Power Of StumbleUpon & How-to Add Sharing Button To WordPress.com
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StumbleUpon drives massive traffic to websites and blogs. In a earlier post Brand Building On Social Media I discussed how to use StumbleUpon to your advantage, along with Twitter, FB, Google, Pinterest and Reddit. For those who haven’t read this post, as an author your brand is you, not your book. That’s your product.
The Power of StumbleUpon
Whenever I added a blog post to my “likes” on StumbleUpon, including my own, that site received a burst of traffic. But I had no idea how or why it worked.
Until recently.
To help illustrate my point I’m using an infographic from Column Five.
As you can see StumbleUpon drives more traffic than Twitter, FB and Reddit combined! This infographic shows that 51 pages per minute are added to StumbleUpon. Think about that a minute. That’s 3,060 pages per hour, 73,440 pages per day, 514,080 pages per week.
Now, as far as the infographic showing FB as the number two site… Sorry, I don’t buy that. But I’m guessing it’s because so many people on Twitter use bitly.com or something equivalent to shorten links. This, in turn, can skew the results. Regardless, Twitter will never surpass StumbleUpon. Ever.
This is why…
StumbleUpon is essentially a browser add-on, which adds a second menu bar that shows a thumbs up/thumbs down button, allowing you to “stumble upon” random sites geared toward your interests. Any post you give the “thumbs up” to is automatically added to your “Likes Page”. Your “likes” are built over time.
StumbleUpon isn’t simply a sharing site where you physically plug in a blog address. But you can certainly use it that way, too. What it does is it grabs other posts off the internet and suggests them to you. If you’ve tagged your post, or someone else’s post, properly StumbleUpon will suggest your site to everyone with similar interests. Which, in turn, drives huge traffic to your site that you wouldn’t normally receive.
Therein lies its power.
For instance, recently Nicholas Rossis wrote a very inspirational post (click link to read). I, then, added that post to my “likes” and tagged it “inspirational” “writing” and a few other things. Anyway, within one hour he received over 700 views. Why? Because I gave his post a “thumbs up”. Yes, it only takes ONE person to drive that kind of traffic. Now, imagine if two or three others also gave a “thumbs up”. His numbers would have been astronomical. Another example is my Q & A With A Real Undercover Operative – Part I. In less than an hour I had over 2000 views. Meaning, more than one person gave it a “thumbs up”. That three-part series garnered more views faster than anything else the previous year. Incidentally, if you missed this interview you can find Part II and Part III by clicking the links.
I’m always surprised by authors that don’t use this powerful site. I can only conclude that they don’t realize its inherent magic. Hence, my motivation for this post.
Still not convinced?
Let’s take a look at the life of a post. Herein referred to as a link. Because StumbleUpon grabs posts by “interests”, which is why proper tagging is so important — that’s a post for another day — it doesn’t matter if that post is one year old or three years old. See where I’m going with this? You got it. Your old posts are magically resurrected with StumbleUpon. Which is why I don’t shut comments off. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten a new comment on a six month old post, and often times that leads to a new subscriber. As a reader of blogs I find it frustrating to not be able to leave a comment when a post really resonates with me. This, of course, is up to you. But why not encourage communication regardless of date?
With Twitter and Facebook the half-life of your link is only a couple of hours. Meaning, that’s how long it survives so others can share it. With StumbleUpon that same link lives on for 400 hours. And that’s only half the life. Take a moment to look at the life cycle of a link in the lower half of the above infograph. This is not to say that a link will die after 800 hours. As stated earlier, since you know to properly tag your posts your link can survive for years after it was first posted… with StumbleUpon.
Nowadays people don’t spend much time reading blog posts. Instead, they skim. Personally, I still haven’t figured out how to do that. Anyway, StumbleUpon beats out Twitter and Facebook by 25%. Incidentally, that’s longer than the average web page view. A StumbleUpon session, where people are reading the “suggestions” lasts for over an hour. Where with Twitter and Facebook most people only spend a little over twenty minutes browsing links.
