The Stumble Upon Commandments

Posted on March 6, 2008
Filed Under Social Media, Stumble Upon, Social Networking, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Networking, StumbleUpon |

StumbleUpon is all the talk in Social Networking, and for good reasons. It is a great way to meet folks to network with both in an outside of your industry. And yes, we know it can be good for generating some web traffic. Ok — real good.

I have had the privilege of helping people get going on their SU journey, so I figured I would just put it all in a blog post and start to send it out. Much of this has been said by others, but I decided to draft the Stumble Upon commandments.

So here are the rules on how to “Stumble without Falling”

1. Thou Shalt Not Stumble Thyself Exclusively (lest you go blind in the eyes of others). Literally, if you are just Stumbling yourself people will watch but let you keep on enjoying yourself - they won’t stop you or join you. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist)

2. Thou Shalt Not Attempt to Network Without a Photo or Avatar. Avatars help in branding as long as you are consistent with your website and other Social Media Networks. People don’t know who you are, but they will feel like they know you a bit more if you use your photo as an Avatar. Baby pictures are cute, but not helpful when you run into that person at a conference - they just won’t look the same.

3. Thou Shalt Not Spam. This applies to SU or otherwise. It’s just wrong and a great way to get blacklisted by the community. That includes IM’s and mass sending of lots of links.

4. Thou Shalt Not Have a Blank Profile. On top of having your picture, say something about yourself. It’s just common courtesy. Here is an example of a great StumbleUpon profile that I recently referred someone to.

5. Thou Shalt Not Ignore Those Who Review You. If someone reviews your site, send them a note thanking them and asking them how you van help them.

6. Thou Shalt Not Only Offer Thumbs Up or Down. Take some time to write a review; people will appreaciate that you have an opinion, even if they disagree.

7. Thou shalt Not Submit or Support Worthless Content. If it didn’t happen, it wouldn’t need explanation. Ask yourself, do I really like this site? Will someone really benefit from this? Am I just doing someone a favor, and ruining my reputation in the process?

8. Thou Shalt Not Pay for Reviews and Stumbles. Sites that offer Stumbles and Review for money are kind of the antithesis of what Social Networking is. To me it is the difference is effectively sharing about a product or service and simply not being genuine.

I am super busy and only got to 8 - Feel free to submit your suggestions for #9 & #10. No big prizes, just a link and kudos.

Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Netvouz
  • De.lirio.us
  • Furl
  • Netscape
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Technorati
  • Bumpzee
  • Facebook
  • Ma.gnolia
  • Mixx
  • NewsVine
  • Socialogs
  • Sphinn
  • Spurl
  • YahooMyWeb

Comments

14 Responses to “The Stumble Upon Commandments”

  1. Brian on March 6th, 2008 2:06 pm

    Thou shalt not create a 10 commandments post with only 8 commandments.

    kidding of course

  2. oldschool on March 6th, 2008 2:19 pm

    Cute. Who says there has to be 10 commandments. Historically, people have had enough trouble keeping them, perhaps 10 is too many? (just kidding, no flames please)

  3. Matt Keegan on March 6th, 2008 2:20 pm

    10 commandments minus 2 — I don’t think these were handed down to Moses, but they are worthy of remembering nonetheless.

  4. oldschool on March 6th, 2008 2:36 pm

    In Moses’ day, when he stumbled upon something, it probably hurt :-) (only my wife indulges my humor)

  5. Search Engine Land: News About Search Engines & Search Marketing on March 6th, 2008 4:12 pm

    SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 6, 2008…

    Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web…….

  6. In Anchor » SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 6, 2008 on March 6th, 2008 5:31 pm

    […] The Stumble Upon Commandments, OldSchool SEO […]

  7. SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 6, 2008 | Seofinance, seo web finance, search enigne optmization services blog on March 6th, 2008 5:52 pm

    […] The Stumble Upon Commandments, OldSchool seo […]

  8. Joe Cheray on March 7th, 2008 12:51 am

    Thou shall never underestimate the power of the Stumble.

  9. AllIPTech » Blog Archive » SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 6, 2008 on March 7th, 2008 7:39 am

    […] The Stumble Upon Commandments, OldSchool SEO […]

  10. Dr. Pete on March 10th, 2008 6:55 pm

    Of course, the exception to #8 being StumbleUpon’s own advertising program, where you can outright buy Stumbles. I’m still curious to try that out.

  11. oldschool on March 10th, 2008 7:59 pm

    @ Joe - Good one.

    @ Dr. Pete - I have heard mixed reviews, but at $0.05 per click, it seems worth a try. Let me know how it works for you.

  12. searchenginemarketingvox » Blog Archive » SearchCap: The Day In Search, March 6, 2008 on March 12th, 2008 10:30 am

    […] The Stumble Upon Commandments, OldSchool SEO […]

  13. Sweet articles from the blogs around | DailySEOblog.com on March 17th, 2008 9:15 am

    […] (The OldschoolSEO guy) has posted some interesting Stumble Upon commandments at his blog. It’s worth a read and probably a stumble […]

  14. Zygos Community Links on March 19th, 2008 8:01 pm

    Sweet articles from the blogs around…

    Hey, last week orkut made a small yet significant change. Orkut now allows to search and add your friends from outside the Google circle. Like AOL, Hotmail and Yahoo ! After all, it has probably discovered that all your “old  school buddies” are o…

Leave a Reply