Okay guys, THIS is how you use social networks to get 100,000hits in under a week. (linkbaiting)

[orvn]

DISCLAIMER: While the mass amount of traffic is lovely, this is mainly a LINK BAIT TUTORIAL. People will link to your site, due to all the interesting content you create.

Please stop suggesting hypotheses predicting that this traffic does not convert. It doesn't convert for boring products. But it gives you mass organic links regardless.

Hey everyone.

Today I'm going to give back to the Warrior forum community and share my favourite and most effective traffic strategy.

This method, used carefully, will amalgamate a hundred of thousand hits in under a week to even the most bland and mundane of unoptimized, new websites.

<<But I already use social networks?>>

First of all, let's forget Facebook and Twitter for a second; they're great business tools and everyone [should] know[s] how to use those. In this post, I'll be telling you all about how I use social discovery and social bookmarking services.

☞ Stumbleupon
☞ Digg
☞ Reddit
☞ /. (Slashdot)
☞ Technorati
☞ del.icio.us (I exploit Delicious for an entirely different purpose, AUTHORITY TAGGING - using Lisa's tutorial at InLineSEO)

There are others but these are the big players.
You should have an active account with AT LEAST the first three of these.

Glancing around this forum, I see a lot of you "using" these social sites. I notice many of you advising others to create hundreds of pages on these sites and ping them, thus creating backlinks.
While you are creating backlinks, you're also obliterating your rating as a quality poster on these networks.
(besides, if you think backlinks are about quantity, you ought to do some more reading!)

Listen, nobody on Digg wants to find out about the boring website you just built that sells golf balls and golf shoes.
They want to see stuff like this (below) along with an explanatory article that pertains to the elasticity and manufacturing standards of golf balls.

(yes, that's a golf ball hitting a steel plate)

I'm going to be focusing primarily on StumbleUpon. Not only is it arguably the best social network (in terms of interesting content) I've ever seen, but it's an unparalleled traffic source.
I've been with Stumbleupon since 2003 I've even helped them code & build their toolbar and debug it places (back in the early days).

<<So what's so special about StumbleUpon?>>

Stumbleupon is a toolbar. Now I know we all hate those annoying useless toolbars that are oh-so-frequently forced upon us, but this is the most incredible toolbar you're likely to ever see. I suggest you get it.

At a glance:
The toolbar has a button, pushing this button delivers a site with relevant content that interests you. You then rate the content that you just viewed and Stumbleupon gains a better idea of
a) The kind of stuff you like.
b) The trends and changes in what we like, as a society.

Stumbleupon knows what you like because you select categories of interests when you register (about 270 or so).
It uses this as a starting point and then matches you with like-minded stumblers and serves you similar content.
You can also accumulate (real-life and virtual) friends on Stumbleupon. Stumbleupon uses these as a similar interest source as well.



The difference between Stumbleupon and other Social bookmarking sites is that a good time is only a button click away. Unlike say, Reddit, where you have to go to the Reddit page to scan through content that you MIGHT find interesting Stumbleupon delivers it right to your doorstep, and it does so more accurately every time, because it learns about you.

[orvn]

...continued.

I contribute to Stumbleupon, I use it everyday. So do 12 million + other users.
I have pushed that button over 100,000 times myself and I have over 25,000 bookmarks. It's addictive.

When I see an interesting site that's not in the network yet, I add it.
When I get content that absolutely amazes me, I comment on it in my Stumbleupon blog and share it to my other friends on the network.

<<This is all well and good, but how does it help me GET TRAFFIC??>>

Okay, so by now, you're probably wondering about my whole "hundred thousand hits in under a week" statement. Well I didn't lie.

I'm sure many of you have figured out by now that what I'm trying to get you to do is CREATE LINK BAIT.

<<What is linkbaiting?>>

For those that don't know,

Link bait = any sort of interesting content that gets people to link to and from it.

Link bait could be: a really funny photo, some killer graphic design, a captivating photoset, a controversial article, etc.

You're going to need to take advantage of your own natural talents and create something, based on what you know how to create best. Personally, I like to write and throw in some graphic design.

