The Secret to Earning a Good StumbleUpon Review

How do you help a clueless Stumbleupon user who’s also your friend? Let us try by writing her a letter. Here goes -

Hi, how are you today? Do you have something for me to review today?

Yesterday, you have plied me with 10 posts – all pages coming from your own blog. And they are all about Lindsay Lohan, Sharon Stone, and other Hollywood female stars in their fantastic gowns.

I have nothing against celebrities and high fashion and expensive accessories for women. But my brain is not hardwired for this stuff. Well, maybe, if you come across some actors who can write then maybe I’d give your blog some serious thoughts.

Personal relationships still rule

If I were you, I’d get to know first the people you send your pages to for review. For example, you’ve not been to my blog to read what I write about. You could have sent me little notes under the door. I’m even up for a longish email if you want to take the scenic route.

You did not.

It’s not all about promotion, you see. Don’t you get tired hawking your wares? The weather is fine, can we not talk about that first? Get personal with me. Nothing’s wrong with that.

I’d be the first to put in a good word about you if I only know you well. Marvelous things can happen if I feel a personal connection with you. Trust me on this.

The key to getting a good StumbleUpon review

True, I have written glowing reviews about nearly everything. Well, here’s the thing, 90% of those stuff were not solicited. I wrote those raves without anybody prompting me to. I have received other pages asking for a thumbs up or a review. Guess what. This is fine with me. I don’t scrimp on giving a post a good send off.

The difference is this: my other friends do send me only their best posts. Occasionally. That’s the magic word: occasionally.

The good news

I’m sure you will notice this. I have simply gone through the pages you’ve sent me. I could have thumbed them down, wrote something nasty to belittle your taste. But I did not. I want to give you another chance. I want to play it nice.

This also means you’re still on my roster of friends in StumbleUpon today.

I can’t promise what will happen tomorrow. If you persist to be pushy then I simply have to gently nudge you off the cliff.

Over to you, guys. Do you have a similar experience in StumbleUpon or in another social media?

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jan

I have some reliable friends in SU who I can occasionally ask for a thumbs up or a review. And there are new Twitter friends who are so savvy. They not only retweet your posts but they also give you a thumbs up.

Of all the social media, SU is special to me because it's my first. It even came before I had a blog. :)
trench

I used to have alot of relationships on stumbleupon but I really haven't used it lately. Your right though. Personal relationships rule.

Recent blog post: Star Trek (Theaters)
jan

Elms, why can't you say it? lol. Ass is allowed in my blog. Oh, I forgot you were in the seminary before. Tsk tsk tsk. I have a poor memory!
elmot

but stones could easily melt when cupid hits your groin, ooopss...sorry for the blunder...your heart rather...hehehehe... i thought i was still on your post on sex thought me....

Recent blog post: The Grand Engagament of Romance and Politics
jan

Age and not romance. I have a heart of stone. yikees.
elmot

it surely not a problem of age big bro, unless you are going through midlife? ahahha...

or is it a problem of romance...ahha

Recent blog post: The Grand Engagament of Romance and Politics
jan

Perhaps you can write a post on how to be mean without appearing to be mean? Nice idea - titillating. :-D Or perhaps you can conduct a webinar on the matter.

O, di ba, maganda? It shows off your most recent post. And you can keep track of the conversation because it's threaded.

What have you've been up to? Hey, can you shoot me a message in my contact form. I don't know where to reach you when you're not on your blog. You hardly use your Twitter now. Can you trust me with your email? I'm not a stalker, you know. You're safe with me. 8-)
Jojigirl

Well, the vulnerability to these elements is inevitable especially that you have gone "far and wide", hehehe. I can always ignore these types or do the cleanup and rid my turf of them, without having to mean I am mean. Socializing is exposure but we can always regulate its contagion to our convenience. Oh, di ba? Parang totoong alam ni Manang when in fact she is living otherwise, hehe...in obscurity, at laging late sa news. Pagbalik ko ganda na ng comment section mo no?

Recent blog post: Recycling the Paper Some Other Way
Jan

@Roy: Of course you can, Roy. Anytime. You're already working on your little crusade you've launched minutes ago, I see. ",) Good luck.
Roy

I still don't Digg and STU. I believe I have an account in both, but I really don't understand them. Don't have the patience to study them.

I would love to learn them, if they can help me in my blogging.

