How to help others “StumbleUpon” your work

A long introduction

Have you ever written a book, thought it was the greatest thing in the world, published it, and then sat back and waited for the world to beat down your door to get their copy? If you are visiting this site, then the answer is most likely ‘yes’, and you are still waiting for the masses and wondering if they lost your address.

So how do you get the masses to buy your book and turn you into a bestselling author? Basically, write a great book millions want to read, then market it to them at a price and in a format they can’t say no to. Easy, right?

Ok, if it were really that easy, everyone would do it. With the Internet and the so-called “social media revolution” there are numerous tools you can use. (Yes, even you!) One of them is called StumbleUpon.

StumbleUpon is a site I literally “stumbled upon”. I had noticed many sites had a small line of buttons near the top that a visitor could use to share the site via Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and numerous other sites. Being the self-promoting type, I wanted those buttons on my site.  I noticed it had its own self-promoting link. I just had to click on it (what does this button do?), and it took me to a site called AddThis (watch for an article on that soon). But what does all this have to do with StumbleUpon? StumbleUpon was one of the top used links, so I had to learn more.

What is StumbleUpon and how does it work?

StumbleUpon is a social media site that allows users to share links with others. What makes it different from other sites are the high-quality pages matched to personal preferences based on recommendations of over 15 million web surfers with similar interests. You select a topic then Stumble!. If you like the site, you can click the “Like” button at the top and share it with other. This tells StumbleUpon know what kind of sites you like so it can improve its recommendations. You can also write a review. Then click Stumble! and move on to the next site. You can change topics at any time with two clicks at the top.

You can make “friends” on this site and look at their favorites, which leads you to even more interesting sites. Or you can just look at who else liked the same sites you did and Stumble! their favorites.

There are several things I like about this site:

1. The quality of the results. Well over half of the sites it sent me too I actually enjoyed and wanted to see. I discovered sites I would have never found otherwise. Lets face it, search engines have their limitations.
2. The ease of use. You can just push the Stumble! button and begin exploring, or you can choose a topic and explore it. And if you want to switch topics, just click the topics button at the top and choose a new one.
3. The layout of the Favorites page. I love the giant number next to each listing that tells you how many visitors have gone to that site via the link and the screen name and picture of everyone else who liked it. Each link has a picture, headline, and brief description so you have some idea of the site.

How YOU can use StumbleUpon

Of all the social media sites, this one seems to be the simplest. It’s a great way to drive traffic to your sites and works. Here are three things you should do:

1. Sign up for an account. It’s simple and doesn’t require disclosing your mother’s maiden name, social security number, or blood type.
2. Share a site. It can be a page on your site or blog featuring the book, your book’s Smashwords page, a review on someone else’s blog, etc. Do this either by clicking a StumbleUpon share button on the site, declaring whether or not it is safe for work, selecting appropriate topics, and writing an optional review
   OR
   Clicking the “Share a Site” button, cutting and pasting the URL, then declare whether or not it is safe for work, select appropriate topics, and write an optional review.
3. Place a share button on your site so visitors can share it with a single click. (Remember AddThis in the opening story? That’s just one of many.)

My personal experience with this site has been very good. Some pages I’ve submitted have received over 1,000 hits while others have only gotten 1. Most pages seem to fall in the 300 range, but that’s just me. I don’t know what the algorithms StumbleUpon uses (and they aren’t talking), but I’ve noticed the more interesting and wide appeal a site I submit has, the better it has done.

Using StumbleUpon won’t instantly launch your book to number one on the New York Times Bestseller list, but it is one more tool to give your work exposure. And indie authors can use all the exposure we can get!
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Tagged as: how to, promotion, social media, writing