My personal favourite kind of link-bait is infographics. These are basically large images with packed with a whole bunch of statistical information and a ton of great graphic design. They make you feel like an expert on a subject in 60 seconds flat.
Some examples:
☛ Left vs Right Infographic (David McCandless & Stefanie Posavec) | Infographics Blog
☛ How to predict the weather (infographic) | Dude LOL
☛ Coffee Drinks Illustrated « Lokesh Dhakar

And one more, because it's very relevant:

<<You want me to make THAT?! Sounds like it's going to take forever?!!>>

Well, it might take a while to make inforgraphics, but link bait doesn't necessarily mean making an elaborate infographic.

You just need:

(1) Create something interesting. Anything. As long as it's JUICY and RELEVANT to your site in some way.

(2) Add it to your target website. If you have a blog, do it there, if not, just create a page to house it.

(3) Link it back to your page. If you wrote something like an interesting article, cross link it like crazy with different parts of your site (the way cracked.com does).

(4) Add it to the Stumbleupon network. Use the correct category. Thumb it up.

(5) Send it to any friends you might have on the network using the toolbar.

(6) If you feel like it, add to Digg, Technorati, etc.
If it's good it'll get added by itself (all you need is Stumbleupon).

<<I don't believe you Orvn. My spidey-senses tell me you're a shrewd £$^%$ with a hidden agenda or ulterior motive. PROVE IT.>>

Very well.

For the purpose of this post, I'll be using standalone image examples of link bait. Note that when you do this, you're going to want to house it in a page and link it around.
Linking the image to your home page isn't a bad idea.

In all the below examples, I ONLY added them to Stumbleupon. I did nothing else AT ALL.

Example 1:
I made/captioned this image:
Yes, it's a lolcat.


I got over 90,000 cumulative hits in about 3 weeks,
36,000 individual stumbles just from adding it to Stumbleupon.

See here: http://searchanddevelop.ca/rnd/lion-king-simba-can-has-lands.jpg - StumbleUpon

Example 2:
I captioned this image too.

59,000+ individual stumbles in a month and a half.
126,000 hits during that time.
http://searchanddevelop.ca/rnd/bp-bringing-oil-to-american-shores.jpg - StumbleUpon

Example 3:
In this image, I simply gathered a whole bunch of logos people were making criticizing BP.
Three of them are mine (last two and traffic sign). The rest are just collected from various blogs and Google searches.
http://searchanddevelop.ca/rnd/briti...rebranding.jpg
40,000 unique stumbles and 64K+ hits.
http://searchanddevelop.ca/rnd/british-petroleum-logo-rebranding.jpg - StumbleUpon

<<So you're telling me I'll get a hundred thousand hits by making this garbage?>>

Yes.
I'm serious.
You might need to make 3 or 4 pieces of content to break 100,000 mark in a week, but it really isn't THAT hard when you know how.

Granted, some don't work out as well as others.

Example 4:
You Can Make A Difference - Flier - Search and Develop
Seemed awfully clever to me.
Apparently not so much to the other stumblers. Less than 2000 individual stumbles. ARGH FAIL.
You Can Make A Difference - Flier - Search and Develop - StumbleUpon
But it was still well worth almost 7,000 hits.

***

My point is that instead of blindly posting every page you make to every social network you've ever heard of and pinging them, this is what you SHOULD be doing.

Blindly adding sites damages your rating as a useful user and social networks will be more likely to bury your pages when they learn that you're trying to take advantage of the service rather than contribute or proactively use it.

Last thoughts:

You have to remember that this seems to be a network of very intelligent people who have a love affair with information and art. Don't try to fool them, reward them by creating interesting content, and they'll reward you with traffic.

It's literally intellectual pornography.

I hope you found my post useful.
Happy Stumbling.

[Mike Anthony]

How many backlinks is the more important number. That kind of traffic is horrible at conversion. Just people looking to amuse themselves

[orvn]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

How many backlinks is the more important number. That kind of traffic is horrible at conversion. Just people looking to amuse themselves

While what you say is somewhat true, (I use the word somewhat, because it's OKAY at conversion, horrible is such a crude adjective)

Keep in mind this is a linkbaiting strategy! This gets you quality organic backlinks!
The traffic is just a bonus.

