StumbleUpon vs other services to promote blog

[borntosucceed]

Hi

There are obviously many ways to promote your blog, I am just redoing our blogs and I want to do more advertisements for them. Just wondering what are the opinions about the best places to promote a site. Some of the services I know are:

MyBlogLog
SpicyPage
SumbleUpon
Digg
Del.icio.us

Do you know how effectiv they are, should one worry about SpicyPage and MyBlogLog?

[prasunsen]

Stumpbleupon traffic is close to useless. Digg is slightly better. Del.icio.us is much better. Don't know about the other 2

[jpmcgrew]

What excatly does this del.icio.us do?

[sunj]

Originally Posted by jpmcgrew

What excatly does this del.icio.us do?

Social bookmarking just like StumbleUpon.

StumbleUpon seems useless for me. And even Digg, because you have to have a popular story to get a fair amount of traffic. It's only good if you have people who visit your site and click the Digg link for your article and increase it's popularity.

[jamestl2]

The social communities you listed are NOT there for you to link spam.

If you have something useful and interesting to say on your blog, traffic will come naturally.

[Stu]

Anyone care to explain why stumbleupon traffic is 'useless' for promoting blogs? I've heard the opposite.

[jamestl2]

That's the problem Stu, the communities weren't created for you to promote (spam) your posts and blogs with.

Besides, Stumble traffic RARELY converts. They're only at your site looking for something interesting for two or three seconds, then they leave; that's the way it goes.

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by jamestl2

If you have something useful and interesting to say on your blog, traffic will come naturally.

I don't believe that "build it and they will come" works in general. It will only work if your website/blog covers some sort of "how to" subject, like Steve's, because people tend to be looking for solutions to their problems...

If, on the other hand, your website concerns something that people don't naturally search for, you'll need to advertise your existence somehow. I'm not sure if submitting your own content to Digg et al is a good strategy for that (haven't tried it) - but it can't be worse than doing nothing to promote your site.

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

I don't believe that "build it and they will come" works in general.

Jim, it all starts with content. The first thing you have to do is create content that people want to link to or view on their own. Most content isn't worthy for links or stumbles or whatever, even if we all believe our content is.

Build relationships with other people that you know, network with those that have similar interests (one form you're already doing, by networking with those that take an interest in PD via these forums).

When you create your stuff for your website, is there a target audience in mind? Focus on writing pages for them and think about what they would all want to hear.

In the end, you're going to have to have "something" of value for your visitors. You can market crap, promote crap, stumble and digg crap, but at the end of the day, it's till crap, and of no real value for those searching and looking for something valuable.

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

It will only work if your website/blog covers some sort of "how to" subject, like Steve's, because people tend to be looking for solutions to their problems...

Not always, think about sites like youtube, facebook, digg, etc. They've never done anything like "link-building" or "Social Media Promoting".

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

If, on the other hand, your website concerns something that people don't naturally search for, you'll need to advertise your existence somehow. I'm not sure if submitting your own content to Digg et al is a good strategy for that (haven't tried it) - but it can't be worse than doing nothing to promote your site.

Yes but there's a difference between advertising and spamming. Submitting your own content, trading digg's, stumble's etc. IS spamming those communities. As I said before, they weren't created for Webmaster's to manipulate for their own ends. If you actually have "something" worth being digged or bookmarked or whatever, other people will digg and bookmark it, that's what happens when ou have something "good" worth sharing.

[JimOfferman]

I have great content (= music), but the only time it's ever received any attention is when I advertised it on other sites.

The big mistake I made in years past was thinking that no visitors meant that my music was crap. The truth of the matter is that my music was (is) just unknown to most people. The problem was not a lack of quality content, but a lack of promotion.

I don't agree that submitting your own content to digg is spamming. It's no different from when someone else makes the first submission. At best, you're bringing your page to the attention of the digg community - giving yourself a slim chance that they will 'digg' it. If, on the other hand, you some how manage to cheat your way onto the front page, then you are spamming.

[jamestl2]

Sometimes we may think we have great content, but we really don't, we as webmasters are often highly biased in favor of ourselves.

Also submitting your own stuff to social networks often goes against their TOS's, you can expect both your account and site to be banned from most of them if that's your plan.

Specifically Stumbelupon: Incentive Programs

Digg's a little different I believe, I don't think they mind one or two diggs from your own site, but overdoing it gets you banned.

There's much better ways to promote and advertise than spamming social network sites.

[hkalchemy]

I usually get next to no traffic from Digg, StumpleUpon etc. Recently I did get a big spike in traffic from Stumble Upon for some reason - I think if your Site gets picked up by someone else then it can snowball. Promoting yourself on these social networking sites doesn't work.

[JimOfferman]

Originally Posted by jamestl2

Sometimes we may think we have great content, but we really don't, we as webmasters are often highly biased in favor of ourselves.

Perhaps sometimes we are, I'm just saying that "no visitors means bad content" is a little short sighted.

Also submitting your own stuff to social networks often goes against their TOS's, you can expect both your account and site to be banned from most of them if that's your plan.

Alright, we're talking different kinds of submitting here. I meant having a link or two back to your own site in your account, which I think is acceptable. But you were apparently thinking about PM-ing site members to promote your site. That, I agree, is a bad practice...

...except on MySpace, where it is apparently an accepted practice (going by the number of 'hey listen to my band's music' request I get there).

There's much better ways to promote and advertise than spamming social network sites.

True. There are better ways to promote your site than spamming - period.

[jamestl2]

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

Perhaps sometimes we are, I'm just saying that "no visitors means bad content" is a little short sighted.

Yeah, I wasn't saying that either . If all that was required to get good content popular was creating it, then marketing wouldn't exist.

I wrote a few blog posts on the topics of traffic promotion, etc. on what I believe it takes, or why you don't have what it takes. Same as Steve has done in the past (despite though some of Steve's web savvy "elements" here are vastly out of date, although to be fair, it was written a few years ago).

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

Alright, we're talking different kinds of submitting here. I meant having a link or two back to your own site in your account, which I think is acceptable. But you were apparently thinking about PM-ing site members to promote your site. That, I agree, is a bad practice...

What I was referring to as "submitting" was the act of actually digging or stumbling your own pages. Not linking to it in a profile or anything.

It's just like adding your website into signature or profile field here at the forums, I don't think that's spamming at all, (well, unless the person makes useless, short one line "I agree" type of posts, that contribute absolutely nothing to the conversation).