Jul 21 2008

StumbleUpon Experiment

I wanted to try something for fun since I have seen the results of using stumble upon and the impact it can have on some websites from users giving the “thumbs up”. Basically I want to see how busy I can get this post and how many thumbs up we can get people to give it.

I will post updates on the traffic and thumbs up count so if you would like to contribute to the experiment simply give this post a “thumbs up”.

Also please leave a comment if you came across this post because of using stumbleupon and also your thoughts on stumbleupon, why you use it, does it help your site?

Update:

  • So 20 minutes later after posting this and my server was at 2,500% CPU Usage and all my sites went down…lol looks like it’s working so far. (it was only for about a minute from the initial surge of traffic)
  • 2 hours in and about 300 hits to this post from stumbleupon, not bad so far
  • 11 hours in and already 40 stumblers, 1500 visits from stumbleupon and apparently some people think this is some thing to get money from advertisements. Well if you even took the time to look around you would notice I have only 1 ad on my entire site and it’s not even in a place that interferes with my blog whatsoever. But hey everyone has their own opinion so that’s cool.
  • I’m gonna end this after 24 hours is up and do a re-cap on everything, what worked well, what went wrong, my thoughts, etc.

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TAGS:

106 Comments on this post

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  1. Moomoomoo said:

    i came across this post using stumbleupon

    [Reply]
    July 21st, 2008 at 9:01 pm
  2. Jerry said:

    Bryn,

    I stumbled it, I’m a fan of your blog.

    Jerry

    [Reply]
    July 21st, 2008 at 10:03 pm
  3. Bryn Youngblut said:

    Thanks Jerry. Appreciate it.

    [Reply]
    July 21st, 2008 at 10:07 pm
  4. maddog said:

    i also came across your page because of my trust stumble button

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 am
  5. melaniepailing said:

    I stumbled it…and like the blog too

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 4:46 am
  6. jasmine celion said:

    This is really cool article thanks for sharing it

    jasmine celion
    cool-hotstufff.blogspot.com

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 4:53 am
  7. mcglestacius said:

    I stumbled across this page on the world wide web. The WORLD WIDE WED MAN!

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 5:15 am
  8. mcglestacius said:

    I’m also achingly aware that I mispelled “web” in the second sentence, and I am ashamed.

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 5:16 am
  9. ems said:

    stumbled here and liked it!

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 am
  10. morbid kittens said:

    stumbled.

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 6:48 pm
  11. spyder said:

    STUMBLE!!!!!

    [Reply]

    Bryn Youngblut Reply:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:13 pm

    Well thanks for your opinion, it’s so stupid you took the time to make a comment. :)

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 9:06 pm
  12. Ármann Snær Erlingsson said:

    Yay stumble yay

    [Reply]

    Bryn Youngblut Reply:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:13 pm

    Actually the one ad is pre-paid for, it gains me no monetary value whatsoever.

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 9:38 pm
  13. Nekomancer said:

    Stumbled upon, interesting blog but not my thing. Good luck with this though!

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 9:39 pm
  14. Kerrick said:

    I also came across this page using that addictive Stumble button!

    [Reply]

    Bryn Youngblut Reply:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:18 pm

    now that I am seeing this I completely agree. The hits from the first 24 hours was around 2000 and now (36 hours later) it’s over 8000 (over 6,000 in just the last 12 hours)….this is crazy.

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
  15. Korri said:

    I cam across this using stumble.
    I love stumble because it’s given me new reason to surf the web.
    It also keeps me very entertained at work. ^.^

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 10:50 pm
  16. Lee said:

    out of my use of stumble upon, I have found many gr8 sites, & this is one of them. & I stumbled here

    [Reply]

    Debbie Reply:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:51 pm

    Boy Bryn Youngblut is angry guy, good comeback from you.

    [Reply]
    July 22nd, 2008 at 11:00 pm
  17. pippip said:

    stumbled =]

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 am
  18. Jen said:

    Stumbled!

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 11:58 am
  19. Kristin said:

    I stumbled. :3

    I love stumble! I’ve found so many cool websites with it.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 12:02 pm
  20. Idiot said:

    I was a couple days late.

    D:

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
  21. from Argentina said:

    me too

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
  22. Tak said:

    Stumbled here and Stumbling on>>>>> to StrangeWorld

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
  23. asia said:

    stumble and thumbs up :) good luck with your experiment!