Can I ask you questions about them Jan?

But perhaps, these questions could be best discussed 'in person' you know, for clarifications, follow-up questions and all that stuff. Real life discussion, I mean.
Jan

@Dee: The StumbleUpon toolbar has a "Send to" icon. If you click this icon, you'd be presented a list of your friends in the drop down menu. You can select one or several or all of them to send your obra maestra to. Alternatively, you can send an email about it to your other friends - this from the same drop-down menu.

Miss Little Clueless has indeed lived up to her moniker. After I've posted this article she had sent me 4 more of her own stuff about - what else but celebs. Plus one video link to a Led Zep song. ",)

One more day, just one more day, Miss Little Clueless.

@Z: Cool. I think it's important we claim those spots before a shady character/nincompoop/a-hole beat us to it. Better be safe than sorry.

Of course, we will not drive ourselves silly being active in all of those sites. We just select what suits us best. ".)
zorlone

I just read your message to Jan about registering to Digg, I did and will soon register in the other social media sites... I'm feeling lazy after I registered. LOL

Have a nice weekend!

Z
Dee

I didn't know that you can send e-mail pala when you have new posts? Now, I'm curious na naman who this girl is? Why are there personalities like that, I wonder? :)
Jan

@lemuel:Not very much into Digg. It's tech oriented, gadget-crazy bunch of people, and the weird stuff too. Although some bloggers have great success with Digg to.

I advise you to reg on Digg though. We have to reg our name/fave username on these social media sites before somebody else beats us to it. Better be first than sorry. Am I making sense? ",)
lemuel

ok, i'll take your advice, will go to SU more often. how about Digg? are you active there too? thanks!
Jan

@lemuel: Really? Great, but at least reserve an hour or two for SU every now and then. You'd be surprised that through your stumble you'd have great ideas for your blog as a result. Really, I'm not joking. I look at SU as a site that provokes my creativity. You'll have your aha moments the more you stumble.

But hey, I can't complain now, can I? At least you're enjoying twitter. Yesss! ",)
lemuel

hi, i used stumbleupon just once, was not interested in learning more before. maybe in the future. i'm too preoccupied in twitter nowadays, i guess i can't multitask. anyway, this is another fan of yours, after the little rascal, now this... i guess you are famous already jan... that's a price to pay for being well known... hehehe :)
Jan

@fifi: That's funny... I've come across this blogger who has two assistants who do the blog commenting for him. He calls them his two little elves.

Maybe when I have some extra money I'd give hiring little elves some serious thoughts. ",)

SU is special to me because I've had it before blogging. Call me snobbish, but I can't be persuaded to thumb up and review something I don't like. Because this will reflect on me as an SU user. Won't have any of that scratch my back and I will scratch yours mentality. ",)
fifi

hi jan. stumble upon is another of those found on the internet that i don't pay attention to. now you get me curious again about it. i have friends who bombard me too with articles which they have 'stumbled upon,' but i dont take their 'persistence' and just check the article but wont do anything about it. funny that you stumble upon a lot of characters as you blog your way to self-expression. that must be the tough price to pay of your own stardom. :)
Jan

@fedhz: Not nearly as annoying as before. I've written it down already. I can say now it's past me. Ignore ko na lang. ",)
fedhz

Hey, Jan...

Okay.. thanks for the info. like what ceblogger said I also want to "thumbs up" worthy posts.

your hardcore marketer friend is hoarding comments and acknowledgments in a very annoying way, huh?
Jan

@Z:
1. Thumbs Up is of course you approve of what you've just read. You just click the SU toolbar for that. Then you move on.

A review of the post can be very brief. I can write a one word review of a post like: "Superb!"

Or two words: "You rock!" Or a full blown paragraph depending how generous you are or how much time you have for this.

2. She might have been here. Is she blind? I don't do celebs and fashion here. I even do the opposite: unfollowing them in twitter.

3. A thumbs up is a promotion for the post as the said post gets to be seen by other stumblers. Like the RT in Twitter is a thumbs up too for the original tweeter.

4. I've already explained I have no interest in celebs and fashion. I've sent her a message already.

5. Well...lol

That's why I'm keeping it cool. My words in the internet can indeed outlive me, I realize that too.

I trust you'd all be posting about it. Will read it na lang. ",)
zorlone

Jan,

As a newbie in the blogosphere I don't know what you just talked about!!! LOL!

