Are Your Stumbled Pages Sticky?
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I was the culprit, I’d read the page this morning and found it interesting. I had meant to add a review on StumbleUpon, but got sidetracked. It’s a list of the 50 strongest blog directories, which surprisingly are NOT the first 50 that show up when you do a Google search for “blog directory“.
While we were chatting, bloggeries mentioned that unfortunately the stickiness of stumble traffic is like teflon…it doesn’t stick.
Now, if you know me, you know there are three subjects I can’t keep quiet about. Social media, Plurk, and StumbleUpon. Plus, it’s Digg traffic that’s not sticky. 
Stumble traffic can be sticky, if you remember a few things.
First, most Stumblers use Firefox. The vast majority of my traffic even now uses FF, but back when I was only writing about SU, 97% of my visitors were running Firefox.
Why does that matter? Because Firefox has a program called Adblock Plus. I first learned about it on StumbleUpon, but now it’s one of my very favorite FF programs. What it does is blocks any ads that I don’t want to see. I don’t see insta-ads especially, but I can also choose to blog other types. I wrote a blog post about it a while ago, after some friends were complaining that stumblers never clicked any of their ads. End result? If you’re wanting SUers to come to your site and click on your ads, I’d say fergit about it.
But what if you’re just wanting them to explore your site some? Before I started tracking analytics on my blog, I used to hear people fuss about how bad Stumblers were for visiting a page and leaving.
You know what? They’re right. Stumblers like to surf or they wouldn’t be using SU very much. BUT that doesn’t mean you have to let them go gracefully. Make it hard. Make them want to stay!
I’m not a huge fan of bounce rates. Sure, it gives you an idea of how many people visit more than one page on your site, but to me, measuring repeat visitors is a much better measurement. After all, especially if I’m a repeat visitor, I’m not likely to go surfing through your site unless I’m looking for something specific. Most likely, I’ll come read the new page and leave, then come back the next time you make a post.
But, if you are a fan of bounce rates, here’s something to think about. From September 20 (when I started sucomments.com), through June 3 (the day before I started using Plurk), my bounce rate was usually between 30-40% with around a third of my traffic coming from StumbleUpon (Plurk has raised my bounce rate - I think it’s time for some site revising).
My favorite thing about StumbleUpon traffic is that for the most part it is directed traffic. When you register on SU, you select topics that you’re interested in. If you click the stumble button and visit a new site, you are taken to a site that fits one of the topics you’ve chosen.
Occasionally there are sites that are mislabeled, though that’s almost always accidental. The bad thing is, a mislabeled page won’t bring the right visitors to your page, so it’s worth your while to make sure that your pages are listed in the right category.
If your page isn’t categorized correctly, fixing it is a simple matter. If you scroll down on the right 
you’ll see “Something wrong here?” with a dropdown box underneath it. Just choose the correct category from the options to have it changed. If you’re not the discoverer of the page, getting it changed might take a while, but SU is really good about correcting category errors. As a note, blogs are listed as weblogs if you’re trying to change to that category.
So now that you’re getting just the right traffic, how do you make them want to hang out on your site? Why by giving them something to look at, of course! And the nice thing is, you know what they’re interested in…what brought them to your site in the first place.
Remember, people like things to be easy. If it takes much time or is too hard to do, they’ll leave (and I’m talking to myself too, I’ve realized one of the reasons my bounce rate is up, and it has everything to do with a change on my site and nothing to do with Plurk).
So make it easy. Want people to visit a link? Put it where they can see it and click on it. Want them to read past articles about the same subject? Then post a list of similar articles.
I’m reminded of an article that Darren Rowse of Problogger wrote a while back about heat map tracking. What he discovered was that at pause points (where people have to decide what to do next), readers will click on links more than they will anywhere else.
Because SU traffic is targeted, you can guess that most will take the time to at least read over your page. By using pause points to supply relevant links to other pages on your site, you can make it easy for that stumbler (or anyone else) to explore your site instead of stumbling off to the next new thing.
By the way, if you haven’t tried Plurk yet and would like to, here is a link to join. If you’d like to know more about Plurk, here is the 10 Minute Guide and other Plurky stuff.
Comments
Comment from Pen Me A Poem
Time July 30, 2008 at 2:59 pm
This is a helpful article. Thank you for putting it together. I’ve been looking for ways to increase the number of repeat visitors.
Comment from Anita
Time July 30, 2008 at 3:28 pm
I am just getting started with SU, and this article has helped. I don’t think I am really good with SU yet, because half the time I can’t figure out how to stumble a site I like and the other half of the time I manage to stumble it but have no idea what I did!
My blog has been mislabeled, but there was no drop-down under “Something wrong here?” I wish I had “discovered” my own site!
Anitas last blog post..Challenge #8: Every Watt Counts
Comment from Bloggeries
Time July 30, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Wow that was fast! Thanks TEEG and you’re right. I need to make the NEXT step more obvious or people read the info then leave. That made it much more clear.