If you’re still not convinced of StumbleUpon’s power there isn’t much more I can say to change your mind. All I can suggest is try it. See for yourself what it does to your traffic and how many more page views you’ll receive. The proof will be in your stats.
Problem is, when WordPress.com changed their sites around again — the so-called “improvements” — so many people lost their StumbleUpon sharing button. After noticing a pattern, I took a look at my old site (I’m now self-hosted) and was absolutely shocked when I find it gone. This wasn’t okay with me. And it shouldn’t be all right with you either.
Don’t fret. I have a solution.
Go to settings > sharing > available services
Available services is where it shows your sharing buttons. Only now you will no longer see StumbleUpon as an option. You’ll need to install it manually.
Click “Add a new service” and a pop-up window will appear. In the “Add sharing url” input: https://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url= (and then choose your variable from those listed below) I use: %post_full_url% But you can play around and see what best fits your needs.
Like with most improvements in WordPress.com they tell you that you can add any variable to your sharing link. I tried them all. None of them worked by just adding the variable to the end of StumbleUpon’s url. You must include this: /submit?url= And then the variable. Without this formula you’ll either get an error message that says StumbleUpon can’t locate the page, or it violates the site in some way.
If it’s easier for you to just copy what I did the entire url looks like this:
https://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=%post_full_url%
In the box below (same window) it will ask for the icon image. Here’s where it got tricky because most sites want you to buy image icons. What I did was to Google “StumbleUpon Icon” click “image” and then copy and paste the image into my library. I then took the url for that image and pasted it into the “icon url” box. Voila!
Within that same window press “Save” Then drag your new StumbleUpon sharing button into “Enable Services” window and press “Save Settings” at the bottom of the page.
Since I wasn’t able to find a StumbleUpon icon image that fit the perimeters of WordPress.com, under “Button Style” I chose “icon and text” instead of my usual “icon only”, and then dragged less important buttons like “print” “email” “pocket” etc. into the shaded box of “Enable Services”. What that does is it adds a “More” button to your lineup that readers can press that will show the other sharing buttons you offer without taking up a lot of space.
And that’s the power of StumbleUpon. I hope this helps to increase your blog traffic and make you all hugely successful.
Want to take it for a test spin? Press the StumbleUpon sharing button at the bottom of this post and give me a “thumbs up”. Tell me in the comments, leave a link to your post (once you add the button) and I’ll do the same for you. And isn’t that what the writing community is all about, helping one another?
If you enjoyed this post, please share. Thank you!
Sue Coletta
Member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, International Thriller Writers, Sue Coletta is the bestselling, award-winning author of psychological thrillers and mysteries. Pretty Evil New England, her exciting new venture into true crime, is anticipated to hit stores in Fall 2020. For three years running, Feedspot awarded her Murder Blog as one of the Top 50 Crime Blogs on the Net (Murder Blog sits at #5). Sue's also the communications manager for Forensic Science and the Serial Killer Project and a proud member of the Kill Zone, where she blogs every other Monday.
153 Comments
Simon
Thanks for this article, very helpful. I have added stumbleupon today and hoping for lots of views! I hit the stumble button in the bar for you too. Would love if you could check my latest post out and do the same. Thanks! http://sharemyyear.co.uk/odeon-screen-unseen-baby-driver-review/
Claire Saul
Thank you! I really struggled to work out what to do and then found your fantastic post,
Sue Coletta
You’re welcome. Best of luck, Claire!
shannon
Thank you for this! I was struggling to figure out the sharing button and this worked on the first try. Clear and easy to follow instructions. 🙂 I stumbled your article, here is a link to one of mine. http://venusfitness.ca/2016/11/24/postnatal-exercise-dos-donts/#more-1260
Looking forward to enjoying the power of Stumbleupon!
Sue Coletta
Awesome job! I’ll hop over and share yours now.
Raghav Malhotra
Thanks Sue Coletta ! I am a begginner to blogging and for that I did lot of research on Internet to know the inside out about it. There are so many things by so many people, but I take you as my guide in this. Your articles are really helpful and easy to follow.
