All Posts Tagged With: "stumbleupon"

While your waiting on the football games to start here’s something I found while stumbling this morning that I found interesting. Quotes on the nature of the universe from various people throughout history.

Carl Zwanzig: “Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together….”

Douglas Adams: “There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

Albert Einstein: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”

Unknown: “Astronomers say the universe is finite, which is a comforting thought for those people who can’t remember where they leave things.”

Edward P. Tryon: “In answer to the question of why it happened, I offer the modest proposal that our Universe is simply one of those things which happen from time to time.”

John Andrew Holmes: “It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.”

Max Frisch: “Technology is a way of organizing the universe so that man doesn’t have to experience it.”

Kilgore Trout: “The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.”

Woody Allen: “I’m astounded by people who want to ‘know’ the universe when it’s hard enough to find your way around Chinatown.”

Douglas Adams: “In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

William J. Broad: “The crux… is that the vast majority of the mass of the universe seems to be missing.”

Rich Cook: “Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”

Fred Hoyle: “There is a coherent plan in the universe, though I don’t know what it’s a plan for.”

Ray Bradbury: “We are an impossibility in an impossible universe.”

Christopher Morley: “My theology, briefly, is that the universe was dictated but not signed.”

Edward Chilton: “I’m worried that the universe will soon need replacing. It’s not holding a charge.”

Calvin and Hobbes (Bill Watterson): “The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.”

If you run a website then one of the most important and frustrating things you have to deal with is how and where to get traffic. If your a new site this can be overwhelmingly frustrating and many people (myself included) have sought to get that golden article that lands on the frontpage of Digg. Over the past month I’ve had a couple posts get noticed, nothing that sent earth shattering or server exploding traffic my way but enough that can be measured. The results are more than a little interesting.

I got brushed by Digg around Sept 4th, again nothing too mind shocking but enough to register a nice little spike. The effect lasted for about 24 hours, right up to the point the post got buried (as it was starting to gain some good momentum no less).

Initially the article started off on Reddit and that provided a nice little spike, again, nothing major but enough it caught the attention of a digger. The effect was the same, very short lived. In fact, several articles submitted to Reddit resulted in subsequent traffic spikes, all showing similar results, very sharp spikes that trailed off quickly. Not nearly as quickly as Digg, but nothing super sustainable either.

Another article posted around the same timeframe got Stumbled and it went crazy (for me anyway). The interesting thing was that while it showed the same sharp increase in traffic it took it way longer to die off than either of the other two networks, maintaining traffic for nearly two weeks. In fact, I have a couple articles that got Stumbled more than 6 months ago that still send regular traffic.

I’m not the only one that has noted this either, Shoemoney noted similar patterns with both Digg & Fark as compared to StumbleUpon. Shoemoney notes the differences in terms of time on site, suggesting that contrary to popular belief Stumblers tend to hang around longer than most people believe. Looking at my own numbers, they aren’t as dramatic but seem to coincide with what Shoemoney saw. StumbleUpon had an exit rate of 54.31% while Digg was right there at 54.19% but Reddit didn’t hang around long at all with an exit rate of 87.73%.

What’s all this mean? Well, to me it means that Digg is overrated and Stumblers ROCK! Digg traffic is purely “in the moment” traffic and while it may bring you new reader it’s not sustainable after the initial shock wave. StumbleUpon is, in my opinion, the best of the major Social Networks. It’s easy to use, doesn’t arbitrarily kill submissions because of some predisposed prejudice and the members really make it a community. Unlike Digg who rules with an iron fist and gives power diggers the power to totally kill something based on their own bias. Power Stumblers certainly have the ability to command major amounts of traffic but Stumblers seem to be more concerned about things of interest to them or things they feel will be of interest to others (that’s the big difference) where Digg appears to be a “members only” club, where if your not part of the “in” crowd, you have little hope of ever being invited to dance. It? also doesn’t really matter that something you have might be of interest to a large number of Diggers, if it’s not of interest to the main stream it’s dead.

If your looking for decent traffic, then getting involved in StumbleUpon is a key thing you should be doing. Aside from the potential of major traffic if Stumblers like your stuff, just participating will turn you on to some pretty cool sites and individuals. You can tag me on StumbleUpon via crazy4bass.stumbleupon.com, drop me a note or add me as a friend.

Call me shallow but I found this on Stumble and thought it was great, for obvious reasons. There’s a reason Firefox is the best browser out there and this sums it up quite nicely!

Feel free to berate me over it, just be gentle and Digg It first please…. Kudos to the original creator whoever you are.