P.S you were right; WAY too much to say through Plurk
Comment from Rebecca Laffar-Smith
Time July 31, 2008 at 2:22 am
I love how you have your finger on the Social Media pulse, Teeg! You’re spot on about the stickiness of SU content. I found StumbleUpon visitors are actually the most sticky of all my SM efforts. They’re targeted readers who come because they’re interested in the topic. They’re referred by others interested in the topic.
Offer them guidance for each step they should take while they’re on your blog. Use calls to action because strangely enough, readers feel more confident taking actions when they’ve been told/asked to do so.
Rebecca Laffar-Smiths last blog post..Blog Review: David Bridger’s How To Get Your Novel Published
Comment from Allison Worthington
Time July 31, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Excellent post. Found through Shana. Stumbled, of course!
Also adding you to my twitter friends.
Allison ( @fussypants )
Allison Worthingtons last blog post..Diary of a Fitness Flunky: Three Weeks
Comment from Teeg
Time July 31, 2008 at 9:24 pm
@TeasasTips You are welcome. Figuring out how to drive traffic to blogs (and keep them coming back) is one of the hardest parts of blogging. Writing is easy comparatively. 
@Pen Me A Poem You are very welcome, I’m glad it helped!
@Anita Did you see my Getting Started With StumbleUpon e-book on the sidebar of the main page? It’s a free download and will help you figure out how to stumble pages, plus how to set your toolbar up so it’s most useful to you.
Comment from Teeg
Time July 31, 2008 at 9:28 pm
@Bloggeries LOL I knew y’all were waiting, so tried to hurry.
What I realized while I was writing was that with my blog, I changed the links to show 2 previous posts instead of 10, trying to make the page load faster. It loads faster, but there’s not as many chances for a recent post to catch someone’s eye before they travel to another site.
I’m looking at remodeling the blog anyway, so I think when I do, I’m going to have to go back to showing more post links.
I think I’m glad I didn’t try to Plurk it. (need an ack! emoticon) 
Comment from Teeg
Time July 31, 2008 at 9:36 pm
@Rebecca Laffar-Smith Social Media absolutely fascinates me. It’s so much fun studying all the sites and seeing what makes them work. I’m like the little kid who gets a new toy and has to take it apart first thing.
@Allison Thank you for the stumble and the friend add! I’m so glad you enjoyed the post!
Comment from Rebecca Laffar-Smith
Time July 31, 2008 at 10:06 pm
*grins* I’m the same kind of kid. That’s probably why I like programming (web design) so much. I love getting into the raw code to see how things work. Social Media is more challenging so it’s great to know I can come here for tips and guidance.
Rebecca Laffar-Smiths last blog post..Blog Review: David Bridger’s How To Get Your Novel Published
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Time August 1, 2008 at 12:50 pm
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Comment from mousewords
Time August 2, 2008 at 2:39 pm
Great advice! It “stuck” with me. I’m definitely going to apply it!
mousewordss last blog post..The New Media Workshop
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Comment from don
Time August 3, 2008 at 5:23 am
Will now give stumbleupon a try. I have not been sure how one went about it.
May just have to just hump in.
dons last blog post..Pyrmont Shoppers, have you considered shopping for a Better World
Comment from Bansi Patel
Time August 3, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Excellent post. I just finished some SMO analysis, and found that StumbleUpon has the lowest bounce rate out of all ten of the social media sites we looked at (including Digg, Slashdot, Reddit) etc. Your post helped me gain insight into this… Thanks!
Comment from Teeg
Time August 3, 2008 at 4:18 pm
@Mousewords Glad the advice was sticky too. LOL Almost wrote says @Mousewords … I’m plurkifying today.
@don There are a lot of posts on getting started with StumbleUpon if you click on the beginner tab. Unfortunately when I first started this blog I was horrible at tags (now I’m merely awful at using them) so everything isn’t as easy to find as it could be. Maybe I should create a page with all the SU topics soon, might make some of the old posts easier to find.
Comment from Teeg
Time August 3, 2008 at 4:28 pm
@Neal Thank you! I’m so glad I could help. And thanks for my first video comment!!! Love it!
@Bansi I’m glad you enjoyed it! I’m not really surprised by the results of your analysis, but it’s really nice to hear someone else confirming my results!
Comment from Brian
Time August 4, 2008 at 9:48 am
Great post. I submit pages to Stumble all the time so this is a good reminder of keeping my pages stumble friendly.
Brians last blog post..Nothing like waking up at 4am for some Running of the Brides
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Time August 4, 2008 at 10:50 am
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Time August 19, 2008 at 10:37 am
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Comment from TeasasTips
Time July 30, 2008 at 2:49 pm
thank u for the info…I am struggling to drive traffic to my blogs…
TeasasTipss last blog post..Something New Something Special