And I don't know about you, but I enjoy sudden mass traffic regardless of the source.
Believe me the Google crawler likes this (well, at least the subsequent backlinks) too.

Typical organic SEO methodologies take time. This one doesn't.
That's why I wrote this post.

[Mike Anthony]

Originally Posted by orvn

While what you say is somewhat true, (I use the word somewhat, because it's OKAY at conversion, horrible is such a crude adjective)

Horrible is an english word that denotes very bad conversion. People that come to you because of a novelty image are not looking to buy. Traditionally its been very bad at conversion which is why horrible is perfectly in order to use.

I don't know about you, but I enjoy sudden mass traffic regardless of the source. Believe me the Google crawler likes this too.

I'd need some evidence to agree with that. However don't get me wrong. the more people that come to your site the greater the possibility that some bloggers will link to your image from their site/blog.

Thats what I was asking. have you checked your backlinks to see if you are picking up permanent backlinks from this

[DNChamp]

saved for a future read

[Fallen_Angel]

very interesting and imaginative way to get hits. I like this

[ELVISTHEPELVIS]

I like it very creative. Nice to see a fellow Torontonian on here.

Brian

[Adam Roy]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

How many backlinks is the more important number. That kind of traffic is horrible at conversion. Just people looking to amuse themselves

Adsense is the best way to go in this situation.

People looking for amusement click on things...but not necessarily buy.

If you can get creative, like maybe, stumble a video or pic of some 'fool' trying to pick up a chick.

Make sure your page is well optimized for the keyword for adsense adsense for some keyword in the picking up girls or get the girl back niche.

I've done it before, and if you get creative you can make a killing with adsense using things whose purpose is for nothing more than amusement.

View this post below, Okay guys, THIS is how you use social networks to get 100,000hits in under a week. (linkbaiting)

[biggame5]

It sounds like a very cool way to get hits. Which would push your site up on the sites right?

[mascomasco]

Do you have built backlinks with this method or you just like high traffic without any backend benefit.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

Horrible is an english word that denotes very bad conversion. People that come to you because of a novelty image are not looking to buy. Traditionally its been very bad at conversion which is why horrible is perfectly in order to use.
***
Thats what I was asking. have you checked your backlinks to see if you are picking up permanent backlinks from this

I know what you mean, sorry if I sounded a little abrasive earlier, it's just that it took time to write that post lol, I think I just reacted negatively because the first reply was criticism.

I do get a lot of backlinks from this method, but by no means am I suggesting that someone should not be link-building like crazy alongside this. I picked isolated examples so people here could see the potential.

In all of my examples, I list a stumble count and a hit count, the hits it the number of total visits I've received, mostly to the images being hotlinked to microblogs.

These kinds of posts do get a lot of attention from bloggers, you're totally correct.
I wouldn't say the conversion rate on products being sold for eCommerce or services marketed is horrible, but I'd say that it's sub-par.

However, when you consider the amount of sudden traffic you're getting, does it really matter? You're still getting a decent client conversion due to the mass visitors, just a poor ratio. And that's okay in my book.

Why just the other day I stumbled upon this product and purchased it!
StarWars.com | Bathrobes Fit for Knights and Lords
It is being FedEx'd to be as we speak I can't wait, it's going to be my Halloween costume (I'm still in my early 20's and I go to adult themed Halloween parties).

So ostensibly, you just need to have a good product (which is more than I can say for some of my clients , lol).

Originally Posted by biggame5

It sounds like a very cool way to get hits. Which would push your site up on the sites right?

You betcha.

Originally Posted by mascomasco

Do you have built backlinks with this method or you just like high traffic without any backend benefit.

In these examples, I didn't do any link-building just for the purpose of showing you guys how powerful this methodology is.

But you should be link-building all the time regardless.
THIS IS NOT A STANDALONE STRATEGY. Run it concurrently with everything you already do to maximize potential.

I'm telling you, you won't believe the traffic.

Originally Posted by ELVISTHEPELVIS

I like it very creative. Nice to see a fellow Torontonian on here.
Brian

It's mutual (:
I <3 the downtown core.

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by friend

Adsense is the best way to go in this situation.

