Marketing
10,000 Page Views From StumbleUpon in One Day
I recently made a post about how to use StumbleUpon to promote. At the time, I was writing based on my own research and a few tests on WebbyOnline itself. However, yesterday I actually went in on my largest website, PCMech.com, and stumbled an article entitled How to Secure Wireless Networks. Well, this morning, I went into Analytics to check the traffic reports on PCMech and saw a VERY noticeable bump in site traffic.
Yesterday, StumbleUpon brought in 6,093 visits and 10,107 pageviews to the website, almost all to that article on wireless security. Absolutely amazing. In the past, that is the kind of one-page traffic spike I would expect if I had gotten mentioned in a magazine or on TV (and that’s happened before, too). This time, I did it simply by clicking “I like it” on my own website and letting the community do the rest.
The Lessons
So, here are a few things I take home from this:
- Using StumbleUpon for promotional purposes really does work. I knew that before and when I wrote that other blog post, but I hadn’t yet had a response like this one.
- Use content titles that are descriptive of the content and are relevant to the reader. The title of this article was “How to Secure Wireless Networks”. Simple. To the point. If we had tried to get all smart-ass with that title, I highly doubt it would have gotten so much response. For example, we have a recent article running on PCMech called “What Happened to Product Knowledge?“. You have no idea, really, what that article is about by the title and, at least for me, it doesn’t really beg me to click on that link. It’s not applicable to me and I don’t care.
- Perhaps StumbleUpon works a little better when you already have good traffic. PCMech is not a new site, and we already get quite a bit of traffic over there. So, seeding StumbleUpon with an article, coupled with the probable stumbling of others, probably combined to drive in a lot of traffic – more so if I had tried to stumble the exact same article if it were published here on WebbyOnline. But, this is just a theory.
Anyway, I’m happy. I had reported recently how PCMech was getting a very slow, but steady decline in traffic recently. I have been putting some attention on this and making some changes over there, but it looks like I also “stumbled” onto an extra tool in my arsenal for PCMech.
How to Use StumbleUpon to Promote
A few months ago, I signed up for StumbleUpon. I downloaded and installed the toolbar on Firefox and started surfing. Pretty cool. However, I had seen a few people talking about using StumbleUpon for promotional purposes on their websites, with apparent success. Some were talking about driving thousands of visitors PER DAY to their sites using the system. But, I could not find any clear information on what needs to be done to make that happen. I mean, I can use StumbleUpon as an end user all day long, but what do I really need to do to use it to drive traffic to my own site?
I did some research into this and I thought I’d pass it along.
What is It?
StumbleUpon is a social website which allows users to share and recommend websites that they find in a networked setting. When you sign up for the service (for free), you will install a toolbar to your browser. The network of sites is organized by user-generated tags, not by a search engine spider. So, it provides a way for you to view what others have found cool, organized by tags so surfers can find sites in their own interests. The primary way of getting around is the “Stumble” button in the toolbar. When you press that button, you are taken to a random website that was “stumbled” by others and that fall within the areas of interest you define at StumbleUpon.
From an end user perspective, its a huge time waster. I can spend hours “stumbling” around the net randomly and discovering all kinds of great sites I knew nothing about previously. Getting started is easy. Just head on over there and create an account and install the toolbar. Nothing more to it.
What About Promo?
StumbleUpon is known for being able to generate massive amounts of traffic to a website. It all starts with somebody “stumbling” your website. Essentially, this is done by one of your readers clicking the “I Like it!” button on the toolbar while on your site. They’re giving you a thumbs up when you do that, and that puts your site in the network. If they are the first ones to vote for your page, then they will get a dialog box saying that they discovered the website. They will be prompted for a quick review and for a series of tags which best fit your site. Once they have “discovered” your site, your site is then available for other StumbleUpon users to surf into using the toolbar.
It should be noted here that because of the somewhat random nature of the network, visitors that you get from StumbleUpon are likely to give you a high bounce rate. The toolbar essentially allows the reader to “channel surf”. And just like on television, you tend to flip quickly through the channels until you find something that grabs your eye. Well, its EXACTLY the same with the Stumbleupon toolbar. You will find that StumbleUpon visitors are:
- Fickle as hell with a very high chance of moving on quickly (but you can minimize this with some work…see below)
- From all over the place
- Won’t really click on any ads
So, I’m certainly not saying that StumbleUpon viewers are high-value, qualified traffic. But, its still traffic and you can do what you can to make them more qualified once they arrive. A couple of things you have going for you are the fact that SU users come in based on interest. Plus, unlike one trick ponies like Digg that are good for a spike of traffic, SU can actually provide a pretty steady stream of traffic.