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
  24. michael said:

    fellow stumbler…

    [Reply]

    Debbie Reply:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm

    oops sorry your Bryn, well whoever it was that gave the thumbs down on this is to whom I was referring. ;+)

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 1:34 pm
  25. jeeb said:

    Gave it a thumbs down. Why, you ask?? This blog is stupid and pointless.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 1:41 pm
  26. busted said:

    Pretty smart, creating a farcical experiment to generate ad revenue. Does it matter that you have one ad? No. That ad, regardless of where it is, still generates revenue. And maybe if people click around you might get more! That’s the hope, right?

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 1:50 pm
  27. HollyHURR. said:

    I found this using StumbleUpon, which I installed out of boredom =]

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 1:52 pm
  28. xtd said:

    24 hours is definitely too short to experience the full impact of stumble upon!

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 1:58 pm
  29. Stu said:

    I too stumbled here. In fact, you were the first site that I hit today with my stumble button.

    Personally I’ve not seen much benefit from my website (http://www.plagro.com) being stumbled upon. It gets its fair share of hits from stumble and I’ve had some nice comments via email, but other than that I wouldn’t say that it has really increased revenue.

    Good experiment though, fair play to you…thumbs up from me!

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:09 pm
  30. Online Advertising said:

    You got a thumbs up from me =)

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:21 pm
  31. xiel said:

    stumbled it..
    :)

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:25 pm
  32. Alex said:

    Ugh, a stumblewhore.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:35 pm
  33. Debbie said:

    Hello, I Stumbled to your site. I also gave it a Thumbs up. Take care.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 2:48 pm
  34. j-yo said:

    stumbled

    [Reply]

    Bryn Youngblut Reply:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 8:32 pm

    I really don’t understand peoples problem from stumbleupon, if you don’t like an ad don’t click it? Simple. Web hosting doesn’t pay for itself.

    Please explain to me how a single ad makes this “experiment” less believable? It’s right here in front of you, if you don’t like it don’t comment or thumbs up, pretty simple concept.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 3:06 pm
  35. Justin said:

    Stumbled

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 3:13 pm
  36. steelfrog said:

    Stumbled here.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
  37. lauu said:

    stumbled upon this.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 3:59 pm
  38. Lomky said:

    I stumbled here.

    I love stumbleupon when it brings me new interesting ideas and awesome content.

    I hate when SU brings me crappy articles about nothing. Or articles about SU.

    YMMV

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 4:20 pm
  39. Kmad said:

    stumbled!

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 4:30 pm
  40. Alicia said:

    I stumbled upon this page as well.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 5:27 pm
  41. obbi said:

    STUMBLIN’ STUMBLIN’ STUMBLIN’

    [Reply]

    Bryn Youngblut Reply:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 9:28 pm

    Amazing!

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 6:30 pm
  42. Dan said:

    stumble and here I am!

    [Reply]

    Kevin Reply:
    July 29th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

    Holy crap! I just did it again!

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 7:34 pm
  43. Dan said:

    stumble took me here!

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
  44. Jason said:

    This is gay. Thumbs down. Take down your single “non-intrusive” ad and then it may be a little more believable as an experiment.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 7:38 pm
  45. Osman S Borutecene said:

    same here. lol.

    [Reply]

    Bryn Youngblut Reply:
    July 23rd, 2008 at 10:33 pm

    Finally someone who has common sense.

    [Reply]

    compson Reply:
    July 28th, 2008 at 2:17 pm

    it would have been funny as hell if you’d deleted the previous comment. not just because i hate sanctimonious people, but i’ve also become intolerant of people who forget stumbleupon is a community (and not a gated one) and they are neither judge nor juror.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
  46. stinky mcwizzlecheeks said:

    stumbled

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 7:42 pm
  47. Davie said:

    I stumbled here too…

    stumbling at work all day…

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
  48. Buz McGuire said:

    Stumbled here. I enjoy using stumbleupon.

    Buz

    [Reply]

    Ryan Reply:
    July 24th, 2008 at 2:39 am

    I stumbled upon this site too.

    I was surprised. =O
    I’ve just been using stumbleupon to discover new stuff.
    It’s like digg…but on crack.

    [Reply]

    Patrick Earley Reply:
    July 24th, 2008 at 2:44 am

    Me too!!!