People looking for amusement click on things...but not necessarily buy.

If you can get creative, like maybe, stumble a video or pic of some 'fool' trying to pick up a chick.

Make sure your page is well optimized for the keyword for adsense adsense for some keyword in the picking up girls or get the girl back niche.

I've done it before, and if you get creative you can make a killing with adsense using things whose purpose is for nothing more than amusement.

That's actually a terrible idea for Adsense. Advertisers with Adsense are looking for traffic that converts, not people who are amused by your pictures and decide to click an ad.

Social traffic is renowned for not converting for anyone, including your Adsense advertisers. Get too much social traffic adsense clicks and you'll find your account being smart-priced.

Advising anyone to use social traffic for Adsense is a faulty idea and one that puts you in a dangerous situation with Adsense.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

That's actually a terrible idea for Adsense. Advertisers with Adsense are looking for traffic that converts, not people who are amused by your pictures and decide to click an ad.

Social traffic is renowned for not converting for anyone, including your Adsense advertisers. Get too much social traffic adsense clicks and you'll find your account being smart-priced.

Advising anyone to use social traffic for Adsense is a faulty idea and one that puts you in a dangerous situation with Adsense.

I've never really used adsense before, so this is new to me, but the point you bring up is intriguing, I'll definitely investigate it some more.

I work by finding business that need websites built and optimized and I go about doing that. Not optimizing my own sites, selling my own products or using adsense.
I like to think I'm in it for the marketing and applying my creativity and not the money, but I should definitely check out the adsense business some more in the future, as a constant, ever-accumulating flow of income is a useful thing.

Nevertheless, I'd like to suggest that mass amounts of traffic are better than no traffic, as SERP's do notice the initially sudden, but later consistent increase in flux to your site. That's certainly the case for eCommerce sites that I've worked on.

I once did a project on a site that sells electric bicycles and bicycle conversion kits. We put up a blog and threw up some DIY ebicycle tips, tricks and electric schematics. AMAZING conversion from social networks. Facebook ads and Stumbleupon alike.

With that in light, I'd like to reiterate your statement, if I may be so bold.
"Social traffic is only renowned for customer conversion when your product or service is extremely interesting and appealing.... and when you're not using adsense".

[Adam Roy]

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

That's actually a terrible idea for Adsense. Advertisers with Adsense are looking for traffic that converts, not people who are amused by your pictures and decide to click an ad.

Social traffic is renowned for not converting for anyone, including your Adsense advertisers. Get too much social traffic adsense clicks and you'll find your account being smart-priced.

Advising anyone to use social traffic for Adsense is a faulty idea and one that puts you in a dangerous situation with Adsense.

I've been doing it on a regular basis...for YEARS actually. I've run multiple very extensive campaigns, using 'social traffic'.

No problems thus far.

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by friend

I've been doing it on a regular basis...for YEARS actually. I've run multiple very extensive campaigns, using 'social traffic'.

No problems thus far.

Ok. Well advising others to use social traffic with Adsense is a mistake and I wanted to make it clear that using such traffic in conjunction with Adsense is a bad idea.

As an Adsense publisher it is your responsibility to drive 'converting' traffic to the advertisers on your sites. If you don't, you run the risk of being smart priced or worse.

We as publishers are responsible for driving targeted traffic, not "People looking for amusement click on things...but not necessarily buy."

[Adam Roy]

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

Ok. Well advising others to use social traffic with Adsense is a mistake and I wanted to make it clear that using such traffic in conjunction with Adsense is a bad idea.

As an Adsense publisher it is your responsibility to drive 'converting' traffic to the advertisers on your sites. If you don't, you run the risk of being smart priced or worse.

We as publishers are responsible for driving targeted traffic, not "People looking for amusement click on things...but not necessarily buy."

Have you had problems with Adsense using social traffic?

I have not, therefore I will recommend it as a profitable idea.

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by friend

Have you had problems with Adsense using social traffic?

I have not, therefore I will recommend it as a profitable idea.

The correct thing to say would be: I have not YET.

It's pretty obvious that you don't have the advertisers best interests in mind. Which is fine if that's how you enjoy doing business.

