StumbleUpon is known by most website owners and bloggers as one of the best sources of free traffic available. However, SU also offers paid traffic and it’s advertising program is a lot different than other alternatives.
With StumbleUpon you can pay $0.05 per visitor and you can choose to target visitors that have selected certain topics, such as web development or blogging, as some of their interests. You can also target visitors by their age, sex and location if you wish.
The interesting part of the program is that your paid traffic can lead to even more free traffic. If some of those visitors that you have paid for give your page a thumbs up, it could spread just like any other page submitted to StumbleUpon and lead to hundreds or even thousands of free visitors.
This potential for extra free traffic encouraged me to give StumbleUpon’s advertising a chance (it’s the only type of paid advertising that I’ve done for this site so far). StumbleUpon has consistently been one of the top sources of traffic for my blog so I thought I would see if I could increase traffic to a few specific blog posts that haven’t gotten much from SU.
For each of the blog posts listed below I spent $10 for 200 visitors. Here’s a summary of my results:
#1 - Blog post promoted: 89 Community Sites for Webmasters
The StumbleUpon ad campaign ran on September 5th.
- Received 3 thumbs up
- Received 0 thumbs down
- Total StumbleUpon traffic to date - 591 visitors.
- StumbleUpon traffic prior to campaign - 94 visitors.
- StumbleUpon traffic during/after campaign - 497 visitors.
#2 - Blog post promoted: 10 Tips to Make Your Blog Posts More Del.icio.us
The StumbleUpon ad campaign ran on September 10th.
- Received 0 thumbs up
- Received 1 thumbs down
- Total StumbleUpon traffic to date - 249
- StumbleUpon traffic prior to campaign - 74
- StumbleUpon during/traffic after campaign - 175 (Google Analytics shows less than the 200 visitors I ordered)
#3 - Blog post promoted: Give Your Linkbait a Boost
The StumbleUpon ad campaign ran on October 15th.
- Received 2 thumbs up
- Received 3 thumbs down (ouch)
- Total StumbleUpon traffic to date - 458 visitors.
- StumbleUpon traffic prior to campaign - 184 visitors.
- StumbleUpon during/traffic after campaign - 274 visitors.
In total for the 3 campaigns I paid $30 for 600 visitors. During and after the campaigns I received a total of 946 visitors, 346 more than I paid for. The total of 946 visitors for $30 comes out to just over $0.03 per visitor.
My Conclusions:
The traffic that comes from StumbleUpon tends to be of lower quality than through other advertising methods like pay-per-click, although at $0.03 per visitor it’s also much cheaper. I have to admit that I’m not blown away by the results of the SU campaigns. I tend to get more SU traffic, and probably higher quality visitors, with natural and unpaid methods. Sure, not every blog post will draw significant traffic from StumbleUpon, but for many of my posts SU is the #1 source of traffic.
I think it’s very possible to do much better with StumbleUpon ads than I did with these 3 campaigns. The problem for me is that those posts that are going to be of interest to SU users are already generating traffic and thumbs up naturally, and those that aren’t generating that kind of traffic aren’t going to be of much interest even by paying for some traffic.
My opinion after running these 3 small campaigns is that SU ads are probably a good choice if your website or blog is not currently getting traffic from StumbleUpon or if you do not have SU users who regularly visit your site. In this situation it may be a great method to start to get some attention from StumbleUpon users and you may receive far more traffic than you are paying for. However, if you are already getting a good bit of traffic from StumbleUpon, I would recommend focusing on ways to maximize the natural, and free, traffic. That being said, I’ll probably experiment with SU ads again in the future since it is such a low cost advertising option.
If you have any experience with StumbleUpon ads please share in the comments.
26 comments from readers
1 Fred @ Newest on the Net Oct 28, 2007 at 8:49 pm
Very interesting post. I have thought about trying out SU’s advertising.
2 Tac Anderson Oct 28, 2007 at 9:27 pm
I like the way the SU monetizes their service. Instead of blatant annoying ads you get sites that (ideally) will offer relevant information for you. The fact that they offer an ability to really fine tune your audience is great.
The biggest problem that I see with SU traffic vs PPC traffic is intent. When a visitor searches on Google and clicks on an ad, there is a very good chance that they are shopping. Usually Stumblers are just killing time and not shopping.
You’re right though, the price is so cheap that if you are not running an e-commerce site and just want traffic (say for a well optimized affiliate site) it may make a lot of sense. Great post I look forward to your follow up.
3 Karthik Oct 29, 2007 at 2:05 am
I’ve always had the ads model of SU at the back of my mind - but I guess you tried it just to test it, you really don’t need to go the paid way with SU! Like you mention, I’m sure social media is the #1 source of traffic to your articles in most cases - for good reason.
