SQ 2008 Smackdown Update
Exactly one month ago today I announced my StumbleQuest 2008 Smackdown Campaign, a personal crusade to stumble as many pages as possible bookmarked by people who are my mutual friends on the StumbleUpon social network. The campaign is going well, so I thought I’d share this update with my readers.
It’s Very Time Intensive!
From the get go, I knew that stumbling mutual friends’ pages would be very time intensive. For some of my friends (who “like” tens of thousands of pages) I can’t possibly visit every page, thus my one hour time limit rule. Only two or three people of the 33 people stumbled to date have “timed out” but I was still able to visit quite a few pages, leave comments, and post a review.
This and That
I’ve modified the original campaign slightly as follows:
- I only stumble websites as video pages take much too long to load (and review). Pages with photographs get stumbled if StumbleUpon miscategorizes them.
- If selected web pages take too long to load, I may cut back on stumbling for that friend. A big problem have been those blogs loaded down with widgets — if I am having a problem, then you can imagine that others are experiencing the same. Consider limiting your use of javascript on your blog, please!
- One person thought that my campaign was to thumb up every page I came across. I can assure everyone that this is not the case. If a page is something of interest to me it’ll get a thumb up, otherwise I simply stumble on.
- There are some people who have friended me, but I haven’t reciprocated. If you are not active with StumbleUpon or your pages are completely arcade/gaming, or very negative [subjective], or just not interesting then I won’t add you as a friend. With “only” 200 friends allowed, I want to make sure that we have something in common. Remember, as “The Article Writer” I do write about a variety of topics so if you stumble gadgets, birds, or igloos I will probably include you. As of this writing, I have 161 mutual friends with room for just 39 left. Come and get ‘em!
I no longer tell my mutual friends that they have been stumbled as a posted personal review will result in an auto-generated notice from StumbleUpon to your inbox. Plus, your StumbleUpon traffic should increase accordingly.
The Meat of the Campaign
- I set a goal to stumble everyone by the first of the year. I should meet it, but if I don’t I’ll keep stumbling until I do.
- Every one of my mutual friends has likely been stumbled by me to some degree as I occasionally select the “Show a page by a friend option” and stumble with that.
- I stumble by topic, by friend, or just in general. For mutual friends I will stumble a specific page upon request and will usually leave a brief review.
Of course, if you want to reciprocate by stumbling my pages I’d be thrilled. At the very least I enjoy receiving comments on this blog.
Let’s Stumble!
Matt | Linking Strategies, SEO Tools, Social Networks
Thanks for your commitment to this, Matt. I have good intentions but have not done much stumbling.
Lillie, you are supportive in so many other ways. I appreciate your frequent visits to this blog; stumbling is merely a little bit of icing on a wonderfully delicious cake.
Looks like a great idea, stumble upon seems like a pretty fun tool to share sites with your friends. I could get lost all day if I let myself.
Matt I didn’t know about stumblequest campaign, your intimation is much appreciated.
Spanish Joe — I know what you mean! I can get caught up stumbling and lose track of my time. I find putting a limit on my stumbling helps to keep everything in balance.
Design — Its a personal campaign, something I started to bring attention to this useful social network.
Mike - I’ve stumbled both your site and this post. Excellent work, you’ve converted yet another daily reader here :).
Paul, I appreciate your stumbling this page and blog. I hope that I live up to your expectations, if not please let me know.