Me, I would rather provide quality traffic to the advertisers on my site, not people who 'like to click things but not buy.'

[Adam Roy]

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

The correct thing to say would be: I have not YET.

It's pretty obvious that you don't have the advertisers best interests in mind. Which is fine if that's how you enjoy doing business.

Me, I would rather provide quality traffic to the advertisers on my site, not people who 'like to click things but not buy.'

Adsense WILL make money with this technique. It's a fact.

It's also a fact, that any given person or situation will have an effect on the conversion rates for the advertiser. Not just the 'methods' used to get the traffic there.

That's neither here nor there.

If you get traffic from one source or another, and the landing page is directly relevant to what the visitor was interested in, and adsense then displays ads relevant to what their interested in...that's just how it works, there's nothing fishy, grey hat, or dishonest about it.

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by friend

Adsense WILL make money with this technique. It's a fact.

I never said it wasn't a fact. I did however say that the traffic won't convert for the advertisers who PAY you. Why would you want to send faulty traffic to the people who are directly responsible for your Adsense check?

Originally Posted by friend

It's also a fact, that any given person or situation will have an effect on the conversion rates for the advertiser. Not just the 'methods' used to get the traffic there.

Correct. However, sending random traffic that you've already stated like to click on things but not buy is bad for your Adsense account and for advertisers. Let me quote it again:

Originally Posted by friend

"People looking for amusement click on things...but not necessarily buy."

Originally Posted by friend

If you get traffic from one source or another, and the landing page is directly relevant to what the visitor was interested in, and adsense then displays ads relevant to what their interested in...that's just how it works, there's nothing fishy, grey hat, or dishonest about it.

You're missing the point. Yes, the ads may be relevant, but someone randomly stumbling across a bunch of different websites is not likely to buy anything. So, my statement still holds. Social traffic DOES NOT convert for advertisers who are directly responsible for paying you as an Adsense publisher. It is our job to keep their best interests in mind.

[Adam Roy]

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

I never said it wasn't a fact. I did however say that the traffic won't convert for the advertisers who PAY you. Why would you want to send faulty traffic to the people who are directly responsible for your Adsense check?



Correct. However, sending random traffic that you've already stated like to click on things but not buy is bad for your Adsense account and for advertisers. Let me quote it again:





You're missing the point. Yes, the ads may be relevant, but someone randomly stumbling across a bunch of different websites is not likely to buy anything. So, my statement still holds. Social traffic DOES NOT convert for advertisers who are directly responsible for paying you as an Adsense publisher. It is our job to keep their best interests in mind.

Social traffic does too convert. You just have to be smart about it.

Who said anything about sending 'faulty' traffic to a site?

You think that just because people are surfing the internet for enjoyment, they might not stumble upon an adsense ad, click on it and then buy?

If you're sending unrelated, irrelevant traffic that's one thing, but just because people are not in a 'buying' state of mind does not mean you should not provide adsense.

So yea, I will run adsense even if people are not 'ready to buy'. That does not make the traffic 'faulty' as you said.

[Adam Roy]

Not to mention, people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every day advertising DIRECTLY on facebook and other social networks.

Many of which I'm sure, are getting great conversions.

[spyoftheworld]

good method
gonna try it
thaks man

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by friend

Social traffic does too convert. You just have to be smart about it.

The truth of the matter is that social traffic from places like Stumbleupon does not convert no matter if you're smart about it or not. And I'm talking about conversions, not the occasional sale - there is a difference.

And there is a difference between someone seeing an ad directly on Facebook, and someone seeing an ad on your website while they are checking out Digg or Stumbleupon.

Originally Posted by friend

Who said anything about sending 'faulty' traffic to a site?

See below.

Originally Posted by friend

People looking for amusement click on things...but not necessarily buy.

Sounds like faulty traffic to me. Publishers are supposed to send traffic that has a likelihood for conversions...not people looking for amusement.

Originally Posted by friend

You think that just because people are surfing the internet for enjoyment, they might not stumble upon an adsense ad, click on it and then buy?

I think that the vast majority of people stumbling your website that also click an adsense ad will not buy. Sure, there might be the occasional sale, but not enough to make it a worthwhile venture for the advertiser behind the ad.