    [Reply]

    me Reply:
    July 24th, 2008 at 3:51 am

    mee tooo!! lol

    i really dont see how i would have seen this site without stumble upon.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 8:50 pm
  49. the stumbler said:

    i have stumbled here twice now so hey double thumbs up man

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 8:54 pm
  50. Ben said:

    Stumbled. Its so gr8

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 9:02 pm
  51. stumbleholic said:

    stumble upon is a great way to find interesting stories and to have a good laugh anytime i need one. Stumbleupon is great!

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 9:03 pm
  52. Duder McDuderson said:

    stumbled

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 pm
  53. Kevin said:

    I was just doing my typing of random letters, symbols and words in the address bar. I typed “http://brynyoungblut.com/2008/07/stumbleupon-experiment/,” felt it sufficient to elicit a possible “hit”, pressed enter, and this website came up.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 9:24 pm
  54. k said:

    stumbled this

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 9:43 pm
  55. Thomas said:

    I stumbled. I have found a lot of history pages using Stumble Upon. I use more for my own information at this point.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 10:21 pm
  56. boogieduck said:

    Stumbler…thumbs up…I, too feel that the people who do not like this site, or simply do not like ad, should just shush…ffs

    [Reply]

    Bryn Youngblut Reply:
    July 24th, 2008 at 1:14 am

    Thanks for your honest opinion. I’m not sure why more haters aren’t commenting on here but they are sure unleashing on the SU comment page which I am finding very entertaining to read. This has turned from a fun little experiment (after I saw the stumblerush website) into just comedic. I didn’t think it would go this far or last this long to be honest. But the hits keep coming even with all the negative feedback and thumbs down a lot of people must still be giving a thumbs up and traffic hasn’t slowed since it started.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 10:31 pm
  57. Mike said:

    I stumbled on to it. Interesting little experiment. I stumble when I want to take a break from work related things.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 10:43 pm
  58. A Random Person said:

    I stumbled upon this. Thumbs up!

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 10:47 pm
  59. Luke said:

    Stumbled, and bookmarked, and read a few things, and enjoyed myself, and used the word and too much, and then left to come back later for results.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 11:03 pm
  60. jean said:

    Me too. =)

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
  61. paresh said:

    nice list, thanks for sharing.

    [Reply]
    July 23rd, 2008 at 11:06 pm
  62. khayfer said:

    I got here using stumble

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 12:20 am
  63. canzet said:

    SU is great i get about 5000 hit per day the highest was 11000

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 12:45 am
  64. cyndi said:

    i stumbled on my way here :)

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 1:05 am
  65. lbcehc said:

    Stumbled here and hate it.
    Couldn’t give a crap less about if you have an ad or not, I (like others have Adblock).
    The reason why people dislike this so much is that for SU stumblers are here for some interactive, new, exciting or different. This is just a waste of time. You’re a stumblecard disguised as a blog, a wasteful, tired and unwanted stumble that adds nothing but annoyance to the Stumble experience.
    Asking for a thumb up is like putting a “kick me” sign on your back.
    If you’ve had any real insight or history of SU you’d know this type of thing has been done MANY times and is DESPISED by most stumblers, asking for a thumb up is going to GUARANTEE a plethora of thumb downs.
    So you’re either a complete noob at SU/blogging or you’re a very bad liar trying to gain revenue from your ad(s).
    I also see that you’ve managed to make sure those that say they’ve thumbed up your blog is posted to your comments, yet SU’s actual comment page on your blog is FILLED WITH RED THUMB DOWNS.
    Hmm how is that?
    Now prove me wrong and keep this posted in your comments….

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 1:06 am
  66. bitty2 said:

    thumbs up here interested to see how far it goes

    I enjoy stumble and have found it to be a very powerful tool if necessary…..You can reach the world right from here!~!

    Passed on to friends and facebook.

    Bitty

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 1:15 am
  67. 1001noisycameras said:

    Found it using the green Stumble button on the browser :) I am using Stumble more and more the last few days. I think the “stumble” button can be addictive!

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 1:17 am
  68. george said:

    STUMBLED! i’m interested to see how it goes.. i love stumbling it’s all i do on my spare time which is always.

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 1:20 am
  69. greened said:

    I love Stumbling!!

