If you’re reading this blog, chances are that you, at one point or another, asked someone to Digg or Stumble your site. No big deal, everyone does it.

However, while it’s common practice amongst internet marketers to ask visitors to submit your pages to various social media sites, I found a good example of why you shouldn’t transfer this practice to other niches:

First is an excerpt where the blogger openly asks visitors to stumble his site.

No big deal? Well it was to one user who got pretty pissed!! And he let the world know how he felt…

Let this be a warning for the bloggers who (thankfully) write about something besides making money online - don’t ask your readers to do your work for you!

[All usernames and URLs have been replaced by non-identifying information since I prefer not to make fun of bloggers outside the overcrowded 'make money online' niche.]

However, I always point out examples in the internet marketing niche. So I’ll point you to some experiments by AdTracker who did a marvelous study of Stumble Trolls!

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Sphinn, if you didn’t know, is the Digg-like website all about SEO and affiliate marketing stories. It’s a great refuge from Digg, where all the users love to bury anything that looks like SEO stuff. So there’s no need to game Digg when you can spam Sphinn legitimately and reach your perfect target market!

I noticed the easiest way to do it is to use this Wordpress plugin, the SphinnIt button.

That adds a nice Sphinn button to each post and it updates if your story is already on Sphinn. It’s at the bottom of each post here on Internet Marketing Sucks, so feel free to sphinn my stories to test out the button.

The button is nice, but how good is Sphinn? Is it really worth it?

It depends. I’ve had some stories on there that got a few sphinns. Never made it to the home page though…

Even so, it has sent me a few visitors. And Sphinn visitors seem to stay an average of 1:20. Not bad, especially because it was 97% new visitors. However, most referrals were better, and even StumbleUpon users (over the same time period) stuck around an average of 1:35.

Hell, Digg users stayed an average of 3:32! Digg beating Sphinn was a real surprise in that regard, but Digg barely sends me any traffic at all, so Sphinn still wins in the end.

Let’s see if anything changes if one of my stories makes it to the front page… (hint hint *cough* vote for me *cough*)

P.S. Did I mention that every time I visit Sphinn, I get sucked into reading every single story on their home page? It’s not that they’re any good, just that the titles really suck you in.

P.P.S. Did I mention anything about that blue Sphinn button at the end of each post? It just says “click me” doesn’t it??

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Earlier this year I wrote about stumbleXchange and how it was pretty cool if you used it properly. Unfortunately, the site seems to have moved, and now it must be on a really slow server, because it’s way too slow to bother with.

But fortunately, another crop of stumble exchange websites has popped up, just waiting to aid your unscrupulous social media spamming efforts!

Take a look at them:

1. Stumble Exchange .org

A weird idea for exchanging stumbles, this is a Pligg-based site (i.e. it looks like Digg) where your submissions are links you want stumbled. You start by signing-up and posting a link. Then people stumble it and send you a message telling you they stumbled it, so that you can go stumble their page in return.

At first glance, it seems like a ton of work for each stumble, and there’s not much privacy. So if some sucker wanted to go “thumbs down” a bunch of sites, they could easily find a list right there on the home page.

Not to mention the site isn’t very active…

2. SU Exchange

More interesting is this site called SU Exchange, which is actually a points-based system designed for exchanging stumbles. The site boasts “926 users” and “22,381″ stumbles; that’s enough to make it worth joining.

3. Stumble Swap

But the best of the breed comes in the form of Stumble Swap. This is a new take on the stumble exchange concept that requires very little work - you don’t even need an account!

All you do is put in your URL and your SU username, and then you click a link and stumble that site. Once you’re done, just click submit and the system records your stumble and gives your URL to someone new to stumble.

It’s a genius system.

And of course, since we can’t get enough scamming and spamming, here’s a bonus site:

Stumbled Upon

This is a directory of sites that are or would be popular on StumbleUpon. In other words, sites that are “funny, good-hearted, well-motivated, weird or interesting” are included.

It’s probably hard to get in (because they actually review submissions,) but submitting your site is worth a shot if it fits the requirements.

What is not worth it, though, is paying for advertising there. It’s a whopping $10,000 per month! Supposedly they get 100,000 visitors a day, but that seems a little exaggerated if you ask me. And even if they do, do those 100,000 see your listing on the homepage?