Originally Posted by friend

So yea, I will run adsense even if people are not 'ready to buy'. That does not make the traffic 'faulty' as you said.

Listen, I'm only going off what you said. Which was that people who are looking for amusement click on things but don't necessarily buy. To me that sounds like, "Hell, I've got ads on my site, and people might click on it. Who cares if they actually buy anything."

Do some research about Adsense and social bookmarking traffic. I'm not the only one saying that it's a bad idea.

[Adam Roy]

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

The truth of the matter is that social traffic from places like Stumbleupon does not convert no matter if you're smart about it or not. And I'm talking about conversions, not the occasional sale - there is a difference.

And there is a difference between someone seeing an ad directly on Facebook, and someone seeing an ad on your website while they are checking out Digg or Stumbleupon.



See below.





I think that the vast majority of people stumbling your website that also click an adsense ad will not buy. Sure, there might be the occasional sale, but not enough to make it a worthwhile venture for the advertiser behind the ad.



Listen, I'm only going off what you said. Which was that people who are looking for amusement click on things but don't necessarily buy. To me that sounds like, "Hell, I've got ads on my site, and people might click on it. Who cares if they actually buy anything."

Do some research about Adsense and social bookmarking traffic. I'm not the only one saying that it's a bad idea.

Here's exactly what I mean, check this out...


Advertisers, WANT traffic that's nothing more than amusement.

And they WILL pay for it.

I know that's adwords, not adsense. The point is, ADVERTISER DO, AND ARE WILLING TO PAY for that kind of traffic.

I don't care how you put it, which way you twist it,

YOU CAN MAKE MONEY ON TRAFFIC THAT IS INTERESTED IN NOTHING MORE THAN AMUSEMENT, AND NOT TO BUY!

BECAUSE if you're creative, you'll find that SOME ADVERTISERS DO IN FACT WANT THIS TYPE OF TRAFFIC.

I could think of plenty of ways to get social media traffic, to an adsense site targeting those keywords, while still giving the advertiser what they are paying to receive.

To me that sounds like, "Hell, I've got ads on my site, and people might click on it. Who cares if they actually buy anything."

[orvn]

I think you guys both have strong arguments here.

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

Sounds like faulty traffic to me. Publishers are supposed to send traffic that has a likelihood for conversions...not people looking for amusement.

I see your point.


Adsense might notice a poor conversion ratio and penalize you somehow. I'm not familiar with their policy on this. Do you think they would?

Some points to note:
(1) If you're selling a product directly on Stumbleupon it has to be clever and innovative.

(2) This method bears many similarities with television advertising.
Large flux of viewers +
Arbitrary, but relevant ads (based on the TV channel you're on // what your Stumbleupon interests are).

(3) Before 2008, I had never clicked on an online advertisement in my life. I found no appeal in 'punching the monkey' or even buying something relevant that appeared on a Google ad.
What happened in 2008? I began to actively use FACEBOOK and notice their ads.
OH MY GOODNESS.
I have never clicked on so many ads before. So gosh darn relevant to my interests.
I have a Facebook page open in the next tab. The ads on the side, right at this moment are:
- "Livingglass: Glass with attitude" (cool picture of transforming colourful glass)
- "Need a custom roadbike for speeding down Toronto streets?"
- "An exciting new carreer may be waiting for you in Edmonton"

I clicked on two of the three ads. And I actually need a new roadbike (facebook knows long-distance cycling is an interest of mine).

If that isn't targeted advertising, I'm not sure what is.

[yukon]

Regardless, testing the free traffic can still be interesting.

With 50k+ free traffic, you could run several campains from a single source, & test which campaign converts the best.

[Jacob Martus]

Originally Posted by orvn

Adsense might notice a poor conversion ratio and penalize you somehow. I'm not familiar with their policy on this. Do you think they would?

They won't penalize you per say but you're account can most definitely be smart priced. This happens when you send traffic that doesn't convert to advertisers. What results is lower paying clicks across your entire network of sites...not just the site sending poor conversions.

They don't classify it as a penalty but it'd be hard for someone to not feel that way. Basically, if you continually send Adsense clicks that don't convert to an advertiser, eventually you will get paid MUCH less for those clicks and clicks from other websites you own running Adsense.