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The Importance of Surveys, SurveyMonkey
I recently signed up for an account at SurveyMonkey after re-realizing the importance of surveys. Here’s the story…
My largest site, PC Mechanic, has actually been seeing a slight, but steady decrease in overall traffic. Nobody in this business likes to see decreases in traffic. Sure, all sites vary up and down on daily traffic, but when you open the Analytics account and look at a multi-month range and see a slow, but steady decrease over time, that’s not good. Even a flat trend is an emergency condition, because if you’re not growing, you’re actually contracting in relation to the rest of the web. So, the goal is to be seeing MORE traffic, not the same and certainly not less.
I’m left to wonder why this is. Are people bored with the site? Are we not providing what people need and want? Has our market just changed and now we’re not catering to a growing audience? My inclination is to go with the third. After all, PCMech hit the scenes and grew quickly back when PC ownership was a bit more exclusive. Today the computer is as common as a toaster. And, additionally, building a computer (the major draw to PCMech is building a PC) is now being done by a more exclusive group of people. Pre-built computers today are affordable and they get the job done. Without doubt, you will get a better quality and a more suitable computer by selecting the parts and building your own, but just because I and a select group know that doesn’t mean that the market as a whole knows that.
But, I could guess all day. In the end, its just me sitting here trying to get into the minds of my visitors. That’s stupid when I can directly ASK THEM. Hence, surveys.
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YouTube Isn’t the Only Game in Town
I have been talking off and on about how to use online video for marketing. The benefits of doing video marketing are many. Among them are the fact that it is free (except for production potentially) and the fact that videos just have the eye appeal that makes people watch them (unlike the written word). But, one of the things to keep in mind, too, is that in order to get the most bang out of your videos, you need them to be REALLY out there. While Youtube is obviously the most popular video service, there are many others out there. And quite frankly, Youtube’s competitors typically offer better video quality and more speed and just more options in general. Due to Youtube’s size, they just can’t offer all those things. Proof of that is the fact that they limit all videos to 10 minutes in length. So, here are a list of some video services out there you can check out:
- Youtube. Obviously.
- Revver . Quality is better than Youtube, and you can make a little money with their ads. You have to have a manual approval process on videos uploaded.
- Blip.Tv. Nice service, good quality, and ads can monetize your videos.
- Google Video.
- VideoEgg. More of a publishing platform than a pure video sharing site like Youtube.
- Eyespot.
- MetaCafe
- SelfCastTV. Not as well known, but another place to stick your videos.
- DailyMotion
- BrightCove
While I’m at it, you might want to check out VodPod as a unique way to share videos. Its more for bloggers interested in sharing videos they like. Its not aimed at a video publisher.
As for video sites, my favorites right now are Youtube, Revver and Blip.Tv. We have a channel over at Youtube where you can view all our stuff. Youtube is not the best game in town, however they are the most popular. That means that if you really want people to WATCH your videos, you really need to get them up on Youtube. It depends on your purpose. The stuff on Youtube is limited to 10 minutes and the quality is not as good (due to high compression). Revver and Blip, however, host higher quality video. We have been (for the last few weeks) posting our videos for PCMechTV over at Revver and then embedding into our site from Revver. We just like the higher quality. I recently found Blip.TV, and our channel only has one video right now for that reason. I’m still working on getting things set up the way we want. So, we may switch over to Blip rather than Revver, but we will continue to post to Youtube for the promotional value. You just can’t beat Youtube for that reason alone. They’ve got the eyeballs, and that’s what we’re ultimately after.
Blog Monetization, PayPerPost and Ebook Affiliate Saturation
Here is my introductory diatribe from this week’s WebbyOnline newsletter. To get this in your inbox each week, just subscribe in the form at the top of this site.
