How to Avoid Stumbling on StumbleUpon

In a Web 2.0 world packed with online voting/referral tools like Digg and Sphinn, DJ Francis of the Online Marketer Blog has decided that there's one he likes best: StumbleUpon. Though he acknowledges the quality of the traffic isn't always the greatest, the volume more than makes up for this deficiency. And in a recent post, Francis offers a best-practices primer on using StumbleUpon to its greatest advantage:

Don't vote only for your own posts. You might be tempted to try this. But Francis—who did—says it must be a "big no-no" because his site was virtually ignored.

Get involved in the community. "Duh, I should have known this one," he says. By making friends at StumbleUpon, he exposed more people to his work, and earned more recommendations.

Remember it's not a zero-sum game. Voting for other bloggers doesn't hurt your ranking—in fact, judicious praise can help. "Give thumbs up to authors you trust," says Francis, "and SU seems to give you more props for knowing good content."

The Po!nt: According to Francis, you should pick the networks you like best—and stick to them. "Joining a half-dozen social voting sites will dilute your efforts," he notes. "I guarantee you will get more traffic by working through just one or two voting networks."

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