In the past I’ve seen somewhat positive results from stumbling my own posts, so I decided to do a little experiment to see if using a stumble exchange could help compound the stumble effect and generate even more visitor traffic for a blog.

The actual value of Stumble Upon traffic is an interesting topic to me and something we might discuss in another article, but given that a page view is a page view, I decided to try out the exchange site from the simple perspective of raw numbers. I wasn’t looking to measure the quality of the traffic, just the quantity.

Specifically, I wanted to know these five things:

1. How much traffic can an exchange generate?
2. Can I find truly valuable sites in the exchange list?
3. How much time is required to participation in the exchange?
4. Could I be penalized for being a part of the exchange?
5. Do I have to continually participate to get traffic?

So I created a free account. It took less than thirty seconds to complete the signup and email based account activation.

Once my account was activated and I was logged in, I was prompted to complete my profile which included some basic information like my stumble upon username, a contact email address, a short pitch about me, and a url of the website I wanted stumbled.

It only took a minute to complete the form and I was on my way to looking for other sites to stumble.

It’s worth noting that it’s possible to add more than one website to be stumbled, but for the initial testing I decided to use only one domain. If there was going to be a penalty for being in the exchange I didn’t want it to affect more than one website.

With a free account and about three separate ten minute sessions of hand picking sites that I wanted to stumble, I decided to sit back and see what would happen.

Stumble Upon Traffic Increase

Over the next twenty four hours I saw a definite increase in the raw traffic. The test site, which had previously been getting between two hundred and six hundred unique visitors a day, saw and increase by an additional twenty five hundred visitors. The total unique visits for the day was 3,287 and the total page views were 5,025. This is compared to the previous day’s numbers of 696 unique visitors and 1,204 page views.

Over the next six days the visitor numbers averaged out to be 2,595 unique visitors per day and 4,114 page views per day and the numbers are still strong as I am writing this article.

So, as a broad generalization I think it is safe to say that the exchange generated traffic beyond what was average for the site previously. Of course there are other off page factors that are mixed in like efforts to increase external linking from other sites, but given the over night change I will assume that a large portion of the increase was from the exchange activity.

Stumble Exchange Quality

As for finding valuable sites in the exchange, I did actually find several websites that I bookmarked with my del.icio.us account.

The other sites I stumbled because I either saw value in where they were going or I enjoyed the content of the site. But overall there was a good mix of creative sites and spam sites.

In general, I tried to stumble the websites I thought were of good quality so that I would add value to my Stumble Upon account. I try to consider that when making stumble choices because I like to think that a valuable stumble account carries more weight than a junk one and if the point is to be seen then you have to consider both sides of the equation to make sure everything balances out.

Time Requirements

Like I said in the beginning, it took very little time to get started and to gain the traffic. Given the free cost of the activity and the positive result involved I would say that this is definitely a productive activity provided you stay focused while you are doing it. It is also the perfect task to outsource to a high school kid in your area because it’s simple to do and the criteria is simple to define for someone else.

Possible Penalties

One of the remaining questions was, could I be penalized for using the exchange. I’ve put a lot of thought into this question and to this point I have to say I haven’t seen any backlash.

That doesn’t mean that someone couldn’t go too far and get slapped, but in my case I’m taking it slow and easy with the exchange and I’m stumbling sites outside of the exchange as well.

I have noticed a few of the exchange site listings that say they think their site has been banned, but at this point I don’t have a confirmation on those sites. I haven’t even tried to find out. Honestly, I think it might be to difficult to tell if they were banned for using the exchange or just because of some other activity that they were engaged in outside of the exchange. So, for now I’m just going to use a conservative approach to the process and see what happens.

Continued Participation

And lastly, I wanted to know if I would have to continually participate in the exchange to see a sustained benefit.

To answer that I must confess that other than my three, ten minutes sessions, I have only been back to the site one other time to award points and answer messages from other members.

In general I am continuing to see traffic from Stumble Upon on a regular basis. It might be that if left long enough this traffic would die out, but I have to imagine that the initial rush of exposure leads to more exposure as people stumble through to the site and therefore stumble it themselves.

