Is StumbleUpon Traffic Worthless?

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This could be a review of StumbleUpon but since I have nothing to compare it to it isn't. There is simply no website or service that is similar to it. Website owners seem to love it but I think it is quite worthless in terms of meaningful traffic. Here's why:

I have been "Stumbled" twice recently and both times I have come to the same conclusion that StumbleUpon traffic is pretty useless. StumbleUpon is actually a great site that allows you to surf the Internet. It's a lot of fun for the surfer but for the websites they are surfing I am not sure there is much value.

Once you join up to SumbleUpon a toolbar will be installed on your computer (this is the part I don't like) and you will be asked to check the boxes of categories that interest you. If you check the humor box you will be taken to websites that fall into the humor category and the politics box will get you political websites etc.

Once you have done that you are ready to go. Put on your seatbelt and press the "Stumble" button on your new toolbar! You will then immediately be taken randomly to a website that falls into the categories you just chose. Once there you can stick around and peruse the site or push the stumble button again. Another new site will pop up and after that one other and another and another. Now you are now truly surfing the net!

Stumbling the web can be very entertaining but I only do it when I am bored or have time to kill. One of my categories is humor so I go from supposedly funny website to funny website. Some are better than others, of course, but it is a great way to see what is out there in your categories.

The problem is that when I stumble I am in the mood for some fast action. I don't want to be bothered with heavy reading and just want to be amused. I think it is this way with many others as well. When I am in that mood, I am not going to slow down too long to read anything and I am truly just surfing.

This brings me back to the premise of this article that StumbleUpon traffic is useless. I know that I definitely could be classified as "useless" when I stumble and my stats show that others are the same way. The last time I got Stumbled I had an additional 500 people view my site in under 2 hours. On that day I did not make any new sales, adsense income, or RSS subscriptions that were above and beyond the norm. The people were there, but only briefly. My site is a blog with posts and not that many videos or pictures. It takes visual stimulation to keep them there longer I believe and my blog does not have that.

Being Stumbled is great for the stats and very exciting when it happens but kind of a let down afterward. It's kind of like going on a game show and coming home empty handed!