StumbleUpon is a popular social bookmarking community, owned by eBay that is used by thousands of people all over the world. As a member of StumbleUpon, you are able to rate websites, video clips, articles, photos and more. Members within the community are known as ‘stumblers’, and they highlight websites that they have frequented by clicking on the “Stumble!” button that is located in the toolbar of their browser.

The more ‘stumbles” a website receives, the more popular it becomes throughout the StumbleUpon community, and in turn, the more traffic it will experience from the constant exposure of new Stumbles.

In essence, StumbleUpon is a recommendation-based system powered by the members who visit websites and decide which ones are worthy of a notable stumble.

There is also a one-click blogging ability built in as well. Users can rate, or choose not to rate, any webpage with thumbs up or thumbs down options.

Clicking the Stumble button resembles "channel-surfing" the web with a series of websites in a system rotation of sorts. In addition, there are tool-bars available for those who wish to simplify their “stumbling” by implementing an existing toolbar into their browser. Then, with just a single click they can rate the websites they visit.

 They can also provide a personal review on your website and categorize it based on the subject matter, all within a few seconds of visiting a site.

To get started, you will have to create a Stumble Upon account:

Create Your StumbleUpon account at:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/sign_up.php
 
INsert------>  Put Stumble Upon login capture page

Currently, there are tool-bars available for Firefox, and Internet Explorer.

As soon as you have created your StumbleUpon account, you will be given the option to download the toolbar. I suggest doing so.

Once you have it installed, you will see a button that will allow you to stumble (highlight for others to view), sites based on your selected preferences and options as indicated in your Stumble Upon account profile.

Just visit your website and click on the “I Like It!” button (with the Thumbs Up icon) that appears in your browser toolbar. This will open a pop-up window that allows you to rate it, and categorize your site, with a short description and tag with specific keywords.

 
Insert ------>    Stumble     I Like it icon

Once you do this, your site will be entered into StumbleUpon’s database instantly, and will appear when other users with similar interests (as the tags you use) use their StumbleUpon toolbar to surf the Internet.

Insert ----->  Popup rating box

When you, yourself Stumble Upon a new site that hasn’t been found or rated before, and you click on the “I Like It!” button, the pop up window will appear. If you rate a site that already exists in the Stumble Upon database, this window will not appear although you can still rate the site and you can also see what other Stumblers have found and rate it as well.

If you are looking to send a surge of traffic to a new website or blog, Stumbleupons advertising options may be a lucrative and easy way to achieve instant results.

StumbleUpon Ads allows webmasters to submit a page on their sites or blogs that is shown to StumbleUpon users as they stumble through a series of websites. It has quickly become a popular choice for bloggers who wish to advertise their new blogs, as the traffic received is purely organic, the best type of traffic you can get.

 The cost is also quite reasonable at just 5 cents per impression, meaning, for as little as $5.00 in advertising credit, you can receive 100 Stumble Upon users visit and review your website.

It’s also an easy advertising vehicle, in fact, it doesn’t even require you to manually create advertisements, but instead, you simply select a website URL that you would like the traffic directed to.

Advertising with StumbleUpon is also quite flexible. You can target your pages to be seen throughout specific categories, or base it on demographics. This enables you to really target who sees specific pages .

As for price setting, you can choose your maximum daily spending limit, to ensure that you stay within your intended budget, and best of all, you can pay using either a credit card or via Paypal, if you choose.

Note: If you are particularly careful when creating your ad campaigns and target your visitors as best as you can, expect to receive a lot more traffic then you actually paid for. The more people who like your website when they visit (and therefore “Stumble! – it”) the more traffic you will continue to get, at no extra cost. Therefore, be careful when targeting specific categories, groups or demographics.

As an advertiser, you will be given full stats including a visible chart on how many visitors actually viewed your website, how many gave you a “Thumbs Up!” (or down) and so on. This helps you test the effectiveness of your ad-copy and modify if needed.

How Popular Is StumbleUpon?