Stumble Your Way to More Exposure
Since the addition of the new “Share” button, Zibbeters have been asking about StumbleUpon. Today, please welcome guest contributor Christina Spiker, owner of UmeOrigami, as she explains what StumbleUpon is and how to use it to increase Zibbet’s exposure on the World Wide Web. In last week’s Featured Zibbeter interview, Christina described herself as a StumbleUpon “junkie.” She is convinced that StumbleUpon can be a very powerful tool for Zibbeters and encourages us all to try this extension of social networking!
What is StumbleUpon? Simply, StumbleUpon is a great tool that allows you to “discover” websites. 
Although the internet is vast, the real truth is that everyone (even those who are savvy with all of the social-networking buzz) tends to fall into an internet routine. We log on, and we make our digital rounds day in and day out without really exploring all of those hidden corners of the web. StumbleUpon helps to combat the information overload that you may feel by allowing you to “stumble” into websites that are matched to your explicit set of interests. StumbleUpon gets you right to the meat of what you enjoy without having to sort through endless pages of search results.
How does StumbleUpon work? StumbleUpon uses a thumbs up/thumbs down rating system in order to suggest sites to you. Every site you stumble was “liked” by at least one person. As you “stumble” around, you can also contribute by offering your own positive or negative rating. Highly rated sites are more likely to show up while low rated sites can drop off if their ratings fall below a certain threshold.
How can StumbleUpon benefit me, as a Zibbeter? StumbleUpon is a great way to get your work seen. However, there is one word of caution. Please follow StumbleUpon’s Terms of Service which prohibit stumbling your own shop and shop items! StumbleUpon is not meant for self-promotion. By violating these terms you can have your account banned. However, if you believe in karma, then your good deed may be returned by another kind stumbler in the future. This is the beauty of community-based browsing! StumbleUpon can help give you ideas for blog posts or craft projects. It can help you keep tabs on high-rated competition, and it’s a fun way to be a part of the social-networking universe. It also might not hurt to have your friends stumble their favorite item once in a while!
I’m interested! How do I join? StumbleUpon is free to join. Just go to StumbleUpon and register. Once you’ve registered, be sure to customize your interests so StumbleUpon can suggest the most relevant topics to you.
How do I Stumble? You can stumble from within Zibbet or by installing and using a browser toolbar. In order to “submit” Zibbet items to StumbleUpon, all you need to do is find the “Share” button on the Zibbet Page. It’s located in two places as highlighted in the screenshot below:
Once you click the link to StumbleUpon, you will be taken to a submit page. You will want to click “Yes” beside ”Safe for Work?” if it is not a mature item, and then fill out the tags to help other stumblers find your submission. For this charm bracelet, I picked “Jewelry, Ecommerce, Shopping, Zibbet, Bracelet.” You can also add a small review if you are inclined. When you are done, click Submit.
This site was recommended to 10,583,303 stumblers! That would be some good exposure for this bracelet if it gets some “likes” by other stumblers. Try to think about StumbleUpon like one tiny snowball rolling down a hill — as likes get bigger and bigger, so will the exposure. Just like the share button on Zibbet, you will find similar buttons on blogs, forums, and other websites. Keep an open eye for it to keep submitting your favorites!
If you like StumbleUpon as much as I do, you may want to install the Firefox or Internet Explorer toolbar, depending on your preferred browser. You can download the Firefox toolbar from Mozilla’s website. It installs like any other Firefox plugin and it will look something like this.
When you have the addon installed you can stumble whenever you like by clicking the “Stumble!” icon or you can add ratings (thumbs up or thumbs down) easily without having to submit items like the previous method. If you don’t want the toolbar, you can also stumble from within StumbleUpon by using the “Search” bar.
Helping the Zibbet Community Although you cannot submit your own items, stumbling has some far-reaching benefits for the Zibbet Community. StumbleUpon can help get Zibbet’s name out to people who would probably be interested. Because of the way stumbling works, StumbleUpon only recommends sites that fall within your interests. So if the site shows up for a stranger to Zibbet, it can potentially generate a quality click, a new buyer, or a new seller! StumbleUpon is one more way that Zibbet’s footprint on the web can be expanded and soon become a more casual name. The more people that “stumble upon” Zibbet, the larger and more popular it will grow. So together let’s stumble our way to some sales, friends, and new discoveries!
Best wishes for much success on Zibbet!