Thanks for the stumpleUpon guide. I have just added that on my blog.
Raghav Malhotra recently posted…Download Infinite Fighter-fighting game v1.0.16 Latest Mod Apk [Mod Money]
Sue Coletta
That’s great. I’m so glad you found this post helpful. Best of luck!
Cook & Enjoy
Thank you so very much for this most interesting and easy way to create and add the stumble upon icon to my blog. You’re a super super star.
Sue Coletta
My pleasure.
Sharon Black
Sue, this was a great post. Am I right in thinking that the StumbleUpon button can only be added to a WordPress blog, though? Mine is a Blogger blog, and I have some other sharing buttons, but not Stumble.
However, I was able to Stumble this article!
Thanks again.
Sue Coletta
Thanks, Sharon. Honestly, I’m not sure about Blogger. I would imagine you could add it. Do you have an area like I’ve described here, where you can manually add sharing buttons?
Nicholas Rossis
Great post. Many thanks for the kind mention 🙂
Nicholas Rossis recently posted…Science Fiction eBook Giveaway and Book Sale
Steve
Thanks for this – very helpful!
Sue Coletta
You’re welcome. 🙂
Grey World Nomads
Awesome post. Very helpful! Will try it and get back to you to stumble.
Rhyming with Wine
Thanks so much for this! Great post. I’ve stumbled it (I think?? – Totally new at this!) I was totally stuck with adding the badge but it’s now up and running. 🙂
Sue Coletta
Fabulous! You’re welcome.
mainy - myrealfairy
Thank you so much! I’ve just added the stumbleupon button and it worked! I followed your guide step by step and I am so pleased with the result. I was forwarded onto your article through Janice at mostlyblogging.com
I am just going to stumble your article now. Thank you.
I would love it if you would stumble my little poem. The link is:
http://www.myrealfairy.com/?p=316
thank you
mainy
mainy – myrealfairy recently posted…Beyond the Starline – Book Review
Sue Coletta
Yay! I’m so glad it worked out. Your poem was beautiful. Love wings, anyway. You’ve been stumbled. 🙂
Bun Karyudo
Thanks for this. I found it very helpful.
Bun Karyudo recently posted…Things That Drive Me Crazy! (My Guest Post)
Ali Isaac
When I click on your button, or any stumble upon button lately I just get a page saying ‘Get the Stumble upon App’, and there’s no way of adding a page. Btw I already have the app. Any idea what’s happening here?
Sue Coletta
In the upper right-hand corner it should say “log in.” For some reason SU goes through phases. Sometimes it doesn’t recognize me right away and other times it automatically signs me in. But there should always be a place where you can log in. If you don’t see it, email me a screenshot, and I’ll try to help you out.
Sacha Black
Great post – was recommended it by Hugh cause I couldn’t get my stumble button back. Thanks so much for writing it 😀
Sue Coletta
You betcha, Sacha. Glad you found it useful. 🙂
Niki
I’m in the minority, not sure what I’m doing wrong. I followed the instructions step by step and get an error saying “An error occurred creating your new sharing service – please check you gave valid details.” Even though I copied the link and put it in the Sharing URL…
Sue Coletta
Did you use this link: https://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=%post_full_url% If you clicked “Add new” and then placed the link in the sharing url, something went screwy. If you want, you can email me a screenshot to: sue(at)suecoletta(dot)com, and I’ll try to help you out.
Niki
Thank you so much for all of your help trying to get this to work for me. I had to walk away and come back. Almost 2 months later and I decided to give it a shot, did the same thing we tried when we were emailing and it worked! I used a different image, not sure if the WordPress image gods just liked it better or what, but it works and I’m happy! Thanks for your article and personal assistance, very much appreciated!
Sue Coletta
That’s wonderful, Niki. I figured it had to do with the image (WP is so fickle). I’m thrilled everything worked out. Don’t forget to share your posts to SU when you publish them. 🙂
Mona AlvaradoFrazier
Easy instructions and they worked! Thanks so much for the step by step and reminder to hit ‘save’ when installing StumbleUpon.