So, from a publisher perspective, I would call it a penalty. Google's official stance is that it is not a penalty but really just protection for advertisers.

Originally Posted by orvn

(3) Before 2008, I had never clicked on an online advertisement in my life. I found no appeal in 'punching the monkey' or even buying something relevant that appeared on a Google ad.
What happened in 2008? I began to actively use FACEBOOK and notice their ads.
OH MY GOODNESS.
I have never clicked on so many ads before. So gosh darn relevant to my interests.
I have a Facebook page open in the next tab. The ads on the side, right at this moment are:
- "Livingglass: Glass with attitude" (cool picture of transforming colourful glass)
- "Need a custom roadbike for speeding down Toronto streets?"
- "An exciting new carreer may be waiting for you in Edmonton"

I clicked on two of the three ads. And I actually need a new roadbike (facebook knows long-distance cycling is an interest of mine).

If that isn't targeted advertising, I'm not sure what is.

Also, to clarify my opinion on Facebook advertising. I definitely agree that it converts with the right offer. But comparing Facebook users to Stumbleupon users is a huge stretch. People on Stumbleupon are just screwing around having fun, finding funny or interesting sites. They are nowhere near a buyer mindset. People on facebook are entrenched in their friends and likes and all that. They are much more connected with facebook than they are with stumbleupon.

Facebook traffic will definitely convert if you work it right. However, traffic to Adsense sites from places like Stumbleupon and Digg won't convert in the same way that an advertisement on facebook will convert to a user of Facebook.

[nykn43866]

Does something need to be done to optimize the links or images you add to StumbleUpon? I just signed up as a new user and then added and image file as well as my website link but they have gotten about 3 views... Is there something I need to do to get the ball rolling so to speak?

[BillWynne]

This is cool and creative.

I think you could get good conversions out of it if you knew the demographics of the people that were going to be interested in it....would have to do some thinking or research.

Either way I like the idea and will put it on the todo list.

Probably not the top priority...

Thanks Orvn

[BillWynne]

FYI...the big graphics took awhile to load and I thought they froze my browser...

Running 3Mbps so they are kind of big to cause the delay that they did.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by BillWynne

FYI...the big graphics took awhile to load and I thought they froze my browser...

Running 3Mbps so they are kind of big to cause the delay that they did.

Sorry! I didn't take that into account.

Originally Posted by Jacob Martus

Also, to clarify my opinion on Facebook advertising. I definitely agree that it converts with the right offer. But comparing Facebook users to Stumbleupon users is a huge stretch. People on Stumbleupon are just screwing around having fun, finding funny or interesting sites. They are nowhere near a buyer mindset. People on facebook are entrenched in their friends and likes and all that. They are much more connected with facebook than they are with stumbleupon.

Facebook traffic will definitely convert if you work it right. However, traffic to Adsense sites from places like Stumbleupon and Digg won't convert in the same way that an advertisement on facebook will convert to a user of Facebook.

It's a far stretch to compare Facebook and Stumbleupon in terms of advertising potential now.. but it was not several years ago before the massive remodeling Facebook performed.

Now Facebook gathers your interests into a database and matches it with the interests of other users in parallel, rather than in series, as before.

I'd like to suggest that Stumbleupon has the same potential, as it harvests just as much, if not even more, information about your preferences and interests. Hopefully this is the direction Stumbleupon is moving toward. And if their blog posts are any indication- they are.

I understand how smartpricing can be undesirable, and how this may induce it though. Again, you make a good point.

[nettech]

Doesn't this method totally obliterate your ADSense CPC? :-) Its a good concept but for my AdSense sites I doubt SU traffic would be ideal. Just food for thought!

[hectoth]

Interesting articles, maybe it can help to reduced cost of advertising with mobgold, and admob. cheers.

[caseydon]

Originally Posted by hectoth

Interesting articles, maybe it can help to reduced cost of advertising with mobgold, and admob. cheers.

Interesting method +1 to this.

[orvn]

Added a disclaimer.

