StumbleUpon has been a great source of traffic for most bloggers and getting attention from the StumbleUpon community is GOLD. I have experienced sudden increase in my traffic everytime I get stumbled by top stumblers so I have decided to ask the Top Stumblers these two questions:
After three days of waiting, I was able to receive some answers from them. I hope that you will find their answers useful as I did. Without further ado, here are their answers.
I mostly stumble news. I have bookmarked all major newsagencies of the world. In addition I do stumble a few high quality blogs, and follow their links to the original info if possible. I do not much like to stumble videos. Usually I search for specific videos pertinent to a topic I am interested in.
Your best chance to get stumbled upon is to NOT pester stumblers with requests to do so. Most regard it as spam and either refuse to visit the site or even give a thumbs down which is certainly not helpful.
Instead the blogger ought to become a stumbler him/herself, join groups, talk to other stumblers and make friends. Thus, if their homepage is mentioned in their profile, it will be visited eventually by fellow stumblers. If the blog is any good, it will be thumbed up and shared and thus might become a bookmark for many people. This might take a few weeks, but it works.
Trying to force it, is the worst possible option because many people resent that kind of strategy.
Karen
http://karenak.stumbleupon.com/
I’m mostly looking for articles I guess, but interesting pictures or videos featuring technology (for me) get the thumbs up. I have a horrible habit of not keeping up with podcasts so, I generally stay away from them. New and interesting web services or products also get the thumbs up.
Make whatever you are talking about worth reading - perhaps add a small review or what you think how the item will do. A tutorial should be detailed, but not cluttered and unreadable. Its also sorta annoying to StumbleUpon a blog with a interesting content, and then go and post that on your blog and give yourself the thumbs up - sometimes, the stumbler will already have stumbled upon the original source finding a duplicate a little annoying. Short and sweet usually rule as long as it is detailed without overloading everything.
Tanner
Tanner’s website tssoftware.com
http://tannerld.stumbleupon.com/
I’m looking for a clean easy to read website. The problem is people ’stumbling’ don’t have patience to look for the content, it has to be clean and simple.
Don’t submit google ad driven websites. Make your content and headline as easy to understand and direct as possible. Don’t spam SU, if you’re gonna use it then join the community and be active.
Rustycat
http://rustycat.stumbleupon.com/
CONTENT DESIGN and CONTENT
I think the two questions tie together. A webpage that has purpose (a theme) or flow is important. I think the page should have good content (no matter what it is or what type of media you use) and the best thing the bloggers should do to attract stumblers is to respect their readers. Too often, people treat visitors like cattle. That is to say that the page isn’t well laid out. The content is difficult to pull out… The page is misleading or not easy to follow. (One big mistake - don’t forget to open your page with various browsers to see how it works and looks to new people.)TIMING
I guess the last thing people should realize is that top stumblers are just stumblers themselves who are users. Sometimes we are fickle and tired and just want to be entertained. It’s hit or miss. Maybe you learn the best time of day to introduce new material is late morning (U.S. time - which takes in the early evening crowd in England in the UK) when people are wide awake and you will have a full day of exposure to your page. Perhaps you just have a cute movie to share. The best time to post it to SU would be 9pm EST U.S. - while this disregards the European readers, it grabs that page-clicking American audience all night long.
Ryan
Ryan blogs at Ryanssmashinglife
http://omaha.stumbleupon.com/
Being on SU I prefer to discover sites, not to click on Stumble!-button. However when I use it, I usually receive the pages sent to me by my friends. Sometimes I choose a topic and stumble through it.
Evidently blog should be worth of thumbing-up. The more thumb-ups it get, the more widely it will be circulated here. Any attempts to spam (e.g. with the messages “Please check/thumb-up my site”) are usually counter-productive. Thumb-downs –> the site will get the low rating on the SU-system. + The spammer’s account can be deleted. So the best way is to become a good stumbler and create a good network of friends/fans. Or to buy a campaign.
Etcetera
http://etcetera.stumbleupon.com/
I look specifically, using various web search and blog search engines, for anything (articles, videos, pictures, podcasts, etc.) that I find interesting and that I think others might find interesting and I hit “I like it!” on the StumbleUpon toolbar. I try to look for things that haven’t already been rated on StumbleUpon so that I can introduce new things to the community.
There’s no real secret to getting stumbled, just create good content and eventually someone will find it and submit it StumbleUpon. Maybe try to add some of the good top stumblers as friends and build up a friendship with them. Or you could always offer me some cash and I’ll gladly give your site a “Thumbs Up”
Josh
Joshua blogs at phocks.org
http://phocks.stumbleupon.com/
Usually I look for articles or pictures. They just seem to amuse me the most and in general if they are short they can keep my attention. I have a short attention span so I figure that if something I stumble can keep my attention then it can hopefully keep other peoples’ attentions.
As for chances for getting stumbled upon? I actually have no idea. I did not try to be a top stumbler. It just happened. I try to stumble funny things and I guess people like that. So maybe they can try stumbling funny but my advise to them would be to still have fun and add their own interests in their stumbles. It’s no fun if you’re stumbling upon the same types of sites all of the time.
Nadhia
http://nadhia.stumbleupon.com/
Here is the comment i promised you
The best way to attract people to your pages is Stumble & rate,rate & rate ! Update your interests ! The more things you are interested in, the more people subscribe to your pages ( fans )…I think that is the greatest thing you can do
Bonnie
http://sniffles.stumbleupon.com/
It’s easier for me to suggest what NOT to do. When someone emails me out of the blue and says “I have this great new site… please check it out.” I NEVER will, because I hate spam in all forms. Since becoming a top stumbler I get it a lot. I don’t respond, I just ignore. I have no problem helping a fellow stumbler when they have questions, but I draw the line at spam.
I prefer to stumble old fashioned articles to anything else. Video is my next favorite choice.
Jana Taylor
http://janataylor.stumbleupon.com/
I don’t know how to answer that in a helpful way. I’m looking to be entertained, to put it simply. Sometimes things are entertaining and get a thumbs-up when they really seem like I should find them stupid. (for example: http://deaper.net/flash/batman.swf) It varies, though. I’m more likely to up a flash game at home than at work (yes, I stumble at work
but I’m more likely to up a programming article, Daily WTF for example, at work.
A blog post has to be interesting from the start. If a blog post starts out with how you’re feeling that day and what the weather is like in Iowa, etc., I won’t make it past two sentences before I stumble away. Images can help with this. The “Damn Interesting” site does a great job of this, for example, I always end up reading the posts there.
Tim Sylvester
http://codebender.stumbleupon.com/
In the first place I would like to apologize for the delay of my answer. As for your questions when I use StumbleUpon I aspect to find recent news, great pictures and people to talk with. I do not use Stumble Video so much because I like to go on YouTube, Metacafe, or DailyMotion and browser through their videos.
Some piece of advice for bloggers is to always have great and new content, because if they do this for certain they will get stumble by someone who visits a page in their blog.
Whi73rav3n
http://whi73rav3n.stumbleupon.com/
I will keep the list updated as soon as I have received answers from other Top Stumblers. Meanwhile, feel free to comment on what they have said. You can also check out these previous posts. Thank you.
STUMBLERS: If you have a great idea that you wish to add in this post, please feel free to send me your suggestion at bloggingmix[at]gmail[dot]com. Thank you very much for your time. 
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TC responded on 11 Mar 2008 at 6:22 pm #
i am a new in stumbled and i haven’t know how it is function.Frankly i join stumble just to attract traffics.
Your post is useful for me, thanks a lot.