Janice Wald over at http://www.mostlyblogging.com answered my question on how to add the SU sharing button and referred me to your instructions.
Mona AlvaradoFrazier recently posted…A Year of the Best Christmas Gifts
Sue Coletta
Janice is awesome. I’m so glad it all worked out, Mona. Enjoy your new traffic!
Cathy Chester
Thanks for explaining this. I used to use SU but didn’t see anyone returning it to me. So I stopped. When the button disappeared I was not upset. I tried yours, added the pin and now like yours. Now what? Will people Stumble me? Will people reciprocate? I’ll have to see.
Also my buttons are not as colorful as yours. They are only b&w. Hmm. I also wish I could add them to the side of my blog as you have.
So glad I found you – from a referral from Janice Wald!
Sue Coletta
Yes, they will. Every time you publish a post share it to SU. Honestly, I rarely have time to do anything more than that, but my posts get stumbled about 1700 times on average. That’s a ton of traffic for only pressing my own share button once. It takes time. Don’t get discouraged. But little by little, the more posts you share to SU, the more people will see them and stumble them.
To answer your question about the button itself: I have a self-hosted site now so the buttons are bigger with more color, and I can put them on the side. With WP.com you can’t. But you can do a Google search for a colored version of the button. Look in the comments here. There are a few people who posted links to the icons. Thank you for sharing my post. I really appreciate it. Oh, and Janice has a SU group. Have you joined? They all stumble each other posts, so that will get you more views in a shorter amount of time.
Rana irfan
I want to add stumbleUpon sharing button on my website.please help me.please tell me easy way to add this button.
Rana irfan recently posted…Happy new year sms in Hindi
Sue Coletta
Sorry for the late reply. You got caught in my spam folder. The only way to add the SU button is to follow the instructions on this post. It’s not difficult, honest. Good luck!
Rana irfan
Thanks Sue. i am glad to read your reply. really SU is a best social network to get best traffic for website. i like to share on SU . Thanks again.
Rana irfan recently posted…Happy new year sms in Hindi
Sue Coletta
You’re right, Rana. SU is fantastic to drive traffic. Thanks for the share!
Margaretha
Thanks, Sue, this is brilliant. Have stumbled this page.
Margaretha recently posted…The Gratitude Experiment: Can Gratitude make us Happy?
Sue Coletta
You’re welcome, Margaretha. Thanks for the stumble!
Karen
Great advice as usual, Sue.
I managed to create a button for my two WordPress sites. The logo is not visible; the buttons clearly read StumbleUpon, though. And they work. 😀
Sue Coletta
It’s hard to find a really good icon for StumbleUpon that actually fits the perimeters of WP. When I was on WP.com I used the title rather than the icon, because it always appeared smaller than the others. It still worked, though. I’ll jump over and “test” your new button, Karen. See you over there!
Terri Webster Schrandt
Hi Sue, I found you via Janet Wald’s Mostly Blogging site. I installed the Stumble Upon button per your directions and voila! it worked. Just saying thanks and now I will follow your blog 🙂
Terri Webster Schrandt recently posted…One Word Photo Challenge: Winter
Sue Coletta
Yay!!! I’m so glad you’re posts can be stumbled again. Thank you for the follow! Janice is awesome, isn’t she? Oh, I see you did the one word photo challenge. I’ll have to check it out. See you over there!
Debby Gies
Thanks for this fantastic help Sue. 🙂
Sue Coletta
You bet, Debby. I’m always happy to help. 😀
Dermot
Great guide, thanks! I had resigned myself to no stumbleupon button until I migrate to .org which may not be for a while yet.
Dermot recently posted…Award Winning Blog!
Sue Coletta
Yeah, a lot of people did, Dermot. Which is why I researched how to get it back. Now that I’m at a self-hosted site, I don’t need to worry about it, but there are still many who shouldn’t have to lose the benefit of SU because WP.com decided to get rid of the button. I’m glad I could help.