[JasonValens]

Providing an embed code with the website url and anchor text at the bottom of the infographic might help with backlinks. Then 301 the page when the interest dies down.
Not sure how many people would go through with this but dammit it's worth a test, I know Matt Inman did something like this with his '10 reasons to date a unicorn' or something, but there was some controversy over either the code or the 301 redirect. My memory is completely failing me, so someone might be able to help on the details of this one.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by JasonValens

Providing an embed code with the website url and anchor text at the bottom of the infographic might help with backlinks. Then 301 the page when the interest dies down.
Not sure how many people would go through with this but dammit it's worth a test, I know Matt Inman did something like this with his '10 reasons to date a unicorn' or something, but their was some controversy over either the code or the 301 redirect. My memory is completely failing me, so someone might be able to help on the details of this one.

That's really clever!
I don't mind hotlinking on a strong server and an embed code could really work well in terms of backlinks!

Thanks for giving me something to think about. (:

[wariswar]

A social network is a social structure made up of individuals (or organizations) called "nodes", which are tied (connected) by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.

Don't you think any social network can get that much hits?

[orvn]

Originally Posted by wariswar

Don't you think any social network can get that much hits?

Well, that depends on what kind of networks you mean really, but here's a generalized answer: No- definitely not.
At least not this easily in a week.

Some social networks are clones of existing concepts. Others are directed at small audiences (e.g. - niche dating sites). If you're talking about social discovery networks, the answer is STILL no:

I've submitted at least a hundred pieces of interesting content to Digg in the past 3 years. None of it has made it to page one. I think one made it to page 3 though!

Let's call that a 0.2% success rate.
My success rate with Stumbleupon is somewhere around 40-60%.

[Jenmerie]

Thanks for the useful information!

When you create the images and you submit it, are you submitting just the jpg alone thats hosted on your site?

Or are you posting it in like say a blog and stumbling that particular blog post or page?

[orvn]

Originally Posted by Jenmerie

Thanks for the useful information!

When you create the images and you submit it, are you submitting just the jpg alone thats hosted on your site?

Or are you posting it in like say a blog and stumbling that particular blog post or page?

My pleasure.

You should be submitting the whole page. I just used individual images in this example for demonstration purposes.

You generally want the image/content to be on a page with a link back to your original site, or to other parts of your site.

JasonValens' embed idea a few posts up is a great twist also.

[sadsprite]

thanks! this strategy is very smart!

[kaiserthesage]

I must say, this is an EXTREME POST! I've been using stumbleupon since I became an SEO, and I do believe in its power. However, I haven't tried using this tool on my previous and current campaigns. This post made me rethink that one, I'm excited to experiment more link baits through stumbleupon!!!! Thanks man! GREAT GREAT GREAT, and excellent write up, I enjoyed reading the entire content all the way!

[ADukes81]

I tried this out on a blog I run and got 200 hits in 2 hours! I am impressed.

Thank you for this idea!

[olamilekan2]

ks, this is a brilliant technique, i will give it a try and come back with my result

[tpw]

Nice instructional piece. I have read tons on link bait and social media, but I think this is the best tutorial I have seen on both.... As I hit Tweet This...

[Bill Farnham]

Just found this on Bill Platt's Twitter thingamabob...

I'm off to see the Wizard...

Thanks for the info.

~Bill

[mumuCute]

why this strategy might not be optimal for adsense?? the high traffic is not human?

[orvn]

Originally Posted by mumuCute

why this strategy might not be optimal for adsense?? the high traffic is not human?

The traffic is human. Mark Anthony and Adam Roy have a few posts in this thread explaining that adsense might notice all the traffic, but not a whole lot of conversion (unless you're really very clever).

But I should probably pause for a moment here to reiterate what I told them: this is a strategy to get links via linkbait. The traffic is just a cool preceding effect.

Originally Posted by tpw

Nice instructional piece. I have read tons on link bait and social media, but I think this is the best tutorial I have seen on both.... As I hit Tweet This...

Thanks! That tweet seems to be getting attention!

Originally Posted by benintheworld

This is rather excellent! Orvn - you are somewhat of a legend!

Orly? But I just got here!
Lol, I've actually got a lot to learn, but I'm getting there. I excel in a couple of things though, and this is one of them!