Vicki is committed to assisting her fellow Zibbeters improve their shops for successful online selling. She is the owner of three Zibbet shops: LOC Design Studio, Denim and Pearls and A Stitch and a Prayer. You can follow Vicki on Twitter and through her LOC Design Studio blog.Tags: popular posts, social networking, StumbleUpon, Success on Zibbet
Wonderful information! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks you guys! Great article. I have already been using it, but will try to use it more often. Judy
I will look into this. I created an account and really didn’t know how to use it. It’s clearer now. Now, off to Stumble a Zibbet page or. Starting with you Portable and Texas
Answered all my questions as I stumbled through StumbleUpon! Thanks!
Oh wow, this is very cool. I didn’t even know that is what stumble upon meant in your Feature. I am so glad this was chosen as this weeks topic & that Christina was the writer - FABULOUS JOB! THanks so much for explaining this - I am going to sign up right now. I love learning new things! I am going to post about this in our community’s group ” loving to learn & remain teachable.” Thanks gals! I will be stumbleupon my fellow Zibbeters real soon.
Hugs,
Jennifer
Very helpful! The reason I joined Stumble was to be able to promote as you described, but never quite mastered the process. Now I’ll have to give it another try with your helpful tips. ^_^
Thanks for the reminder. I installed the toolbar months ago and then forgot about it.
that is a great idea, I just put a couple of things one it!
I know this is about stumbleupon. And I respect the fact you cannot stumble your own stuff. Does anyone know if there are rules like this on twitter?
great article! I didn’t quite get it, but this article helped a lot.
Thanks for all of the feedback everyone and I am glad that you are having fun stumbling for new and old!
chainmailcreations - That is actually a great question. I do not think that sites like twitter or facebook have those rules in place. I think the reason is because people have to voluntarily “friend” you in order to be exposed to your feeds. If you want to only self-promote, then they could potentially just unfriend you. However with SU, unsuspecting people are shown new websites all the time and they do not want people to get an “unfair” advantage unless they pay for SU ad space. I think another site that has similar restrictions to self-promotion is Flickr. Although you can post what you want, you are prohibited to redirect people to your shop in your photo posts by linking. (Although you can include a shop link in your web address in your profile). It is always best to check out the terms of service of these sites!
Everyone — If you are part of the Zibbet Community, I just started a group for Stumblers here on Zibbet. I would love for you to join so we can get a reciprocal group together to help promote each other
Thanks for the info. I just signed up and need to start stumbling
Appreciate the information - since I generally “stumble around” the computer, this was right up my alley! I needed NEEDED to read the article. Thanks!
Cool, cool, cool! I’m going out right now to “stumble”…and hope I can at least “trip” some people into stumbling into my shop in return!
-Marguerite
Hey there, Umeorigami! (Love your shop, by the way!) I would love to check out that group. Would it be possible to send me a link?
-Marguerite
Sorry about not seeing your comment earlier! here is the link to our Zibbet community
http://community.zibbet.com/group/zibbetstumblers
This is a very informative page. I wanted to Stumble and was not sure I wanted to download the tool bar. I did not get to completely look into Stumbling further due to a family emergency. Now I see I can Stumble by using the Share options. Thank you LOC Design Studio for your help in finding this info. DancingRainbows
This is great information - thanks so much. I checked out Stumble a while ago but was unsure how it all worked. After reading this article, I now understand it a lot more. I’m also interested in the Zibbet Stumble group.
Thanks again!
Debbie
Thank you for this very well-written article. I always wondered about StumbleUpon, and now I know. — Karen
Thank you so much for this clear ideas about Stumbleupon.
Great`ideas`Very`helpful!
I am stumbling now!
Thanks great info!
Thanks for clarifying Stumbleupon. Mystery solved!
This was very informative. Thank you very much.
Thank you for the info on Stumbleupon. I had heard it mentioned once before, and never gotten around to investigate it. I read your post and imediately looked it up. I have come back from newly stumbling to post this to you. Thank you very much, You have given me a new internet toy to play with, what a fab site, easy to get lost in it but well worth it. I am now hooked, and will be stumbling zibbet every chance I get. xxx
I think this is a very powerful tool to bring in more buyers so that we are not feeding off of (buying from each other) each other. My goal is to stumble at least 5 items a day and try to stumble more as time permits. It only takes a few minutes. The easiest way to find something is to just go to Z search and drop down to all items, leave the second search box empty and hit enter. Have fun browsing and Stumbling!
This is very unique and exciting. I had a couple of minutes to try it and all I can say is “WOW” “WOW” and “WOW”.
Thank you for all your help! I will use Stumble Upon!
I like to Stumble I wish I could do my own items.
Who will Stumble me and keep it going.
I also at the same time Kaboodle the person item.
Both I use off my Toolbar which is quicker.
Have A Great Holiday Season,
Cliff