Janice Wald
Hi Sue,
I will be linking to this article in a page I will be publishing this week.
Janice
Janice Wald recently posted…How to Have a Winning Combination of Blog Factors
Sue Coletta
Thanks, Janice!
Pingback:
Janice Wald
Hi Sue,
I know you are very busy with your writing and your blog, but…
I am trying unsuccessfully to apply this advice to Flipboard. How do I install a Flipboard sharing button?
This article https://share.flipboard.com/?utm_campaign=edu&utm_medium=email&utm_source=magmaker_edu
gave me code; I added your %…. from the SU instructions, I got an icon URL but it doesn’t appear at WordPress. Any thoughts? Thanks so much.
Janice
Sue Coletta
Is it just the icon appearing that you’re having trouble with, or the entire button? If it’s only the icon you could do an image search on Google and save in your library. Then when it asks for the URL, use your library’s url for the icon.
Janice Wald
The entire button. Ideas?
Sue Coletta
Hmm…did you try using the “profile url” and then the same extension you used for SU?
Janice Wald
Not sure. Where would I find that?
Sue Coletta
On the link you provided, instead of copying the code, scroll down and copy the profile url, then add the extension in this post.
Janice Wald
On phone. I will check when at computer. TY so much for trying to help me. I will let you know.
Janice
Jolene
hi there, thanks for this. And yes if we don’t help each other out, it really does get hard doesn’t it! I’ll stumble yours for you 🙂 Can you please help us out as we are only new and getting no natural traffic through stumble upon – only getting traffic if we do the paid discovery. If you could share this post of ours pretty please – http://www.wanderluststorytellers.com.au/top-5-must-see-destinations-on-our-family-bucket-list/ 🙂 Thank you!!!! From the Wanderlust Storytellers 🙂
Sue Coletta
Absolutely! I’m doing it now…
Jolene
Thank you 🙂
Sue Coletta
You bet. 😉
JcCee
Good morning! I found you through Janice’s reblog and I am so glad that I did. I have been looking for a way to add stumble upon on my posts. I just used your directions and it worked. Yay!! Thanks so much for sharing this and I stumbled this post. Have a great weekend! 🙂
Sue Coletta
I’m so glad you found it useful. Congratulations on adding your shiny, new sharing button!! Thank you for adding this post to your likes. 🙂
JcCee
Thanks so much! And you’re very welcome 🙂
Sue Coletta
🙂
Celia Reaves
This is a TERRIFIC idea and I can’t wait to use it. I did get stuck at one step, though. I’ve found a suitable icon, reduced it to the proper size (16×16) and loaded it into my library. But how do I find out the URL for that image in my library? I think that once I get past that one step, the rest of it should fall into place. Thanks!
Sue Coletta
Hi Celia! Go to your library and click on the icon you uploaded. On the right-hand side you’ll see the info for that image including the URL. Then just copy and paste. Viola! Let me know if you have any problems.
Celia Reaves
Thanks for your quick reply and help. I did it, and I love it! *Giving your post the thumbs-up right now!!*
Sue Coletta
Bravo! I know you could do it. Thank you for the thumbs-up, Celia!
D. Wallace Peach
Thanks for the easy to follow instructions. I usually can’t figure these things out and I actually did it!
Sue Coletta
Yay! Glad I could help.
Janice Wald
Hi!
I am the same way. That was my immediate response: I am not tech. savvy enough to do this, and I was able to! Let’s follow each other on StumbleUpon and like each other’s articles.
Janice
Sue Coletta
Hi Janice! Since I’m already following you I’m guessing you’re speaking to D. Wallace. I’ll step back and let you two chat. Have a great weekend!
Janice Wald
Reblogged this on Reflections and commented:
Welcome to Another Installment of Reblog Thursday!
Recently, I have been writing about how bloggers can use StumbleUpon to drive traffic to their blogs even though WordPress discontinued its StumbleUpon sharing button.
