silly to go around Stumbling as a way to say thanks, or do you think it’s a good way to show appreciation? Leave a comment and let me know!
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Thought I should get started by thanking you for the link love.
Actually it’s a brilliant idea! I have a StumbleUpon Explosion post that I’m putting up on my blog tomorrow because I’ve also noticed a staggering explosion thanks to recent stumbleupon submitted posts. The brilliant thing about StumbleUpon is that it has a fabulous New Visitor to Bounce Rate ration. That means, most (about 90%) of stumblers have never been to The Writer’s Round-About before and most of them visit more than one page once they arrive (39% bounce rate = 61% stay to explore).
Anyway, I won’t reveal all in your comments. Stay tuned for the post I’ll put up (hopefully tomorrow).
Thank you so much for the link love and the stumbles. It truly does make a remarkable difference. You’ve given me the idea to return the favor and follow your footsteps by showing stumbleupon-love to my commenters and trackbacks.
This is a fantabulous idea, Melissa! I LOVE it
I’m going to Stumble you now. Actually, I had been planning on it. I think I’ve already stumbled Rebecca… I just got busy and didn’t get back to my Stumbling.
I appreciate the link love. Thanks so much!!
*Here’s to many Stumbles!
Good call, and thank you for the Stumble and link!
Honestly, I prefer this more than the usual linkfests that happen on the blogosphere - at least this is a winning combo idea, Melissa. Good for you, good for the other blog, excellent.
That’s brilliant, Melissa. Repeating the thanks of others, not just for the link and stumble, but for your writing comment- and stumble-worthy content.
There is so much noise on the net right now–keeping the conversations rolling(or stumbling) is the best way to make sure the valuable stuff rises to the top.
Thanks, Melissa. You’re sweet! Glad to hear of your successes, especially with the ad revenue increase. Maybe I’ll put Amazon back in A Writer’s Edge, since Google ripped my good PageRank away.
From one who is just working his way into this blogging world, thanks for the link and congratulations on the increase in revenue as well!
I still don’t understand StumbleUpon 100%, but I sure do get excited when I see a bunch of people coming from that direction! Your link/Stumble love has got to be building you some great karma . . .
I love StumbleUpon! And along the same vein, I also like to right click on ads and open them in new pages to support people who are obviously individuals like yourself. When you open the ad as a new tab, it never slows you down and gives the website/blogger you visited a bit of revenue. See my post: http://freerangemom.blogspot.com/2007/12/support-underground-economy.html
Just here to say a belated “thank you” for *all* the linky goodness!! I’ve been under the weather so not active on my blog or elsewhere much. It’s really heartening to see good things happen these days, much appreciated, and as always, I appreciate your posts!
Essie