SU was attractive at $0.05/hit, now that it boils down to $0.03, I should be trying it sooner. Do you have any idea how many converted as subscribers though? That would have been a good metric…
4 Caroline Middlebrook Oct 29, 2007 at 4:56 am
I’m really surprised at the thumbs down you got for those posts - they seem like good quality posts and I can’t see any reason why they would get a thumbs down. Is there some way for a Stumbler to know when they are being shown a paid ad? That’s the only reason I can think of.
5 Wayne Liew Oct 29, 2007 at 6:46 am
I am having StumbleUpon visitors by not many. StumbleUpon traffic has been claimed as passing traffic and I doubt that any of my readers now came to my site due to their Stumbling.
At least now I know that Stumblers will stop for good contents as well after looking at your campaigns. How long did they stay on your blog on average?
6 Vandelay Design Oct 29, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Fred,
I would encourage you to try it out for yourself. It’s worth a shot.
Tac,
I agree with your comments. I had planned to write a little bit more about the pros and cons of SU traffic but decided to keep the post a little more brief. You’re right, stumblers definitely are unlikely to buy anything from something they find through SU.
Karthik,
No, unfortunately I have no idea about the conversion rate to subscribers. That would certainly be helpful.
Caroline,
To my knowledge there is no way for a stumbler to know that it’s a paid ad. I’m not sure why I drew thumbs down, but oh well. I got a review with a thumbs down on one of my posts (not a paid one) that said he gives thumbs down to any article that’s about blogging. Kind of seems like a waste of time to me, but if that’s what people want to do I guess they have the right.
Wayne,
According to Google Analytics the average time a stumbler stays on my site is 1:30 (for October). I’ve never put much weight into their time calculations because they always seem off to me.
7 david Oct 29, 2007 at 6:13 pm
Is SU becoming a website which you can buy traffic? I wonder if it will go against Google’s adsense tos.
8 Vandelay Design Oct 29, 2007 at 7:32 pm
David,
Yes, you can buy traffic. I’m not an Adsense user, so I don’t know their terms very well.
9 Chris Baskind Oct 30, 2007 at 12:53 am
I think those three articles (and your site, overall) are quite solid.
The three down thumbs thing is puzzling. The only thing I can think of is that you got unqualified traffic — non-bloggers. To civilians, I’m betting the term “linkbait” looks spammy.
10 pablopabla Oct 30, 2007 at 1:52 am
I’ve tried SU advertising for my recipes blog and it is still generating traffic for me after 2 months! Well, okay, the traffic generated at the present moment is less than 50 a day but hey, it makes the initial cost lower by the day
11 tonym Oct 30, 2007 at 11:27 am
increasingly i’m actually not marketing online. i’m using the sites and blogs as a resource for customers who i am reaching through offline tactics and strategies.. but that obviously is only appropriate for certain businesses.
12 Advice Network Writing contest Oct 30, 2007 at 3:38 pm
I love SU for the steady drip it provides. I haven’t tried it for paid advertising yet, so thanks for the post.
13 Vandelay Design Oct 30, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Chris,
The people who saw that ad should have chosen blogging as an interest. I think you’re right, the topic of linkbait can be a turnoff to some people.
Pablopabla,
Traffic after 2 months with those ads sounds pretty good.
14 Karen Zara Oct 30, 2007 at 8:28 pm
I’ve always wanted to read a post like this. I think I might try SU ads to promote some new projects, and now that I’ve read about your experience, my expectations are more realistic.
(How can anyone give thumbs down to any of your posts? That’s unfair! In my humble opinion you’re one of the best bloggers out there.)
15 Vandelay Design Oct 30, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Karen,
Thanks for the compliment. I would encourage you to try SU’s ads for yourself. It’s so affordable it’s hard not to try. I’m sure others can do much better than I did with them.
16 Helen Nov 1, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Cool post! I wonder how that much traffic would affect the adsense on my sites? Perhaps I’d make all my money back if I “bought” stumbleupon traffic, you know? Thoughts?
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19 Coach Kip Nov 2, 2007 at 9:33 am
Great article, I do know about the paid searches for SU but have yet to use them. It looks like a great way to build traffic to a new site such as mine without spending a lot of money.
I have noticed that most of my traffic comes through SU after I give myself a little thumbs up. Have you found another site that can make an impact as quick as this? I love the results from SU
20 Cole Haan Nov 2, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Some people claim that StumbleUpon traffic is just passing traffic. But I had a different experience, I had Adsense ads on pages which god Stumbled, and With huge spike in traffic, I also got decent number of clicks on ads. So I think its not just a passing traffic. And checking out StumbleUpon paid ads is not a bad idea.
21 Forrest Nov 4, 2007 at 9:05 pm
I’ve never heard from someone who’s used Stumble’s paid advertising before ( until now ). This is very interesting. I wish a lot of people would do this instead of just submitting their stuff blindly, since I use Stumble as a web surfer, and like it’s ability to generally send me pages I’m interested in.
22 Ginger Wilcox Nov 4, 2007 at 9:05 pm
Sounds interesting. I just downloaded the Stumbleupon toolbar this morning, but I haven’t been able to get on to the site today- seems to be down.
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