Adding Friends to StumbleUpon

Dear friends,

I mentioned before that the new SU layout isn't as intuitive as the old one. One reason I know this is because I like to invite my friends to join StumbleUpon, and instead of "Wow" or "This is awesome!" the comment I'm hearing the most lately is "I just can't figure it out."

And so I'm going to start a new tag here called Beginner. Each time I post a topic that will help someone new to stumbling, I'll use the beginner tag on it. I already have one post that belongs there, instructions on how to post pictures on SU. Today I'll be talking about how to add friends. If you're new to StumbleUpon, click on the Beginner tag to learn tips that will help you enjoy your first days stumbling. If you have friends who are just starting, send them here. We won't eat them, I promise. :)

Today a friend from another online site sent me a note asking how to add me as a friend on SU. Used to be, it was simple. You'd visit their page and click the Add as a Friend button in the right hand corner...

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The Magic of StumbleUpon's Recent Reviews Page

If you've been using StumbleUpon for a while, you've probably fussed or heard fussing about the new format. If you've just joined SU, then you probably have no idea what I'm talking about, but the layout of your SU page is quite different than it used to look. In a lot of ways, the old page was more intuitive. It was easier to figure out how to get started, if you were new to stumbling.

I'm guessing that the guys at SU headquarters are figuring if you're new to SU, you're going to depend on the toolbar to learn your way around the site, since to me, the new pages seem more like they're made for people who have been stumbling for a little while. It's easy to find "people like you," not too hard to find the top ranked sites of the day (although it's harder to find the Buzz, a daily list of the instant hit sites, pages that were discovered and became popular in a matter of hours) and it's easy to see what your friends have stumbled on.

I LOVE the Recent reviews section. It's probably one of the main things that keeps me from switching back to the old layout. It's really nice seeing the most recent items my friends have posted...

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The Top Thing I Would Tell Companies Wanting To Be Stumbled

There are a lot of companies out there right now who are starting to realize how important StumbleUpon traffic can be for their site.

If I could tell them one thing to help encourage people to stumble them, it would be to put a small or medium sized brand at the top of their page and allow people to photoblog it.

These companies have it right:





Think about it...for a small amount of extra bandwidth, their brand is getting shared all across the internet. Don't you think that's worth it?
Technorati Tags: StumbleUpon, SU, Revenue blogging, Business, Photoblog

StumbleUpon Mail

Lately I've been checking out some of the Web 2.0 social sites, curious to see what they were like. Facebook impressed me, MySpace not so much, maybe because I'm not the type person who's likely to put a favorite rock star or actor in the background, and most of the backgrounds I've seen feel too busy when I'm trying to read posts.

But there is one thing that I've realized repeatedly that StumbleUpon got right and these others haven't figured out yet.

It's their e-mail system. Now don't laugh, I know the 200 a day limit can be bothersome. I've reached it before too and had to switch to e-mail. And if I take a break and chase after J, my 4 year old, and come back an hour later, I know I should save before I hit send because there's a chance I might get an error message. But honestly, isn't it nice to open your e-mail and instead of an e-mail saying "Click here to see your message" instead there's an e-mail from SU with the full message from your friend? I love that the only reason I have to sign in to SU if I get a message is if I want to reply to the sender. I also appreciate that outside of messages from friends, I don't get e-mail from SU. If something new happens, they'll send a page link through their toolbar instead.
Technorati Tags: StumbleUpon, SU, email

Using RSS with StumbleUpon

I'm thinking about RSS today.

As you may know, RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. A name which didn't help explain things at all, when I first heard about it a couple years ago.

What it means is that sites that frequently have new information or feeds added can send some or all of that information to another place. A simple way to picture it is to imagine that you're sitting at your kitchen table, reading the morning paper. The special thing about this paper is that you've chosen the author of every section, so that the paper is chock full of information that's of interest to you.

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Usernames and Profile Pictures

Came across this article about building up your blog with StumbleUpon while I was browsing one of my favorite blogging blogs, ProBlogger. (Do you think I used the word blog enough times in that sentence?) :)

The article was written by Skellie, a guest blogger on the site. She has some good points. One of my favorites is near the beginning of the article: "Every blogger should have a StumbleUpon account. Regardless of which social media service you prefer, StumbleUpon is by far the easiest and least time-consuming to use."

This tip by her got me to thinking though:

One tip: make sure your username and profile picture are branded in line with your blog. Use your blogging name for your profile, and a photo or logo your readers will be familiar with.

Now, there's not anything wrong with using your logo for your picture. In fact, although you can change your picture as often as you want, if you are stumbling with the goal of building up your site, and if you have a logo, I'd recommend including your logo in any profile picture you use.

Quite by accident, I discovered how important your profile picture is a while back. My son was 2 when I first started Stumbling, and he fell in love with the Pooh picture and the fact that Pooh and Piglet were hugging. Since he loved the picture so much, I kept it as my profile picture, instead of changing it to something more grown-up.

About a year later, since he was three and wasn't making me show him the Pooh picture every time he saw me at the computer, I toyed with the idea of changing my picture. In fact, I even mentioned it here and there, and the fuss I got surprised me. The most repeated point? That people saw my picture and knew it was me without having to look at my name. So anyway, I kept Pooh Bear, and I'll probably be represented by him forever on SU.

I guess the second point from that story is to pick a picture that you like and that you'll be happy with down the road even if you don't have a logo. Eventually, even if you only thumb up pages and never post to a forum or participate any other way on SU, people are going to recognize your "face."

Sooo...what part am I not sure about then? I guess I've seen too many stumblers named GrowTomatoPlantsIndoors or stuff like that, who then have a tendency to spam people's inbox until they get blacklisted as spammers. Now, to be honest, I have seen one or two legitimate businesses who name themselves for their business and thumb up interesting articles related to their business, but I'd say if you use this approach you need to be very careful that every item you thumb up is interesting and that it's labeled correctly (although the SU program is good at labeling most sites, it does mess up on occasion, which is something you really don't want if you're thumbing up your own business site).

What I would recommend if you have a blog you're trying to get revenue from, and what I suspect that Skellie was trying to say, is to use the same name for your SU site that you use for your blog, and use it with Facebook, MySpace, and any other site that you frequent. I do want to emphasize that I only recommend this if you are wanting people to find your other sites, because as a researcher, I know how easy it is to trace someone's information on-line just by searching their username and whatever other information they've included for public view. Even if you're wanting visitors to your external sites though, I would recommend being careful what information you put where others can get hold of it. There are way too many programs that can use just a little information and put someone right on your doorstep.

Technorati Tags: StumbleUpon, SU, user name, profile,
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