Oh, busy times. Busy times. As I said last week, I am putting Miraserver development into hyperdrive. And I’m feeling it now since I stayed up last night until 2AM working on it. Some of my readers may be used to this, but I’m usually hitting the hay before midnight, and I usually stop working earlier than that so that I can spend time with my wife. However, I decided the only way to get this thing done is to put the pedal to the metal. So, when I can, I am going to just stay at the desk and work until I drop. I am bound and determined to release a much needed update to Miraserver version 2 in the very near future.
I am also getting the master prepared to send off to the printers for our second DVD release over on PC Mechanic. This one covers Getting Started with Ubuntu Linux. It will walk you, video style, through getting up and running with Ubuntu, and we geared it toward people who are used to Windows. I’m excited to see how this new product does. For Windows users, Ubuntu can take a little getting used to. However, its really pretty simple. And the draw of it is, of course, that you can completely stock your computer with software without paying a dime.
In case you needed more proof that blogs work, here is a post which lists the top 10 blogs on the internet – some of them (as he says) having more circulation that major offline newspapers. The same blogger also posted his Top 7 Blog Monetization Methods. His seven? (1) Recursive affiliate income, (2) Direct ad sales, (3) Text-Link-Ads.com, (4) One-Time Affiliate Income, (5) Paid Reviews, (6) Google Adsense, (7) Misc Programs. I think these seven pretty much comprise the major ways to make money with ANY content website, not just a blog. I would add to the list, for me, e-commerce selling info products and a subscription membership service. In my experience, too, Adsense can be a good money-earner, however it is peanuts compared to what you can make generating your own income by way of e-commerce and affiliate sales. It takes a LOT of traffic, typically, to make any significant revenue from Adsense.
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Glyphius Copywriting Software Review
In the weekly newsletter here at WebbyOnline, I have been talking about ad copy and the importance of good copy to making online sales. For those of you new to this, ad copy simply refers to the text (whether spoken or written) in an advertisement. It could refer to the text of a small ad, or it could refer to the text of a long sales letter. Now, copywriting (the art of writing this ad copy) is something that any person interested in sales HAS to know.
When you first try it, you will quickly find that there are some things that work and some things which don’t. You cannnot just list out a product’s features and say “buy now”. People will bounce off that page quickly unless they came there intent on buying your product (not likely). To sell, you need to really communicate with your target prospect, hit their buttons, and show them how your product will benefit them RIGHT NOW. It really is an art and a science mixed together. You can go out and hire a professional copywriter like Mike Fortin to do your copy for you, however hiring a guy like that is going to cost you a pretty penny. His minimum charge for a project is $3,000. However, doing it yourself without any training can be a total shot in the dark. Why not get a helping hand?
I recently came across a simple program called Glyphuis. The program is designed to evaluate your copy and give it a score. Can a piece of software replace the human element of a trained copywriter? Absolutely not. However, can it give you a big boost if you don’t really know what you’re doing? Absolutely.
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Internet Marketing – What’s New?
Here is my introductory diatribe from this week’s WebbyOnline newsletter. To get this in your inbox each week, just subscribe in the form at the top of this site.
Well, it’s May already. Unbelievable. It seems like this year just started. Doing a quick status check on things in my own business, I really think I am putting my eggs in the right baskets right now. One of the big things I am working on is putting MUCH more focus on marketing. More focus than I ever have, actually. And its almost embarrassing to say that, up through 2006, I really have not paid any real attention to the marketing aspect of my business. What a GROSS oversight on my part, and one that I am determined to preach about on WebbyOnline so that others don’t ignore it in their own businesses. The internet has exploded since I first started in this industry. And things change so fast. If I (and you) don’t monitor what is happening, market constantly, produce QUALITY products and stand out, I (and you) will get surpassed. There is just SO much competition out there, and all of us have such a wide variety of information to feed off of in our drive for success. Well, one of the big things I am doing is ACTIVELY feeding on the information that is out there, reading about the successful actions of others, and REALLY looking at my own business in terms of what I can do to market it.
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Why a Drop in Adsense Revenue?
I recently made some adjustments to the layout over at PCMech. Nothing I thought was very drastic. I was simply re-organizing some elements and fixing some long-time problems (like creeping CSS layers in IE). Well, after I went live with the new layout, I began keeping a close eye on the various revenue sources. One of the things that caught my eye big time was a drastic reduction in clicks generated by Google Adsense. The CTR (click-through radio) went down by almost 0.5%, which is quite a bit. And since it is clicks which generate revenue, that obviously affects my bottom line.