If this is the case, then a good healthy push from the stumble exchange could spark a reasonable chain of traffic that could continue for some time. I will have to update this writing over time to let you know what the actual results are.

So, what’s my conclusion?

Well, as with anything, a little goes a long way and I wouldn’t recommend a stumble exchange as your silver bullet of traffic tools. But as another technique for getting visitors to your website, I would recommend it.

Of course, there is the disclaimer that you should only expose yourself to as much risk as you are willing to bare, but if you take a conservative approach and don’t try to abuse the system, then using a stumble exchange seems to be a good option.

What’s been your experience with Stumble Upon?

Stumbling here and there,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com

Creating a real business involves setting up systems with replaceable parts. As an example, if a software developer leaves your company, then you need to have a method for hiring a new one to replace them. As part of the system that’s in place to run your business, you won’t be the person to do the hiring. Your hiring manage will take care of hiring a replacement.

As Internet Entrepreneurs, we should be looking remove ourselves from every part of our business that does not add value to our bottom line. We shouldn’t be spending hours setting up a server when we can pay a professional to do it for us. We shouldn’t be setting up databases, configuring software, laying out graphics, writing copy, and on and on. We should be doing the high level stuff that we can’t outsource to others. I know this is hard to accept, but deep down you know it’s true.

Admittedly, I am the worst. Letting go and depending on someone else to do the things I know I have the ability to do absolutely drives me nuts. It doesn’t just frighten me, it challenges my confidence that I will be able to effectively manage other people and that is what really gets under my skin. You know what I’m talking about. I know you do.

What About The Creative Process

Now, all that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be under the hood dreaming up great technical solutions or coming up with the next piece of Internet magic that will set the world on fire. It simply means that when you have released your inner genius, turn the day to day pieces over to someone who is willing to exchange their time for money. Let them worry about flipping the switches so you can go create something else new and exciting.

Great. Cool. Fine. Fantastic. But, how do you get from where you are today to where you want to be as the owner of a business that can function without you? Part of the answer is to create process maps. Process maps layout the actual steps to accomplish something within your business.

You can create process maps for setting up software, installing servers, creating sales funnels, you name it. The process maps can then be handed off to professionals you hire to perform the tasks. Once you have created these process maps you can actually increase your productivity exponentially.

A Simple Example

Let’s suppose you create a process map for researching a niche topic to create an ebook, performing keyword research for the niche, and installing some niche store software. With those things in hand you can effectively hand one set of process maps to three different people and have each of them perform their tasks without your involvement.

Now let’s say you spent the day at the lake with your family. Then at the end of the day you check your email and you receive your ebook materials, keyword lists, and a notification that your store software is all setup. You would be getting three times the productivity while being at the lake as you would receive if you spent all day doing those same tasks yourself.

So, how do you create one of these process maps?

• Begin with a single word that describes the process to be mapped.
• Create branches for any supporting topics of the processes off your topic.
• Continue to identify branches off the first level of branches until every branch is expanded to its smallest parts.
• Review each branch to include any gaps as you analyze the entire process map.
• Include notes to detail each part within the branches.
• Move any parts that may not have been placed in the right order.
• Regularly review the document to make certain the map still matches your business processes.

You can create this map on the back of a napkin to rough things out on the fly, but for long term success I recommend that you use a software tool to layout the finished product. In particular, if your looking for a simple, low cost solution that can be easily shared with other then you should consider creating process maps using Gliffy.com.

Gliffy is a web based a tool that makes it easy to create, share, and collaborate on a wide range of diagrams. You can create everything from process maps to floor plans, web designs to electrical diagrams, or mind maps to organizational charts. Everything is simple drag and drop and you can even post the diagram to your blog using the cut-and-paste code that they give you.

You might want to do some more research to determine the best way to layout a process map for your operations, but it will be time well spent because you will then be able to hand that process off later to someone else and you’ll be free to do other things that will direct affect your earning potential.

Process map maker,

Charles McKeever
OpenSourceMarketer.com