I’m pretty sure most of you know what StumbleUpon is. And if you don’t I’m going to explain it in few words: Like a page? Stumble it. The more stumbles, the more visitors. And so on! Anyway, I’ve seen that StumbleUpon is responsible of a big load of traffic for every new post I make, and though the quality has been disputed, traffic is still traffic and as everything free, the more the better.

However, StumbleUpon’s traffic is not exactly free. If you’re a small blog like me, you need to build friends so that they stumble your content, and give them your favor back.

Anyway, the important part of this post is not to define StumbleUpon, but to see how to cheat or game the system. Yup, I’ve been there

NOTE: I’m not saying that gaming the system is good, but it shouldn’t be regarded as bad. We all hate SPAM (lately I’m hating spyware the most), but hating it is not enough, we must find ways to counterattack it. That’s how things get better on the first place. Anyway, let’s take a look at the two ways I tried read about:

SUExchange.com

As the name implies, SUExchange.com is about exchanging stumbles with other users. You search for random websites and stumble them, and kindly ask for the user to stumble your websites back. You gain points by stumbling others and by having your website stumbled. Sounds good, huh?

The bad part is that there is little to no reward in getting points (which means no reward in stumbling other websites or getting yours stumbled). What you mostly do is stumble a website and ask them to stumble yours, something like: “I stumbled yours! Please stumble my website!”. Based on my experience using it for a while, you’ll mostly find yourself stumbling other website and not getting stumbles back. The error lies in the point system: People shouldn’t be awarded with a point when someone stumbles their website — so that they keep on stumbling other people’s websites. This means that SUExchange.com is plagued with free-riders.

What’s the good part?

The good side is that I found some pretty nice people with similar interests who are willing to stumble one’s website (I dunno if for content or not, but if you think about it, friends in Digg, SU, or any other social bookmarking will help you even if you have a not-so-good post). I tried stumbling many websites in one day, which brought me to other people who were also had a common goal (you help me, I help you).

StumbleUdon.com

Now here’s the interesting part of StumbleUdon.com (great name btw, I love Udon noodles): They take your StumbleUpon account (you must have a good account, 10 friends minimum for example) and automagically stumble other websites in their network, which means that other users will also stumble your website. They have claimed that their method is flawless for now, using many IP’s, as well as accounts, and making their stumbles as natural as possible. Sounds like Text-Link-Exchange right? Well it does, and it appears to be working.

Purchasing Stumbles?

The interesting part is that you can purchase stumbles (not too expensive, comparing it to AdSense’s useless clicks). Someone claimed that he purchased 100 stumbles and that it did work pretty well, however, as I said above, depends on what you’re aiming at. If you want pure traffic then it’s great (and cheaper than normal advertising for sure).

StumbleCard:

If you didn’t know, you can use your EntreCard points to purchase Stumbles from other users, through their Shop. Someone mentioned (I promise to look for the link) that it worked a lot better than EntreCard advertising itself, and though I haven’t tried it, that’s probably true, since some blogs that cost 400+ credits to advertise generate poor results (last time I purchased a 200-credit advertising space and got less than 7 clicks!). I’ll definitely give it a try using my hard-earned EntreCard credits and let you know if it’s worth it.

Anyway, what’s your experience gaming using StumbleUpon? Have you got any luck or do you know other methods that work?

(Oh and, since this post is all about StumbleUpon, stumble me and let me know, I’ll stumble you back! :D)

Technorati Tags: Stumble Upon, StumbleUpon, StumbleUpon gaming, StumbleUpon cheating

Stumble it!

Tags: Stumble Upon, StumbleUpon, SU cheating, SU gaming

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 at 11:04 am and is filed under Websoda Analysis. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.