Actually, they could, because the actual directory consists of a mere 5 categories with maybe a handful of sites in each one.

Now that I look into it, that site could be a total scam worthy of its own blog post! More research shows that the domain is from 1999, but the site wasn’t live until April of this year! That’s probably why it has very few directory listings.

But the question remains, would anyone get suckered into paying $10,000 a month to advertise on that site?!

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You’re not cool unless you know everything about StumbleUpon.

Which could be why everyone is writing about it, trying to convince everyone else that they are the StumbleUpon Expert. Pretty much every blog I’ve ever read has their own “This Is How To Use StumbleUpon” kind of guide.

Seriously, here’s a freakin list of the posts I’ve read:

• 10/01/2006: How to increase StumbleUpon traffic?
• 12/12/2006: Interview with Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon Co-Founder
• 1/31/2007: Build Super Links and Traffic With StumbleUpon
• 2/12/2007: Understanding StumbleUpon (Yes, even I posed as a StumbleUpon expert…)
• 2/23/2007: How to Use StumbleUpon for Your Business: The Definitive Guide
• 3/1/2007: The Why, How and Who of Marketing in StumbleUpon
• 3/7/2007: A Comprehensive Guide to StumbleUpon: How to Build Massive Traffic to Your Website
• 4/2/2007: Building a Large Audience For Your StumbleUpon Account
• 4/4/2007: Advanced Stumbling: How to Make a Stumblable Page
• 5/1/2007: Increase Your Website Traffic and Make More Money With StumbleUpon
• 5/10/2007: Five Ways to Grow Your StumbleUpon Network: An Ode to Altruistic Stumbling
• 6/29/2007: How to Use StumbleUpon to Promote
• 7/2/2007: Effective advertising strategy using StumbleUpon
• 7/7/2007: Stumbleupon can get your AdSense Account Banned for Invalid Impressions Fraud
• 7/19/2007: StumbleUpon Optimization: Leveraging Photo Stumbles for More Web Traffic
• 8/9/2007: Don’t Buy Traffic, Use StumbleUpon
• 8/14/2007: How to Draw StumbleUpon Users Into Your Blog
• 8/26/2007: Making A Power Account On StumbleUpon
• 8/29/2007: Analysis: StumbleUpon’s Top 50 Stumblers
• 8/30/2007: The Secret Features of StumbleUpon
• 9/3/2007: Interview with a Top StumbleUpon User
• 9/4/2007: A Definitive StumbleUpon Guide: Driving Traffic To Websites
• 9/7/2007: How to Become a Top StumbleUpon User (or Why You Really Shouldn’t Bother)
• 9/8/2007: Even More Traffic With StumbleUpon
• 9/9/2007: Ultimate Guide to Using StumbleUpon
• 9/13/2007: Writing for StumbleUpon: High Impact Content “Above the Scroll” in Four Easy Steps
• 9/18/2007: The Unspoken Secrets to Long Lasting Traffic With StumbleUpon
• 9/18/2007: Top 5 StumbleUpon Buzzkills
• 9/19/2007: Stumbleupon mathematics for stumblers
• 9/21/2007: Stumbleupon Math Followup
• 9/25/2007: Everything you need to know about promoting your own website on StumbleUpon
• 9/26/2007: Building Your Blog With StumbleUpon
• 9/26/2007: 7 reasons why i thumbed you down on stumbleupon

Looks like a good list…

But you know what sucks? As I’m in the process of organizing my list, this list gets posted. Can you believe that?

And not only did that list rain on my parade, it was a total kick in the nuts because my article wasn’t included!

Argh. I guess I’ll have to let this post sit for a few days before publishing it (so everyone can forget about Cornwall.) Then I’ll add some more links to make this more up-to-date, and when this debuts in October (i.e. today,) people can concentrate solely on it

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If you just go around in the light of day joining Digg circles and Stumble exchanges, you’re bound to be beaten. So why not lay low and get a gang to handle that stuff for you?

Need to find a gang? No problem. Just head to GangClick.

Basically the site is full of “gang” members who scratch each other’s backs. Thug life at it’s finest.