But, give me a chance here;

1. You were asked to make an article about another person's post? i.e. celebs and their fashion trends

2. The pinay blogger who asked you to do this has never been to your blog? (tsk tsk tsk)

3. She wants you to stumble it. (is that the same as twitter where we promote posts of each other?)

4. she persistent. (not actually a bad trait, but if you already said no in the kindest possible way, she doesn't stop asking)

5. like what roy said, "she get's in your nerves!" (she should stop that)

6. uhm... I guess it's only up to number 5. hehehe.

Okay, you are a very polite man! I would have been furious, but, this is the blogosphere and we should be careful to what we say. I read from somewhere that what we write here will outlive us. It would be a waste if all the good things we did are overshadowed by the trivial, shall we say "controlled-rage" like the one you have right now?

Another well written post Jan!

btw, elmot writes poems too! been to his site, he's good!

also, been to dan's site. he's a genius!

I will see roy at the convention, too bad you can't make it.

Z
Jan

@elms: I'm getting irritable. A function of age? lol. Roy's technology blog has a good post about how to bypass the office ban on twitter. Check him out. I forgot which blog - Father Roy has oodles of them after all. ",)
elmot

hahaha! roy is right..another one getting into your nerves big bro.

well, that is the downside of a good blogger. but i agree with all the stuff that you shared in this post.

case closed for me your honor.
Jan

@celblogger: Yeah, I'm in a similar bind. I can only manage a few stumbles in a week, but I keep at it. Guess what, Twitter gets in the way and other things us bloggers are caught up with.
ceblogger

it's been a while since i stumbled a post. and it's been a while too since a post of mine gets a stumble.

one of these days, or maybe tonight, i'll have a stumble marathon. but only for the worthy posts.
Jan

@fedhz: You've two options if you love what you've stumbled in SU. You can simply thumb it up which means you like it. The other is to write a review of the page. Even a short review is great. It shows why this particular page gets your approval.

Yeah, you can always ask your friend's opinion. That deepens the online relationship between blog buddies. You're willing to put yourself on the line by asking. Sometimes that's hard to do.

But submitting pages for review automatically like my "good SU friend" did does not fall into that category. She looks like a hardcore marketer. And a friend will not do that to a buddy. Okay, maybe, but in moderation.

Thanks, Fhedz.
fedhz

Hi, Jan.. I miss a lot from your blogposts. Good thing I saw you again in Ate Mye's blog. Nice new theme, anyway...

I have signed up at StumbleUpon when JedChan said he had stumbled one of my posts. (I'm glad he liked it). I am still not particular of its function, but my stumbled entry did receive some page views.

I haven't been around SU and I'm not familiar about the "review" thing, but yeah, what "she" did is nerve cracking. I can deeply relate to you. I mean, I would ask my artist friend's opinion about my newly designed craft because I know he can relate to it and would be able to give constructive comments and insights about it.

This is all for now. ^^v see yah
Jan

@Roy: I want to give her a chance. She's Pinay after all. ",)
Roy

doesn't stumble have a 'block' feature?

or at least a 'report user' button?

that'll do the trick
Jan

@Roy: This is a she. She's into celebs and fashion. She's bugging me every so often with her bevy of Hollywood stars. I prefer to watch Hollywood stars on television, not in blogs.

At least, the little rascal gets to annoy me only when he emails me.

This one is persistent - a pain in the neck.
Roy

hahaha! another one getting into your nerves?

I thought it was the little rascal, but you said 'her' i'm pretty sure you mentioned before that the rascal was a 'he'

Review for a celebrity post? What new things they did today? Did they remember to wear undies this time? lol

'never been to stumble, and I don't really Digg that much. Pardon me, if I can't relate what's happening there.

But whatever the environment maybe, 'those kind of people' will always be there.
Jan

@Bush Mackel: I particularly like StumbleUpon because it's my first social media hangout. I've been a member way back. I find the scene more to my taste - no compulsion to do lots of things at one go.

Until bloggers who have not got a clue start to make a nuisance of themselves.

SU is still great for driving steady traffic and for finding creative inspiration.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Bush Mackel

Honestly, it's been a long time since I've even though about stumbleupon or digg as far as traffic sources go. But still, I know what you're talking about with ppl CONSTANTLY wanting you to promote posts that really don't interest you. Whatchya gonna do I suppose.

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