The Basics – Getting started with Stumbleupon.com
If you don't already have an account with SU, visit http://www.stumbleupon.com/
SU can now be used with Internet Explorer, but I prefer Firefox. Click on “Sign Up”.
You will be sent to download the Firefox extension. After a quick restart of the Firefox
browser, you will notice the following at the top of the browser:
Stumbleupon will walk you through setting up your account preferences as soon as
Firefox is loaded back up. I'll go over each part of the toolbar from left to right:
Stumble Button – When you click this button, you will begin “channel surfing” sites
from whatever category you chose during account sign up.
All – This is actually a menu where you can choose what to stumble through. Some of
the options include pictures, video, new, and more.
Thumbs Up (I like it) – If you like the site you are currently viewing, give them the
thumbs up rating. It's not necessary to do.
Thumbs Down – Tells SU not to show sites like that anymore.
Comic Cloud – To read reviews about the current page. You can leave reviews as
well.
Box and Tag Icon – Add a tag for the current page in the box, then click the tag button
to tag it.
Share – Send the current page via email or share with friends through Stumbleupon.
Pages – Shows you the pages you own and your “thumbs up” pages.
Friends – Shows you your friends and makes friend suggestions if you do not have
any. This is a great behind the scenes social networking tool.
Menu – Lots options here regarding your account, inviting friends, chat rooms, and
more.
StumbleUpon Tips – Tips to get the most out of StumbleUpon
SU is like channel surfing for the web. Most SU users are going to surf until they see
something that catches their attention. What I found to be the most profitable way to
get their attention was to call them out:
“Hey Fellow Stumbler, Check This Out”
Something like this makes the user say “Who, me?” Did that get your attention? This
might raise the question “How do you know the traffic is coming from StumbleUpon”
well, you could do one of two things. You could have a script made to detect when the
user is coming from SU ($20 is all it should cost), or you could simply setup a page
specifically for them. I do the latter for tracking purposes.
Another tip for getting the most out of SU is to make sure you target. If you are selling a
“make money” type of product, then it goes in the business category, not the games
category. It's also a good idea to test the categories as well. A product that teaches
someone how to make money online could go into a lot of related categories.
To be super successful on StumbleUpon.com:
1. Grab their attention with a headline made just for them.
2. Use a separate page (example www.yoursite.com/stumble) to track your results
better.
3. Target your audience by putting your site in the correct category, or a closely
related category.
4. Always make sure your page has a money making element on it such as
Adsense, Yahoo Publishers Network, CPA* ads. The only exception to this rule
is if you are building your list and only want their email (for selling to them later).
5. See what others are doing. Spend an hour (or two or three) surfing the network
and make note of what others are doing. People have already been using
StumbleUpon for marketing, you just haven't heard about it because no one
talks about it (why give away the secrets? ☺).
The Resource Section at the end of this report for links to top
paying CPA networks, and other useful tools.
*CPA ads (not all) are the ones you see that offer free ipods, game systems,
etc. You get paid when the end user inputs their email or other information.
Top 8 Ways to Monetize Stumbleupon.com Traffic.
This is what you've been waiting for! These are the strategies I'm using successfully to
make some extra money. Hopefully, you'll be able to spawn other ideas from this list as
well.
Keep in mind that StumbleUpon traffic is awesome when you manipulate it correctly.
Many office workers are surfing SU while at work, Stay at home Moms/Dads, etc (in
other words, more people with money to spend). It's not anything like MySpace traffic.
StumbleUpon now has over 1,000,000.00 users.
1. Create A Top # List.
Read some of the popular Digg.com posts or popular blog posts and you'll see
plenty of “Top” lists. People love reading lists for some reason. For example,
you can create a Top 30 list of the coolest games online and stick it into a
gaming category. People love to discover new games to play online.
Of course this page should be full of your adsense ads and/or CPA offers.
Ideas for lists: http://www.listible.com/
2. Create A Video Page.
I'm sure you're thinking “Hey, isn't that what YouTube is for?” the answer is yes
and no. YouTube is massive, but weeding through all the videos can be time
consuming. I found that by spending a bit of time searching for videos on a
certain topic and embedding them into my site, I could make some money from
Adsense.
For example, you can setup a page that had videos about the new video game
systems (Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii). You can get dozens of videos that captured
people fighting each other while standing in line for the system, etc.
CPA ads work wonders with this as well.
3. Put Up An Arcade
Online games are popular with almost all Internet users. I myself spend and
hour or so each day playing arcade and puzzle games online. To setup an
online arcade, you can purchase an arcade script complete with games already
loaded. Scripts for this purpose:
http://www.gamesitescript.com/
http://www.gamescript.net/
http://www.shockscript.com/
http://www.phparcadescript.com
All of the above sites make it easy to add your Adsense/YPN code. If you want
to add more games, this site has a game pack for sale:
http://www.getgameonline.com/flash-game-database/
Also, http://www.sitepoint.com/marketplace/ has arcade sites for sale all the
time. Some of these sites will even have traffic already being sent to them.
4. Use CPA Marketing Only
Put up a page that has some articles about niche topics, then place CPA ads on
that page. For example, you can have a few credit card articles on a page with a
credit card CPA offer. Some of these pay $10+ for each person that inputs their
information.
5. Get Opt-ins For Your List
Give away a free report or something worthwhile in exchange for the stumbler's
email address. You are basically using the same opt-in techniques you would
use any other time, but now you can do niche targeting within the StumbleUpon
categories.
6. SUSO (StumbleUpon Special Offer)
This method is simple. Create a special offer for StumbleUpon users (just like in
the WSO section). You can do this by first getting their attention with a Stumbler
specific headline. Then you can either setup a sales page just for them, or offer
a coupon code for your products.
7. Push Firefox to Internet Explorer Using Stumblers
This method has been the most profitable one for me. I didn't think it would
work, or be worth the time, but I was wrong – and that's a good thing.
StumbleUpon has been know for being a great Firefox plug in, but now Internet
Explorer users can join in the fun. Google will pay you up to $1 for every person
you get to install Firefox. I know, $1, big deal right? Yes! It's easy to setup:
1. Go to http://explorerdestroyer.com/ and follow the instructions. They will show
you how to setup the script (it auto-detects IE).
2. Apply the script to your StumbleUpon page and watch the referral money
pour in! (hopefully)
That's it. It all depends on how much traffic you are sending them, but I have
made enough to take my family out to a nice dinner a few times a month. In
other words, you won't make a living referring IE users to Firefox, but you'll
make enough for some nice extras every month.
8. Push The Google Pack
Similar to the above technique, Google will give you up to $2 when someone
downloads and installs any component of the Google Pack. I have made referral
money by adding a link to the Google Pack on existing pages as well as creating
a dedicated page to promote the Google Pack. Check out more here:
http://pack.google.com
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