Let's talk blog promotion.

I was really glad when Chris Brogan posted this post last week regarding StumbleUpon because I've been meaning to write something similar. If you check out the image at the top of this post, you will see a list of top referring sites that have led back to my blog since I began. StumbleUpon is not only at the top of the list, but mentioned several times throughout the list.

(Background: StumbleUpon is a social voting/referral tool. After joining for free, you download the SU toolbar. As you go about your daily business, you have the option of giving a thumbs up or a thumbs down to any page. Likewise, you can connect with friends and "stumble" across sites they have liked.)

Like Chris, I have had lots of traffic thanks to StumbleUpon and highly recommend it. In this blog post, I will give you some helpful advice about using StumbleUpon and then list some other similar sites and why they didn't work as well for me.

Best Practices For StumbleUpon

You can find some great online resources with SU advice, but here are my personal recommendations:

• Don't just vote for your stuff. When I started, I was thumbing up my own work only. This must be a big no-no because I received almost no traffic with this method.
• Get involved in the community. Duh, I should have known this one. The more friends I made, the better recommended pages were for me and the more eyeballs who would see my posts.
• At high tide, all ships rise. Like all good web 2.0 tools, this is an "and" economy. Your posts don't suffer because you thumb up someone else's. Give thumbs up to authors you trust and SU seems to give you more props for knowing good content.
• Don't be a pimp. I don't stumble all of my posts. I wait until someone else does (which seems to give more stumble-juice) or I only thumb up my best material. This seems to give more "weight" to the ones I do choose.
• The more you give, you more you get. SU has given me another opportunity to connect with some of the brightest folks I've ever met. Don't try to game the system - you will receive as much or more than you invest into it.

Notice what's not on that list of referrals at the top? Most of the other social voting/referral sites. Here is my run-down on some of the more prominent ones in this space. (This is just what I have personally observed. If you've had success with these, more power to ya.)

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