What if I told you that Fiction Writer Sue Coletta discovered a way to put the button back?
Yes, it’s true. WordPress.com users can once again have a StumbleUpon sharing button if they follow Sue’s instructions, and the instructions in those of her commenters.
Sue begins her post with the importance of StumbleUpon as a way to get traffic to your blogs and ends with how to get the StumbleUpon sharing button back.
Take it away Sue.
stuartaken
Great post, Sue. I’ve done this, and it works! I found a suitable icon – here’s the link -https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=icon+for+StumbleUpon&espv=2&biw=1345&bih=918&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=zYdsVea6FYz9UJ7ageAJ&ved=0CDsQ7Ak They’re all too big, but I used Lightroom to reduce one to the 16px square required and posted the link from my library into the box and, voila! it works. Thanks for this.
Sue Coletta
It does work! Thanks for the new icon, Stuart. I’ll check it out now.
blondeusk
I have followed your instructions and I have added the button 🙂
Sue Coletta
Great! I’ll take it for a test spin. BTW, did you see my latest post? There’s a surprise in it for you. 🙂
blondeusk
Oooooh let me look! I have no idea what I am doing on Stumbleupon so any help would be gratefully appreciated.
Sue Coletta
It works great!
For now, just make sure to add every post you write by pressing the button you just installed. That alone will increase traffic. A large portion of your posts you can put under “writing” for the category and then tag it with “comedy” and whatever else is specific to that post. I just did your “10 Awkward Moments…” because that post should get huge attention like it did on FB. Now I’m off to read your latest one…
Janice Wald
Thank you!
blondeusk
You write some fab articles Sue, think I may join your fan club 🙂
Sue Coletta
Hahaha! Thank you.
Janice Wald
Thanks.
Janice Wald
I am on Twitter every 2 hours today & Just retweet & others retweet for me, yet only have one view from Twitter today. Don’t know why so low lately.
Sue Coletta
Huh. Follow me and I’ll follow you back. When you have a great article use my handle and I’ll RT. My followers are awesome, they’ll RT.
Janice Wald
Followed you on Twitter. I will send to you thanks! You are as nice as Lucy said!
Sue Coletta
Aw, thank you!
heatherjacksonwrites
I feel like social media has become my part-time job! I am not on StumbleUpon, but I’ve added it to the list for the future with your name beside it so I can refer to this post again when I’m ready. 😉
Sue Coletta
That’s super! So glad I could help. Believe me, I know exactly what you mean. That’s why it’s best to concentrate most of your efforts on a few sites.
coldhandboyack
I think I made it work?
Sue Coletta
Yay! I’ll take it for a test drive when you post again.
emaginette
Thanks for putting this package together. I’m going to bookmark it for later. 🙂
Anna from Elements of Writing
Sue Coletta
You bet. Good luck!
heatherbwriter
Sue, this is what I love about your blog. You’re so willing to share valuable information with others. Being a self-confessed technophobe I didn’t think I’d be able to do this, despite your clear instructions, but I’ve just added the button to my own site and tested it out. It works – yay! I’m going to add your blog post to my Stumbled Upon list now. 🙂
Sue Coletta
Thank you so much! Sometimes I wonder if I come off as a know-it-all, which is so not my intention. It’s comments like yours that make it all worth while. And thanks for adding this post to your likes. Really appreciate it!
Kevin J. Hotter
Great post Sue! Super helpful! If I wanted to resurrect an old post of mine, do I simply share it using the stumbleupon icon in my post? Or is sharing your own posts a no-no??
Sue Coletta
Yup. You can just press your own sharing button. Absolutely share all of your old posts. StumbleUpon has no rules against it. Matter of fact, by doing so you increase your chances of more people giving them a thumbs up. In the future, when you publish a new post make sure to share on StumbleUpon, too. Then sit back and wait for traffic!
Kevin J. Hotter
Sounds good to me!
Sue Coletta
Good luck!
Kevin J. Hotter
Thanks Ms Coletta!
Sue Coletta
Ms. Coletta? When did we get so formal?
