5 Reasons my StumbleUpon Profile Stands Out

Written on January 6, 2008 – 7:41 pm | by Shana Albert |

This past Friday Darren Rowse of ProBlogger wrote a post, Using StumbleUpon to Get on the Radar of Other Bloggers . In this post Darren wrote how he had taken notice of me and my work due to my stumbling his posts a few times. He mentioned in this post that he recognized me as a person who had stumbled his work more than once and he landed up taking a closer look at my StumbleUpon profile where he noticed my many sites and even subscribed to this Blog’s feed.

Darren Rowse mentioning me on his blog has got to be a definite high point in my Blogging career so far. However, after taking 24 hours to sit back and just think about how wonderful it was to be mentioned by Darren on ProBlogger….. something occurred to me. What if my StumbleUpon profile was different? What if I hadn’t taken the time to add clickable links on my Profile? If I hadn’t taken the time to make my StumbleUpon profile stand out would this amazing high point in my Blogging career have past me by??!! Jeeze, the thought makes me shudder.

So, I wanted to take a moment and post a few things that I did with my StumbleUpon profile that might have made a difference between Darren taken notice of my work or not.

Why my StumbleUpon Profile Might Have Stood Out to Darren

Avatar - I chose the same Avatar that I use on all my other Social Networking Sites. This way people would recognize me from one Social Networking Site to the next. I used an image of myself, but many people use other things such as their company’s logo, cartoon characters or any other graphic that makes them stand out. For me, it was just a basic picture of myself.
Profile Name - Again, just like with the avatar, I chose the same profile name for my StumbleUpon profile as I use on all of my other Social Networking Sites…. TheNanny612. However, I have to say, TheNanny612 is not a very good Profile Name at all. It has nothing to do with what I do for a living….. It is actually more of an Inside Family Joke that no one would understand unless I explained it to them. But, now that people already recognize me as TheNanny612 it wouldn’t be very prudent for me to change it now. However, this might have worked in my favor as well… I haven’t run into another Profile Name that is even similar. So, it probably does stand out quite well.
Profile Details - Choose a well thought out description of yourself. It shouldn’t be very long as readers probably won’t stick around very long. Get right to the point. Write your details well, spell correctly and be descriptive.
Clickable Links - Make sure that any website links that you would like to mention on your Profile Details are clickable. Your StumbleUpon profile is a great place to promote your sites. When people of the SU Community arrive to your profile page and want to learn more about you the chances of these readers checking out your website are so much greater if your links are clickable. I’m not sure if Darren of ProBlogger would have copied and pasted my link into a browser had I not made my links clickable. So, this is very, very important.

This is what my StumbleUpon profile page would have looked like had I not made the links clickable:

This is what my StumbleUpon profile page appears like now with all the links:

It’s really simple to make a link on your StumbleUpon profile clickable. Let’s say you have a site called My Site and it was located at www.MySite.com. This is how you would make that link clickable on your SU profile.

Go to your StumbleUpon’s profile page and Click on the Link that says, "Preferences". Once this page opens up click on the link that says, "Public Profile". This is where you are going to edit your Public Profile. You will see a box below where it says, "Introduce yourself to Everyone".In this box is where you are going to enter your Profile details.

In the spot of your details that you want to be a clickable link you use the following code (changing mysite to your site’s info): <a href="http://www.mysite.com/">my site</a>. (Don’t be alarmed, the StumbleUpon system will automatically add a "No Follow" to the coding.)

Click Save Profile and when others take a look at your profile the phrase "my site" should look like: my site.

There is an area on the edit Public Profile page that you can enter your website…. it will look like this:

However, oddly enough, your website’s link does not appear on the first page of your StumbleUpon Profile. Your viewers will have to click on the tab that says "About Her/Him". And, then they will come to a page that they will see the link of your website.

This is an extra click that the viewers of StumbleUpon have to make to find your website’s link. This is another reason why I decided to make clickable links on my SU profile page.
Multiple Website Links - When I first opened my StumbleUpon account 6 months ago I had 8 Websites that I wanted to list on my StumbleUpon profile page, but not only did it look funny… it looked almost Spammy as well. I had a discussion with Todd Mintz of SEMPortland who suggested that I purchase my name, Shana Albert, as a domain for other reasons than StumbleUpon. His suggestion was a good one for so many reasons. And, having the domain ShanaAlbert.com worked out on my StumbleUpon profile as well. The ShanaAlbert website is a simple static web page with all of my websites and blogs listed on that page. With a simple click on the link on my SU profile page a reader will be sent to my website that has images and links to all of my sites. This way my StumbleUpon profile will not be inundated with outgoing links. I don’t want a reader to feel overwhelmed when they are reading about me….. I just want them to get a sense of what I’m passionate about. And, I believe that Darren got all of that from a simple look at my StumbleUpon profile.

Technorati Tags:stumbleupon, social media, social media marketing, smm, tips, tutorials, social bookmarking, social networking, blogging, problogger

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35 Responses to “5 Reasons my StumbleUpon Profile Stands Out”
By Spuds on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

I stumbled the article Darren had written and now I have subscribed to your blog. Also added you to my stumble friends.

My stumble name: spudsstuff
By Matt Ridout on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

Great post about a few setup essentials that should be taken into consideration, a must for any pro stumbler!
By Lucy Dee on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

Great post! Thanks for sharing your tips. I have done much of what you’ve done on SU, (in reference to the clickable links.)