It’s great for soliciting diggs, stumbles, and other busywork. It is definitely best for “one-click” things such as stumbling, but if you catch others in a good mood, they might give you two or three clicks.

You start out by helping others, and each time you help someone, you get a point. Then you use the points to post projects of your own.

The process is very easy, but it’s even easier to cheat. All you have to do is visit someone’s URL to get a point - you don’t even have to digg or stumble the page. I rely on the karma principle though - what goes around, comes around. If you use this to cheat others, others are surely cheating you.

Sign-up

To get started, just sign-up real quick. Then, once logged-in, click “Projects” in the header navigation. Then click the headlines of any offers that interest you. Fulfill the request and get points toward posting your own projects.

To post your own project, click “Create project” in the left sidebar. Just enter your URL and a couple instructions, and post it. Then hope for the best!

My Experience…

While there is still a low membership to this site, it’s getting a bit better.

I can usually get a few stumbles each time I post a link. That’s good because stumbles always come in handy.

I posted a Digg request once though, just to see if it worked… and it was pretty much pointless. You might get a few Diggs over a few weeks, which won’t do anything for you.

But for being somewhat ‘below the radar’ it’s pretty good.

My Advice

Make friends. When you complete a project for someone, leave a nice comment. You want everyone to get familiar with your username so you build up a reputation. Then when they see your name as the project poster, they might be more likely to help out.

More Advice

Want to know a great use for this?

Use your Alexa redirect URLs instead of normal URLs. That way, whenever someone clicks your link, they’re helping to boost your Alexa rank.

Then it doesn’t matter if they are cheating the system by not actually stumbling your site, because you still got that Alexa boost!

To join or not to join?

If you have some spare time, go ahead and join.

Actually, if you join, it will help me - so join right now! Click here!

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Even though Squidoo lenses took a hit in terms of Google search rankings, I still see some use for them by legitimate marketers. And once the spammers get booted, Squidoo lenses could once again be dominant in Google. (Hopefully…)

But for now, you’ve got to find some other ways to get traffic to your lenses.

And there is at least one way to do that free of charge: LensRoll.com

LensRoll.com is the Digg of Squidoo lenses. You can submit your lenses and get them ranked, and if you’re lucky, your lens will hit the LensRoll homepage.

The domain was just registered two months ago, but the site is sitting at an Alexa ranking of about 205k, and it looks like there are plenty of users.

So I say go for it!

(And take a look here if you need more tips on LensRoll.com)

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I’ve mentioned a few things about social bookmarking before, from putting buttons on your blog to some social bookmark submission software, but never written specifically about a service called OnlyWire.

I would go as far as to say that OnlyWire is the best social bookmarking site there is, and get this - it does not store your bookmarks and it doesn’t let you socialize!

But it does something even better…

It allows you to submit your bookmarks to 19 real social bookmarking websites with just one click. (Well I guess it’s two clicks because you have to confirm the submission, but that’s a lot faster than submitting to sites individually!)

It works like this:

1. You sign-up at OnlyWire.com
2. You fill out your profile with login details for your various accounts for the other social bookmarking sites.
3. Drag the OnlyWire submission button onto your bookmarks toolbar.
4. Then just start using the OnlyWire button instead of individual buttons.

Like magic - your bookmarking becomes 19 times faster!

That one click will submit the page to Backflip, Bibsonomy, Blinklist, Blogmemes, Blue Dot, de.lirio.us, del.icio.us, Diigo, Furl, Jots, LinkRoll, LookLater, ma.gnolia, Markaboo, Rawsugar, Shadows, Simpy, Spurl, and Wink.

At each submission, you can pick out the title and tags, and you can choose which services you’d like to use (just in case you don’t want the bookmark listed on every single account.)

Like I said, it’s fast and easy and great. The only complaint I’ve heard is that it’s not natural to have your site bookmarked at all these sites under the same title (i.e. anchor text.) I don’t really see a problem with that though, because the title field defaults to the page title of the web page, and I imagine that most people just use that default title. So it actually would be natural to have a lot of social bookmarks under the same anchor text.

But if you don’t like it, whatever. It works for me

[This post originally appeared at InternetMarketingSucks.com]

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