If you are not familiar with the site called StumbleUpon, it is a service that allows users to discover new sites. With the use of a toolbar (spyware free), users of StumbleUpon can find new sites that are related to their interests, or they can choose a random option. Millions of people are using StumbleUpon and it has caught the eye of many corporate bloggers as being a great new way to pick up readers.

This is a veritable minefield however in the blogging community. Many people swear by the service, others can’t stand it. While there are some flaw that are inherent with StumbleUpon, there are a few cases where it can actually be useful for your corporate blog. Let’s take a hard look at the pros and cons of StumbleUpon and whether or not it can help you.

First off, although advertising on StumbleUpon is incredibly cheap, and very targeted, few have found it to be effective. Basically, when you purchase a StumbleUpon ad, your blog will be automatically loaded for viewers that are interested in your niche. It sounds ideal, but this rarely works. In our testing we found that we did get the number of visitors promised, but none stayed for more than a few seconds.

Paying for targeted visitors that barely see your site is just not a good investment. There is a lot of controversy over StumbleUpon’s ads, and although they are economical, we have not found that they are effective for the majority of corporate blogs. If you are running a very special contest or offer you may have better results, but you really cannot rely on these ads to help build up a solid readership.

So, what about their organic services? These are the visitors that just happen upon your site and you don’t have to pay for them. This is a little hit or miss and again, it is really only effective for contests, special deals and controversial content that grabs a visitor immediately. While it is still important to get listed as a StumbleUpon site, you should not expect hordes of people to descend on your site as a result.

Overall, StumbleUpon is a great premise that should work, but it just doesn’t seem to for most corporate blogs. The review feature is also worrisome for many corporate blog owners. Get a bad review and that will stay up, in connection with your site, for any StumbleUpon user that happens to visit your site. If the reviews are good, this is great. If they are not, it is a whole other story.

While using StumbleUpon has some benefits, it is certainly not the most reliable means of attracting new readers to your corporate blog. With the right niche and targeting this can change, but for the average corporate blog owner, it is just not worth the trouble. This may change as StumbleUpon grows and evolves, but for now, your efforts are probably best spent elsewhere.

Photo Credits: 1

Originally posted 2008-10-02 05:50:15. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Related Posts

• Carnival of Corporate Blogging - Happy New Year! Welcome to the January 3, 2009 edition of carnival of corporate blogging. Buildify wishes readers a Happy New Year! Blog Writing Tips Wayne John presents Make Blogging Easier with Windows Live Writer posted at Wayne John, saying, "Tired of logging in to a web based interface to write a......
• How to Gauge Web Traffic to Your Corporate Blog There are actually a couple of different ways that you can effectively gauge traffic to your corporate blog, each giving different answers and filling in a slightly larger piece of the puzzle. If you are writing in a corporate blog and you want to get a good feel for how......
• Blog Posting Ideas (Pt. 1) Despite how much you write, it is possible you may feel that you still have not tapped your target niche. This may leave you feeling like you have run out of content, and wondering how or where you can get ideas for posting with to keep things fresh. Well here......
• Are You Communicating Effectively Through Your Corporate Blog? One of the biggest problems facing corporate bloggers is whether or not they can communicate effectively through their blog. There are a few steps that you can take to determine just how well you are reaching your audience, and it is not terribly difficult to come up with a plan......
• Positive Qualities for a Corporate Blog Do you know what qualities your corporate blog should incorporate in order to get the most out of it? Do you know what people are looking at when they determine whether or not they want to keep reading a specific business blog? The following is a look at some of......

Related Websites

• Are You Making The Most Of Guaranteed Web Traffic From Other Search Engines Are You Obtaining The Most Of On-line Web Traffic From Other Search Engines? One in all the things I see heaps of Internet Marketers doing is putting their full concentrate on Google and their search engine rankings, to the exclusion of all alternative search engines. Currently in your quest for......
• Doing Online Job Through Blogging If you've been online for any amount of time, then you've probably heard the best way to make money online is through your own information product. If you spend any time researching how to make money online you will no doubt come across hundreds of websites selling you the promise......
• The Best Online Business Ideas Require Work To Earn Extra Income There is a saying that goes "the harder I work, luckier I get!" This is true when you consider the best online business ideas. You will earn extra income if you work hard to get it. If you're not willing to work extra hard you are not going to make......
• Affiliate Marketing Becomes Easy With Revisitors Dot Com Today I want to share with you an interesting and profitable way to make money on the internet with very low efforts: affiliate marketing with revisitors.com Everybody knows that affiliate marketing is a popular method of promoting web businesses in which you are rewarded for every visitor, subscriber and customer......
• Means Maximizing Web Traffic When You're On A Meagre Budget. In these difficult economic times, many people are trying to find additional profits that they can make from home. Two of the most profitable ways to make earnings from home is through Internet Marketing and Affiliate Marketing. You may consider these home based opportunities as a way make additional income.......

Online Stores

• Mti Fisher Pro Kayak Life Jacket Review Clothing Clothing, Shoes & Accessories Fishing
• People Statues & Yard Art Garden Decor Yard, Garden & Outdoor Living
• Underwater Camera Ice Review Books & Video Fishing
• Work Pants & Coveralls Protective Gear Green Construction Store
• Traffic Safety Windsocks & Devas Garden Decor Yard, Garden & Outdoor Living

Categories:

advertisment, money, reputation, social bookmarking sites, web traffic

Tags:

bloggers, blogs, contests, controversial content, controversy, free users, grabs, hordes, niche, pros and cons, random option, readership, service that allows users, stumbleupon, targeted visitors, that allows users, veritable minefield