Add a Web page to the StumbleUpon index, and you can have a nice sudden influx of traffic. Sounds good, right? This little toolbar / interactive page rating tool has been all the rage for a while now for getting quick traffic. But is it quality traffic? Is StumbleUpon traffic worth the effort marketing-wise, or is it just another marketing trend gone wrong and the latest example of fad marketing?

How it Works:

First, you need to install the StumbleUpon toolbar within your browser. On the toolbar you’ll see, among other things, a thumbs up saying “I like it!” and a corresponding thumbs down (implying that you think this page sucks, although SU is too nice to flat out say it).

Hypothetically, if you come across a Web page that practically makes you squeal with delight, you’ll click on the little thumbs up icon in your SU toolbar. If it’s already been added to the StumbleUpon index, it will simply act like a “vote.” If not, you’ll get a pop-up that will allow you to enter a review of the page, a category for it, and some tags, to add the new page to the index.

You can also use the StumbleUpon toolbar to browse interesting sites on the Web by choosing categories that interest you, and simply hitting the “Stumble!” button to go to a random page in the SU index matching your interests.

The marketing idea is simple… create interesting content, sites, or tools and stumble them yourself instead of waiting for someone else to do it. By force-feeding your own content into the SU index, you’re channelling it directly to users browsing with the toolbar who have interests listed related to the category you’ve assigned your page to. The thought is that the traffic is targeted somewhat by those category preferences, making it a worthwhile free Internet marketing tool.

Fad or Fab?

FAD – Here’s why -  StumbleUpon is another of those online tools that’s great for what it’s supposed to be, but not so hot when abused by Internet marketers. As a way to randomly stumble upon interesting sites in your interest areas, it’s a pretty nifty tool.  However, like most services online, Internet marketers have found a way to spam SU.

You can often find StumbleUpon “groups” where people will exchange positive votes or reviews with each other, regardless of the quality of the sites involved. The more positive votes, the more often the site is displayed in the stumble results. “Well that sounds great,” you might be thinking… “I’ll just sign my l’il ole self up for one of them groups.”  Bad move.  People can see what you’ve stumbled. It’s really no secret if you’re just stumbling your own pages or just exchanging with others, which can be a turnoff for legitimate users (the ones you’re trying to reach anyway, since those other marketers aren’t likely doing much to help you monetize your sites).

I’ve gotten a good bit of traffic myself, so I can’t possibly argue with its effectiveness in that sense.  But the quality of that traffic is very often poor. While I’ve found my music site can do well when people stumble (they actually click ads and stay a bit), on other sites it’s quite the opposite.  You’ll see traffic influxes, but people don’t stay, or even bother to read anything, nonetheless click on your ads, buy what you’re selling, or do whatever it is that you want them to do. Instead, they randomly stumble upon your site, and they randomly stumble away seconds later looking for something to catch their eye.  Frankly, there are simply better ways to spend your marketing time, and ways that won’t risk branding you as a service spammer.