I had a few theories on why this might be the case and I started looking at the situation. My theories are:
- The ad is placed right next to the tabbed content loader, so perhaps users are more interested in that than the ads.
- When I changed the design, I also changed the URL structure to the articles. I made sure that all the pre-existing URLs to articles still work (don’t want to break any pre-existing links), but I made all the articles use the titles to generate the URL, much like Wordpress does. I did this because using keywords in the URL is much better for SEO than an article ID number. Problem is, all those new URLs are new to Google, too, and the ads may not be as well targeted as they were, thus generating less click traffic.
You can view our new review on the Ion DEC-180 Digital Media Center to see what I am talking about.
Right now, I am leaning toward the second item above as the likely explanation. In order to help just a bit, I went ahead and adjusted the colors of the ads so that the links match the link color in the site’s articles. That is always a good idea. And, to test my theory, I set up a URL channel in Adsense so that I can track revenue based on the URL being used to call up the ad. I have URL channels now set up for the old article URL format, and another for the new article URL format. I can then see which is generating the higher click-through. My guess is that the new URLs just have not been spidered yet by Google. Once they have, I bet the revenue will increase. We shall see, and I will let you know.
StumbleUpon – Good For Promo?
In looking at my referrers in Google Analytics, I often see StumbleUpon.com as one of the referrers. I checked it out some time ago and thought the idea was very cool. It really is the ultimate social networking site. OK, well, maybe not “ultimate”, however cool nonetheless. It essentially uses the StumbleUpon community to scour the web looking for cool sites. When a site is voted on by a user, it gets into the network and other users with similar interests may stumble upon it. Oh, and the name comes from the fact that you “stumble upon” the site. With the toolbar installed, you just hit “Stumble!” and it will take you to a new website in the interest categories you select. It’s a great way to find sites you didn’t know about.
But, what about promotion of your own site? Cemonko gave a quick popularity update of his own site and mentioned that he will continue to use StumbleUpon.com to drive traffic to his blog. Light bulb goes off – I go install the StumbleUpon toolbar for Firefox. I’m curious to see just how well it does in promoting WebbyOnline.com. See, WebbyOnline really is a little experiment, in a way. I’ve had PCMech for some time and it has so much inertia that it promotes itself. Before I launched this site, it had been some time since I have dealt with a brand new site with little traffic. So, its an interesting exercise.
I’ll let you know if I notice anything from StumbleUpon. What about you? Have you found StumbleUpon either cool or useful in promo?
MyBlogLog – Community for Your Blog
Last night, I was surfing around, making the usual rounds to keep up with what’s going on. I have noticed on other sites (and never thought much of it) this table of mug shots from a service called MyBlogLog. So, finally, I went ahead and checked it out. Very cool! Essentially, it is a community service where you sign up, get a profile, then as you surf around other blogs who are signed up with the service, you show up as a person who recently visited that blog. You’re in their blog log, so to speak. When I signed up for a profile, I set up WebbyOnline as one of my blog sites. I set up an avatar for myself and snapped a screenshot of this site for upload. This morning, I installed one of their “widgets” to the sidebar which will list out MyBlogLog members which visit WebbyOnline.
Its basically another networking opportunity, and one geared specifically to bloggers.
What is a bit intriguing to me is exactly how the hell they are tracking me. For example, I head on over to ProBlogger because I know they are using MyBlogLog. Sure enough, my mug shot appears in the widget on the left side. Now, I am not bothered by this because I signed up for it, but how exactly are they tracking my web surfing like that? I can only assume they are using a tracking cookie. I checked out my cookies list in Firefox and I do see cookies for “.mybloglog.com”. That period in front of the domain is for a sub-domain. My guess is that their widget/tracking javascript (the code I put into my website) is programmed to detect that cookie and it knows who I am.
You definitely wouldn’t want to sign up with MyBlogLog if you are a privacy freak. That said, most bloggers are not worried about protecting their identity otherwise they wouldn’t be blogging. 
I'm David Risley. I've been making my living as a blogger for over a decade. Blogging is my business and how I support my family. With this blog, I'm just gettin' REAL and telling you how this business works. 