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 1:45 am
  70. hey said:

    i lost the game

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 2:10 am
  71. TOM said:

    STUMBLED!!!

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 2:21 am
  72. lalmec said:

    i was bored too

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 2:22 am
  73. HellRat said:

    Stumbled.

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 2:45 am
  74. Tyler Roach said:

    I think this is a useful experiment, even if you were doing it just to get advertising hits. Other bloggers can use this experiment to gauge what the effect of stumbleupon will be on their site’s traffic. It would actually be interesting to know if you got any more hits on your ad. :-)

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 3:15 am
  75. Hadies said:

    Stumbled it. Since i got stumble i dont think i have been able to od any homeowrk on the computer…

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 3:28 am
  76. Richpickings said:

    I’ll do it, although I think you should get some kind of a life……..

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 3:49 am
  77. iPhone Videos said:

    Stumbled!

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 5:14 am
  78. JT said:

    Sumble my stumble good sir

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 6:02 am
  79. David said:

    2nd Stumble today

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 6:37 am
  80. waterproof said:

    Nice experiment. I am using the stumbler for about 3 weeks now and I like it, I just love to press the stumble button and wait to see page appears on the browser.

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 7:15 am
  81. eddy said:

    Stumbled - couldnt be bothered to leave a comment

    [Reply]
    July 24th, 2008 at 10:57 am
  82. HaPPi Like a HiPPo said:

    Humbly Stumbled!

    [Reply]
    July 25th, 2008 at 5:34 am
  83. bobtheball said:

    You’ve got balls, i’ll give ya that

    [Reply]
    July 25th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
  84. Adam said:

    There’s nothing wrong with trying to make a little moola ;)
    Gave the page a thumbs up, hopefully this experiment proves that more thumbs up increases traffic.

    [Reply]
    July 25th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
  85. Tanker said:

    I gave you a thumbs up!

    [Reply]
    July 27th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
  86. RPO said:

    Pretty crazy results. Its funny how people thought it was an ad scam.

    [Reply]
    July 28th, 2008 at 11:18 am
  87. Bryn Youngblut said:

    Yeah tell me about it…

    [Reply]
    July 28th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
  88. Recruiting Services said:

    pretty awesome experiment. very interesting results.

    [Reply]
    July 29th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
  89. lbcehc said:

    Us “sanctimonious people” are very jealous of what SU is, and afraid of what it is to become when this type of content is submitted and stumbled. We are on SU to find new, different, and unusual sites of our interest that we wouldn’t of found otherwise. We are depending on others on SU to use some good judgment and not submit pages of empty content or spam, traps of marketers, SEO sites, spammers and bloggers to increase their traffic (and make $$). Can you imagine the worthless waste of time SU would be if bloggers like Bryn Youngblut used their “experiments” to drag stumblers to their site that has no real content? Submitting your own site has some serious ethical questions to begin with, and whether he acknowledges it or not is manipulating/gaming SU for his own questionable (possibly financial purposes). He can state he has no financial gain from this “experiment” but we are very aware that increases in traffic do reflect and relate to revenue, so cut the crap.
    And to address it directly, YES stumblers ARE judge and jury, SU comments and thumb up/down is there just for those reasons. Even thought there are many that thumbed down this site, as long as there are a few that thumb it up, it will keep getting stumbled and continue to pull people to this site (even those that don’t want to see it), that unfortunately is an SU glitch that hasn’t been effectively corrected.
    Many that have thumbed up here, by their own admission, are new to SU and are not yet aware of how SU works. Once they’ve been dragged to sites like this the umpteenth time, they’ll change their tune.
    If you submit and thumb up worthless content, you will be forced to stumble similar worthless spammy sites. Garbage in, garbage out. We don’t want it and its not what SU is about or for.

    [Reply]
    July 30th, 2008 at 3:15 am
  90. jem said:

    I think this is a nice experiment … I have made a lot of good friends thru stumble and for the most part they are good people and they have your back. Thumbs up to you!!!

    [Reply]
    July 31st, 2008 at 4:56 pm
  91. Craig Ritchie said:

    Whoops, your conclusion link doesn’t work… I look forward to the results.

    [Reply]
    August 18th, 2008 at 9:14 am
  92. mary said:

    I stumbled it!
    Mz.

    [Reply]
    August 19th, 2008 at 11:57 pm

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