Kevin J. Hotter
Haha. Rock n’ Rolla Susie Q! Better? ???
Sue Coletta
Much!
Kevin J. Hotter
I have no idea how the little family emoticon just got posted. LOL I tapped a smiley face
Sue Coletta
It’s still cute.
Nicholas C. Rossis
Fascinating info – thanks for such a well-researched post! And special thanks for including my example 🙂
Sue Coletta
You are very welcome. Actually, it wasn’t much research at all because I’ve been using the site for a while now. Except for figuring out how to add the sharing button. That took me hours to figure out for my own site. 🙂
Nicholas C. Rossis
Lol – I know what you mean. For some reason, WordPress has decided I don’t need it, and it’s not available for me. Perhaps it’s time I made the move to a new server, after all…
Sue Coletta
You don’t need to. Just do the steps I’ve outlined here.
Nicholas C. Rossis
Finally, I now have a StumbleUpon button on my site. Thank you so much for the great instructions. I still wish my site supported it natively, but it no longer matters 🙂
Oh, and I’ve put a 16×16 icon of StumbleUpon online. The address, in case someone wishes to use it, is:
http://www.nicholasrossis.com/images/stumbleupon.png
Nicholas C. Rossis
D’oh! When I input the address, I got the actual icon 😀
Okay, the address is (remove the space after the dash to make it work):
http://www.nicholasrossis.com/images/ stumbleupon.png
Sue Coletta
Are you able to do icon only? Thanks for sharing the address!
Nicholas C. Rossis
I used icon + text, but it still asked me for a 16×16 icon. I created one on the spot, which is what I’m sharing 🙂
Sue Coletta
Yes. I just tried it. It’s the same as mine. But this is great for anyone trying to find one. Thanks again!
Garry Rodgers
Thanks for this, Sue. I’ve never used S/U so I just took it for a test drive – sure can see the potential. When you mentioned WordPress.com removing your S/U button, I took a look at my site and see the link is still there, but then I use a self-hosted WordPress.org site. Maybe you can fill me and others in on the advantages / disadvantages of a WP.com site, like you use, to a WP.org site?
Sue Coletta
Now that’s a whole other post, Garry! But I’d be happy to weigh the pros and cons of each. You’ve got me curious now, too.
jazzfeathers
I tried Stambleupon after your post about social media. Uhm… I don’t know whether that’s not the place for me or I’m doing something wrong, but I only got a couple contacts through it. After a few weeks of trying and not getting any results, I just stopped using it.
Which is kind of a shame, I hear lots of people getting lots of traffic from it 🙁
Any suggestion?
Sue Coletta
Just by adding a sharing button and by sharing every post you write, you will see an increase in traffic. It sounds to me like you were using it like other social media sites. Which it is not. You don’t necessarily have to spend time there to drive traffic to your site. I spend very little time there. All I do is share my posts and posts I really enjoy and the traffic comes. What takes times is to build your “likes page”, but you don’t need a lot of likes if you’re only using it as a place to share. It is NOT to be used as a “social” place like Twitter and Facebook, but more of a search at your leisure type of place. Make sense? In other words, just share your own posts (and posts you like, if they have the button) and that’s it. Then sit back and watch the traffic increase.
jazzfeathers
That sounds quite easy. Though it’s what I’ve done. But maybe I didn’t do it long enough?
I’ll try again 🙂
Sue Coletta
You need to share every single one of your posts because you just don’t know what resonates with others. Cast a wide net.
jazzfeathers
Oh, I see. I didn’t do it because I read another person’s post, who also uses StumbleUpon and she said it isn’t good to just post our stuff. We should share other people’s stuff too.
I suppose there are different ways of doign it.
Sue Coletta
Baloney! That’s only on Reddit that you can’t post your own stuff. StumbleUpon encourages it. Like anything else, you need to be careful who you listen to. I can assure you I never post on subject I’m not totally 100% clear on.
jazzfeathers
Ah, thanks 🙂
Then I’ll start from my AtoZ posts. Thanks for the head up!
