What I did
A couple weeks ago I received an e-mail from a friend with a funny picture.
I thought it was a good example of viral marketing and so I posted the image on my blog.
You can see the image below.
I then submitted that one particular post to StumbleUpon just to see if I would get any traffic from this funny photo.
How much traffic did I get?
On May 30 my traffic spiked to over 400 unique visitors.
The chart below shows that the funny picture with the plumber received a ton of traffic.
The chart below shows where most of the traffic came from.
As you can see I got quite a bit of traffic from this funny photo. In fact I received several times more traffic than I normally get in a day.
So as you can guess I was pretty pleased with the result.
The downside of getting lots of traffic from StumbleUpon
The downside of getting traffic from StumbleUpon is that it’s not worth very much if it’s not targeted.
This blog is about how to get traffic to your website. If I get lots of visitors who are interested in funny jokes and they probably won’t stay very long then they probably won’t click on any advertisements.
Just like any other social medium, StumbleUpon is a great way to get traffic. But it’s not always very targeted traffic.
Unless of course you run a website with funny pictures and jokes. Then you should be able to get massive amounts of traffic from StumbleUpon.
If you are still reading this I will stumble 3 of your URLs
To have me personally stumble three of your URLs go to:
http://nickstraffictricks.com/can-i-stumble-your-site/
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Nick, Interesting approach to getting traffic. Researching ideas to get traffic, I have come up with many proven results. The thing is you need more than just traffic, as I'm sure you know, you need reciprocal traffic that gives you backlinks to move you higher in the search engines. I wrote an article about this on hubpages. I shortened the link so I could track my traffic, but here it is http://tinyurl.com/mulpc4 Feel free to comment and I invite you to leave a link back to this article to get your own backlink.
Interesting to see that the SU visitors are so interested in funny stuff.
I recognized this some time ago when I started to advertise on SU and it was a real pain in the beginning to get pages approved that were important to my site, a little funny to attract visitors and also had enough content to keep the visitors onmy site for longer.
I love that a photo like that is what generates traffic. Imagine if you had posted a review of a beautiful film or a recipe for a very healthy and delicious dessert. Not as clickable as a toilet decal.
Good point Warren.
hahaha.. this picture is amazing.. I can see why your traffic increased
I bet that truck actually stops traffic…
So, wouldn't that be a smart tactic to use every so often? Post a photo that will generate a lot of traffic, and then return to status quo and enjoy the new readership?
Valerie recently posted..How “Rent-2-Own” Really Works
Yes, but the trouble is finding great pics like that.
Really? I feel like half the mail I get is a forward of some viral image. The other half is junk mail.
True, but viral images seem to do well on stumble upon.
This picture is so great .. I have tried this idea on my website, but I haven't found a picture that is cool enough for people to be interested in.
What program do you use that shows the graph and stats of traffic to your site?
Google analytics.
I like how this photo is continuing to bring you traffic on this page, now…
Even if the funny picture doesn't relate to your content, it does provide an opportunity for strangers to randomly visit your site. Even if 1% stick around, it was worth the simple post of a guy on a toilet.
This photo is priceless. I do internet marketing consulting and I've opened StumbleUpon accounts for all my clients. It's very true though. A great pic will get more pics then an article about SEO.
I saw this picture over a year ago on your site, and I was talking about it with a friend recently, and now I have returned to your site to show him the photo. How’s that for extra traffic?