I also believe keeping the same image (branding myself) helped for people to recognize me throughout the blogosphere. I’ve gotten a lot of visits just based off of the unusual subject matter of my avatar. The story behind it was that it was a photo I took for a blog post and I didn’t have anything else available when I signed up to all the social networks. And now it’s a conversation starter for many visitors of my SU blog (and my other blogs, for that matter)
And that’s the secret to social media–”creating conversation.”

Thanks again for the hot tips! To your success in 2008!
By Glen Allsopp on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

Must be nice to have Darren write about you like that. Great post
By Clement on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

Great piece. I have learnt a lot.Wishing you all the best in your blogging career
By Clement on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

…Don’t be alarmed, the StumbleUpon system will automatically add a “No Follow” to the coding..

My goodness.How I wish they were “Do Follow”!
By Mark Dykeman on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

Excellent and insightful article, Shana. Between you and Kimberly Bock, I’ll have a decent Profile page in no time!

Question, though: could you acheive the same effect of registering your own URL by using a site like Hubpages or Squidoo to create a “home page” of sorts for yourself and your name?
By Sebastian on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

Thanks Shana, I totally forgot to embed a clickable link (I didn’t mess with links at all, probably because thanks to the view-nofollow-thingy the condomized SU links come with unreadable anchor text on most profiles).
By Kristen on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

Shana,
This is so great! I have gone to my SU profile and finally got the link to my blog to look good. I have always wondered how to do this. Great info-thank you!
By Scott Magdalein on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

Sorry I got here so late, but my feeds are alphabetized and “S” is toward the bottom of a long list.

This was one of the most useful posts I’ve read in severals weeks, and I read a lot of posts.
By mike b - searchbuzz on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

good tips shana — i just made a couple changes myself!
By Matthew on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

Hey

I just put my about me section in my stumbleupon profile. For some reason I never had done it. I used yours as a model and hopefully came up with something good. Let me know what you think.

I have an article going out tomorrow mentioning you and this article. Hope you stop by to read it
By Matthew on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

duh, forgot my stumble profile

http://ffnstuff.stumbleupon.com

feel free to add me as a friend
By Scott Magdalein on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

FYI…just added Social Desire to my blogroll
By Shana Albert on Jan 7, 2008 | Reply

@Spuds - Very cool!! I am thrilled to have you as a new subscriber. I’m off to look for you over at StumbleUpon.

@Matt Ridout - Thanks, Matt. I’m so glad you liked it.

@Lucy Dee - Right on, Lucy!! Thanks for leaving a comment.

@Glen Allsopp - It was really great, Glen. Well needed if you knew what kind of week I had. It couldn’t have came at a better time for me. Always good to see you, Glen. Oh, and thanks for the Sphinn.

@Clement - I’m so glad you enjoyed the post. And, yes…. it would be WONDERFUL if it was a do follow!!

@Mark Dykeman - I’m actually not too sure about that. I guess I’m not the best one to ask. Being a Web Designer and a Webmaster it just was so easy for me to throw up a Website. I had it done within an hour. I’m sorry… I know that was no help.

@Sebastian - You’re most welcome, Sebastian. I’m glad to help. Always good to see you on my blog.

@Kristen - Glad to help!! Good to see you here my fellow Social Media Momma.

@Scott Magdalein - Better late than never. And, thank you for the compliment…. I can never hear enough of them.

@searchbuzz - Glad I can help ya, Mike.

@Matthew - I took a look at your StumbleUpon profile and you did good!! It looks great and I bet you will notice a difference with making those simple changes. I am super excited to read your post tomorrow. Thanks in advance.
By Shimon Sandler on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

Hi Shana,
Awesome reference page. I bookmarked it. My profile definitely needs some work. Thanks for the tips.

-Shimon
By David Wilson on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

Shana

These are some great tips. I am heading over to SU to update my profile right now.

David
By Veronica Romm on Jan 8, 2008 | Reply

Great article and congrats on being recognized for your work. You work hard and deserve it. Veronica
By Mohsin on Jan 18, 2008 | Reply

Wow Shana, congrats for getting the recognition you actually deserve.

Great points also. Especially the part about branding yourself consistently to get noticed by other bloggers.

Although I’ve different names on all social media sites, I keep my logo as my avatar everywhere, and sure enough, people instantly recognize me upon seeing my avatar.
By Webdesign den haag on Jan 25, 2008 | Reply

maybe a bit offtopic but cool SU logo
By europa casino on Feb 4, 2008 | Reply

Howdy! Great site. Great content. Great! I can recommend this site to others!
By Liz on Feb 16, 2008 | Reply

That’s funny - I had just read Darren’s article that you are referring to today, and then I went to one of his stumbles, and recognized your avatar, so I friended you on SU. I like your posts. I am doc-filmmaker on SU. Thanks for your interesting insights!
By John Lockwood on Apr 7, 2008 | Reply

Good points that I’d missed! I went into my profile and fixed it. Thanks.
By homaid on Jul 2, 2008 | Reply

When i wanted to edit my SU profile i looked on a lot of profiles to see what are they writing, from your profile I got how to have a clickable link “i view the page source copied your link then changed the name ” but you forgot how to add breaks (br /), or bold (b), got it from Tamar profile, , thank you very much
By Jamaipanese on Aug 2, 2008 | Reply

gret post you just taught me a lot and I fixed up my profile. I wonder if i’ll get noticed ^_^
By Kaye on Sep 26, 2008 | Reply

Thank you for this great article. I just started using Stumbleupon and this is going to be a big help. I was especially interested in your comments about clickable links. I hadn’t realized that was an option! I will definitely be using those.