Sue Coletta
Good luck!
Sue Coletta
To prove my point I just shared your V is for Volstead post and tagged it “the roaring twenties” “The Volstead Act” and “blogging”. Under categories I put “American History” instead of writing so that history fans will find it and hopefully check out the rest of your A to Z challenge, which I also mentioned in the title and in the tags. Let me know how it works out!
jazzfeathers
I discovered you posted my Volstead post when I add it to my likes too. I’ve put it under American History too, though I used different tags.
Lets see. And thanks so much for the sharing 🙂
Sue Coletta
No problem.
sknicholls
I can’t get any “available services” after going to sharing. Do you know what I am doing wrong?
Sue Coletta
Available services is box about halfway down the page. Do you see it now?
sknicholls
Okay found it in Administrator sharing (not where I was). It’s also asking for icon URL. What do I put there?
Sue Coletta
That’s where I copy and posted an image from Google into your library. Then go to your library and copy and past the image’s url and put it there.
sknicholls
Got it now. Th icon thingy was tricky, not sure if I have this right. Don’t really know how to try it out. I downloaded a 16X16 icon from the icon images and uploaded and added it to my WP library for a url, used that URL and voila! When I click it, a stumble upon page comes up asking if the page is okay for work. I’ve never used Stumble Upon before. Is that what’s sup[posed to happen. I know I may sound like a nut, but I’m trying and I think I’ve got this thing.
Sue Coletta
Sounds right. I’ll hop on over and test it out. Be back in a minute to tell you how it goes…
sknicholls
Thanks. I have an icon and it goes to Stumble Upon….from there…I have no clue, but it looks like tags and categories are really important on Stumble Upon posts.
Sue Coletta
It works! I shared your “Don’t Regret The Past…” post to plug your book at the same time.
sknicholls
Yay! Thank you so very much. I greatly appreciate you working with me to get this set up. Mucho gracias!!!!! Thanks for the book plug, too. 😉
Sue Coletta
Anytime. Always happy to help.
sknicholls
Oh sorry. It’s right here. Now I see.
Brenda Lee
Hey, Sue, great tutorial! The only bad thing I see with Stumbleupon or so I’ve read on so many blogs is bounce rate. So if one is not too concerned with bounce rate, I personally say go for it. If you get traffic to your site and they read just one post, to me that’s better than no traffic.
BTW, shared to stumbleupon 🙂 http://www.authorbrendalee.net
Sue Coletta
Bounce rate? I’m not sure what that means. Is it when someone only reads one post and moves on? Thanks for sharing. I’m going to your site now to do the same. 🙂
Brenda Lee
Yes, that’s what it means. Some people grown in bounce rate. I prefer a quick stop and go on my blog. 🙂
Sue Coletta
I don’t mind people only stopping by. I’d love them to stay, but, hey, if they stop by once they could stop by again.
sknicholls
Awesome info, as usual. Thanks for sharing.
Sue Coletta
You bet, Susan. Hope it helps!
coldhandboyack
I had absolutely no idea. It sounds similar to my Zite magazine, but has some huge differences too. I’ll have to explore this.
Sue Coletta
I didn’t think you did. You were one of the ones I had in mind when I wrote this.
coldhandboyack
I suspected that as I read it. We had a recent conversation about Facebook. I often have to be dragged, kicking & screaming, into the light.
Sue Coletta
This one is easy. Not much work required on your end. And the payoff is huge!
coldhandboyack
Have to check later. Taking my daughter to dinner on the eve of her 21st birthday. I have a hunch she has other plans that don’t involve Mom & Dad for her actual birthday. Thanks for this.
Sue Coletta
Oh, have a great time! 21… geesh, look out — she’s legal!
Margot Kinberg
This is such a nicely detailed post about how to use S/U, Sue! Thanks. And what a great way to get interest in one’s blog without being obnoxious about it.
Sue Coletta
You bring up a great point, Margot! This is a fantastic way to bring interest without the usual “read my post”.
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